"Are you ready?" Skell asked me as he headed out of the apartment.
He looked like a gentleman from the time of industrialization: a white tailcoat, long narrow plaid trousers, tie and top hat in the color of a tailcoat, as well as white gloves.
"Yes," I nodded, following the exit.
I was dressed the same, except that I was also wearing a blue vest and main color of my clothes was black.
Only one day has passed since the end of that mission, yesterday the teams received money with notification of arrival at the mansion today.
After receiving the fee, it was decided first of all to buy good clothes in order to look like it should at the meeting.
When I went downstairs, I saw the same ground floor of the tavern, brightly illuminated by daylight. There weren't a lot of visitors, just a couple of people from other teams and a bartender. It was hard not to recognize our teammates. Shindler was also among them.
Dressed as ladies and gentlemen, they were delighted to see us.
Little combat mage Anji put on a pink dress without a corset, and used pink silk fabric as a decoration to tie her stomach and bring out a lush bow at the waist. Her head was covered with small and large hairpins, and her face was not too brightly decorated with makeup. Only a reddish blush stood out, but it was difficult for me to understand whether it was natural or not.
"Greetings, magnanimous sir," the girl curtsied to me, showing her pink ballet flats. "Veronica, am I doing this right?"
Anji looked at her older friend, who looked many times simpler than her: an ordinary dark blue dress of the same style as Anji's dress, except without unnecessary decoration in the form of a bow, instead of a crown of hairpins, an ordinary ponytail with a black elastic band, which was well hidden in her obsidian hair. But all this was more than covered with makeup: lush red lips on a pale face, highlighted with lipstick, beckoned, and long black eyelashes threatened to pierce through anyone who came too close to that rose.
"Too cloying," Veronica cut off coldly, nevertheless stroking her friend's head like a pet animal, "but it will do. Good morning, Yakov, Skell."
"Yeah, hi," Maximilian waved at us.
Max, instead of dressing up, decided to go in the usual: a blue T-shirt with an ornament, as well as baggy beige pants with a huge number of pockets that he could have borrowed from Anji.
"Hello," Vector nodded at us.
Vector was dressed exactly like me, and if it weren't for the mask, there would have been no way to tell us apart.
Hidden in his thoughts, Gwan was wearing a raincoat and showed only his head and face, and that was probably only because he forgot to pull on the hood.
"Well, friends, you've been waiting for this for a long time and finally you've gotten it!" Shindler said solemnly. "Today you will receive the status of honorary citizens and take part in a noble party! The aristocrats have quite a lot of fun there, I'll tell you."
"A noble party?" Max asked. "I thought they'd just give us the orders, say 'thank you for your service' and we'd go our separate ways."
"Ahem, no," Shin smiled, "my lady invited her good friends from high society, other honorary citizens, the city clergy, as well as special guests to celebrate the victory over the cultists. We have a long day ahead of us!"
"Damn, if I knew, I'd dress better," Max muttered.
"Well, it's okay, you're warriors, everyone will understand everything," Shin replied.
With these words, everyone, except Gwan, was delighted. After that, we went outside, where we were met by three white carriages. Shindler got into one of them, and inside there were two other mages who were his assistants.
Max and his team got into the middle carriage, and ours got into the last one.
After a comfortable landing, the coachmen began their move, notifying us in advance that the journey would take about twenty minutes.
"I can't wait for this ceremony, my knees are already shaking," Vector shared his feelings.
"I agree, we won't even have to work after that," Skell echoed him.
"It makes me feel a little sad," Gwanrom sighed. "I liked this dangerous life of a Defender. And now we will probably abandon it, having received the status."
"Yes, and that's good," Vector nodded, "let someone else risk their lives for pennies and living together in cramped motels."
"But it had its charm, you must admit," Skell compromised. "When you were young, you went on this adventure yourself just out of the idea of cleansing the city of evil or whatever?"
"There's a lot of shit from crime in the Norfborder," Vector said, "it's just that when I joined the ranks of the Defenders, a holy war began, so a little later I started fighting this notorious evil."
Norfborder is the northern district of the city.
"Still, I'm going to miss our adventures," Gwan summed up.
After these words, silence reigned in the carriage, everyone was thinking about their own things.
I was thinking about what to do next. Submit to the church and wait for redirection? Try to make valuable contacts at the party? So far, I haven't had any special ideas.
Before I could blink an eye, we had already arrived at the huge golden gate guarded by the guards of the Baroness.
After passing through, I saw a stunning view of the Baroness's gardens, driving along the pavement. A mansion could be seen nearby, which was fenced with a hedge of bushes. To my right was a row of smaller mansions. They were probably meant for visiting lords and ladies.
The very first building was built in the Baroque style, actively using gold and granite, as decoration – columns, statues of family members, ornaments on the building and an expression embossed on the wall above the large doors: "whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword!"
On the fifth floor there was a huge balcony on which various aristocratic parties were held.
As they approached the main estate, the carriages began to slow down, and then stopped altogether. The grooms arrived and began to unhitch the horses, and servants who knew etiquette came to the doors of the transport to open them for us and accompany us later.
We were led through a beautiful garden filled with such classic plants as roses, rhododendrons, cornflowers and so on, but there were also quite unusual specimens: a bush which flowers curled under green petals into round berry-like shapes; something like a flycatcher, which instead of flowers has slightly concave green leaves the size of a small bird, which shine because of the natural glue, the network of veins in these predators formed a pentagonal spider web.
Actually, there were a lot of unusual plants here, but I didn't have time to look at them all – we had already gone inside.
