The queen was the first to notice them entering the room, she quickly evaluated the silver haired youth from head to toe.
Although Daimon wasn’t using the mask, or the hollow suit, he changed his usual get up style to only black clothes, and kept his original silver hair color.
Besides that, he modified some of facial factions with the help of the bracelet of the god of mischief, just enough to nor look exactly like himself.
“Please take a seat”, the queen smiled and then offered them a seat at the table.
Daimon nodded and they sat in front of the queen and Mellie, the table was full to the brim with different dishes, though the vast majority of them were plant based, there were some meat and fish here and there.
“Feel free to eat what you want, my race usually only eats vegetables but my little sister and me like meat too~”, noticing the slight tense atmosphere, Annete took the initiative to grab a plate and started digging in.
Daimon raised an eyebrow, he expected the queen to ask some questions first thing, but now she seemed to be not only grateful as he helped Mellie, but genuinely friendly with them.
Anyway, since that was the case, the girls didn’t hesitate and took a plate, followed by Daimon and Mellie.
“Woah, this tastes really good!”, as soon as Leslie munched in some kind of sea vegetable, her eyes sparkled.
Liliana and Yvonne were the same, they each grabbed a plate of fish and meat respectively and were positively surprised by the singular but delicious seasoning.
Only after everyone had their fill, the queen called the maids to retire all the dishes, they brought tea and other little snacks.
“I guess we should start with the serious stuff now, since you are my guests, how about you start, feel free to ask what you want and I will answer to the best of my capacities”, said the queen as she took a sip of her cup of tea.
“Very well, then my first question would be, why did you suggest for me to get the main ingredient of the Shark Blood liqueur?”.
Previously when he was offered whatever that ingredient is, in exchange for Ralph and the bodyguard, he accepted because he was going to kill them anyway, but that didn’t mean he ignored the fact that Annete knew exactly what he was interested in, despite it being the first time they’ve seen each other.
Mellie raised an eyebrow at her older sister, she didn’t know about this little deal Annete made with Daimon, but then she now realized why she called the city lord of the Warhammer city.
‘Sis… what are you planning now’, she thought with a bitter smile in her face.
The queen put her cup down on the table before saying.
“Because I witnessed with my own eyes that a direct descendant from the hero of the founding era of the kingdom is still alive and technically the main ingredient used for that liqueur should belong to you”.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have the authority to order the Blackfin Duke to give up on something his family “found”, but since his coward of a son got busted, then I’m sure he will cooperate now~”.
Daimon cleared his throat a couple of times, he was Aisha’s son, a vampire, of course he had no relation to someone from the merman race, it was more possible that Adam had something to do with them, considering he stole an opportunity from him.
The queen saw Daimon didn’t seem to be convinced by her words and she giggled.
“There is no need to beat around the bush, I know you have the lineage of the Black Armored Shark… but at the same time you aren’t a merman, no in fat I think you aren’t even a native from this planet am I right?”.
Daimon frowned, in the books he got from the information store, he saw the names and races of all the noble houses, and the Black Armored Shark wasn’t one of them.
Originally, he thought the members of the Blackfin family belonged to that race, but later he found out that, they were members of the Blacktip Reef Shark race, a shark type whose dorsal fin was black.
And this it where things got interesting, when Daimon was facing the trial of the lineage temple, he saw that species and it wasn’t anything special, they were in the third or fourth wave, but here they were part of the old noble faction, having a high status in the Clear Water kingdom.
Surprisingly both Mellie and Annete were rather calm considering they already guessed, they weren’t merman, so now Daimon had two options, feigning ignorance about it cutting his interaction with the queen right here, or accepting it and see where things went after that.
Aisha and the Risha sisters gazed at Daimon from the corner of their eyes, ready for to escape with him in case the fell out.
Horals suddenly appeared behind Daimon, while his shadow extended showing Rita was ready for the action.
“I think my disguise was pretty good, so what gave me away?”, asked Daimon, taking a bet, if the queen were to be setting a trap for them, they would need to fight their way out.
…
An awkward silence fell on the room, which was broken by Mellie sighing, she gave Daimon an apologetic gaze before saying.
“Sis, you said you weren’t going to cause problems on purpose”.
Annete giggled as she shrugged.
“You are too uptight Mellie, whatever, don’t worry I won’t tell a soul about it, also don’t worry your disguise is perfect, we discovered it by a certain coincidence”.
