The vibrancy of the river town peaked when they heard Ghost was planning to visit Hades. This was his first visit to the river town as their king. The people had decorated the entire town with lanterns, ornaments, dancing dragons that resembled Nightmare, and signboards. Regardless it was the morning, the people of the river town fired countless fireworks into the sky.
Their clothes were contrary to the colorful decorations. Almost all the people in the river town were dressed in black. They did not know the purpose of his visit. Nonetheless, they were delighted to welcome their king.
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail His Majesty!"
"Hail SunRise sect!"
"Hail SunRise sect!"
"Hail SunRise sect!"
"Hail SunRise sect!"
"Long live the King!"
"Long live the King!"
"Long live the King!"
"Long live the King!"
Their thunderous chants echoed through the river town as the carriage of Ghost entered the town. The carriage slowly moved towards the Hades where the waitresses and waiters were waiting to welcome Michael. Today, Hades was closed. Only the invited guests could enter Hades.
The guest had already arrived at Hades and they were waiting for Ghost to make his appearance. Gloria, the manager of Hades, was waiting outside with a wide grin on her face. No one would tell she was a commoner by looking at her. From her clothes to her attitude, everything changed after joining Hades. Even the waiters and waitresses looked stylish and smart in black coats, white shirts, and bows.
Inside the carriage, Michael had a grin on his face. The notification sound of getting badass points sounded louder and louder. He almost earned 20,000 badass points just by reaching the river town.
"It seems our son has come" Meanwhile inside the Hades, Ethan put the orange juice in his hand and whispered to Diana. The loud noise outside made it obvious.
When Diana saw the invitation from Ghost, she was excited beyond words. She canceled all the events she had to attend and made time to come to the river town. Ethan was equally excited to see his son regardless of what happened in the tournament. Despite everything that happened, everyone got what they wanted. Andrews was about to be engaged to Princess Katherine, Ghost got his own kingdom, and the king got to save his daughter.
"Excuse me" while Diana was waiting for her son, she heard a sweet childish voice from behind. She turned back to see a cute little girl wearing a glistening blue dress. She carried a green rose in her hand. The little girl's round eyes and her two pigtails made her extremely cute. Ethan couldn't resist the girl's cuteness. Unlike Diana, he didn't know the girl.
"Cindy"
Cindy looked surprised when Diana called her by her name,
"My Lady, you dropped this" Cindy held out the green rose for Diana to take. Ethan couldn't resist the little girl anymore as he ruffled her head,
"Dian, you know this cutie pie"
She nodded,
"She's the daughter of Lady Raylene, the 5-star chef"
"And the little sister of brother Ghost, sister Aelia, and sister Claire"
Cindy puffed out her chest and said, basking everyone around her with her cuteness.
"Aww"
Many who noticed Cindy couldn't help sighing. They wanted to squeeze this little girl,
"Green Rose, extremely rare" another mature voice sounded as Diana looked in the direction of the door to see Peyton approaching them with a calm smile on her face.
"Guardian Peyton"
Regardless of Diana's hate towards the Guardians, she greeted Peyton with a nod and a smile. Ethan also smiled at Peyton hiding the hatred in his heart.
Peyton knelt in front of Cindy and took the green rose from her hand. She adjusted her spectacles,
"Very rare indeed"
"Sister, does this belong to you?" Cindy asked politely,
"No little one but I will hand this over to the owner. Deal?"
Cindy looked at Peyton for a few seconds before shaking Peyton's hand with her tiny hand. After Cindy disappeared back into the kitchen to join her mother, Peyton took the seat at Diana's table.
Diana did not hate Peyton as she was the best friend of Noah's girlfriend, Xanali. Plus, Diana or Ethan had no reason to hate Peyton except for the fact she's a guardian. They couldn't hate all the Guardians because their son was a Guardian himself.
Peyton took in the atmosphere of Hades for a few seconds in silence. When her colleagues said she must visit Hades at least once just for the view, she thought they were overselling it. But after seeing the majestic view of the flowing river outside, the lighting inside the restaurant, and the decor of the place, she was truly amazed. Although Hades was just recently opened, booking a table was a hassle, even for a Guardian. The nobles spent thousands of gold coins just to get a table for themselves and taste the cooking of Raylene. Even the people of royal families were in line to get a table.
