What was in front of Sylvia was a huge and luxurious banquet hall with huge knight statues standing tall, the knights were not ordinary by any means she couldn't figure out if they were made out of stone or some kind of metal, on either side of the hall big banners were hanging from the ceiling depicting symbols she had never seen before, in the middle of the banquet hall there was a huge table made out of some black material, but she was sure it was anything but wood.
As she was taking in the view another portal opened next to her and from it emerged some familiar figures, they were her soldiers, it was so good to finally see faces that she was familiar with after what she had been going through the past couple of hours.
They were all wearing fancy clothes but their faces seemed terrified she wanted to talk to them but as soon as she was about to call out to them Scarlet declared in a loud voice: please take a seat lord neoh is about to enter the hall!
With that Sylvia and her soldiers walked towards the table and then sat on their pre-designated seats that maids pulled out for them.
Scarlet who had guided her up to this point didn't sit down with them but what she did after was crazier, she opened another portal and just left the banquet hall.
What the fuck did she just leave us? Sylvia thought.
Suddenly the big doors at the end of the hall opened and a couple of figures could be seen from afar, there were a total of five people, as they got closer, she could see the figure of a young tall man, with handsome features and silver colored hair.
His golden-colored eyes shone brightly and with immense power, with so many beautiful people Sylvia had seen up to that point she thought nothing could throw her off guard anymore, but once again her heart was pounding in her chest as if she was now attracted to the man in front of her, there were two maids on each side of him and they were following him with their heads hanging low as to show respect to the figure leading them, Sylvia and the soldiers instinctively stood up and put their hands on their chest and bowed to show respect to the man who was the liege of this castle.
Then his maids pulled out the chair at the top of the table for him to sit on.
' Greetings, please be at ease and take a seat ،you don't need to bow to me you are not my soldiers'
The man said in a calm and reassuring voice.
"Still you are a man of great status such lowly peasants like us should show their greatest respect towards someone like you" Sylvia took the lead and answered
'Ah, you flatter me, lady, lady، all men are created equal the way I see it, please take a seat '
With that, everybody finally sat down on their seats
Sylvia once again took the lead and said "I'm not someone as to know much about etiquette, for most of life I was a soldier so please forgive me I'm not up to the task my lord"
'Don't worry for a soldier your tongue seems to be as sharp as your sword I'm sure there would be no problem '
"Sorry if I was rude just now Your Majesty"
'No offense taken, enough with the pleasantries, I'm sure you are hungry after the great battle you had a couple of hours ago, so let's feast ' With that maids rushed into the banquet hall with trays full of different food that Sylvia or her soldiers had never seen before.
When the table was ready, neoh picked up his spoon and fork and signaled everyone to start eating, and everybody immediately started to dig into the food in front of them.
For them it has been months since they ate a decent dish since they were always on the mission and bars in this area always serve the trashiest food, so they couldn't help themselves but fill their belly as much as they could, even the overly cautious Sylvia now couldn't give two fucks and was eating like a bull, needless to say, the food was so amazing that they forgot all about the etiquette of dining with a noble and the only thing occupying their minds was not the food in front of them.
Hmmm, they seem to be enjoying it, that's good, I thought if this method didn't bear results I would be forced to search their minds directly or torture them to get the information I wanted, but that seems to be unnecessary now, I don't really want to abuse my power, surely they can now open up to me and tell me what I want, as the saying goes the way to the heart of a man passes from the road of his belly. What a fucking genius I am.
As Neoh was praising himself internally, the apostles were dying from jealousy and madness they were all huddled together in another room looking at a screen that showed what was going on in the banquet hall, arwel had tried her best to conjure this image without her master noticing it, suddenly ulfred smashed the statue next to him into tiny fragments and shouted in a deafening voice: "how dare they eat like animals in front of our Lord, how is it possible for them to get a chance to dine with him while we rarely get that chance nowadays".
'Calm down ulfred this is part of Lord Neoh's plans I'm sure he has a great scheme in mind, he is not dining with them, they are sheep walking into the wolf's den without noticing it' Scarlet said in a cunning tone.
Still, why do they get to lay their filthy eyes on his majestic figure so much I haven't seen him in four hours can you understand how painful that is? Arwel continued I would rather die than live and see this fate continue.
The sound of teeth chattering could be heard from Yael whose face was red like a tomato, "that fucking bitch was looking at him like she is in love with him after all of this is over I will torture her until she begs me to kill her " Yael grinned as she was uttering those words a nasty smile appearing on her face.
'Ah you guys talk too much please be quiet I'm trying to figure out what they are saying' Eblis said in a condescending tone as to belittle them for their childish behavior.
Back to the banquet hall after everybody was done with eating and their bellies were full neoh turned his face towards Sylvia and asked: As you may have guessed I didn't invite you all here just to eat I have a couple of Questions for you if it's ok for me to ask them?
"Of course Your Majesty anything that you want to know" The thought of refusing this man didn't even cross her mind at the time
'Good so can you tell me what empire you belong to and give me some general information about the state of the empire as you may have noticed in this secluded area we can't get our hands on a lot of information so please be detailed '
"As you wish my lord, I'm a lithunenet serving the empire of Brucia my name is Sylvia van Dover and I was assigned to this region in order to pinpoint an orc camp that has been wreaking havoc in this region, the empire that I serve is ruled by 2 different factions, after the death of the last king it was unclear who was chosen as the air as the king didn't make an official announcement about this matter, so his two sons fought a civil war that bared no fruit for either side at the end of that war they decided to control the empire as a joint government, but they are still very violent towards each other and minor clashes and political skirmishes are commonplace, that is the reason that the empire currently is in a state of chaos, sorry but the thinks I'm about to say would get me in trouble I don't know if I should continue " she couldn't think of hiding anything she knew from him, but still she was scared,so she needed some kind of promise.
'Don't worry lady Sylvia, I swear on my name that nothing goes outside of this room as this is my will ' Then with a gesture of his hand all five of the soldiers present in the banquet hall fell asleep as if they were never awake in the first place.
"What did you do to them? "Sylvia asked with a terrified voice
'Don't worry lady Sylvia I just put them to sleep so our conversation can never leak outside,you don't know who you can trust these days and who you can't '
"I..I.I Understand "
'Please continue'
"I believe that the second prince lord delvin is conspiring with elves which we are currently at war with, to give them some of the empire's territory and in return, they help him to get rid of his brother"
'How did you receive such information?'
" My father "