Second impressions: Omari is still a cool dude and a very level-headed man; Mako is unsociable; Urmeie is Hana on steroids and without a filter; and I don't like Sa'Haa.

I like snobbish women like Yunia, who know when to admit the superiority of the Cock, but Sa'Haa is a straight-up bitchy snob. The former can drop the act and be compassionate when the time for it comes as they still have a loving heart within themselves, but the latter are unrepentant bitches who value their status more than their relationships.

It's a shame when beautiful women have such unfuckable personalities… Well, not entirely unfuckable since these days I'm even thinking about sticking my dick in the crazy that is Vanea, but I'd only hatefuck Sa'Haa like I did with Roxanne's mother.

"I'd understand it if you were mingling with the daughters of nobility, but adventurers? Really?" Sa'Haa questions me disapprovingly.

"I was born a commoner," I flatly reply, very much not pleased.

And she launches into a lecture, "Yes, but now you have access to something much better. With all of the elven products that the nobles of the High Forest have at their disposal, an elven noblewoman would certainly have a more attractive body than an unkempt adventurer."

Roxanne was a humble adventurer for most of her life, and the last thing I'd ever call her is "unkempt." Sa'Haa isn't bantering or making a mean joke, but I can't really call out a royal in front of everyone, so this is kind of getting on my nerves.

"I'm attracted to anything that's at least mildly feminine," I absentmindedly reply.

"Even male elves dressed like women? I've been to Goldcross, and sometimes I couldn't tell the men from the women," Omari suddenly chimes in curiously.

The cute Prince Tommen slowly turns his head towards me, suddenly interested, and Vanea simply smiles and remains silent, waiting for him to return to their conversation. Her presence has been surprisingly pleasant so far, especially because she keeps her piercing gaze low and rarely looks anyone in the eye.

I smile embarrassedly as I explain, "Now that is a delicate matter. Yes, they are attractive, but no, I'd never have sex with another man. I'm simply a… 'single-edge.'"

Jarn sees the Prince let out a subtle breath of relief, and he goes back to his casual conversation with Vanea.

"With a massive lesbian fetish," Alissa casually adds.

And I calmly nod. "Yes. That, too."

But Sa'Haa can't keep her tongue tied and ruins the casual mood again, "No matter if you're a man or a woman, it's degrading to your reputation to let just about any commoner have a taste of your seed."

I almost snort as her words make me imagine my royal draconic cum being sold as an exotic luxury that few could ever get their hands on, but my dislike of her prevents me from laughing.

"Why?" I promptly ask back, holding back my flippancy.

The Princess then stares at me for a moment and blinks blankly, perhaps too stunned at my ignorance, or perhaps she's simply caught off-guard as even she doesn't know why, exactly, it's "degrading" to have sex with commoners.

I'd bet on the latter.

She quickly recollects herself and answers, "Your body, your blood, your semen, your future children, they all have an inherently higher value than that of the populace. To freely give it to anyone who asks devalues yourself and undermines the political potential you could leverage if you kept it scarce." Then she snorts snobbishly. "Just to give you an idea, I know of many noblewomen who would gladly trade their bodies for the chance of having a child with someone such as you."

I really feel like butting heads with her over the "value" of my body, but Yunia advises against it, so I take a more subtle angle and retort, "We're simply not concerned with extracting the most value out of our bodies."

But even that is enough to annoy her, so she almost flippantly replies, "Are you sure you have that luxury when you're in such a delicate position in the High Forest?"

Now Yunia gets aggravated by the arrogance of the Princess. This foreign royal is acting as if she knows the subtleties of High Elven politics better than the prime example of a High Elf herself!

So now it's our Queen's turn to lecture the haughty Princess, "We must use the correct weapons against each type of opponent. The Elder Council won't be swayed by mere popularity or political influence. They require convincing based on principles. The Subordinate Lords and Nobles also require results to be swayed to our side as they're prejudiced and fearful of change, but they won't be convinced just by us keeping our bodies 'scarce.'"

"'A good warrior keeps a knife in his boot, a smart warrior keeps many,'" Sa'Haa calmly quotes the God of War, which now makes Ciel annoyed.

Yunia really doesn't want to launch into a comprehensive explanation about why Sa'Haa's opinion is dumb, so my dear elf subtly kills the conversation, "The time for us to focus on High Elven politics is still to come. For now, I wish to focus my mental energy on the conflict at hand."

"You all talk too much while eating," Urmeie complains, then immediately goes for another steak.

These animal-headed humanoids may have big, scary teeth, but they also have a set of human teeth further inside their mouths so that they can eat like humans without making a mess. Aoi doesn't have teeth like that, but she can still eat most dishes in her dragon form.

