Parties outside the royal palace were always strange. And I was still expected to dress nicely. So I decided to wear a gift from Damon to the party.
A dark, velvety corset vest that brought out my attractive frame and figure. Damon honestly just wanted to see me in one, so I gladly decided to wear it to our first party as a couple. I wore a black button up with silver embellishments on it and black dress pants to accompany the vest.
I was an attractive eye piece. And Damon always looked attractive as is. He was wearing one of the more royal outfits with more gaudy gold embellishments, but I thought it suited him.
"Every time we go anywhere, I'm forever great full that people are too scared of you to attempt to hurt me. Meaning I won't have to bother with guards while I'm here," Damon admitted.
I chuckled a bit as we approached the manor in our carriage, "we have the gods and my overpowered mana to thank for that."
As we pulled to a stop, he got out, offering a hand to me. I chuckled as I took it, getting down with him. He held my hand as we said goodbye to our carriage for now and headed into the manor. We were a bit late, but that was because I had to pick up Damon before coming here.
We weren't too late, just behind the rest of the guests.
The manor hosting the party was actually Liz's family. She had gotten engaged a while back and announced the engagement not long after ours. Probably to normalize it. Her fiancée looked quite beautiful, like Liz herself, and I wished them both happiness.
Despite her inviting a plethora of openly queer people, she couldn't not invite certain nobles, so some people there were not... happy with any of the engagement. Us appearing wouldn't help much.
And from what I was aware, my family should've already been there after grabbing Leon since he lived closer to us then Damon lived to us.
As we walked the hall to the ballroom, smiling at the staff we'd seen plenty of times before, all equally glad for us there, we braved ourselves as they got ready to announce us.
The one most awkward thing at all parties that was never missed.... the announcements of guests.
"Now entering Duke Reynolds and Crown Prince Damon Ravenbard."
"It's so strange hearing my own last name," Damon joked as eyes watched us. We stood close, so our intimacy seemed rather obvious. As we entered, we were eyed warily as we glided across the floor to Liz. Devon was hanging out with her and her fiancée.
"You guys are late," she joked, smiling at us.
"Not our intention. Damon still lives too far away," I joked back.
She gestured to her fiancée, "I know you already met her Isaiah, but prince Damon, this is my fiancée lady Diana Arielle."
Damon grabbed her hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it, "a pleasure to meet you. You seem lovely. Both Isaiah and I wish you happiness."
"Oh! Thank you!" She exclaimed awkwardly. "We heard about your own engagement, congratulations!"
"Truly, congrats. The heart eyes were getting old," Devon teased.
Liz elbowed him lightly but giggled herself. "This party is full of people who support you two, spare for a few nobles we had to invite to be polite."
"Glad we're in good company then." Damon looked around to see if he saw anyone else. "Did you want to go to your family?"
I glanced to where he glanced and saw my sister flirting up a storm with a few female nobles as my brothers and dad were relaxing and talking with another gay couple and Leon was relaxing with a friend with drinks and a lesbian couple.
"They all seem occupied at the moment. We could just find something to drink and mingle."
"You hate mingling," he reminded.
I huffed, "mostly because they never know boundaries. I feel like most people here will know them."
"Please, enjoy yourselves! We're playing some dance music later that I think you'll appreciate Isaiah."
"If you play Wap to classical music, I'm going to smack you," I warned Liz.
"Noted." She bit her lip, "how'd you know?"
I bursted out laughing, laughing into Damon at how innocent the question seemed. "I was joking!" I giggled between fits of laughter. "We're you seriously going to play that?"
"Look, besides you me and Devon, who would know what the words were?"
"Oh my gods, this is just as bad as 'somebody come get her' and 'low.' Though, the first one has a classical cover to it."
Devon chuckled a bit at that, "I have never been more glad I died so young to never hear those songs."
"Say that to the trauma your death caused bro," I joked.
"Right. Anyway, I'm chatting with these two. Diane understands that I'm Liz's brother, though reborn."
