After Ice Blue Queen finished speaking with Alea and Vulxis she immediately teleported back to Waning City before proceeding straight towards her aunt's office in the human palace.
When she reached the door, she knocked and waited before she heard Fire Empress say.
"Enter."
Sarah entered and saw her aunt working behind her desk as normal with Flame Servant sitting opposite to assist though she rose and stood behind Fire Empress as Ice Blue Queen entered and moved towards the desk.
"Sarah!" Alexia said with surprise before asking.
"Why have you returned so soon? I thought you planned to work on leveling the entire day."
"It's because of leveling that I returned to see you, I need to use the intercontinental teleportation circle." Sarah started causing Alexia and Maria to show surprised expressions.
"Why and to go where?" Alexia asked.
"The central continent, Alea, just informed me of a new dungeon being discovered and I can get an invite to join the first clear attempt." Alea explained.
"Oh? This is a great opportunity for you, I grant you permission." Alexis said with a smile before adding.
"I assume Alea is getting permission for you to transport over since the circle won't work without the counterpart on the other end also being activated."
"Yes, she said she was going to speak to her mother regarding it." Alea confirmed.
"Good, so whose team will you be joining? I trust Alea's judgment to recommend this to you but still be careful." Alexia asked.
"The dungeon was discovered by John Michaels, I along with Vulxis will be joining him in the first clear attempt."
"Oh really? And Vulxis is willing to join him? That's unusual with her situation."
"Apparently John ended up helping her out when Silver Serpents sister Silver Death's group tried to rob her for the class promotion stone, she won from the boss they took down."
"Really? That family again? And a class promotion stone also? This is starting to get very interesting." Alexia said before lapsing into thought for a moment before saying.
"Speaking of which, I just received some interesting news." Alexia said changing the topic momentarily before saying.
"It turns out that Clifford Sanders found out about you and Adria accompanying me to the banquet in Asyath Serin, Daniel will be accompanying Clifford while they informed the Marks family as well so Jordan will be accompanying his father, Steven."
"Oh joy." Sarah said in mock excitement before asking.
"And how did they learn this news?"
"It would appear we have a leak in the palace staff, it is already being investigated but all we can say so far is that they don't know about the plan at the banquet, since there was nobody untrustworthy present in that discussion." Alexia replied before adding.
"However, this could be advantageous to you and Adria."
"How?" Sarah asked.
"By using the same plan Adria is using against Aiduin Petvalur, you can use against Daniel sanders and Adria can use against Jordan Marks."
"I see." Sarah said, thinking about it for a moment before asking.
"John would need to be informed of this and asked to see if he is ok with it."
"I have already passed the information onto Tanelia who will have Alea bring it up with him when she asks for his help."
"This is a good chance for you both to get closer to John Michaels, if what Elrinira has planned comes to pass and those two become lovers John will instantly become a major power and player in both Atlantis and Genesis, not to mention if he also gets together with Alea the elf princess."
Sarah frowned before asking in a rather cold voice.
"I assume you're not telling me and Adria to get close to John because of benefits and to try seducing him, after all that's not your style auntie."
"Not at all, you know I do not approve of such methods, and after, with what has come to light recently I would never ask you to do that." Alexis replied before continuing.
"Also, with how he has been treated by his fellow humans in the past the best way to get on friendly terms with him is honesty."
"All I meant was that getting close to John can't hurt you or Adria in the long run, having him as an ally will be beneficial for you both in the future, plus it's already been shown that he does not hate the three of us."
"Understood." Sarah said with a thoughtful expression.
"Go then and good luck with the first clear, I hope you all get the best out of the first clear rewards possible." Alexis said as Sarah left the room.
When Sarah had left Alexis leaned back in her chair with a beautiful smile before saying.
"This makes things a lot easier for the future than I thought they would be."
***
"Actually, John, that's the other favor I wanted to talk to you about in person." Alea said shyly as her eyes avoided John's own.
"Oh, how could I help out with a banquet? I know my cooking skills are good but I'm not sure I'm at the level of a royal chef." John joked.
"Actually, I wanted to ask if you would be my date to the banquet?" Alea asked shyly.
"Pardon?" John said with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" Thasinia said surprised as she listened in
"Ok maybe I should explain first." Alea said awkwardly.
"I think that would be best." John agreed.
Alea took a moment to gather her thoughts before starting.
"When you sent me the information about Natures Guardian as well as the video, I was actually together with Elrinira in the human capital of Waning City after she teleported us there to meet with Empress Alexia."
"Wait Elrinira teleported you to the human capital with her? And what's this information and video?" Thasinia asked.
"This is why you need to leave your lab more often." Alea said while rolling her eyes before she explained what the information and video John sent to her was.
"That filthy bastard, we knew their family could not be trusted." Thasinia said angrily.
Alea nodded before continuing.
"Because of this Elrinira came up with the suggestion of fighting fire with fire by making him jealous and regret his actions."
"You want me to continue being your shield?" John asked.
"No, being a shield will not be of any use when it comes to this bastard."
"What I request is for you to play a more active role, I wish to ask you to not only be my date to the banquet but also the dates of Sarah and Adria."
John gaped with his mouth open, unable to process what Alea just proposed while Thasinia responded in a shocked voice.
"Wait wait wait wait wait." She said holding her hand up before rubbing her temple and saying.
"I'm not the political thinker of the family but even I know the chaos this could cause."
"First there is the point of John walking into the banquet with the elf princess on one arm and the human princess on the other while also being accompanied by the most famous player of the time, maybe ever since she discovered race change."
"Second there are the rumors that are going to spread about the four of you being in some sort of group relationship or harem."
"Third the political ramifications of this, how will the other races react when they see that both the elf and human princesses are together with the same man, a human no less, they may see this as an alliance that could shift the balance of power."
"Oh, and let's not forget the fact that the elf princess will one day inherit the throne and become queen while the human princess could very well become empress herself if her mother decided to do away with her useless son."
After her rant Thasinia took deep breaths to fill her lungs with oxygen again while also trying to calm down.
"That's what I need to inform John about, none of this can happen without him and he needs to know the consequences he could face if he agrees."
There was silence for a moment as both girls looked at John who was still gaping in shock before he managed to recover and started to speak.
"Ok let's break this down into questions, first off what is this banquet exactly?"
"The banquet is to celebrate the signing of the Genesis Agreement." Alea started to explain.
"Every year on the day of the final signing a banquet is held in one of the five continents, it rotates through each of the continents in the order of Central, Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western."
"The continent that is scheduled to host it that year decides which of the races that live on their content get to host the event and this time it is us the Elves while five years ago when the central continent last hosted the banquet it was the Centaurs."
"While representatives of every race are invited, they don't always show up, a good example of this is the Eastern Continents Kitsune, they very rarely show up to the annual banquet as they find it dull."
"Kitsune like interesting and fun things, if something is dull, they would normally just end up falling asleep."
John nodded in understanding before asking.
"Ok so the next question is why me?"