Then not-Cruella turns her snobbish nose towards her sister and begins the sibling banter, "You eat so much that if you talked during our meals, you'd take an hour just to finish the first course."

"Yeah, that's why I don't talk," Urmeie deftly deflects.

"Sister, don't make fun of her dietary needs," Tommen politely chimes in.

But the white wereowl is too proud to admit any fault. "Then she shouldn't act as if her needs are superior."

"Eating more meat would do you some good, though," Urmeie casually shoots back with a smirk.

Now that the royals are distracted, we can focus on our actual friends, the Verners, and Omari because he's cool.

When dessert comes, and the coffee is served, we watch as even Urmeie discovers the wonders of chocolate plus coffee, and they're left speechless as their minds are overloaded with the flood of ideas and the potential uses of this combination for new businesses.

"What is this black beverage?" Sa'Haa tactfully inquires and taps her glass cup with a long black nail.

"Gnomic coffee. We acquired the exclusive export rights to it after we aided them in the recent monster army crisis under Gnomeria," Yunia answers with well-hidden glee. We really need to get them to understand that we have a number of secret projects being developed and that we aren't fresh and untested youths just bumbling around while playing at being royalty.

Mako stares at the coffee with an unsteady gaze, trying his best to look away from the black gold but failing. He barely touched the dessert, but it seems obvious that now that he's had a taste of the ultimate combo, he wants more, and his odd behavior becomes so noticeable that everyone eventually starts staring at him.

"Why don't you just drink it already?" Urmeie promptly asks out loud.

"Denial increases the pleasure you'll get after giving in; it's just that sometimes, the right moment for that isn't very clear," he stoically answers with his [Godly Language]-infused voice without taking his eyes off his cup of coffee.

"If denial is going to keep you distracted, then maybe you should just give in," Léonne suggests, and Mako chuckles softly, the first time I've seen him smile.

Surprisingly, he uses his normal voice to whisper warmly, "Perhaps you're right." Then he goes for the cup.

After we finish eating, we move to some sofas near the balcony so that we can rest and allow our stomachs to comfortably digest our food. There's more tea and cookies, but aside from Sa'Haa and the werefoxes, we're all too full to eat anything more.

"Shall we begin talking about the coming battle?" Yunia diplomatically suggests.

"Let's first list our men so that we know in detail what we have to work with," Jacques wisely replies.

But before we can do that, we apparently need a bit of drama.

"What men do you actually have? You're not even the Chosen Descendant," Sa'Haa accusingly asks Vanea.

The not-princess smiles and meets her eyes with Sa'Haa's, who shows no reaction from the former's piercing gaze. "I have a very loyal ally that will join us on the day of battle: Centum Apeiltik, who has joined Katasko as a spy for me," Vanea sweetly answers.

But the white wereowl ignores the provocation and turns her stern gaze to us. "This is the sort of woman that Dame Vanea is, Ryders. Are you sure you want her as an ally?"

"Do you think we have the luxury of giving up on allies when our situation is so delicate?" Yunia immediately replies, hiding very well her glee at the riposte.

The room falls silent, and Hana, Urmeie, and Allura can't keep their eyebrows from creeping upwards in amusement.

Sa'Haa's white feather hair gradually rises up along with her anger, and the air starts to become chilly as she begins to release her aura, but we only get a taste of it as her royal composure quickly comes back, and she returns to normal again as she finally replies, "As long as you know who Dame Vanea Anara really is. Some people have been swayed by her sweet words and tragic story, but one shouldn't forget that those experiences forged the kind of woman she is today."

Dayum.

She's so harsh that we turn to Vanea and wait for a response, but the "princess" in question merely smiles bitterly, her eyes still avoiding ours to spare us her piercing stare.

And it's the cute little Prince who comes to defend his friend. "Sister, I understand your distrust of Vanea, I really do, but she deserves a chance to grow," he sternly states with a surprising amount of bravery, standing up to the villain of his sister.

And now Vanea finally talks, her tone perfectly neutral because trying to look sad will score no points for her among this group of politically savvy people, "I do what I must to survive and to achieve my goals, but even though I deal in businesses that you deem 'unsavory,' I'm still not the kind of person that breaks their promises and betrays those who have helped me so much."

"Yeah, loosen up, Sa'Haa," Urmeie casually chimes in and lets out a grunt-like chuckle.

The bitter wereowl turns her eyes to us, but we remain stoic and unmoving, showing no support for her vendetta. Not even Urmeie or the other two nobles want any part in this, so it's clear she has no allies in this matter. Then her expression becomes even more stern as she stews a little longer in her anger, but she'll only alienate everyone if she insists on this.

