Back in the capital of Bard, all the nobles gathered to greet the king, and officially begin the meeting.

"Greeting to all the nobles who have made it here. I have called upon all of you to inform you about a few things. Recently, certain heretics wanted to overthrow the royal family and take over the nation. They did in fact seize the capital for a few days. However, we have already taken the situation under control with the help of the church of Ares. The heretics have been… 'CLEANSED'. Certain noble families have also taken their fair share in this matter along with certain priests from the church itself. All parties involved have also been 'CLEANSED', and stability should return to the kingdom of Bard. This meeting is for mourning the dead, and in celebration of a peaceful and prosperous future."

As the king's speech finished, he walked into the crowds of noble circles, and began to make small talk with them, as dictated by noble etiquette.

While Mason and Don were enjoying their food in the nobliest manner possible, the noticed a female aristocrat walking towards Duke Desmon with the intention of making conversation with him.

She was a rather beautiful young lady around the age of 17, with long and slightly curly light brown hair and a rather exquisite physique. She looked like the perfect match for the now 22-year-old Duke Desmon.

Seeing this, Mason smiled as he thought to himself.

'She would match for him…'

Suddenly, Don pulled on his sleeve, which made Mason look away from the lady moving towards Desmon, and look at Don, who did not speak with food in his mouth, and just pointed discretely at a certain noble.

Mason followed the finger and noticed a 25-year-old noble who was staring daggers at Desmon.

Mason understood a few things within moments. This man was most likely a jealous suiter of that lady.

Turning towards Desmon, Mason noticed that the two had a rather amicable relation, and seemed to be happy to be in each other's presences. Mason understood another thing. This noble was angry at Desmon for getting to be with the young lady.

Mason had a certain feeling that this noble with short black hair was going to cause some sort of problem with Desmon.

"Let's move closer to Sir Desmon." Mason whispered in Don's ear, after which the two of them put down their plates and moved swiftly, but slow enough to not stand out, along the walls and around the entire banquet hall and finally arrived behind the food table where Desmon and the lady were standing.

However, they just waited behind a pillar, staring outside the window in front of them, taking a few glances at the black haired noble, and any other possible threats.

After a few minutes, Don and Mason notices the black-haired noble giving signals to some other people in the hall, who began to slowly move closer to Desmon without anyone noticing. Naturally, if anyone was to specifically look for this sort of change, like Mason and Don, they would have noticed this as well.

As soon as the men were around 3 people away from Desmon, Mason pulled Don and quietly moved in between the men and Desmon without having the lady or Desmon notice this.

"Oh, noble sirs, what can this humble servant help you with? Would you like some of the refreshments placed on the tables behind me? Shall I prepare some for you noble sirs?"

The 4 men were stunned by the sudden interruption to their actions. They did not know what to say to someone who was offering to serve them as a waiter.

Normally if someone had dared to block the path of a noble snob, like in most novels, the noble would arrogantly scream at them and reprimand then for blocking the path of a noble.

Naturally, Mason had been taught about certain situation by the butler, who seemed to be incredibly knowledgeable about crisis that may arise at a noble's banquet. He had given a long list of scenarios, and an even longer list of solutions for them.

Such a situation was somehow included within the list, which Mason had spent a really long time to memorise. It had finally come in handy.

Following the instructions, he asked if he could be of service to the nobles instead of blocking their way, preventing them from taking any action against him, and disrupt any plan that required timing.

Naturally, the black-haired man had not noticed his minions being stalled by Mason and Don, and proceeded with his plan of eliminating any suitors of young lady Emily.

He approached slowly, and silently spilled some water on the ground where Desmon was, making sure no one had noticed.

His plan was simply to the point it was rather childish, but it had always proven useful almost in every single case. He would spill water, and when the suitor would take a single step in any direction, he would slip and fall. At that point in time, his minions would come and escort the fallen noble to the guest room with the excuse of saving the noble some face.[1]

However, contrary to his expectations, the young man in front of him simply took a step backwards which somehow complete dodged the water on the floor. This was actually a complete coincidence that Desmon had done since he wanted to pull out a drink for himself and Miss Emily from the waiter behind him.

With the drinks in hand, he turned around to miss Emily who could be considered his fiancé since just before his Family vanished, she was about to be engaged to him. Naturally, that process had taken a temporary stop when the incident occurred, during which point the black-haired noble had taken a fancy to miss Emily, without the knowledge of the existence of Desmon, nor his previous relation with Emily. Furthermore, Emily was already pretty close with Desmon from before the engagement proposal, and so she walked towards Desmon as he turned to face her.

*Swish*

Her heels slipped on the water and she stumbled towards Desmon out of the blue.

[1]Yes, I used it. I did it! Face slapping and saving face have entered the chat.