A week passed in the blink of an eye. Jasmine was still getting used to the new structure of her daily life and while it was exhausting, she felt it was awarding at the same time. At first, she did not want to read and study all these books that had nothing to do with strategy but after reading the first two historical volumes of the Ambiox empire she found that there had been quite a few interesting events in the book and she was eager to know what happened next.

However, she had no time to read today. Today Rickert would be presenting her to the nobles and formally acknowledge her as his foster daughter! While the paper work for this had been finished long ago, no one would really accept her without a formal introduction. It was for this reason that Rickert threw the banquet.

Currently, Isis was straightening Jasmine's hair for the party. Over the past few days, both of them couldn't help but grow closer to each other and Jasmine ended up spending much of her free time in Iris's company. While Iris had been rather shy and introverted at first, the more the two of them bonded, the more of a waterfall of words Iris had become.

Jasmine had donned a plain candy apple red qipao for the occasion. As was customary, a small round badge with a single star was pinned to her qipao at the height of her heart.

As for Iris, she wore a white dress with a deep cut that clung tightly to her slender body. Her long blonde hair was put up in a neat bun, besides a few strands at each side of her face which she purposefully did not incorporate into the bun. The shy expression she usually had on her face coupled with her tendency to bite her lip made Iris look rather bewitching in this dress, something Jasmine did not fail to notice.

"You look very pretty, miss Iris!"

"Jasmine!" Iris exclaimed. "How many times have I told you to just call me Iris already!"

"Y-yes mi... Iris!"

A soft smile surrounded Iris's lips and she giggled while laying the finishing touches on Jasmine's hair. She held a hand mirror in front of Jasmine's face and asked. "All done now, what do you think?"

Jasmine looked and saw that unlike normally where her auburn hair curled ever so slightly, it now fell straight to her shoulders. "I love it!"

Knock knock knock!

"Are you girls ready yet? We can't be late for our own party!" Rickert said while knocking on the door.

Rickert had rented out the city's ballroom for the occasion. He had invited over a hundred of the most prominent nobles and other prominent figures in the area. While the ballroom in his own mansion was by no means small, it still was far from able to hold a hundred nobles, their wives and their children.

Iris and Jasmine opened the door seconds later. "We are, are you?"

Rickert just rolled his eyes and offered both of them an arm. "Let's get moving."

They soon arrived at the city hall accompanied by a large host of guards. In the end, they still arrived early enough and had half an hour before the first guests would arrive. Rickert left the ladies by themselves for a moment to check if everything was in order. He was sure that there would not be any problems, but he still had to check as he hated when things were not completely under his control.

The tables had been prepared with the most exquisite cutlery and dishes available. Beautiful flowers and candles adorned gave the tables something extra. To the sides of the tables was plenty of space for the guests to walk or dance.

In the kitchen, the kitchen staff was busy preparing the humongous amount of dishes they had to prepare. With over one hundred nobles and their relatives coming, the number of dishes they had to prepare was literally astronomical. Seeing Rickert in his kitchen, the chef instantly chased him out, fearing that he would run late if he didn't. Rickert took no offense and instead was happy that the chef did so as this meant the chef did take his job seriously.

Having checked that everything was in order, Rickert went back to the ladies and waited for the first guests to arrive.

Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye and the nobles started entering one by one, each which brought a valuable gift and congratulated Rickert with his daughter.

At this point in time a chubby, two-meter tall man walked over to Rickert. At his side was his wife, who was equally chubby and who had a warm smile plastered on her face. The man pulled Rickert in for a hug and hugged him very tightly. "Rickert! I am glad to see you finally decided to start a family! So does this mean you are going to get yourself a wifey soon, my friend?"

"Rodrick!" Rickert exclaimed and for the first time in a while, he had no idea what to say in return. His cheeks flushed but quickly returned to their normal colour.

"Hahahahaha!" Rodrick let go and slapped Rickert on his shoulder. "I just have to mention women and you become like a shy little teen! hahaha!"

Shifting his attention from Rickert, Rodrick looked at Jasmine and noticed the one star badge pinned on her qipao. "Well look at you, don't you look like a little lady. How old are you this year, sweetheart"

"I am seven years old this year!"

A thoughtful expression appeared on Rodrick's face. He glanced at Rickert and quietly whispered. "You've picked up a real gem this time."

Rickert calmly nodded and exchanged some more pleasantries with Rodrick before the latter moved on and headed to Iris's side.

As she was just a part of Rickert's retinue, she did not need to greet the guests and as such she had taken a seat to the side and was sipping from a glass of wine.

Rodrick's wife who had been silent all this while awkwardly smiled and offered some kind words before quickly following her husband.