So she finally gives in, "Very well, I'll accept us working together this time, but don't forget that our alliance with Vanea is supported by thin ropes."

"Your alliance is with us, not Vanea," I sternly state and glare at her.

Once again, the tension rises, but this bitch needs to understand her position, so we won't back down. Urmeie's snort lightens the mood, and even Tommen looks unconcerned, making it seem even more unreasonable for Sa'Haa to act offended.

"Indeed, my alliance has only been with you, Ryders," she bitterly admits and promptly begins to ignore Vanea's presence.

"The Ryders are the center point of our group. Let's not forget that," Léonne gently states, but Urmeie's sudden shift into becoming serious tells us that our dear fox mommy might've just stepped on a landmine.

"Are they, really?" Urmeie grunts back while staring at Léonne intensely, and now it's Sa'Haa's turn to look mildly amused.

Oh. My. Fucking. GOD! These royals are just… UGH!

"Don't let your pride cloud your judgment," Tommen gently tries to calm his ursine sister.

"They need my men to stand against Katasko," the haughty bear retorts.

So much for "words don't hurt me."

"They're bleeding allies with each passing day," Vanea states matter-of-factly.

But Urmeie just shrugs in a way that makes her massive tits jiggle alluringly as she starts to calm down. "You'll still have a lot of trouble dealing with them without me."

"It's not you who's Gifted, so it's not you who'll ensure our victory in this battle," Jacques suddenly interjects with a sober tone. The Faiumi side all show disbelief in his words, so fox daddy promptly explains, "Decien Alkibiades has challenged us instead of waiting for the sword to fall upon his neck, which means that he has something that can nullify whatever numeric advantage we might have."

Urmeie guffaws and slaps her tits, making them bounce again. "Yeah, right! Their assholes are so exposed that only a Divine Intervention could save them now!"

"In a way, it is an Intervention because Katasko likely has the same kind of 'asset' that allows us to ignore numeric advantage: a Gifted."

The bear's mirth is flash-frozen, and she turns her eyes to Sa'Haa, who's now taking this very seriously.

The wereowl Princess thoughtfully taps her cup with her long nail, and her stern eyes lose focus as she searches her memories. "There have been no reports of Gifted movement, except…" She whispers absentmindedly.

"Reinhold?" I blurt out.

"He wouldn't…" She begins but immediately stops as doubt seeps in.

"I made a deal with Reinhold and secured his neutrality," Vanea immediately announces, and for once, Sa'Haa actually looks back at the not-princess without a hint of animosity in her gaze. "Apeiltik also reports that Katasko's senior members are trying their hardest to keep the lower members from deserting by promising victory in this battle, which hasn't been a very successful strategy, but curiously, the seniors haven't mentioned how they think they'll win."

"If the seniors are so confident, then they truly must have something hidden," the wereowl princess remarks thoughtfully. Even she won't reject such useful information, even if she disagrees with the source.

"And only a Gifted would be worth keeping them a secret until the battle," Léonne states, and nobody argues otherwise.

And Sa'Haa narrows her eyes suspiciously at me, then at Vanea. "I'm sure you hid the Ryders from us until he left Rabanara, so I wouldn't put it past Katasko to have done the same."

But Urmeie just has to make the conversation about her again, "I still don't believe that the Gifted can be that powerful. There must be a limit to their power."

We're getting a bit too tired of her to reply, but Léonne shows her reliability by facing the bear once again, "There is a limit, obviously, but how are we to accurately gauge their power when they can take on thousands? Can you imagine the difficulty in organizing an exercise like that?"

Urmeie remains stern and pensive, but then her eyes are drawn towards mine, and the big bear gradually appears to become larger and larger in my view as her high-level aura starts to come out. She's confident in her own power, but the more she knows about us, the more she begins to doubt herself, so she wants to challenge us to reaffirm her own strength. But this is just childish and simple-minded behavior, which is why it's so tiring to deal with her.

But we're not here to play these silly games, so I face her head-on, letting my draconic charm clash against her oppressive aura, and I serenely deflect, "Why do you think that a duel would confirm that we can take on thousands of soldiers?"

"I need some kind of confirmation," she calmly replies, staring at me like a bear stalking its prey.

Hana's hungry gaze is a lot more fearsome than this mama bear's, so I smoothly follow up, "We'll cast a few spells to demonstrate our power to you, then."

That confuses Urmeie, who frowns and pulls back her aura as she grunts, "Hm…?"

