While the girls were looking and the menu Daimon more or less understood why the guards couldn’t barge in.
Although this place was a kingdom meaning everyone was subordinated to a royal family unlike the White Fang galaxy, where the important decisions were taken by means of a vote, which included the patriarch of the different forces and the Half Emperors.
They did follow a similar system regarding those who weren’t chosen to take the seat of head of a family, they were dispatched at other places to expand the influence of the family.
So that Half Emperor from before, in other words the city lord, isn’t part of the main lineage but a secondary branch of the Blackfin noble house, and the manager of this hotel holds a similar status but in the Arcarius family.
That didn’t mean they were low ranked nobles at all, in fact the with his infinity eyes he could see the guards inspecting all the stores, bystanders, inns and even houses all over the city by force if needed, the only exception was this hotel.
‘Apparently it is common that noble status weights as much as personal strength here’, thought Daimon, the city lord was a Half Emperor while the manager of the hotel was a peak Archmage according to the conversations he heard.
Back at Lykos, the situations where an Arch rank would have the same status as a Half could be counted with the fingers of a hand, Richard being one of those rare cases thanks to the backing of the field marshal and a large part of the army for example.
In any other cases, unless an Arch rank had a really strong card up his sleeve, the latter wouldn’t get in the way of a Half Emperor.
Daimon already inspected the formations of the hotel, and while they were enough to defend and drive away Arch ranks without too much problem, a Half Emperor was out of question, if that wasn’t the case, then they wouldn’t have felt that impact earlier.
Daimon came out of his daze as he saw a tall man with a different bearing than the other staff of the hotel, his skin was rather pale for a man, but was no feminine in any aspect, about 1.9 meters tall, bulky but with the air of an erudite, it also has white hair and was wearing a blue and white get up.
Over all it looked like a man in his early thirties, something that was worth mentioning was that the man was the first one Daimon has seen that doesn’t have any visible sea creature characteristics, not even the gills.
“Good morning esteemed customers, first of all, let me offer my apologies by the inconveniences caused by “external means”, apparently the city lord has lost something that was precious to him, which resulted in the previous situation”.
“Now, there are two options to decide from, while in the property of our Sea Dream Hotel, the Arcarius family offers protection to the customers, but once you set foot outside the city lord can demand to inspect you, just like what is happening to every single citizen of the Blackfin city right now”.
“In exchange I can act as witness to make this process way smoother, there will be a small interrogation to each group and if nothing is found, then you’ll be given a token you’ll have to give to the guards before leaving the city and that will be all”.
“Again, this is situation that has never happened in Blackfin city and as an apology those who are called for interrogation, will be refunded what they paid for the inconvenience, also don’t worry your backgrounds won’t be investigated for security reasons of course”.
After the man finished speaking silence fell on the room for a couple of seconds, before all the people present nodded.
“We chose the second option, Lord Arcarius can rest assured that our opinion of the Sea Dream Hotel won’t go down, but the Blackfin family will receive a complain from my Danul family humph”.
“Count my Feligras family in, we wouldn’t have come to this prison city if we knew the Blackfin family couldn’t maintain the public order!”.
Little by little all sort of characters raised their voices, but from Daimon’s point of view they were just bragging, their bodyguards were only early or middle stage Archmages, the few who had peak Arch ranks accompanying them remained calm and silent.
The man saw the popular reaction and he inwardly sighed.
‘Timor, you better have a really good excuse to mess with my business, wanting to inspect nobles who have left their families to experience the kingdom, just because you were stupid enough to get robbed in your own city’.
Daimon gazed at the Risha sisters, to see their reactions, and he nodded, he expected them to show some concern, but that wasn’t the case, as if they firmly believed in his previous words that everything will be fine.
They were right in doing so though, because the bracelet of the god of mischief would take care of any kind of interrogation, if not Daimon would have taken the girls and disappeared from this place at the spot.
The man left and after a couple of minutes returned with some of the city guards, before he started saying some room numbers one by one, among which of course the one in which Daimon and the girls were staying was.
‘People with middle or peak stage Arch ranks in their groups and those who arrived yesterday to the hotel’, it wasn’t hard for Daimon to discover the pattern, he recognized some of the ones that were called and they were talking with the girl at the counter prior to him, the others all had someone that could have easily killed that Archmage they met inside the prison.
Soon all the groups that were called have stood up from their seats or came down from their rooms, they were all lined up in the lobby and only then the manager nodded at the guards.
“You can start, if I see any irregularity, you can all say goodbye to your heads”, under the supervision of the manager of the hotel, the city guards felt pressured because they knew he wasn’t joking, on the other hand if they didn’t follow orders their heads will roll anyway, so there was nothing they could do but try to not offend the man in front of them.
The guards separated in pairs and each took out an octagonal device, with sea crystals inserted in all its border.
“This is the mirror of truth, to respect your privacy by Lord Arcarius petition, we’ll only ask a few questions, if the mirror doesn’t show any reaction, then you’ll be freed from any suspicion”.
