Chapter 106 – Factions
After a few minutes of girls chattering they were interrupted by Cassandra beckoning them to go meet a few guests.
Priscilla and Brianna promised the Dryad sisters to meet them again later and followed Cassandra while holding Noah between themselves
Before the introductions, Cassandra took them to the side and spoke with a quiet voice.
"Girls, I would like to introduce you today to some of the important people. As you are now ready to establish households on your own in other regions, you should know how this kitchen works. In this hall today everyone is divided into three factions." She said pointing them with her eyes in one direction before continuing her speech.
"First, you should know The Keepers' families. Although not as highly esteemed in the kingdom as The Guardians, they are very important for The Guardians of the kingdom to fulfill their duty. Keepers are living in the labyrinth's highest levels. This allows them to get their hands on lots of high-level materials and magic stones. As monsters and spirit beasts have many feuds among them, getting good-priced items from Labyrinth rulers is impossible for us. Buying resources from spirit beasts will make you go bankrupt.
"Weak Keepers however are quite oppressed by Labyrinth rulers as you know and rely on resources they trade with other monsters rather than being supported by spirit beast families ruling their labyrinth.
"However Keepers are forbidden from exiting labyrinths, except on special occasions like today, so the only way for them to trade outside the labyrinth is to trade with Guardian family representatives that may come and go into the labyrinths and travel the country as they please. Good connections with the Keepers let us get good-priced items while we help Keepers sustain their families. They rely on us and we rely on them. Having an opportunity to meet so many Keepers family representatives in one place is a rare chance. So you should use this ball as a pretext to make as many contacts as possible. Just don't forget that some of them are already under some Guardians wing and trying to poach them would earn you the ire of these Guardian families."
"Second faction are representatives of the Guardians. The importance of the Guardian family mostly lies in their competence in producing new high-level sentient monsters that would be able to make new households and live among humans while being part of society instead of being just a monster. Now that your mother has proven that she and you two are capable of this, you two have the eyes of all human kingdoms and numerous monster families.
"But be careful. From one side Guardians would want to get to know you and make a connection with you. On the other hand, you are now their rivals so be wary of them. It's better to be mindful of what information you give them. Also, take notice of how they treat you. Notice whether they are friendly or unfriendly toward you. But don't be fooled by those that are overly friendly. They are sure to have ulterior motives."
"The third faction is of course humans. Among humans, only a select few know about monster families and humans have tight connections with spiritual beings while being very guarded against monster families. They trade either directly with labyrinth rulers or through guilds whose job is to clean up in labyrinths and gather materials.
Humans usually aren't looking for connections with the Keepers. What they are greatly interested in, however, is the specialty products of many Guardian families. For example arachna thread cloth, magical artifacts, or alchemic compounds and potions. Many Guardians because of their long lives are excelling in some crafts and are very sought-after for their products. For example, arachna clothes are one of the rarest and most costly materials that are easily sold but it's hard to find someone willing to sell it. In addition to that, you two are also very educated in both crafting and alchemy, so I believe you have a lot to offer if you decide to establish separate households. I am quite sure you two would interest the human faction." Said Cassandra feeling proud of her two nieces.
"People I will introduce you to, are my long-time trade partners and contacts. But be sure to also find yourself a few contacts of your own. Today is a rare chance for that. Understand?"
Girls nodded after carefully listening to their aunt's explanation and Cassandra beckoned them deep into the crowd.
First, she introduced them all to the most haughty part of this gathering. The Guardians. They all leisurely chatted, drank, ate, and joked with each other while on many occasions when introduced to showed disinterest and even arrogance. They were well established and felt that the two sisters had few to offer. Their interest was mainly in them as new faces and their relationship with that human insect they took as their mate. Girls barely exchanged any contact with any of them.
Next was what Noah would call the most eager part of the gathering. The Keepers. This bunch were overly respectful and tactful. Each one offered an almost entire catalog of the things they could offer.
As girls did not have their own magical far-talking devices, they took the introduction cards with contact sigils needed to make a call to those that wished to have contact with them, promising to contact them once they have contact sigils of their own.
The last ones were 'the awkward crowd' as Noah named them. Human nobles. Many of them were sons and daughters of high-level humans that were holding high status in the kingdom. These sons and daughters, however, were far weaker and far younger than the youngest monsters in the room. Because of that, they felt nervous or rather scared while in the presence of so many monsters
The reason they even dared to come to the party was that they were accompanied by a high-level elder of their family that could contest with strong monsters and would be able to protect them. These sons and daughters were here to get experience and were strictly controlled by the elders, however, even under the strict gazes of the elders, their lack of social experience was quite apparent.
Many times Noah felt initial fear and tension that they had quickly changed to excitement and lust, once Cassandra and the girls in their gorgeous human forms approached their company, and exchanged later with jealousy toward Noah, which after their departure earned them reproach and even swats on the heads in some cases from their elders for immature and stupid behavior.
Once the quick introductions with Cassandra's acquaintances were made, Cassandra moved on with the party program skipping to the dancing.
