Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce 

"Hmph!" Cassandra and the others coldly harrumph, as if to confirm that what Ethan had said was indeed correct. 

Seeing their response, Ethan frown, indicating his disapproval of Cassandra and the other's action. Today's ball was already regarded by everyone as really important, not because it would allow them to get to know the participants that were qualified to participate in the Emerald Elven Battle Competition, but rather because of the meeting that uses the ball as the disguise. 

This meeting concerns not only the interest of the Emerald Tree Kingdom but also the interest of the Mischievous Lion Guild as well. 

That was why Leo had decided to bring all the Executives of the Mischievous Lion Guild to participate in this meeting. 

Yet, despite such a fact, Cassandra and the others had actually still tried to prevent Leo from attending the meeting?

Does the interest of the Mischievous Lion Guild not matter to them? 

It wasn't only Ethan who thought this way, Elaine and the others also felt the same as they believed that what Cassandra and the others had done to Leo was just too much.

However, just like all the previous times, they could easily guess already the exact reason why they have decided to beat up Leo; he had definitely done something that causes all of them to feel like beating him up... No, rather, to literally beat him up.

Noticing Ethan and the other's obvious meaning behind the looks on their faces, Cassandra and the others could only heave a sigh of resignation before quickly walking inside the carriage and fixing Leo's appearance. In their minds, they know that; since they have caused the problem, then they should be the ones to fix the problem as well. 

With six people, on top of that, all of them being women as well, fixing Leo's appearance only took a little less than five minutes for everything to be finished. The final result was Leo becoming a hundred times more handsome and dashing compared to when he was the one who personally fixed his appearance. 

Everyone's mood instantly turned better with such a result. 

Some of them can't even help thinking that maybe Cassandra and the others had beat up Leo in purpose so as to achieve such a result instead. After all, every woman wants their men to be the best, right? 

.....

After tens of minutes of walking, Leo and the others finally entered the castle's ballroom. 

Similar to the decorations along the way to the Evergreen royal family's castle, the ballroom was perfectly decorated to fit the 'Fiery Inferno' theme of tonight's ball. 

Guests from the different places around the Emerald Tree Kingdom were likewise wearing various kinds of suits and dresses fitting the theme 'Fiery Inferno'. Gathered together around the ballroom, they were either talking with each other about various random topics, dancing with people they are interested, and most importantly, sizing up one another. 

The arrival of Leo and the others from the Mischievous Lion Guild immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the ballroom, causing the atmosphere of the entire place to turn quiet for a brief moment before quickly returning back to normal once again. 

Such an action, no matter how subtle the changes were, was still unable to escape from Leo and the other's attention. Though they still choose to completely ignore them since they have long already expected such a reaction from everyone. After all, they were once in third place in the Emerald Event, not to mention the chaos that they have caused these past two days resulting in tens of participants who used to be in the top 100 rankings of the Emerald Event getting eliminated because of them exchanging 5 million or so worth of points. Rather, what attracted their interest was the clear formation of different alliances between all the people inside the ballroom... No, to be more precise, between all the participants that were qualified to participate in the Emerald Elven Battle Competition. 

All the Nobles were still acting normal with them doing their usual and common socializing activities, such as going from one people to another, offering them a toast and starting a conversation that would end as quickly as they came, and inviting them to visit their places to further build-up their relationship. 

But unlike the Nobles, the participants stayed in one place only, not literally on a single spot, but rather on a limited amount of space. They can still move around from places and even conversing with other participants, but their scope was within a strict range of activities. 

They could even notice how each of the alliances view the participants of the other alliances in an antagonistic sort of way, such as taunting them, threatening them, or suppressing them. 

The locations where they could gather together with none of that are probably only the center where people could be seen dancing and outside the castle's ballroom. 

"According to the informations that we have received about all of these participants, the members of these alliances are based on the participant's rankings in the Emerald Event," Ethan reported to Leo. 