Peyton also noticed all the prominent figures enjoying the drinks. There were elders of the Kane Family, representatives of the Rainshade merchant guild as well as the elders of the Sunrise Sect.
Not all the tables were occupied as it seemed like Ghost only invited a handful of people to the party. Peyton was curious to see what the reason for his invitation was. The coronation ceremony was meant to be held after six months.
As Peyton was looking around, everyone's gaze fell on the main door. They saw Ghost and Aelia enter Hades. Both of them looked dashing, especially Gaya.
Gloria took the wine glass from the table nearby and tapped the glass with a spoon. The atmosphere quickly became silent,
"Everyone, first of all, thank you for accepting my invitation on such short notice. Please enjoy the meals first, I have an important announcement to make afterward. It will be worth the wait, ladies, and gentlemen"
Michael did not beat around the bush. The people before him were extremely busy and there was no need for him to use flowery words. Instead, he knew they would like a more direct approach.
Quickly the waiters and waitresses started their work. They moved around the tables taking orders like water flowing downstream, flawlessly. Their coordination and speed were truly magnificent and efficient.
Somehow the first faces that drew his attention were Diana and Ethan. On his way to Diana and Ethan, Michael greeted everyone and spent a couple of minutes talking to them as a courtesy. Claire joined the Elders at their table, leaving Michael and Gaya to attend to the rest of the guests.
When he reached Diana's table, he was greeted by her and her husband with wide grins on their faces.
"Lady Diana and Lord Ethan" Michael shook Ethan's hand and then Diana's hand. He then greeted Peyton with a smile,
"Miss Peyton" he shook her hand,
Gaya then shook everyone's hand and took her seat beside Ghost. She wondered why out of all seats he decided to sit with the Winstons and a Guardian.
"I hope you don't mind me sitting here, Lord Ethan," Michael said. Their table was meant for a family of twelve to sit so they had enough seats to go around.
Ethan shook his head, chuckling,
"Hey, it's your party and restaurant. You can sit anywhere you want, your majesty"
"Oh please, call me Ghost. I'm still not a king and I prefer my friends address me by my name, Lord Ethan"
"Ladies and gentlemen" As they were talking, Gloria herself came to take the order,
"The specials Gloria" Gaya ordered for them before they could even open the menu. The 'specials' was a code word for 'bring everything on the menu for today'
"Trust me, you have to try them" Gaya winked at them. Something about Aelia rubbed Diana in the wrong way. According to Diana's spies, Aelia was an orphan who grew up with Ghost. But the aura the girl radiated was not of an orphan. Diana met countless orphans and Aelia was not one of them. Diana noticed the way Aelia handled the guests. A commoner girl would have at least felt a little nervous facing powerful people such as the elders of the Kane family. However, Diana saw no signs of nervousness in her attitude.
As Diana was watching Aelia, her heart skipped a beat when she noticed the rings on her finger and the ring on Ghost's finger. The last time Diana saw her son, he did not have the ring. She started to connect the dots.
"He's engaged," Diana came to the conclusion in her mind. A burst of joy exploded in her heart along with a tinge of sadness. She would have celebrated the day as a festival but because of the circumstances, she couldn't do so. Still, Diana wanted to leap at them and hug them both so tight.
Meanwhile, in the forest surrounding the river town, a group of figures dressed in black clothes was looking at the Hades from the shadows. They covered their bodies from head to toes. They hid in the darkness of the forest. There were at least fifty people in the group and they all had bows in their hands.
"Team Hawk is in place" One of the black-clothed figures among the group spoke. He didn't seem to speak to the others but to a red stone in his hand,
"Team Eagle is approaching the target site. Let loose on our signal"
A thick voice came from the stone as the black-clothed figure nodded,
"Target in sight" another black-clothed figure spoke looking at the Hades,
"The green roses are in place" Another voice came out of the stone,
"Wait for the target to reach the marked location" the black-clothed figure who had the red stone in his hands spoke,
Inside Hades, everything was going without a mishap. No one had any idea about the lurkers around them. Even Michael did not sense the figures in the forest as they were far away from the range of Environmental scanning.
"Father, Mother"
Michael and Gaya stood opposite Diana and Ethan. At that moment, Michael heard a voice from behind, a familiar voice. Without even turning back, he could tell who just entered Hades.
"Noah Winston'