‘Or perhaps I should say it was fate’, she mentally added.
The queen then looked directly at Daimon’s eyes, her pretty aquamarine eyes sparkled with curiosity for a second before she asked.
“How much of the Black Armored lineage have you inherited… can you show it to me?”.
Seeing Daimon not being convinced, Annete took out a strange necklace with a pendant that had the shape of a horn, similar to the ones Mellie had.
She then made a slight cut in her finger and let a drop of her blood fall on it before she passed it to Mellie who did the same, before giving it to Daimon.
“That’s the “Promise Regalia” of my Delphini family, made with the same material as the Trident of Promise, with it, Mellie nor me will be able to go back on our word, so you can rest assured that we won’t betray you”.
As soon as Daimon touched the pendant, the sound of a notification echoed in his mind.
[Ding]
[The mission has been updated]
[Get the hidden gem to join your side (0/2) à (1/2)]
[Crystal Horn Pendant: A treasure elaborated with the bone of a beast with ancient roots, waring missing information, please get the second gem to access the memories of the lineage <!>]
Daimon’s eyes widened a bit, just like that he completed another of the requirements of the mission.
‘Wait… that means the opportunity I stole from Adam was meeting Mellie, which will lead to this moment, and probably to get that main ingredient whatever it is’, he thought.
“Okay, I’ll show it to you”, after saying that, Daimon stood up from his chair and took some distance from the table.
Daimon closed his eyes and then took a deep breath, the overall aura that surrounded Daimon suddenly changed, generating two different reactions.
Aisha and the Risha sisters frowned, they for one reason or another have gotten used to the two different feelings Daimon gives off, either a comforting calmness, or a terrorizing coldness, but now a third one appeared, it’s just that they didn’t know how to describe it.
But Mellie and Annete were different, they stared at each other with surprise written all over their pretty faces.
Daimon slowly opened his eyes, revealing that a yellow vertical line appeared in his pupils.
“Ruler of the sea… so you are the real deal”, mumbled Annete, taking Daimon by surprise, the skill he got from the Black Armored Shark was “Commander of the sea”, it only changed to “Ruler of the sea” after he got the Drakolevia lineage.
So, it didn’t make sense that she knew about it, considering whatever “Drakolevia” are, it’s the ancient root and not the current lineages that exist in this planet.
“There is no need to be surprised, because… Mellie and me are the same~”, as the queen finished speaking, a vertical yellow line appeared in her forehead and the same happened to Mellie.
That wasn’t all, once they did it, their auras went through the roof, Mellie nearly reached the peak of the Lord realm, but what caught his attention was Annete, she didn’t have those crystal hors previously, but they appeared now, also judging by her aura she took another step closer to the Emperor realm.
Thanks to having met Solomon, Daimon now knew what being one centimeter away from being in the Emperor realm looks like, that was the most one could advance prior to breaking through the zenith so to speak.
Erin and Aura were at the peak of the Half Emperor realm for example, but Annete seemed to have advanced not too long ago, and she was way too far from reaching the next step, but now that she was stimulating her lineage she jumped to the middle stage.
“How weird, mine doesn’t give me a boost in my realm”, mumbled Daimon earning a bitter smile from Annete.
“That’s because you aren’t meant to be a soldier… but a conqueror, the symbol of our kingdom is a trident not only because of aesthetics, the same applies to the founding families, the fact that there are four of them isn’t a coincidence”.
“A trident has three prongs and the handle, out of those “prongs”, the Black Armored Shark is the one in the middle, an its ability is the one to command all the living beings of the sea”.𝑶𝚟𝓁xt.𝗇𝓔t
“Then you have the prong in the right side, the one in charge of strategy, in other words my Delphini family, and our ability is “Analyzing Resonance”, believe it or not, increasing our realm isn’t its purpose, just a side effect of using it”.
“Then we have the prong on the left, the one in charge of battle, which belongs to the White Royal Shark race, their ability is “Bloodlust”, and it basically means they can jump up to three stages regardless of their current realm, that’s what the current king uses to keep all the nobles in check”.
“There is a fourth component which is the handle, an its purpose is to keep everything united, unfortunately the only person who knew which race had it and what its ability was… is dead”.
Annete’s voice became sadder as she finished her sentence, Daimon and the girls were beyond words right now.
‘This place is getting more complicated with every day that passes’, they thought.