I sigh internally as we prepare ourselves. This is necessary, but it's still bothersome, and even the dragon inside me complains about having to "prove ourselves to insignificant worms."

"Well, I fucking love showing off!" Hana exclaims inside my soul space, and half of the girls agree with her.

While I smile wryly internally, the girls and I stand up in sync and turn to the balcony, except for Lina, who stares at each of the Faiumi, then we point our fingers forward and spam all of our spells.

Everyone squints their eyes as glowing hot lava and lightning spread out in every direction while the sound of explosions drowns out everything else, and the air quickly becomes hot and thick with steam as all sorts of elements pour out of the balcony.

The observers feel a chill as multiple Curses are stacked upon their persons, but then the oppressive atmosphere turns into one of almost pure terror as I summon all of my elementals along with the "Status Effect"-afflicting monsters. Yunia even considers using [Chain Soul], but she gives up on the idea as it'd be too aggressive to use that on the royals.

The toy golems also join us in the demonstration, and Jarn jumps down from the balcony to reassure the guards that everything is fine.

"Don't panic. This is a mere demonstration," Jarn loudly explains as she flies around the embassy.

Léonne, Allura, and Vanea grin with unveiled delight at the astonishment of our guests, whose surprise deepens with each second as we maintain this demonstration for a long minute, only to finish with a deafening [Lightning Strike] from Aoi as I unsummon everything and Lina removes the Curses, lifting the dreadful pressure from their bodies.

The Verners immediately get up and approach the railing to inspect the damage to the recently-repaired training courtyard, with the Faiumi joining them a moment later once they've gotten over their daze. The ground below has now become a representation of the Apocalypse, but the girls think it looks more like the Everlasting Storm that they've heard of in tales.

"Pulasarica uriasa…" Urmeie whispers something in awe in a language that we don't recognize, but I bet it's a swear.

Omari turns around and stares at us wide-eyed as he exclaims, "You're not just hybrids! You're all magical warriors!"

Roxanne coyly replies, "You could say that. Though, we still have a few more tricks that we can use, but we'd rather keep those secret."

"How long could you keep that up?" Sa'Haa soberly asks as she turns around.

"We don't know since it'd be extremely draining on us to test our limits, but a few more minutes, at least," Ciel answers, and the gentle allure of her words is more convincing than anything we could say.

"How much MP do each of you have?" Sa'Haa inquires further.

"That, we won't say," I reply with a cheeky smile.

"Okay, that was impressive, but I know shit about magic," Urmeie remarks as she turns around, then she looks at the stern wereowl. "What do you think, sis? No chance of me winning a duel?"

And the "constipated" Princess becomes visibly annoyed at the question. "Think, Urmeie. How would you fight against someone who can just… drown you in spells?!"

The big bear shrugs. "I don't know. That's why I wanted a duel."

Sa'Haa nervously runs her hand along her white feather hair. "You're likely to get yourself killed."

"I think it'd be fun to try," Urmeie casually replies and grins unashamedly.

Hana gets a bit annoyed at the stubbornness of this bear, so she steps forward and glares as she rapidly casts and dispels [Spirit Light] as an example. "We can also cast [Ghost Lights] just as fast as I can cast this. Do you really think you can fight while blind?" She flippantly asks.

Urmeie frowns as she stares at the flickering ball of light, but the stubborn woman is still unconvinced. "Hm… I do have [Sense Presence]."

Alissa and Yunia promptly activate their [Hide Presence].

"Oh…" The bear grunts in surprise, then she starts chuckling. "Well, this is kind of silly, you know?"

"It's very silly," Omari dryly agrees, still too stunned to laugh.

"Yes, exactly. The Gifted are simply born to surpass us," Vanea calmly declares, but Urmeie suddenly stops laughing and becomes serious.

"They've been chosen by the Gods to deal with threats beyond even our reach," Léonne piously states, a hint of pride in her tone.

"Who could even defeat them in single combat?" Mako finally speaks, and though his daze is gone and he's back to being stoic, he doesn't use his Godly voice.

"Dad," Tommen quietly replies.

"Dad," Urmeie grunts in agreement, still stern and pensive.

"Yes, Father could," Sa'Haa hums absentmindedly, then she uncharacteristically sighs tiredly and closes her eyes as she relaxes on her sofa.

"That's why we believe that Katasko has a Gifted of their own," Jacques smoothly returns us to the crux of the matter.

"They could just be dumb or suicidal," Urmeie soberly replies, also behaving uncharacteristically.

"I'd rather prepare for the worst-case scenario," I state, and everyone hums in agreement.

"Then we shall," Sa'Haa finishes.

Now that the royals have been convinced, we can finally start talking tactics.