The nobles nodded and the interrogations started, Daimon and the girls waited for their turn and simply listened to the questions made to them, which basically focused in asking if they have something to do with the disappearance of the Archmage Horals killed, if they knew him, if they have heard about him.
For those who didn’t have Arch ranks in their group they were asked if they knew about the ones who did it, making sure to cover every possible flaw there might be, there was even some kind of high ranked officer standing next to the manager of the hotel, making sure no one was using a magic treasure to cheat.
Unfortunately, the bracelet of the god of mischief is something that didn’t belong to this planet nor any of the galaxies known by Daimon, so how could they prepare against it.
When their turn came, they calmly answered and the mirror didn’t show any reaction, soon all the people who were within the suspect range were interrogated and the result was that while some of the low-level nobles have heard about that Archmage, no one knew about what have happened to him, nor they plotted against him.
The manager was clearly angry, he didn’t know why the city lord wanted to retrieve whatever that Archmage had, but in his eyes something too valuable couldn’t be trusted to such a person, so for him it was just the city lord making a big deal because he could, as it wasn’t the first time the Blackfin family does something like this.
“I told you, why would the customers of my Sea Dream Hotel stick around that lowlife, in my opinion he just took your money or whatever and fled taking advantage of the chaos in the four seas, he might have even joined the pirates or formed his own crew, nothing weird if you remember he was only an unrecognized son of a random low ranked noble”.
The officer next to the manager, who turned out to be the captain of the city guards, in other words the one who had some sort of friendship, or more accurately a master-subordinate relationship with the Archmage, touched his shoulder where there was once an arm but now it was severed by the city lord in his anger and he gritted his teeth.
“That bastard wouldn’t dare to breath if I told him not to, I have always been against the idea of these greenhorns coming to such an important city at the border, there should only be warriors here, I hope his Majesty approves the law proposed by our Lord”.
After saying that, and once every of the interrogated groups had a token which meant they were free of suspicion, the captain of the guard took his subordinates and left the hotel in disgrace, this was the last place to check, so the chances of finding that Archmage were now extremely low.
“Thanks for you cooperation, as I promised, all the costs of your stay will be covered by our Arcarius family, the numbers of your rooms were registered by the staff and you will be refunded upon your check out, please enjoy the delicacies of our restaurant”.
Although it was annoying to be interrogated, the prices of the hotel were insanely high, so being gifted their stays was a compensation good enough, for the nobles to not cause any troubles and instead leave to their rooms with bright smiling expressions, or continue with their routine.
Daimon and the girls went to sleep quite early, and they were pretty refreshed and well rested, so they returned to the restaurant and ordered something to eat, the costs will be covered by the hotel so they didn’t care about the price.
Daimon’s eyes immediately focused on the drinks, there at the bottom he found the same liqueur sold by the information house, but they limited it to one bottle of 50 milliliters per room a day, and for the suites like the one he got, he could get one bottle of 250 milliliters.
‘Better than nothing I guess’, along with his food Daimon ordered the Shark Blood liqueur, and once the waiter brought their food, they attracted the attention of others.
The girls have been receiving some gazes from time to time, which was understandable as even among the young misses here, they stood at the peak in terms of beauty, manners and the bearing of a noble.
Suddenly someone from the only two groups that had a peak Arch rank accompanying them, stood from his table and walked towards them.
“Yo, this little brother, there should be a limit as to how much one can brag, specially if you don’t belong to any of the shark families, why don’t you invite me a cup”.
Daimon glared at the guy that approached them, it was slightly similar to the shark guy he saw at the information store, in the meaning that he had a dorsal fin similar to the one of a shark, but the color, size and design was different.
Still, he had no intention to entertain some random idiot, so he ignored it and just continued to eat his meal, once they finished, he decided it was time to leave this city, to reach their next destination, he also had to check the mission temple since he fell asleep yesterday.
Feeling ignored the guy smiled showing his teeth which were spiked similar to those of a shark, and then tried to grab the bottle in Daimon’s table, but before he could even approach it, the bottle disappeared and Daimon turned to see him.
“Get lost”.𝒪𝐕𝗅xt.𝓒𝓞𝔪
Listening to Daimon telling him to get lost, the guy first froze in the spot, before he laughed.
“Well, it seems the reputation of my Shredder family has diminished over the years, to the point that a neo noble doesn’t recognize my Fierce Tiger Shark lineage”.
Some of the other nobles turned to see the conflict enjoying the show, while they whispered between themselves.
“Aren’t those guys along with the Berserk Bull Shark the right and left arms of the White Royal family?”.
“Yeah, they are also the ones who have the record in how much of the Shark Blood liqueur a member of the young generation can drink, that guy isn’t from the main family, but yesterday I saw him gulping down at least two bottles like the ones offered for the third-floor rooms”.
“What a madman, that thing can destroy your body”.
“Well, their lineage doesn’t include the word “fierce” by no reason”.
Daimon ignored the conversations and instead focused on the fact that for some reason, tiger related guys seemed to have a vendetta with him or something like that.
‘Be it on earth or underwater, these tiger race guys are annoying’, he thought.