The Banquet

The time had come, it was time for Johnathan to meet the influential figures of this world, because he invited them, or at least their ambassadors. Johnathan wasn't an extrovert, so he would hopefully just sit their and have dull conversations while he waited for the night to pass while examining the talent of the nobles children. As for the noble houses, their were 3 dukedoms, 7 marquesses, 13 counties, 14 viscounties and 19 baronies. This was counting the promise he made with the Kyanstones.

After changing his armor to something an English noble would wear back in medieval times, he decided to leave. This was a party, might as well dress for the occasion. He still has around 10 minutes before he needs to make his entry, so he decides to look around for poison or assassins, because there was a very good chance of someone trying something.

After wandering around, he found nothing, and he has around 2 minutes before his entry, so he decides to find Ruby, as the plan was to enter with her, or that's what he was told. He then heads back to his room, and sees Ruby standing outside, he then walks over to her.

"Over here, anyways, is their anything I should know before we start?"

"I can't think of anything, but just have small conversations with the others, and please don't say something stupid or direct. If I had to warn you of someone, I would warn you of the elf ambassador, from what I've gathered, is extremely arrogant and he always asks for women to pleasure him or just takes a maid and..."

"He tries something like that and he's dead, but I'll try my best to be sociable." They were walking into the banquet hall by the time they had finished the conversation, they had walked into the banquet hall.

It was a massive room with tables scattered around, and a balcony area that looked more fancy than the rest of the tables, he assumed this was where they were supposed to sit, but he would just walk in and chat, then leave.

When he enters he looks around to see who's there. He counts around 140 humans, 1 Elf, 1 Dwarf, 1 Beastfolk, 1 Demon, 1 Vampire, 1 Dullahan and what he assumes is a mermaid, as it's sitting in a something like a fishbowl.

To clear up a common misconception, Demons and undead were not evil entity's, there just like humans, expect each race had more subvariants than humans. Undeads weren't evil, necromancy also wasn't inherently evil, but not many people practice it because it's irreversible change to your mana and manipulating your soul with tainted mana, as it was called. The only real evil race everyone feared were Devils, they were something like eldritch horrors. They made contracts with individuals for power in exchange for losing your sanity while near being near them. It was a heavily frowned upon, but people probably still did it in secret.

Johnathan wasn't surprised the dragons didn't show up, they could care less. To note, Dragon's only gain intelligence if they are a "Greater Dragon" however they strongly dislike being associated with their mindless counterpart, hence everyone just referees to their mindless counterparts as wryms. When he enters he then starts talking with Ruby telepathically as to where they sit.

'Hey, where do we sit?'

'Normally it would be up their, but you should sit down here and talk with people.'

Johnathan then finds an empty table near the center of the room and sits down. He's then approached by some of the humans, and they exchange greetings. Johnathan is using most of willpower to not teleport away, due to his introverted tendencies he was finding this unbearable.

After exchanging a few words with the most of the human nobles, the first ambassador approaches. When the elf walks arrives in front of him, he start the conversation.

"It's a pleasure for you to meet me, the great Bernard" Johnathan just stares at him for a few seconds. He was making sure he heard that correctly, because he was extremely concerned that he would not be able to manage his anger when interacting with him. While he's looking at Bernard he adds "I demand a beautiful woman to accompany me to bed tonight"

This really ticks Johnathan off, he was expecting arrogant, but this was really to much. Johnathan wasn't the most patient man, and this guy certainly knew how to anger anyone. He wasn't going to kill him, just faceslap him. "Seems yours is small then, my condolences"

This certainty had an effect on him and the audience, as some of them laugh at him, while others are trying desperately not to. His faced turned red. From embracement or rage, Johnathan couldn't really tell. But he had looked away by now and was chatting with the Kyanstones, as they were confirming their advancement.

'Hey Ruby, I can kill him if he tries something or steps over the line, right?' Ruby doesn't even flinch while talking with some of the lady's around her.

'I recommended you don't, but if he does something stupid, I'm sure we could smooth it ov-'

"I could easily get any woman I want, like your whore of a wife. Therefor I challenge you to a deathmatch with your wife as the bet!"

This was Johnathan's limit, he was really hoping it wouldn't go this far, but he had lost most of his reasoning. Their was only one goal Johnathan had currently, and it was to utterly humiliate this man before he killed him. But first he would take everything from him. "What's your bet then?"

"My sword-"

"Worthless, something actually close to worth Ruby"

"100000 platinum coins and my whole fortune." Johnathan was really surprised at how easily he got set up, but he wasn't going to complain.

"Ruby's worth more than that, but I'm more than happy to take your fortune from you." They then walk over to the arena in the training grounds.