Safiyya would continue to ignore Alex throughout the remainder of the dinner. Whereupon its conclusion she would immediately return to her room and isolate herself while playing the game she enjoyed most.
It was not long after that where she saw a familiar name appear online within her friends list, which she was quick to reach out to and vent to.
“You would not believe the night I had. My father invited a guest over and forced me to attend the dinner. This guy was definitely a total scumbag, the kind of man I hate most in the world. What he does for a living, well let’s just say there is a special place in hell for men like him!’
When Alex saw this comment, he immediately came to a conclusion. He himself was in the quarters he had been granted, having previously just gotten out of the shower and slipped into more comfortable attire as he sat down at his laptop and opened up a game he played whenever he had the opportunity to blow off some steam.
Surely enough, his online friend reached out to him, and spoke about an oddly similar situation that he was just in, simply from the perspective of the other party. Because of this, Alex smirked and immediately voiced his thoughts aloud to nobody in particular.
“Oh? Well isn’t this interesting? Dark Rose is actually the young Princess of Oman? And better yet, she doesn’t realize that her old friend is none other than the man she hated at dinner? Hmm… How should I proceed with this?”
It was then that a familiar voice rang out by Alex’s side as the Queen of Hearts manifested herself in person.
“Why don’t you take a different approach to this? I mean… You are currently acting under disguise as a Czech Arms dealer to get close to the Omani royal family… But you already have an in with the girl, right?
Why not reveal your true self to her, and ask her to meet up with you in an offline event? Doesn’t this little game the two of you love birds play have a yearly convention coming up soon? Oooh you can even cosplay your characters? How nerdy of you!”
His character did after all wear a helmet. So it was not unreasonable to hide in plain sight in such a garb, right? Because of this, Zane was quick to ask the Queen of Hearts for a bit of information in this regard.
“That’s not a bad idea. But tell me this, I don’t know a damn thing about cosplay. Sure, I could use my skill retention to learn all about how to make costumes for the event. But does my disguise ability have the means to make me appear like my in game character as well?”
The Queen of Hearts looked at Alex as if he were an idiot before voicing this sentiment aloud.
“Baby, you’re lucky that you’re pretty… Of course it does! You can make yourself look like anything with the skill [Master of Disguise!] hell, if you really wanted to you could even make yourself appear as the opposite sex. Oh, my god…. Gender bent Alex! How hot would that be!?! Do it! Do it for me just this once! Please! Pretty please!”
Alex looked at the Queen of Hearts with a disturbed expression, as if he was staring at a massive pervert. Going so far to push her away physically as she was practically salivating at the idea of seeing Alex’s gender bend himself.
In the end, the Queen of Hearts was left disappointed as Alex utterly refused to do so, for obvious reasons. Instead, he quickly responded to Safiyya’s message, which was left on read.
“That sounds awful! I can’t believe your father made you do that. But hey, I’ve got some good news to take your mind off things if you want to hear about it!”
Naturally, Safiyya took the bait where she was quick to ask Alex what he was talking about.
“Really? I don’t know of anything that could possibly take my mind off tonight’s fiasco….”
Alex simply scoffed as he leaned into his chair and began typing to the girl on the other end. He knew that his words would convince her to leave the palace and go to the convention. Even if she had to do so under supervision.
“Oh really? How much you want to bet? I’ll tell you what. If I do manage to get you to forget tonight’s events, how about you finally send me a selfie?”
Safiyya was reluctant to take Alex up on this bet. She, after all, was a public figure, and if she sent Alex a photo of herself, it could have severe consequences. But she was in such a foul mood, that she was certain nothing her friend could say would take her mind off of how pissed off she was, and because of this she foolhardily accepted the wager.
“Alright, but if I win, you have to do the same! So what is so exciting that you have to make a game out of it?”
Alex’s response was as shameless as ever. But it worked like a charm.
“Hell, if I lose I’ll send you my nudes! Anyway, I wanted to tell you that the annual convention for World in Flames is about to take place, and in my hometown of Las Vegas no less. So, what do you say? Do you want to meet up offline? We can even go as our characters if you don’t think that would be too embarrassing…”
And just like Alex had planned, Safiyya had forgotten all about dinner. The two of them would continue to talk about the convention, and their plans for it well into the night, until they finally got off.
The final message Alex sent the girl was a reminder that she needed to send him a selfie. Which caused her to break out into embarrassment as she realized her closest friend had actually succeeded in managing to make her forget about that dreadful dinner.