Volume 9 Chapter 490: The Secret Battle Between Various Forces and Bella, the Leisure Outsider at the Rose Banquet
Translator: The Light
Edits by Grandia
Gabriel Imperial Capital, Gabriels City, Rose Palace in the Imperial Capital Palace District. Under the care of the master of ceremonies, Kriss and over a dozen imperial princesses appeared, one after another. The Rose Banquet had officially begun. The n.o.ble’s night banquet usually started at lunchtime in the afternoon and ended overnight.
There were more than a dozen royal princesses of the Gabriel Empire. Some of the relatively famous princesses were, “Sword Heroine”, the third princess, Kriss, “Moonlight Swordsman”, the eldest princess, Kliveny, “Fallen Sakura Swordsman”, the second princess, Karin, “Celestial Swordsman”, the fifth princess, Khalifa and so on. The rest of the princesses were only at the level of ordinary beautiful girls.Their strengths weren’t outstanding and their reputation wasn’t big either.
Except for Kriss, who hadn’t fallen into Bella’s sinister hands, the other four princesses had basically fallen. When they saw Bella, they turned their eyes aside. They couldn’t look at Bella for too long, otherwise, they would recall all kinds of absurd things they did with Bella.
The princesses wore the same snow-white evening dresses with white roses adorning their hair. If one changed the flower and added some decorations on their dress, it would be a proper snow-white wedding dress.
On the n.o.bles’ side, all the daughters of three royal families were basically absent because of Bella’s conspiracy. Helena, the eldest daughter of the Johnston Family, had appeared at the banquet as Bella’s dancing partner. It was incomparable to the line of royal princesses. The limelight and focus of the banquet was largely concentrated on the royal princesses.
The other n.o.ble ladies attending the Rose Banquet were pretty beautiful too but they just couldn’t catch Bella’s eye. Most of the aristocratic youths attending the banquet also jumped into action. There was never a shortage of women around them. Choosing a partner here was not entirely based on the appearance of the other party. The family background of the other party was obviously very important.
The current heir to the throne, Prince Daniel, had also appeared on the royal side of the banquet. There were several princes by his side. Knowingly or unknowingly, the seats of the princes were divided into camps in the formal banquets. This kind of seating arrangement was convenient for discussing the confidential matters without being embarra.s.sed by the political opponents sitting next to them.
Although the Gabriel Emperor, Alfred the Third, and Empress Deborah the Fifth were both at the banquet and Alfred the Third had publicly expressed his opposition to the princes forming the cliques on several occasions, the emperor had no way to restrain the behavior of the princes due to the severe situation outside the capital. He could only turn a blind eye to this.
The arrangement of the princes was pretty obvious. The ones who supported the current heir, Prince Daniel, formed a faction. Behind this faction was the emperor’s father-in-law, Prince Anders. Alfred the Third also supported Prince Daniel for the time being. After all, he was the son of Empress Deborah the Fifth and he was the nominal orthodox heir.
Then there was the Prince Granade faction that had a tense relations.h.i.+p with the Prince Daniel faction. Prince Granade’s backer was the emperor’s younger brother, Prince Frauer. Although Prince Frauer wanted to ascend the throne himself, he leaned more towards having a puppet prince, controlling everyone from behind the scenes secretly.
Coincidentally, Prince Granade happened to be Prince Daniel’s younger brother according to the seniority. G.o.d knows if this was Heaven’s way of rewarding the good and punis.h.i.+ng the evil. Coincidentally, there was another faction leader, Prince Burdis, who was the brother of Prince Daniel in terms of seniority.
It was Prince Brad, the elder brother of Emperor Alfred the Third, who was supporting Prince Burdis. The imperial family had continued to struggle for the throne to this generation. Whether the final winner this time was Prince Daniel still remained to be seen.
Those who were fighting for the throne were members of the direct bloodline of the imperial family, so it was difficult for the first ancient guardian family of the Gabriel Empire, Hilikas Family, to come forward and mediate. From the perspective of the bloodline, it didn’t matter who sat on the throne. All they could do was continue to observe. They had not clearly stated which prince they supported.
Apart from the three major factions of the princes, the n.o.bles had a faction of their own. The Renald Family had great influence and power to unite the three families. The Renald Family Patriarch’s son, Young Master Renald, was also eligible to step-in in this political game as the emperor’s quasi-son-in-law.
This quasi-son-in-law was far from a good guy. Normally, Emperor Alfred would have already taken actions to suppress the three major families. But now, in order to maintain the balance between all the parties, the emperor could only pretend that he was oblivious to the various transgressions of the Renald Family.
Emperor Alfred the Third, sitting in his position, glanced at Bella with a complicated look in his eyes. Bella, on the other hand, was busy talking with the special envoy of the Continental Empire Joint Council, Dragon Knight General, Olya. She had no time to care about where the Emperor was looking. If Bella was a man, the Emperor might have made plans to win her over. Compared to the other forces, the most threatening force was the Southern Alliance.