Dancing monsters. That's the strangest damn thing Noah ever imagined. But monsters living in human society were the sentient types. Social gatherings and parties were not novel to them. Even in the demon realms, they created society, and something akin to kingdoms. With only difference, it was ruled by tyranny, dominance, and cruelty while filled with countless deaths.
*****
As soon as the music became louder and the first dance of the evening was announced, Noah excused himself, quickly moving toward Tessa.
Archduke saw his approach and smiled slightly, making a small joke toward Tessa. Then he stood up and offered his hand to Theresa, holding himself as a true gentleman.
Theresa gave him a quick smile and curt nod before placing her hand into his palm, standing up with Archduke's help. And the next moment the time has stopped, taking Tessa by surprise.
At least it seemed like that for a few moments, until she noticed the extremely slow movements of everyone around her.
Something caught her attention from the corner of her eyes and when she concentrated on it, she saw a transparent figure that became more apparent the more she concentrated on it.
The blurry figure of a plush bear slowly came into being on the table at her side.
"Do me a favor and concentrate on your connection with Noah." Said the familiar voice in her head.
Ugy stretched his plush hands toward the Archduke and lines of text codes started to stream in front of his face.
As Tessa concentrated on the connection she and Noah had, Ugy's figure became more apparent, and time around her slowed down even more. She could not move, standing frozen as everyone around her, but she could perceive the world as if she existed outside the laws of time.
*Warning*
*An unauthorized data access request.*
*Access denied*
*Connection broken*
A strange line of text suddenly appeared in front of the plush bear a few moments later and Tessa noticed that the stream of lines of code has stopped.
"Tsk." Voiced Ugy annoyed and disappeared.
The time has moved again.
Tessa quickly glanced at the Archduke's face and saw a strange questioning look in his eyes. He let go of her hand and she nodded thanking him, before quickly grabbing Noah's hand and almost running to the dance floor pulling him behind herself.
They quickly took a dancing pose and started to move in sync with all the other pairs in the room.
/What the hell was that?/ Sounded a worried voice in Noah's head startling him.
/This is spider kin telepathic conversation ability. Concentrate on my bite mark and try to think what you want to say./ Added Tessa's voice in his head before Noah could utter a word making him close his mouth, looking at her questioningly.
/Does it work?/ Asked Noah's voice in her head.
/Yes. Wonderful. I can hear you perfectly. So what was that thing over there?/ Said Tessa quickly.
/What do you mean?/ Asked Noah not understanding what she meant.
/You did not see it? Just now the time has stopped and Ugy appeared in front of Archduke with lines of codes and text streaming in front of him./ Explained Tessa.
/Time stop? This is one of Ugy's abilities. He can calculate so quickly it makes you perceive the world in slow motion. But I did not notice anything. Did he use that skill on you? How?/ Said Noah with a bewildered voice.
/I don't know. But he asked me to concentrate on our connection. And it all happened when Archduke touched my hand./
/Ugy what the hell did you do?/ Asked Noah in his head.
/Wha…how did you…?/ Said Ugy's voice surprised at Noah's question, but then stopped his words abruptly.
/I searched the information on the old man's glasses through the archives of The Great Library. Thanks to that I am about to create a new skill./ Said the system a moment later.
/How did you stop time for Tessa instead of me? / Asked Noah a few moments later, after telling Tessa what he heard from Ugy.
/To establish a connection and disconnect quickly enough for him to not notice anything, I needed direct contact. As Theresa provided us with such an opportunity, I used the connection between you two as a bridge. Her quickened perception was an unexpected side effect of my trying to stabilize the connection between you two to allow a big amount of data transfer./ Explained Ugy.
/If you got caught we would have been in danger. Doing something like that is extremely rude in this world./ Said Noah.
After another moment Noah looked at Tessa annoyed.
/Ugy says that the old man scanned you too when he touched your hand, so he can't be blamed when their actions were mutual./ Said Noah.
/That bastard scanned me?/ Asked Tessa surprised. /I did not notice! Hold on. The glasses, it has to be some kind of high-level appraisal tool if I did not even notice it./
/So what were you two conversing about?/ Asked Noah.
/This was really strange. He looked friendly but I felt how wary of me he was. He asked about Bri and Cil, but I felt he was more interested in you. He chattered about what seemed absolutely nothing, but I felt some probings in his questions. He is up to something. I am worried, Noah. You need to stick with girls or me at all times./ Said Tessa.
After their dance, they both bowed to each other, before Noah took her back to Archduke's table as he promised, where the old man gazed at them with squinted eyes and a slight frown.
Noah barely let go of Tessa's hand when he was grabbed by two pairs of hands from both sides.
Priscilla and Brianna stared at each other challenging for a few seconds, before smiling at each other and laughing. Brianna let go of Noah's hand and they joked with Priscilla in a light banter, while Priscilla took him to the dance floor.
Cassandra stared from the side of the room studying their happy faces with a strange look on her face. She still could not believe they were so friendly and loving toward each other. But the more she studied them the more she saw how genuine their happiness was. However, instead of being happy for them the frown on her face greatly deepened by the moment. A look of hatred flashed in her eyes when she gazed at Noah before she turned away and walked toward the guest with a smile.