A week later in a ball held by the cities nobles.

“you are quite the brave one aren’t you” said someone unfamiliar. The young noble stood from his chair in the quietest corner of the room.

His butler leaned in and quietly informed him, “Sir D’ellinoris was being quite friendly to this person, he even took the trouble to introduce him to other powerful people”.

The noble replied to the stranger by instinct, “Hello friend, I don’t believe we have met, I’m Robert Sefron”

…

The stranger did not reply as a noble would have, instead, he just smiled. With growing confusion Robert thought, ‘perhaps we have already met and I’ve forgotten his name’. he glanced at his butler for help, but it seems he doesn’t know either.

The silence continued. Robert began somewhat awkwardly. “I’m afraid that I can’t recall your name friend, would you kindly remind me”

“I am Abaddon and have far too many titles to speak of, so excuse me if I skip that part of introductions” the man finally answered with the same smile.

Robert thought, ‘so a noble from far away, but he is friendly with the ever-grouchy city lord, so he must be powerful. Someone from the Magedom, no he isn’t wearing mage robes. Perhaps from the duchies, but they are being conquered and the only one powerf-- he must be from Denrigh, they are the only ones who have allied with us’ (digger Duchy)

The wheels in Roberts mind quickly spun. This new city was now the closest city to the former border, and considering the war, the sudden appearance of a Denrigh noble would have to be some sort of delegation, probably to discuss the terms of their surrender. So Abbadon would have to either be an extremely high-level diplomat, or perhaps the king of Denrigh himself.

Robert smiled back and replied, “I sure those titles are great and none of them do sir Abaddon justice, perhaps we can have a drink and I can hear some of your grand achievements”

“Perhaps” the man smiled back, “although some of those titles are not flattering by any means, but your right, they certainly don’t do me justice”

The wheels in Roberts mind stopped for a second as he attempted to think of something to say in response. Instead, he changed the subject, perhaps he might figure out why he was approached which would be useful. “you said something about me being brave, may I ask what you meant by that”

Abaddon said, “a little bird told me that you had a spat after an argument”

Robert winced slightly, he had argued with the former general Wolfram a few days ago, and that time the man seemed to be on a vendetta against him. None of the previous arguments were that heated and Robert lost his temper and punched Wolfram.

Or at least tried to punch him, Wolfram was a famous general and a noble with no interest in training didn’t have a chance. The end result was as expected, Robert sat in a cell for several days with two black eyes.

Robert winced once again and said, “taking on a former general, brave yes, but also stupid” while trying to pass it off as a joke. It worked because Abaddon laughed which made Robert feel a little better about the incident.

Although the fact he laughed about old new probably meant he hadn’t heard it before, so what did brave mean?

Robert thought of something and exclaimed, “ah, do you mean the conflict at the conference”

Abaddon replied, “closer, I was thinking of a more fiery thing, although arguing with a powerful man you don’t know could be considered to be brave too I guess”

“are you talking about the fire salts Wolfram accused me of smuggling,” said Robert.

“much closer” Abbadon smiled.

“but those salts are completely legal, I didn’t declare them because items aren’t taxed upon entry anymore, so there is no need to show the guards every last barrel”

Abbadon agreed, “indeed, they aren’t taxed anymore and the guards give you leeway with checking your wares because of your status, but they are still prohibited items”

Robert was beginning to become annoyed, this obviously wasn’t a friendly conversation. He replied, “fire salts are prohibited to commoners because of its ability to be used as explosives, but I am not –“

Abbadon interrupted, “and the ‘songbird’ and various other interesting mushrooms are not prohibited from nobles?” Robert felt like his heart tried to jump out of his throat. Wolfram didn’t know about that and his feeling only got worse with every word. “how about the slave girls, or the secret mana gems, how about the high-level spell scrolls. A little bird even said that some artwork formerly in one of the destroyed mansions was in your wagons--”

“who are you and why are you lying about my business” Robert fiercely said while keeping his voice quiet. He didn’t want others to overhear, but also did not want the man in front of him thinking that he could be pushed around, or threatened.

He glanced at his butler, made a subtle hand gesture and that was all he needed to do, the butler immediately excused himself and left the venue. Abaddon guessed to clean up the evidence and he was right.

Abaddon smiled once again and said, “I’ll answer both your questions at once, some call me the father of lies, although we both know the truthfulness of my claims”

Robert was now even more confused than he was originally, who would call someone the father of lies and who would call themselves as such. His first instinct was to just leave the ball. It was about to end anyway and no one would take a second glance if he was to leave now.

However, he thought better of it, his butter was already taking care of everything that needed to be taken care of. His attention was better spent here, watching this opponent and seeing what move he was going to make. In the best case scenario he stalls Abaddon for long enough that there is no evidence to find.

Hopefully, he didn’t notice his butler leave. Most nobles wouldn’t notice someone so small and would never guess the amount of power Robert gave his simple butler.

Suddenly there was a commotion at the doors, everyone at the ball was looking that way and now so was Robert. Giant black plate wearing men entered the doors. Dungeon knights. Everyone in the venue was shocked, but no one as much as Robert. One of the dungeon knights had his butler as a captive.

“Sir I am going to have to ask you and your people to leave, you were not invited” a servant bravely shouted. He was ignored and they were coming towards Robert. He thought to run, but knew better of his chances of outrunning those killing machines. Instead, he stood still and hoped it had nothing to do with him. If it came down to it he would pretend he didn’t know his butler. And if it was proved otherwise then the butler was just a temporary servant. Or he betrayed him.

But this had to do with him. The dungeon knights walked straight up to him and grabbed him. He looked around for the ball’s guards and wondered why he didn’t see them earlier. However, they had fled earlier. Twenty guards going to the bathroom at the same time was suspicious, but it was better than dying.

Robert was dragged out of the ball and on the way he saw Wolfram with his soldiers. “do something, are you the guard captain or is the dungeon the guard captain”

Wolfram just shrugged, “I am, but the dungeon is the King of this territory and those are his royal guard”

Wolfram followed the dungeon knights just as a witness and he quickly noticed another man did the same. He said, “depending on what the dungeon plans to do to this person you might disappear if you follow along”

“Abaddon you bastard, this is your doing isn’t it” Robert cursed while being dragged along.

Abaddon replied, “it is. But what's more important is that I thought that this would be more interesting”

“interesting,” asked Wolfram with a raised brow.

“like guards swarming the area to stop the kidnapping. Another noble, something” Abaddon mused.

“YOU F--”

Robert was gagged before he could yell again and Wolfram asked, “and you are?”. He was curious who pissed of Robert so much and if and how he had something to do with this.

Abaddon looked towards Wolfram with a smile and said, “I’m Lucifer Morningstar”

...