The local decoration looked quite expensive, but unlike the garden, there was nothing unusual here, except for the military personnel lined up on the sides: marble, gold, columns, chandeliers, lancet windows and a wide staircase in the center, behind which there was a large full-length window letting in many rays of light. In these rays, a female figure in a magnificent blue dress and elbow-length gloves of the same color appeared – the mistress of this house and these lands. In her hands she carried a golden scepter, on the top of which was a perfectly round blue ball, apparently being some kind of precious stone.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to love and favor," Shindler said, leaving our group and turning to us, "Her Grace Baroness Tura Karendrit!"
After these words, he turned sideways, pointing at his mistress with both hands.
"Thank you for the introduction, Shin," the Baroness said not very loudly, nevertheless her voice echoed due to the good acoustics.
By this time, the young lady had already walked a little more than half of the flight of stairs. Shin went to meet his mistress, ignoring the two rows of knights.
When the two met, the man gave her his hand, said something, covering his mouth with his hand, because of which nothing could be heard, and then led her to us.
A young lady no older than 30 appeared before us in all her glory. She was beautiful, but the combination of a formal smile and a cold gaze created an aura of invincibility around her.
"Greetings to you all, heroes of Reizin," the Baroness mentioned her lordship, "my heroes. I understand the difficulties you had to face to get here. It will be an honor for me to solemnly grant some of you the status of an honorary citizen."
After that, she looked at each of us with an appraising glance, stopping at Skell, who came forward and fell on one knee in front of the Baroness.
"Skell Oliver Reizin-Karendrit, you showed courage on the battlefields in which you defended the honor of your lady, for which you are awarded the status of an honorary citizen," the baroness said, holding the scepter first to his left shoulder, then to his right and stopping above his head. "Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword."
"Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword," Skell repeated, after which he rose and stood in his place.
The Baroness chose Maximilian as her next candidate just by looking at him. He, like Skell, fell on one knee in front of the girl.
"Maximilian Delaware Reizin-Karendrit, you continued to serve your lady and this glorious city despite all provocations, for which you are awarded the status of an honorary citizen. Among other things, you also deserve my special thanks," the Baroness said, performing the same operations with the scepter as before. "Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword."
Max only echoed her, and then stood back up. Nevertheless, what kind of provocations did the Baroness mention? The sequence of the Baroness also did not escape my eyes: first Skell, and then Maximilian. Could this indicate her attitude towards each of the captains?
Vector was the next to approach the Baroness, which once again proves that the lady has a more trusting relationship with Skell than with Max.
"Vector Davis Reizin-Karendrit, you have served your lady faithfully, therefore you deserve to be called an honorary citizen," the Baroness said. "Whoever comes to us with a sword will die by the sword."
Veronica and Gwan came next on the list, and the words of the young lady hardly changed from person to person.
Little Anji, not hearing her name, fell into despair, although she tried not to show her mental decline. She was looking down at her ballet flats without looking up. The Baroness ignored her.
And again, it was difficult not to notice the preferences for Deathbringers: Skell was the first, and only then Max, and now Vector was the first, after which Veronica came out. Something unusual was said to only two leaders.
"Now, my dear friends, you are the masters of your own destinies, and to strengthen this status you can change your surnames," Baroness Tura looked significantly at Shindler. "This issue can be resolved without my direct participation. However, don't leave too early – we have a ball waiting for us, so I'm not saying goodbye to you."
Her Grace curtsied, turned around and left. Excited glances fell on Shindler – everyone wanted to change their surnames.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, you are now officially the first persons of the city," Shin summed up, "please follow me."
Then he led us into one of the side rooms, saluting a line of knights, to which they responded with a redeployment. We walked through a couple of beautiful corridors, encountered two corners, and thus, bypassing the semicircle, came out to the archive. The archive was similar in size to a hall, but it was not so spacious, mainly because the room was clogged with various cabinets with documentation, which here and there created ornate labyrinths. In addition, the archive, unlike the hall, used the height of the room to the maximum – it was three storeys high.
"So, friends, I hope you have already chosen the appropriate surnames," Shin said, turning to us, "because now you will enter a completely new world."
***
"Hey, so what's your surname, buddy?" the newly minted Skell Panifex asked Gwanrom.
Skell was the first to visit the archivist, and therefore, when he came out, he was immediately attacked with questions. He easily dismissed everyone with the answer, "my father and grandfather were bakers, so I decided to pay tribute to them."
"Reizin-Karendrit," Gwan replied without bothering to explain.
"Why?" Vector Siderius, whose surname literally translates as blacksmith, was perplexed.
"I don't see the point in changing anything," Gwanrom replied without any emotion on his face. It seems that the only emotional glimpse he had was in the carriage.
"That's your right," Veronica Belos nodded. An arrow.
"Look at how many people have already arrived," remarked Maximilian Bellator, a warrior, leaning on the balcony railing.
"Probably all the honorary citizens of the city," said Shindler, whose surname I do not know. Is he even an honorary citizen? "This old man also managed to arrive."
Attention shifted from Gwanrom to the old man Shin was talking about.
"Who are you talking about?" Max asked, looking around the large balcony again. "Ah, Abbot... Does he also have a title like us?"
"No, he is higher in status and forms the city Council on a par with the Baroness, so his presence at such conventions is mandatory," Shin replied.
"Is this a convention now?" Maximilian asked. "I thought it was a party."
"Well, this is the first part of the convention," Shin nodded to Max, "and then, in a couple of hours, the main part will begin."
The teammates talked to each other about this and that, and only Gwanrom and I stood apart from everyone.
I decided to look back. There was an entire open-air room behind me: two large and long tables with snacks, a red carpet, a beautifully decorated marble floor, as well as a wall and a door decorated with stouts, gold inserts and a repetition of the motto of the baronial family carved in stone. It's going to be a long day.