In the walled garden in the castle when the sun is at its highest, sit six children enjoying the fresh air outdoors. It is lunch time but now is only one thing on the mind of everyone; Sweets. Baked goods like cake, sweet rolls and cookies are brought out by the maids at the happy cheering of the children. The most happy is Biali who has spent this morning being tormented by her mother in order to make her look presentable.

"Cake and tea, yay!" I cry out in joy, and the other children joins me in at my cheering! Not soon after come maids with pitchers full of hot tea, cold milk and lemonade. This day is going to be the best one ever! The thought of eating so many sweets at once just make me feel giddy.

I clear my throat in order to do my duty as the tea party host. Etiquette which I painstakingly learned from my mother and teacher. "Welcome everyone, my name is Be'ial'ale but you can call me Biali. This is my first tea party in the grand castle of Raal'tara'goto. I hope as the host, and potential friend that no sweets will be left uneaten. Are you with me?"

After my grand welcoming speech the other kids started talking amongst each other. I feel they will all agree and become brothers in arms together with me. Then they all start nodding and raise their fists up into the sky.

"For the glory of house Biali!" They all make a glorious war cry worthy of a being like myself! Then I talk again: "With that, the tea party has officially started!" Then I grab a plate with chocolate cake, and ask the maids to pour me a cup of tea. The feast has begun!

After I had come halfway through my cake, a girl which looked like mom, but in my size started talking to me. "This tea party is lovely. Back at home I only get cake on special occasions." She then greedily takes a big bite out of her strawberry cake slice and downs it with a sip of tea.

"I know right! Daddy is rich, so I can have cake whenever I want." I happily say as I continue devouring my slice of cake. I bet she is jealous over that I can eat cake every day if I want to.

"Mhmm, my daddy which is governing the region outside of your daddies county is rich too! But not as rich as your daddy then if you can eat cake every day..." She says before stuffing her face with even more cake.

"By the way, what is your name?" I ask the mini-mommy look-a-like girl. She then stops her hand mid air with a spoon full of cake and looks at me with a smile into my eyes.

"My name is Raedora of house Chaoswall." She then quickly swoops in the spoonful of cake into her mouth and she has a look of pure bliss on her. I could almost swear I saw a pink aura around her for a split second.

"What do you like to do at home?"

"At home? Play with my pet Cerberus, tease the boy servants, practice magic with mommy and bake cookies."

"Oh, sounds interesting. Teasing boy servants? Why?" I ask her while giving her while looking confused but curious. She then giggles and rolls her eyes.

"Mother said I should get used to teasing boys, even at my age. She said I would do a lot of teasing when I grow up. I do not know what she meant with that though..." She looks up into the sky while being deep in thought, but then quickly starts attacking her cake slice again which is nearly all eaten up now.

"How are boys? I never had the chance to meet one."

"They get so easily red in their faces when you look at them. And for some reason they stutter when they talk with me."

"Boys sure sound interesting. I will try to meet one as soon as possible then!"

We then giggled and continued enjoying ourselves at my tea party. After I took my second helping another girl started talking with me. She looked like a cross between a human and dragon. She stand upright and her head is mostly human, but the rest of her body is covered in scales except for her bust and crotch. She got a very funny looking dress which barely covers her at all.

"Heya Biali! Ya got a very cool party going on here." The draconian girl says to me as she fills a plate full of chocolate chip cookies. Her manners are visibly lacking when she devours the cookies one by one while leaving crumbs on her dress.

"Oh hi miss, what is your name?" I ask this curious looking girl as I start eating this chocolate cake which tastes incredibly delicious.

"My name is Ruby Hellfire, my da' and ma' were never good with names."

"Ruby, what do your dad do?"

"Da' works for your dad here. Say he is a guardian or somethin'."

"That dragon with lots of scars is your dad?" Ruby nods and drinks her cup of tea in one go. The nearby maid then quickly refills it.

"Who is your mom then?"

"My ma' works for ya' dad too! She is right now building up some fancy lookin' towers in the county. Says they will turn the entire castle into a turtle shell!" Ruby then giggles at the mental image of the entire castle turning into a turtle and walking away.

"Wooow, your parents are awesome!" I say with great joy. Compared to my parents hers sound super cool! My dad is just a king which is boring and my mother just sit in the castle all day long. It is not like they do anything that I can see.

"Hah, I know right!" Ruby puffs up her chest in a display of pride.

"So Ruby. What do you like to do?"

"I like to train my flyin', cook meat with my fire breath, build tree houses in which I later try to knock down as fast as possible, and buy pretty jewelry."

"Jewelry?"

"I like shiny things." Says Ruby as she shows off her golden bracelets on her arms and legs. They glitter in the sun and you can see red colored gems in them clearly. Is she a magpie or what?

"Umm, they are pretty, Ruby."

"Thanks! I used most of my allowance to buy em'."

"Well, see you later. I will need to attend my other guests too." I bow down my head and scan the party for other guests willing to chat with me. Everyone except for Ruby seem to be talking with each other. I let out a sigh and continue eating my cake.

As soon as I resign myself to just eating sweets myself for the rest of the party, a girl in a purple robe comes up beside me. She got skin as dark as the night and silver hair which her long ears poke through. She tilts her head before she starts talking to me.

"Miss Biali, a pleasure to meet you." The girl says as she politely bow to me.

"My pleasure, miss..."

"Miss Tenebria of house Lunarstorm at your service." Darn, she is very polite and well learned in etiquette at our age.

"So, umm, Tenebria, what do you like to do?"

"I like to study magic, history, biology, law, ..." Tenebria then droned on for minutes about all things she liked to study. I nearly fell asleep and had to fight to keep myself awake. Then she concluded with: "...and that is why I study hard. I will do my best to serve my kingdom in the future."

I snapped out of my daze and quickly replied to her in order to appear well behaved. "That is very great of you Tenebria! Giving your all to serve our great kingdom. I respect that self sacrifice greatly."

Tenebria then nods and take a sip of her now lukewarm tea. "I intend to after all serve my kingdom forever. One day you will be my lord." I felt a shock when she said that I would be her lord. That would mean, that... My dad would... No... I then felt a bit sad at that thought. No, my dad won't be overthrown by anyone.

Mental fortitude Lv. 1 skill acquired.

Effect: Increases resistance against negative mental effects by 10% per level.

There are those words in my mind again. Last time I felt those was when I was a small child. Tenebria then noticed how I flinched, and put down her cup of tea onto the table. And she looks into my eyes with a dead serious look.

"Biali, I felt your distress." Tenebria then walks up to me and I can feel her breath. Then she puts her hands under my cheeks and pulls me closer.

"This feeling. It is familiar to the aura of heroes I read in a book." She then releases me out of her grip and puts her hands on her hips.

"Think of wanting to know everything about yourself now."

I then think of the meaning of Status.