In the days up to the award ceremony, more people kept visiting their mansion. Polter would come by regularly and Faenys had become a regular guest. She got along well with team three and was almost part of the team, already.

They had not put it on paper yet, but it was promising.

As a kind of surprise one day Elza stood at their door, with a slightly disgruntled Marcel behind her. The ice magician looked uncharacteristically shy when he met her in the salon.

"How can I help you?" he asked after a short greeting.

"I wanted to thank you for saving me back then," she said insecurely. She glanced at Marcel who sighed.

"...I also thank you for back then and I'm sorry for holding a grudge against you. In the end, it was the right thing to do," he said laboriously.

It didn't seem like he was completely over the fact, that Seth had technically killed his girlfriend in front of him. However, it was a start. Seth didn't hold any misgivings in the first place and graciously forgave them.

The blacksmith knew that they were close to Brock who had his own guild, and they would probably join the Boulder Guild. Still, he offered them, too, to join Minas Mar if they looked for a place to stay.

A Team 4 might not be a bad idea if he could collect more high-level members like them and Faenys.

In between spending time looking up information, he spent time with new and old friends until finally, the day of the ceremony came.

The Award Ceremony was grand, but Seth held no interest in these empty gestures. Seth was still not interested in becoming a celebrity and simply tried to meld into the crowd of survivors. His wishes were not met by the circumstances.

All of them were celebrities by the virtue of having taken part in the final battle and their fantastic, undocumented, "victory". They all were rewarded with the chance to visit the treasury and choose two items, along with money.

In addition, each of them who fought Natina was granted the possibility to request something from the emperor. It was like the tame version of the wish the winner was promised.

Seth was just glad that was the kind of dry and boring ceremony he knew from TV and nothing more than that. They each were awarded with a medal that gave them a special citizenship with the Chrona Empire.

Epic

Durability: 200

1.+25 personality

A precious Medal of the Chrona Empire that grants the wearer a special status, diplomatic immunity, and an increase in prestige. >

It was not bad for something he was given as a bonus. A speech from the emperor and many waves later the ceremony ended, and they were released into the accompanying banquet. Although there were many asking for a performance from him, Seth had no interest in intermingling at the moment.

The blacksmith, the fairy, and most of their friends simply sieged the food and spend their time not much different than in the last few days. According to the emperor's speech, they would have their chance to have a look at the treasury the day after tomorrow, while the request was an open-ended option.

They did not have to decide immediately what they wanted or needed. Something the indecisive Seth gladly used. What he needed the most was a safe way to dispel the curse on the scales, but obviously, the scales were not something he would voluntarily bring up in front of the emperor.

The bard was convinced the emperor wouldn't simply take them from him, but he felt that their relationship would stay a lot more amicable if the Chrona Empire never found out, that Seth was the only one who really benefitted from this catastrophe.

"Seth, did you already get the message?" Leana joined their group later in the evening.

"What message?" the blacksmith asked while sipping on a glass of booze.

"It seems like Albert is going to be done looking into the mask you left with them. Do you maybe want to visit the research institute tomorrow?" she explained and offered him to go together.

Hearing this he was quite surprised. They were already getting finished on the mask? Seth was sure it was the hardest to research the item he made of the angel since he was sure it still had the beast's ego.

"Sure, let's go together tomorrow."

...

Around noon the next day, the servant knocked at the door of their bedroom. Seth, Mina, and Faenys woke up with disheveled hair. The bandit girl blushed furiously, collected her clothes, and ran past the servant out of the room.

"You have a visitor, Sir. Princess Leana asks for your presence."

"I will be there in a minute," he answered.

While Mina kept lazing in the bed, Seth washed up and started getting dressed. The catgirl wouldn't join him in his visit to the research institute. Fully clothed and clean, he went down to meet the Princess.

"Princess Leana how are you?" he asked the woman sitting in his salon. She was wearing a formal uniform like that of a knight order.

"Great. Are you ready to go to the institute?" she asked enthusiastically and got up.

Seth agreed and they got on a carriage to the institute. When they entered the building, they saw a few researchers hurrying past them, so preoccupied that they did not even notice the princess. Slightly concerned they quickened their steps.

Entering the same room he had visited the last time, Seth noticed a certain difference. Everything was in shambles and chaos. Going through the next door, that had been closed the last time, they came to an observation room.

Beyond the window was a test chamber. Albert and another researcher were attempting to tie down a third person, that was maniacally laughing and fighting the two to get to the still-open door.

The two had a hard time keeping the man down. As he tossed and turned Seth finally saw the reason for the mayhem. The man was wearing the angel mask that kept switching between expressions.

He tried to listen to the incoherent word the masked man screamed in-between laughter, but he couldn't understand a single word.

"Shouldn't we help them?" the princess couldn't decide.

She had probably the thoughts as Seth. If they interfered now, the two men struggling to hold the prisoner down would lose concentration and the guy might flee. And neither of them was interested in running after him.

"I'm sure they will manage." the bard assured her.

This way the two stood in the observation room, waiting and silently watching the struggle of the researchers. The two finally managed to tie down the test subject to the chair that was bolted to the floor of the room. When the two came out disheveled and covered in bruises and scratches, they found the Princess and the blacksmith in the observation room, both holding a cup of tea.

They halted in shock and embarrassment. Albert's eyes were stuck on the steaming cup of tea.

"Y-Your Highness, d-did you wait long...?" he stammered.

"It was quite the sight to see," Leana said dryly. She had wanted to impress Seth with their quick and reliable research. It was obviously not her intent to show him a wrestling match between a bunch of scraggy old men.

"I-I am truly sorry about the kind of behavior we demonstrated. We really didn't expect the mask to become violent all of a sudden."

"The mask...?" she questioned and looked at the masked man who was hurting himself, trying to fight against the ropes.

"Yes, it is the masks doing." Alber enforced and started explaining everything.

After doing the preliminary test on the mask, they had gotten prisoners as voluntary test subjects. What they found out from the human experimentation, was that the mask was highly dangerous.

The mask's ego would imprint its personality onto the wearer and take over the body. But it did not end there. If the mask was later removed, the previous wearer would end up braindead without a chance for survival if left alone.

Additionally, if the mask was worn too long, the wearer's body would slowly start to turn into metal. They could only hypothesize that the angel was trying to recreate its body this way because they had never taken the risk to let this process finish.

They didn't know what kind of power this entity would develop if the process was doing on for too long, but just by wearing the mask, they could already observe an aura that disabled any influence of the system god, or other gods.

In the end, they affirmed Seth's suspicions. The mask held the archangel's ego and was unusable. It was also why they reported having finished investigations. Any further test would bear too much risk.

Their conclusion was to return the item and advise Seth to destroy it as soon as possible. Unlike the sword and the staff, this mask could only count as a cursed item.

The moment they tried to separate the last test subject from the mask in anticipation to return it, the wielder showed until then unknown amounts of power and managed to escape in a moment of confusion.

What then happened was what the blacksmith and the princess had been watching for a good while. The researcher managed to catch the masked subject and laboriously bring it back to the test chamber.

While Albert explained, the other researcher returned to the masked man and began to remove the mask. When he came back to the observation room, only a silent man, with a face petrified in grey metal was left in the test chamber.

"Here, please take it back," he said with his forehead shining with sweat.