The Southern Alliance bordered the Beastmen Continent. The empire didn’t have a legitimate reason to attack directly. In that case, the southern grain-producing areas would be cut off from the empire. In the worst case scenario, the Southern Alliance may fall to the Beastmen Continent and the invasion of beastmen would burn the inner cities of the empire, which was the last thing Emperor Alfred the Third would like to see.
The southern border of the Gabriel Empire needed the help of the Southern Alliance to block the Beastmen Continent. The Beastmen Continent might be divided and the orcs were busy with the civil wars, unable to join the northern expedition to attack the southern part of the Human Continent. But who could predict there won’t be any change in the situation. It wasn’t like unification wasn’t possible. In order to prevent the problems, the Southern Alliance must remain.
Bella, on the other hand, kept chatting with Olya with a relaxed look. On her left was the Dragon Knight General, Olya, and on her right was Miss Helena. No matter when, the left and right side of this female devil never lacked beauty. As for political issues, Bella was too lazy to even care about it. She was at the Rose Banquet to find beautiful girls.
Bella turned a deaf ear to all the blessings read by the emcee of the Rose Banquet. She felt that the various blessings read aloud by a literati-like emcee were as verbose as her school princ.i.p.al’s speech. There was no need to listen to it; it was complete nonsense. The most important thing was that the emcee wasn’t a girl. And as far as Bella was concerned, there wasn’t anything to look at then.
Helena next to Bella, on the other hand, listened with gusto, probably because she was a priest and long been accustomed to listening to this nutritious nonsense. If she didn’t understand anything, Bella was planning on asking Helena directly.
Princess Kriss and the others were sitting in the royal area. They couldn’t come to Bella for the time being. Beside Kriss, Bella had a pleasant surprise. She found a pair of beautiful followers beside Kriss who happened to be twin sisters. Bella had roamed around this otherworld for so long but hadn’t seen twin beautiful sisters of the human clan. She was really lucky to run into one now.
The twins were both stunning girls with silver hair. Their facial features were almost perfect and their beauty was close to the looks of a beauty like Kriss. They looked like they were carefully sculpted. They were only slightly shorter than Kriss and looked exactly the same. Even their pupils were blue. It was difficult to tell which of them was the elder and which of them was the younger sister.
Bella even checked out the bust of the sisters and found that that too was exactly the same. There were no obvious differences in their figures. They were both slender and had a shapely figure, curvy enough in the right places. Even their height was the same. There was no trace of scars or moles on their fair and tender skin. Their younger and elder relations.h.i.+p still couldn’t be distinguished from this aspect.
Even though the sisters were sitting with the imperial princesses, they weren’t wearing evening dresses but a set of white suits unique for swordsmen, and there was no rose headgear or any color on their long silver hair. Obviously, the two sisters weren’t here for any blind dates when they came to the Rose Banquet. They had some other purpose.
The silver-haired twins were sitting to the left and right of Princess Kriss, talking and laughing with Kriss. They seemed to be Kriss’ new friends. However, Bella could tell that the two sisters were glancing at her from time to time, observing the situation here.
Bella was sure that she didn’t know these two lovely twins. Why are these two paying attention to me? Kriss wouldn’t have turned bad and started to help me tie the red line, pull the other girls into my bed, would she?
“Olya, do you know those two cute silver-haired twins? They seemed to have glanced here many times. You wouldn’t happen to know them, would you?”
“Bella, they are watching you. I don’t even bother wearing the evening dress, why would they look at me?”
“I know these two girls. They are the eldest twins of the Hilikas Family, Calman and Cahlia. They are good girls but they listen to their families too much.”
Bella’s conversation with Olya went pretty smoothly. Having conversed with so many beautiful girls, Bella’s skills and experience had quickly acc.u.mulated. Olya had a casual personality. She didn’t care about etiquette and rules. At this point, Bella and she were pretty well acquainted. The two quickly found a common point. Olya had also determined that Bella was none other than the ninth princess of the Octavia Empire, Felia, who had mysteriously disappeared over half a year ago.
According to the information given by Olya, the silver-haired twins were from the oldest guardian family of the Gabriel Empire, the Hilikas Family. They were quite innocent and well-behaved girls. They listened to every single command of the family. If not for the very high requirements of the Hilikas Family, many aristocratic young geniuses would have approached the sisters to marry them.
Calman and Cahlia were quasi-sword G.o.ds, experts far stronger than the level of the sword sages. There was only a little bit of gap between the combat skills and combat experience of the six sword G.o.ds of the Hilikas Family. The talented twin flowers of the Hilikas Family were also valued by the family. They had a very high chance of becoming the youngest sword G.o.ds in the history of the Gabriel Empire.
The twins, Calman and Cahlia, were about sixteen years old; they were younger than Bella. Even if the two fought against the Dragon Knight General, Olya, in a two vs one situation, they still couldn’t defeat Olya. Olya too wasn’t surprised by the appearance of the twins. But if they were not her opponents, Olya was too lazy to pay attention to them.
Now, the targets of Olya’s forces were Bella’s secrets.