"Ah, miss Iris, as always you are a pleasure to the eye." Rodrick said as he took Iris' hand and kissed it.

"Hello marquis Rodrick, Miss Selene." Iris gave both of them a deep bow. While her position as part of Rickert's retenue was by no means low, it could not compare to a noble rank and as such customs required her to bow.

"Iris, you don't need to stand on ceremony with us." Selene said with a stern expression. She rather hated it when those whom she considered friends had to bow to her just because their rank was lower.

"Even if you two do not mind, I fear the other nobles will not share your opinion. You both know how sensitive people are about etiquette. Moreover, even though being part of Rickert's retinue means that I do have quite a lot of influence, more so than most nobles present, it does not make me equal to a noble." Iris said with some hesitation.

"So, just make Rickert swoon for you then and problem solved." Rodrick said teasingly.

"It is so obvious that you love him dear. Why don't you make a move? What are you scared about?" Selene said.

"I- I'm afraid that things will change. I like the way things are right now and I'm afraid that if he does not feel the same way, our interactions will change." Iris weakly said.

"But what if he does love you? Are you afraid of that too?" Rodrick asked, a tinge of worry in his eyes.

"I- I don't know."

Sighing, Selene gently caresses Iris's cheek. "Sweetheart, you are already in your late twenties. You can't keep your feelings hidden if you ever want to start a family. We both have told you this before."

"I know, I just... We will see what happens." Iris said, biting her lip and bringing the conversation to an abrupt end as she really did not feel like discussing this any further.

Rodrick and Selene talked with Iris for a while longer until Iris got up to socialize with some other nobles she knew. Watching her leave, Rodrick kissed his wife and started. "This situation is so silly."

Selene nodded and sighed softly. "If only they weren't so stubborn. They both love each other but they are both afraid to talk about their feelings. Especially Rickert's an idiot! How can he be such a good strategist but so horribly bad with women?!"

Caressing his chin, Rodrick thought for a while before replying. "I do not think it is him being bad with women as he has noticed it with some other women who were hitting on him. I think it is mainly because he trusts Iris with his life and thus doesn't do his whole 'seeing through everything about her' thing that he does with everyone else, us included. In any case, I hope they get together for I think they would make a cute couple."

"mhm." Selene replied.

Meanwhile Jasmine and Rickert had finished greeting the guests and were starting to mingle within the crowd.

After two hours of mingling, Jasmine did not really feel like talking to anyone anymore and just ran around looking for Iris. The sheer amount of people that had paid attention to her made her feel a little suffocated and she hoped that the pressure would lessen with Iris around.

Even so, people left and right were trying to strike up a conversation with her and each time she had to make sure she talked for a bit before she was able to excuse herself. This caused her to proceed through the room at a snail's pace, something which did not help with the feel of suffocation.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Jasmine spotted Iris sitting to the side from the corner of her eyes. She quickly excused herself from the group of nobles that had struck up a conversation with her and darted to Iris's side, shouting her name in relief. "Iris!"

Seeing the young girl rushing to her side, a hint of worry flashed in Iris's eyes. She picked Jasmine up and pulled the little girl on her lap, worriedly asking "What happened?"

"Too many people talking to me." Jasmine replied, pouting a little.

"Awww. Don't worry, we should be seating down for dinner soon and that will allow you to rest for a little bit." Absentmindedly patting Jasmine's head, Iris's gaze flitted across the room, checking which nobles had attended. She knew most of the nobles present and had talked to them prior to today, but today, besides Rodrick and Selene none had bothered to spare her some of their 'precious' time. Iris rolled her eyes at this and silently told herself that she would get those nobles back for it at one point or another.

In truth, Iris's current status was somewhat unusual and special. She had neither a noble nor a military status and while nobles generally did not converse with those of a lower status, if Iris were to strike up a conversation with them, they would be unable to ignore her. This was not only due to her being part of Rickert's retinue but also because she was his first choice whenever he needed someone to speak on his behalf.

However what every noble failed to realize was that Iris was slowly racking up merits this way, something which would eventually enable her to become a noble. With all the knowledge that she had of these nobles, it would spell disaster for the moment she did receive her noble rank. While she was a rather shy and timid person, this did not mean she could not hold a grudge. How could she possibly not hold a grudge? After all she had been ignored at every party she had attended ever since she had become a part of Rickert's retinue all those years ago.

She had never been a schemer but after spending so much time with Rickert, his 'wickedness' had long since rubbed off on her. Due to this, Iris looked forward to the day she would get a noble status.

While Iris was thinking all of this, Jasmine quickly closed her eyes, hoping that this would deter people from talking to her for just a little bit. She had been talking to all the nobles and their children for the past three hours and it had been draining on her.

Minutes later it was finally time for the guests to take their seat at the table.