The person who should supposedly be reporting this kind of information to Leo right now is Elvis. But since Elvis is currently 'hidden' by the Evergreen royal family from everyone, including the Mischievous Lion Guild as well, thus Ethan could only choose to replace his place in the meantime. 

Ethan continued explaining, "There's a total of ten alliances, and they are respectively made up of the participants from the top 1 to top 10, top 11 to top 20, top 21 to top 30, and so on and so forth,"

Pausing and turning to look towards a certain location, Ethan added, "But there are still some other participants who choose to not involved themselves in these kinds of unnecessary alliances, like for example, Guild Leader Orcborg,"

"Orcborg?" Leo murmured, a bit surprised by the discovery.

The participant that Ethan had pointed towards coincidentally turned out to be Orcborg, the Guild Leader of the Red Fist Guild. 

"Despite of the fact that Guild Leader Orcborg's Red Fist Guild is placed in the top 16 in the Emerald Event, they are still known to be a very strong competitor for the top 10 in the Emerald Elven Battle Competition. Basing on their capability alone, it is just reasonable for him to not care whether his Red Fist Guild is part of an alliance or not," Ethan expressed his opinion. 

"But who could really say for sure that Orcborg is really not interested in being a part of an alliance," Leo's lips slowly formed into a mischievous smile. He motioned his hand to Cassandra and the others before saying, "Follow me,"

Since all the participants had formed an alliance with each other, then he might as well just do the same thing too. 

In his opinion, no matter how strong and capable Orcborg's Red Fist Guild is, facing against an opponent who has a numerical advantage, could still prove to be fatal and dangerous at times. It might even cause them to ultimately get eliminated no matter how good their potential was. A proof of such a claim are the Savage Foxes, which, regardless of how strong they are, still always uses their numerical advantage to fight against any kinds of opponents. 

But of course, just like the Savage Foxes, one shouldn't just form an alliance with anybody, but rather only with those who are the same species as them, which in his current case, he will only form an alliance with people who are similarly as strong and capable as him. 

That is the main and exact reason why he choose to approach Orcborg right now, instead of the other participants around him.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Leo and the others from the Mischievous Lion Guild casually walked towards Orcborg. 

At the opposite direction, the leader of the strongest alliance made up of the participants from the top 1 to top 10, specifically a higher-ranking member of the Pierce Noble Household, who was supposedly planning on inviting Leo and the others from the Mischievous Lion Guild to join their alliance, could only pause on his tracks a few meters of distance away from them. 

The man heaves a sigh of helplessness as he was left with no other choice but to just watch the people from the Mischievous Lion getting further and further away from him while at the same time thinking inwardly that he already has no chance to invite them before he could even say a single word from the script he had prepared inside his mind along the way.

"Loki!" Orcborg greeted.

"Orcborg!" Leo greeted back. 

"Let me guess, you are here to form an alliance with me?" Orcborg asked with an intrigued smile on his face. 

"As always, you are once again correct in your guess," Leo nodded in confirmation. 

"I'm really curious to know why exactly you have chosen to form an alliance with me? Wouldn't it serve you much better if you choose to join the number one alliance?" Orcborg curiously asked while pointing towards the member of the Pierce Noble Household standing a few tens of meters away from them.

"Simple; because all of them strive to qualify for the fifth game of the Emerald Elven Battle Competition. And as we all know, when a lot of people with the same interest are gathered in a single group, they are bound to eventually have a conflict with each other, especially if there could only be a single winner in the end," Leo replied. 

It isn't really that difficult to guess the exact reason why there are only ten participants in each of the alliances formed... No, to be more precise, why there could only be ten participants in the ten alliances.

Evidently, the main and exact reason for that is because the fifth game could only have a total of ten participants. And because not all of them have the capability to grab one of those ten spots, hence they could only try their luck by finding other people who are similarly as strong and capable as them, to form an alliance with and help each other. 

In other words, the participants of these alliances have the same common interest and could help one another to qualify for the fifth game. And when they finally qualify for the fifth game, only then would they begin fighting against each other to claim the championship.