God-King Arising

"Are you ready, Hainan?" Adaceus asked, adjusting the necklace that was on Hainan's neck to the center.

"Ready as I'll ever be, I'll just think of this as just another business meeting."

"I think the people here would say otherwise if they knew you said that Hainan. Many would think this an honor that should be taken seriously."

"Bah, what do they know. This thing was a headache to set up, can't fault me for trying to take it easy."

"If you say so."

Adaceus added the finishing touches to Hainan's suit, which was a dark red sash that he wrapped around his body that signified his role as host.

"How do I look?" Hainan said.

"It fits."

"It fits? Really? That's all you have to say?"

Adaceus shrugged nonchalantly at him.

"Brat," in huff Hainan cursed at him, an annoyed expression on his face. 

A door suddenly opened on the room they were in, and who came in was a women, Ingridt. She had on a slim fitting red dress, sleeveless in on shoulder, sparkling like glitter with an open slit that revealed the skin of her waist. The dress accentuated the toned qualities in her body, a perfect blend of fame fatale features, lean muscle, and entrancing allure. She looked beautiful, obvious because of Hainan's face turning a dark deep red as she entered the room. 

"Dear, are you ready?" She said, stepping in closer, walking like a cougar stalking his prey, lithe and precise toward him. She placed her hand on his chest, causing his already beating heart to boom like drums and his face reddening even more.

"Y-yes, dear," he croaked, folding under the pressure of her eyes, dark and bottomless that stared at him.

"Good, its an important day, you need to be prepared," She pulled him in by his suits collar, their face even more closer, before she placed her lips unto his. It was a few moments before they both unlatched, only taking the remaining time to stare into each others eye, like they were lost into their own personal words, enchanted by the passion they shared.

"Ahem," Adaceus abruptly interrupted, and a standstill of their beautiful trance was placed. "Its starting, Hainan, their ready."

"Right," Hainan replied, straightening himself up. "Well, lets get this show on the road."

Ingridt latched his hand unto his, and they both began walking to the door where Adaceus held it open for them. They exited out of the room, where immediately they were greeted with applause.

People clapped as he came into view above the upper floor, staring with happy and eager faces, awaiting him to step forward.

Hainan took a deep breath, and continued on his steps to the railing, with his wife at his side and Adaceus following at his rear, to the balcony they were on, and presented himself to all the hundreds that were in anticipation to hear, wherein he declared a speech, an announcement of the Grand Annual Ball officially beginning.

"Dear esteemed members here with us today, I am pleased to announce, that the Grand Annual Ball has officially began, marking the continued prosperity of the city of Prahu. Be joyous everyone, for another year has come to pass!"

Loud claps aroused over the room, constant and unbreaking.

"And let us not forget to give applause, for the royal family that has presided over us for the years!"

Hainan said, holding his hand out to direct their attention to his side. A group of people 4 people stepped forward, coming into view was the royal family of Prahu. 

"Give a hand for our very own king, Lord Grelther!"

A man stepped forward, and raised his hand to greet the people below. He was of a strong build, stalky even noticeable under the regal suit he had on. His face was wrinkled with age, an unmoving, stoic expression, strong crimson red hair was in his head with a small gray line in the midst, and a large, distinguishable item rested on his head that signified his role as king, a crown. 

This was King Grelther.

A magnitude of applause greeted the king, his presence stirring an energetic reaction among the crowd of his people. 

"And let us not forget the other members of the family! Lady Emery, Princess Renett, and Prince Daineel."

They all waived their hands as well, causing another round of applause to arise.

Adaceus took a chance and glanced at the family, focusing his sight toward them until he locked eyes with the princess. She was Renett, the youngest of the family, and in some odd chance their eyes met each other. She had straight red hair, a hairband atop of it and thick eyelashes, with a pretty face much like her mother. She wore a simple dress with a large bow ate her neck. Adaceus gave a quick bow to her, a sign of respect he took out for a select few, and when he raised his head he was greeted to a warm smile. 

