“Well, that was more fun then I expected.” I said honestly. It was quite an enjoyable dance, as Hailey ended up doing most of the work. I was more like an assistant while she did everything.

Hailey was about to reply with something vaguely flirty, but a 7ft woman appeared behind Apollo and span him around. “Busted! No drink in hand and I am three drinks up! You better chugs these before I finish my next one!” Valerica said with a boastful smile as she held two mugs in one outstretched hand.

Playing fair to the rules, I smiled before taking the drinks from Valerica and began guzzling them down. As I did so, Valerica and Hailey gave each other scornful looks at each other, but by the time I finished my drinks, both of their faces were happy and smiling.

“Apollo do me a small favour now that you are back in contention, we have another here who has no drinks in her hand, she should also be punished, go fetch another round and bring it back for us ok?” Valerica asked with a cheeky smirk towards Hailey.

I also looked at Hailey and smiled before shrugging my shoulders at her. “Rules are rules, i will be right back.” After walking away and Valerica remembering what Kathrine said about his hearing, she waited a moment she attacked Hailey.

“So, I hear you have finally developed feeling past being a bitch and are planning to marry my new son?” Hailey looked at Valerica with wide eyes. “Your new Son? What are you implying?”

Her eyes darted over to Apollo who was now talking to the barman with Kathrine at his side. “I am not implying anything, That precious little man is my new baby in all but the written law and no one is going to change that. He did something for me that I can never repay, so I am making sure his naive little ass is not going to get played by you.”

Hailey narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean he is naive? Apollo is incredibly smart from my experience with him, are you sure you aren’t just trying to be a slut and trying to keep prime real estate all to yourself?”

Valerica took a deep breath calming herself down. “You are right, perhaps I used the wrong word, but Apollo is not well versed in our political system with him being an Arcon with no planet. He grew up in exile and his heart is pure and not fit for all the backstabbing that goes on in our system. As his newly appointed mother, it is my duty to make sure you mean no harm to him.”

Hailey took a deep breath before looking at Valerica with her true emotions for the first time. “I felt a connection with Apollo at our very first meeting. Over time he has wriggled his way from my head to my heart. I don’t know what the future holds via our relationship, but he is the only marriage candidate I have ever considered and all I want to do is build a repour before we move further into our potential coupling.”

Valerica squinted a moment before sighing in dejectedly. “Well that was not the whole truth, but I can tell you don’t mean harm to my boy. However, I should warn you that your ‘aunt’ also wants the same relationship as you do with Apollo and has more than done her share of work to achieve that.”

Hailey smiled wickedly upon hearing that attempt to throw her off composure. “I am not worried about aunty Kat. We have come to an- And that is cultural reasoning behind why the Carcer ends with a kiss!” She said, abruptly changing the conversation.

Valerica smiled as she realised what had happened and played along. “You know, being as old as I am, you would think I would have known that. I guess you can learn something new at any age.” As she said that, Apollo appeared to her side with a tray of drinks.

.net

“Oh are you talking about the dance we just did? What did you think? And here you go” I said as I passed around the drinks. As Hailey began chugging her drink as she was supposed to do, Valerica replied.

“Oh I thought you were excellent. Though what did you think about the end kiss?” Valerica’s question, caused Hailey to choke on her drink and began coughing. “Va-Valerica!” She managed to say after a moment, but I stopped her by saying.

“Oh the kiss was very pleasant, Hailey has soft and plump lips, very good for a kiss.” Hailey’s eyes went wide as she looked at me before she turned away in an attempt to hide her blush. That is when Valerica smirked as she said. “While that is nice to know handsome, I meant what did you think about the implication in regards to the dance? The Carcer is about a woman allowing herself a more restricted life for the sake of her love and the kiss is supposed to be her admitting that she wants that. Or so that Is what Hailey just told me.”

Upon learning that, I mouthed and ‘Oh’ before I replied. “My bad, I did not know myself just now and I thought you meant the action of the kiss itself. I am not a very cultured person and don’t know the history of dances, so sorry If I caused offence to anyone.”

It was then Kathrine who wrapped her arms around mine as she said. “Oh stop apologising, you did nothing wrong. Now, you did promise me a series of dances to get me back into the hall before we were interrupted. I want those now please.”

…

A few hours passed in social repetition. I danced, I laughed, I drank and had a genuinely good time. I had begun to feel a slight tipsiness from all the Psionic beverages I had drank through the event. I had asked at one point what they put in them to make them so strong, but got shut down as it was a secret recipe.

Valerica was outside taking a little breather with Kathrine for she had started feeling the affects quite heavily and was now three drinks behind me. Hailey was also quite drunk and her face was in a state of constant red as she held my body for support.

They were not the only ones feeling like this however, as these nobles partied insanely hard. Almost everyone at this point of off their heads drunk. Even a lot of the elderly were showing up nobles in their primes with their capabilities to throw back drink after drink.

As I scanned the room, there were only a few individuals who I could say with absolute certainty were sober. The first being the queen. Despite it being her party, she had been drinking slowly and had been sat on her throne most of the night, only getting up occasionally to mingle.

From the looks of it, she was taking care of the king who was absolutely smashed. From where I was standing, it looked like he was staring at me in a blind rage, but judging that every time I looked at him this evening he had been looking right at me, I assumed he had beer goggles and was not really looking at anything as he continued drinking.

Turning my attention to the queen, we somehow made eye contact through the room. I was surprised, but I smiled politely and did a little head bow before looking around the rest of the room.

The next set of individuals were a group of women who had not left the queens general proximity all night. They were most likely her servants of something, though they were still enjoying themselves by the smiles on their faces.

The last individuals who appeared sober was the man with the neat sword and the techno mechanic, who had no obvious mouth and therefore was not able to drink. The man who I was talking to earlier had a frown on his face as he also scanned the room from the pillar he was leaning on.

With him being my height, he was easy to spot in the crowd and with my slight tipsiness, I was feeling friendly. “Ok Hailey, I am going to put you down a moment ok?” I said trying to get Hailey lean on the column next to me instead of against my arm.

In retaliation, she clung onto my arm tightly and whispered. “No baby, I don’t want you to go yet.” She had been calling me baby for a while since she started drinking. It was quite adorable and quite the amusing sight considering she was a Centurion in the military and often had to appear composed and proper.

“I will only be a minute, I am just going to say hello to someone.” I replied managing to snake my arm free as I leant her up against the column.

Hailey tried to follow after me, but fell back into the column. “Actually baby that sounds fine.” She whispered to the air and hugged the cool column. A moment later, slightly sobered from the cool sensation, she shot her head upright as she watched Apollo run to the bar for two more drinks and make his way over to a familiar face she did not realise was at this party.

“Wait… Apollo knows uncle Sigismund?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep