A few hours later, the party was in full swing. Performers, and other entertainers, wowed everyone with their amazing display of skills and talent.
Even though William had two beauties by his side, he was unable to refuse the invitations of the ladies from the powerful families. The reason? It was because the King had personally walked up to him and whispered something in his ear.
Because of that reason, William was not able to refuse the advances of the ladies and interacted with them as politely as possible. He didn't make any promises, nor did he entertain any kind of subtle agreement when it came to marriage.
If James was there, he would have definitely pulled all of these ladies into a corner to tell them that he approved of all of them. He would even go as far as to set a grand wedding so that William could marry them all. Fortunately, he was not here, and that saved William from a future marriage calamity.
As a stopgap measure to prevent the more aggressive girls from taking things a step further, William shamelessly used Rebecca as a shield and told everyone that his "Fiance" and him were still engaged and would settle their dispute in three years.
Although those present in the ceremony had witnessed William's declaration to Rebecca, many still didn't know the reason behind it.
Since the favorite pastime of the young ladies in the kingdom, when they gathered, was to gossip, William's and Rebecca's "Seven-Year Duel" became known to all the nobles in the Hellan Kingdom a few days after the banquet was over.
Of course, this was also part of William's plan in order to prevent anyone from making moves on him. If they wanted to make a move on him, they needed to go see Lawrence and his Grandfather first.
Yes. The Half-Elf dumped all the responsibility onto the two old geezers who started all of this mess!
In order to escape further advances from the ladies, he once again invited Wendy to dance with him and the latter happily accepted his invitation.
As William and Wendy danced together, Carter eyed them from a distance.
"Is she the young lady you spoke of, Charlotte?" Carter asked. His eyes had locked onto the beautiful young lady that was currently in William's arms.
"Yes," Charlotte replied. "She's Wendy. A very good friend of mine and the only daughter of the Duke of Armstrong. She's one of the bride candidates that I was talking to you about."
"Do the two of you get along well?" Carter inquired.
"I have known her since she was eight years old." Charlotte smiled. "She calls me Big Sister and the two of us are very close. If possible, I want her to be Professor's future wife as well. Ah! I almost forgot. She also likes your candies very much. Two days ago, she asked me if she could have more. Professor, you'd better make more of those candies so I can share them with her."
"I see." Carter caressed Charlotte's hand affectionately. "You did a good job. Also, thank you for thinking of me. I promise that I will give you plenty of love tomorrow."
Charlotte blushed because Carter had praised her. She didn't know that she was very close to becoming Carter's "evil accomplice" due to the power of the suggestion spell that had almost consumed her entire being.
Charlotte didn't even know that she was going to make her good friend, Wendy, fall into the hands of a demon that would ravage her heart and body inside and out.
Carter gazed at his "bride candidate" with lecherous eyes. Although Wendy was still young, her body was developing in the right places. The professor could feel the fire of lust fanning his loins as he stared at the pure, and innocent, girl in the distance.
'In two or three years, that young lady will grow to be a peerless beauty,' Carter thought. 'I guess I'd better increase my "candy production" so that Charlotte can share it with her.'
Carter had a special ability of absorbing the life force of anyone he kissed. This strengthened his magic power as well as increased his own life force. However, if he were able to make love to a lady, he would be able to control them remotely because he was able to implant his seed deep inside their wombs.
That way, he could order them to do anything he wanted. They wouldn't even bat an eye when commanded to kill someone once they had fallen completely under his control. Although this same kind of deed was possible with the suggestion spell, those affected by it could still resist if they had a strong willpower.
However, the moment he made love to them, they would be his slaves forever.
-----
Lionel stared at William like a wolf.
When he heard that a new Knight Order was going to be founded in the Kingdom, the first thing that came to his mind was to make it his private force.
His father, Noah, had the Knight Order of Gladiolus under him. They were a very powerful organization that only answered to the King. They also carry out "special missions" for the kingdom that would impact the lives of its citizens.
Lionel had always thought of himself as the next King of the Hellan Kingdom. He was the Crown Prince, so this mindset was perfectly justified. The only problem was that Lionel had a vice--an overwhelming greed for power.
Whenever he heard that a talented individual had appeared, he would immediately send his subordinates to bribe them to come under his wing. If not for the fact that the Misty Sect had sought out Rebecca first, he would have done everything in his power to put the beautiful lady under his command.
Unfortunately, even if there was no Misty Sect blocking his way, the Old Duke of Griffith, Lawrence, would not allow him to do as he wished. Lionel still wondered why the old fox was opposing him. The prince couldn't remember any incident that made the two of them clash, and yet, Lawrence would always treat him in a cold manner, even if he tried to be chummy with him.
'Truly a shame,' Lionel thought. Although he was not in love with Rebecca, he had to admit that she was a lady worthy of his rank. As a rarely seen genius that was born every two-hundred-years, who had a body that was blessed with a Perfect Grade Talent, it was impossible not to be moved.
Truth be told, the lady that Lionel wanted to marry was none other than the Third Princess of the Kingdom of Freesia. When he met her during a conference of the Four Kingdoms, he had fallen in love with her at first sight.
The Third Princess always wore a veil to cover her face. If not for that hunting accident when she had fallen off her horse, and he had saved her, he wouldn't have had the opportunity of seeing the face behind the veil.
Lionel had only seen her face for half a minute, but it was more than enough to make him hopelessly in love with her. This was another reason he had for wanting to seize the throne. He wanted to negotiate with their long-standing ally for a marriage between their two kingdoms.
A few years ago, an unknown organization had approached him and asked him if he was interested in becoming the Emperor of the entire Southern Continent.
They even promised that they could make any girl he fancied become his woman if he worked with them in secret.
Their leader even vaguely hinted that the Beast Tide, that almost brought the Hellan Kingdom to its knees, had been their doing. The man even respectfully advised him to accept his offer before they changed their mind.
Lionel was not a fool. He didn't accept their offer, but didn't reject it either. All he said was that he would only seriously consider their proposal if the organization could show him what they were capable of doing.
The man agreed and left. But before they ended their conversation, he told Lionel that he wasn't the only candidate that they were planning to make the Emperor of the entire Southern Continent.
Although the man didn't give him some kind of ultimatum, Lionel understood what the representative of the organization was trying to say.
If he was of no use to their cause then they would not waste their time on him.
What the Secret Organization wanted from him was a key that was under Noah's safekeeping. Once he gave them the key, they would serve the Southern Continent to him on a silver platter.
'The key that would open the treasure vault in the Undying Lands,' Lionel thought as he glanced at his father who was talking to the Sword Saint in the distance. He was already leaning towards the idea of betraying his kingdom and becoming an agent of the organization.
Lionel leaned back in his chair and stared at the nobles gathered in the banquet. All of them thought that he would become their King once his father retired from the throne. What they didn't know was that he was secretly laughing at all of them.
Why would he settle to be a King, when he could become the Emperor of an entire continent?
After he was crowned the Emperor of the Southern Continent, he would then set his sights on the Central Continent and use the organization's backing to subdue anyone that blocked his way.
Lionel's smile widened.
The Crown Prince could already imagine his bright future. Surrounded by riches, beautiful women, and the one girl he desired the most in the world.
And all that was stopping him from achieving it all was a key. A key that would open the doors of Hell and bring the world to ruin.