They had been acquainted several times before this event, but all their encounters were mostly just because they were in the same room when her father, The King, and Hainan had meetings or transaction of business, and when he was acting as Hainan's assistant. But in some odd probability they had become like friends, and the driving factor for their closeness is because of their fondness for books. They would often have conversations whenever they had the chance, of books they were fond of, their personal favorites, and talk about many more topics aside from the standard novella. They even had an agreement where if he had the chance to visit he would always bring a myriad of books to the royal palace, fresh and ready to read only for her. 

She waived at him, and he did the same with a happy familiarity.

"And without further ado, ladies and gentlemen," Hainan declared, like a trumpet announcing a war. "Let the Ball, commence!"

A joyous cheer began, the start of a bright celebration.

# # ## 

Music plays in the grandeur ballroom, a soft and gentle melody that flowed to this room like an early morning breeze, people of luxurious garments prance around the floor, partaking in conversations with each other while twirling around glasses of wine. Tables of food were set everywhere, filled with the most rare and exotic of meals with master chef's serving even more, and furnishings that sparkled radiance.

Servants of all kinds, mechanical automatons, beastmen, and humans, all walked with trays filled with assorted wines across the shiny yellow floor of the Royal Palace, offering them to the people of this building in dignified mannerism's, and the entertainment, in the form of performance jesters, danced and performed all around.

Adaceus only watched as this happened atop an upper level of the building. He looked though a large glass plane, taking in the sight until he turned to his back toward another crowd of people. The building he was on was a sort of private sector, only available to people higher class. He saw a myriad of people, all wearing lavish clothes and the most outlandish of decorations, but rather than initiating in dialogue, all of them mostly focused on the thing drawing the most attention, which was Hainan conversing with the king himself.

They both had a glass of alcohol in their hands and it seemed their conversation was going well, with the stoic king smirking while Hainan happily chuckled-probably a joke being told. 

Just then the sound of loud footsteps barreled toward him, and a small boy ran up and stopped just in front of him. 

"What is it Lujah," he asked, wondering why he suddenly ran toward him.

Lujah rested on his knees, trying to catch his breath before replying, "I was just wondering, you know, about the thing?"

"What thing?" Replied Adaceus.

"The thing!"

Adaceus would raise his eyebrows if he had any on the obscure question Lujah was asking, what was he talking about? Lujah seemed to understand his confusion, even he cant see his face, he could tell he didn't get what he was saying.

"The weapon Ada, I'm talking about the weapon, the one I had you commission?"

"Ah, right," Adaceus, finally understanding said. Adaceus then opened the palm of his hand, where a deep black hole appeared out of nowhere. It was an undulating hole that seemed to tear through the veil of reality, appearing like a liquid fog that hovered in the air. 

This was the magic spell 'Inventory', and it is basically a pocket dimension that essence users were able to summon through a magical circle. He submerged his hand into the dark hole, and rummaged around until his hand stopped, grabbing an item from within. He only showed a bit of the item within, a royal blue handle and hilt of a pair of a sword like article. 

Lujah's face shot up in excitement as a wide smile appeared on his face.

"There here, young Lujah, ready and prepared for you to use."

He went to grab the item, but Adaceus stopped him before he could reach it. "But obviously not here! This is the ball, not a place to go presenting a weapon on!"

Adaceus then de-spelled Inventory, leaving behind the items into the void.

"B-but! I wanna see it!" Lujah refuted, a look of despair, his excited anticipation abruptly snuffed out to wispy embers.

"You will, but you just have to wait until this is night is over alright? We'll really be in trouble if I let you prance around with it."

Lujah shot his gaze down to the floor, the spirit in him extinguished, douse to smoke and he had no choice but to weakly nod in agreement, although it was clear he really didn't want to.

"What seems to be the problem here? Ada?"

A feminine voice sounded, and along came the very princess of Prahu itself.

They both turned in surprise at the sudden person appearing in front if them.

Adaceus bowed, and Lujah frantically did the same, prostrating themselves to royalty.

"Oh, bother, do you really need to do that in front of me? Ada, Lujah, please raise your heads, this is absurd behavior."

"I promise you, there is nothing absurd about showing respect to a princess, princess Renett."

"I feel like your calling me princess is a way to incite a feeling of irritability from me, Ada."

"... I'd do no such thing, princess Renett."

She sighed, exhausted sounding. Adaceus chuckled at her, and she did as well.

"How are you Renett?" Ada asked.

She sighed, slumping her shoulder slightly, "Its been tiring, really, all I've been doing is just standing like a porcelain doll while mother and father talk, honestly all I've been doing is just greeting people and pasting a smile on my face. I barely managed to escape and come here."

"Haha, well, you can go relax with us and try to get catch your breath."

"Trust me I plan to do that"

And as though it came naturally, they started talking with each other, over the glass plane that overlooked the ongoing party.

"Well, well, look at who's finally here!"

Another voice shot across the room, fiery and confident as steps ran toward him. Adaceus, Renett, and Lujah both turned their faces, only to see a very unexpected person arrive. It was the prince, Daineel, and he stood facing in front of them.

He had the signature red hair of his father, but grew long to shoulder length, and he had a prominent cowlick at the forefront of his bangs. He was just about Adaceus's size, although a bit taller as he was a older than him, with a tailored suit of red and black.

Adaceus turned to Lujah to notice his face morph into a sort of weary expression, and Renett's to an annoyed look, and Adaceus had a guess that this would lead to quite the dilemma. 

"Well Ada~ looks like you were able to make it, finally, I though you'd never show up!" The young prince snarled at him, a wide smile on his face.

Adaceus gave the prince a bow, even if he was showing clear hostility, he couldn't do anything without invoking the wrath of the kingdom, he was the prince after all.

"A pleasure to see you again this fine evening, Prince Daineel, how may I be of service," Adaceus in stated clearly, taking on the role of the butler. Much like Renett, they had become acquainted through Hainan's accompaniment, but unlike what Adaceus and Renett had, his relationship with him was almost like a prying little brother, or a small pup nipping at his heels every chance he gets.

At first he was interested in Adaceus having a dual core, and as situation let to another, they ended up having a duel, in which he swiftly won. And now after each of his visits, the prince would always nag a him for another rematch, but in every duel, Ada would always come out on top. 

"Hmpf, don't get all formal with me, Ada," Daineel said, squinting his eyes.

"What do you want my oaf of a brother?" Renett jumped in, sounding annoyed at her big brother. Her face was filled with an irritation like a furious mother, and gave an expression of wrinkled paper.

"None of your concern, dear sister, I'm just here to get my get-back from Ada over here."

"Brother, you've been trying to get your get back for years now and its never amounted to anything."

"Well," the prince's word's stuck to his throat, "This time is different, at least it will be when I finally get to show off what I've learned, what say you Ada? Want to accept my challenge?"

"Sigh, stop it you dolt, why would you ever initiate a duel in an important event like this, gosh, father will be mad at you if he were to learn from this."

"Doesn't really matter sister, all I want right now is to beat Ada, I can deal with the consequences later."

"You!" 

The sibling immediately started an argument, all the while Lujah turned to Adaceus with a worried look. Ada looked at him, and ruffled his hair, almost like a reassurance, while the siblings still continued on their squabble, he stepped forward.

"Calm down you two," suddenly Adaceus spoke up, breaking the fight.

The both of them issued a standstill over their scuffle, wanting to hear what he was about to say.

"Prince Daineel, I understand your fiery passion for battle, now its not the right time, it is improper of you to ask such a curt thing in an event so important such as this, and have no choice but to promptly decline, we could simply just save this for another time."

Prince Daineel's face turned angry, but a diluted fury, like he finally understood that this was not the time for something like this.

"Did someone initiate a duel, or did I hear wrong?"

King Grelther suddenly spoke.