In her opinion, since the ninth princess Felia (Bella) had returned after her mysterious disappearance over half a year ago with a brand new ident.i.ty, some shocking secrets must be concealed in the middle. If Bella didn’t have a lucky encounter or some mysterious power was supporting her, she couldn’t make such a strong return. If it was someone else, they would struggle for their entire life but still couldn’t make such a heaven-defying comeback.
Olya’s att.i.tude towards Bella was pretty good. And not because Bella’s hidden ident.i.ty, the Ninth Princess Felia, but because of her instinctive respect for the strong. After being in close contact with Bella, Olya, who was a Dragon Knight herself, could clearly feel that Bella had traces of contract energy with different dragon races due to her professional skills.
The dragons who had signed a contract with Bella were very powerful and so rare that even Olya had never seen them before. This was also confirmed when Bella showcased her Dragon Knight’s strength when she represented Olsylvia Academy in the Summer Exchange Tournament of the Twelve Human Academies. There was no element forgery there.
Olya herself couldn’t see Bella’s strength. This was the first person she couldn’t see through. This inevitably increased Olya’s interest in Bella. If Bella was a Dragon Knight General like her, it would be a lot better. Like the twins Calman and Cahlia, Olya was called the youngest genius in her family and was very likely to become the youngest G.o.d knight in the history of the Octavia Empire.
Olya often secretly envied Calman and Cahlia for having a partner to practice together with. The Ostafa Family could only train her to the level of Dragon Knight General at her young age. She didn’t have a partner of the same level and age.
Olya still had not found a suitable mount yet. The princesses and princes of the Dragon Race generally do not sign a contract with the Human Race. The other dragon youths weren’t as strong as Olya and the dragon elders didn’t like her. There was a huge difference in their ages.
Olya, who didn’t even have an exclusive mount, had always used her subordinate Dragon Knights’ mounts to move around. There weren’t any feelings between them like a mount and rider had.
“Olya, do you know about the rumors about me?”
“I know! Bella, you like to do perverted stuff to the beautiful girls. This is not an important military secret in the southern empires.”
“Olya, since you know this, aren’t you afraid of me doing bad things to you? You still chose to be so close to me!?”
“Um, I don’t have a boyfriend, so I don’t mind what you do! Besides, if you have the strength to beat me, then you can bully me as you want, would I have any say in it!”
Bella looked at Olya, a little surprised. The two were very close at the moment, as if they were a couple, talking to each other intimately. Because Bella and Olya were whispering to each other, they got so close to each other. Bella could smell the particular scent of Olya’s hair. It was a special perfume. She hadn’t smelled it on any of her beautiful girlfriends.
Bella subconsciously stretched her hand and put her arms around Olya’s waist. This was an instinctive action. Olya showed no obvious resistance to Bella’s hara.s.sment. She just said that if Bella was strong enough to bully her, she wouldn’t mind. It was the first time Bella met such an open-minded beautiful girl of the human race.
If Olya had looked even a little displeased just now, Bella would have stopped immediately. Her ambiguity immediately made Bella’s affection for her greatly increase. However, they were still attending the Rose Banquet. So many people were watching. Bella couldn’t make any further moves. She just quietly hugged Olya. The two were like lovers who had been in love for many years. They kept chatting with each other, waiting for the banquet to start.
The emcee of the banquet was still reciting various blessings. Unfortunately, the official in-charge of serving the dishes was obviously not with the emcee. He had already arranged the waiters on standby to start serving the dishes and fine wines before the emcee finished his long speech.
Originally, there were only cold dishes such as desserts and fruit platters placed on the table while the main course was only served when the banquet began. At this time, the n.o.bles could get up from their seats and walk around freely to discuss matters with their political allies.
Princess Kriss got up first and quickly made her way to Bella’s position. She didn’t want to stay at the royal seating area for another moment. According to the emperor’s arrangement, she might be invited by the young master of the Renald Family for a dance. She refused to accept the invitation from this fiance. She had been safe with Bella before. As such, Bella’s vicinity could give Kriss a strong sense of security.
Leonard’s smile turned stiff. Kriss had run away before he even got the chance to approach her. He really couldn’t find the exact words to describe this kind of situation where his fiancee was being s.n.a.t.c.hed by another girl like this. So, he chose to keep silent and went to toast with the princes around him and drank his sorrows instead.
Calma and Cahlia exchanged glances before they got up and followed Kriss to Bella’s side. The task given by the Hilikas Family to the twins was to follow Princess Kriss. After seeing Kriss leave, they naturally followed suit.
“Bella, tell me the truth. Have you ever blamed the emperor?”
“Olya, aren’t you asking knowingly? It would be strange if I didn’t.”
Bella was busy chatting with Olya at this instance. Kriss didn’t find anything wrong with this topic but the twins Calman and Cahlia, who had followed Kriss here, misunderstood. They didn’t know which emperor and which empire Bella was talking about. They misunderstood that Bella was referring to the emperor of their empire. They became nervous for a moment. This was equivalent to a declaration of public rebellion.