"You are way to overprotective, but we'll see you around." After I said that, we left or go mingle.
"Liz and Devon were siblings in their last life?" Damon asked.
I nodded as we grabbed some refreshments from a passing server, "they were. When they found each other in this life, they stuck together like glue."
"Then I'm happy for them and you. To all be reborn together? It's a gift." He took a sip from his glass, wincing. "She must be planning to get us drunk if she's serving this."
I felt tension in my brows and curiously brought the drink to my own pursed lips. It was very bitter and was strong. The immediate kick of the alcohol inside kicking in full force.
I wasn't even surprised.
"You remember Liz's family specializes in importing strong drinks, right?"
Realization dawned on his face, "we need to find something else to drink."
I glanced around, eyeing what was available. "We might have to pull from my mana storage because everything I'm seeing is alcoholic."
"Why does duchess Elizabeth have to be a part of the noble family that deals with 90% proof alcohol?"
"I don't know. It's just how it turns out," I said with a chuckle, finishing the drink with a harsh wince. It was really fucking strong. I had no idea what my tolerance even was. Damon finished his as well so we could abandon our glasses when a server came by.
Not even half an hour and this party was already shaping up to be a rather interesting one.
We hadn't even met any other guests. Well, until a women approached us, awkwardly fiddling with his thumbs. She curtsied though as she reached us.
"Congratulations on your engagement," she said softly.
"Oh," I blurted out, equally as awkward when dealing with awkward situations. "Thank you."
"I-I'm lady Flora Yvonne. Thanks to you, people have been more accepting of my sexuality."
"Oh? I thought you were married to a man?" Damon muttered.
"Wait, you like both, I'm assuming?" I guessed.
She nodded rather awkwardly. "My first love was a woman. I always thought there was something wrong with me, but Duke Reynolds, you made me realize that I can't change who I love, and I thank you for that."
"I-"
She flushed before curtsying and rushing away. Well, I suppose she said her piece.
And surprisingly, a lot of encounters were like that. They all politely congratulated us on our own engagement before telling me how much I meant to them, before rushing off.
Though, it did slow and stop after awhile, so we just hung out, nursing the water I pulled from my inventory. We found ourselves leaning against a wall, and I was leaned into Damon just a bit. He didn't seem to mind in the slightest.
"Did Elizabeth tell you when the wedding was going to be?" Damon asked.
"Ah, she said she'd wait until we got married first so that the attention wouldn't be taken away from her own wedding."
He quirked his brows, but seemed to understand, "well, I have more time to to look for a wedding gift then."
I hummed I'm agreement, closing my eyes for a moment. The lights were pretty blinding, so I was giving myself a break. It was peaceful.
"Tired?" Damon asked.
"Mm. A bit." Which was true. Late night parties could drain the energy out of me pretty quick if I wasn't careful. "I'll be fine."
"If you ever get too tired we can head out."
"I know. Thanks for worrying," I said, appreciative of his kindness towards me. "How's your lessons going?"
He groaned hearing me ask. "Annoying. You'd think I'd know everything by now, but there's so much more I have to look at and learn. I don't know how my father remembered it all."
"You make me glad that I just know everything from my mana perks."
Damon chuckled at that, "you're a lucky one. But didn't a goddess bless you with that knowledge?"
"Oh right, yeah."
He moved his hand to ruffle my hair and I just laughed, looking at him.
"You know how long it took to gel my hair?"
"Well, judging from how stiff your hair is, I'm guessing quite a while," he joked. "But you look attractive no matter how it's styled."
"What a charmer."
He just smiled and pressed a kiss to my forehead, both of us going back to just comfortably resting against each other. Parties were never really our thing in the first place. We only went to them out of obligation or a sense of duty. Obviously we went to this one since Liz was our friend.
Either way, we were content in our spot on the wall.
"You couldn't just keep it limited between yourselves?" A voice scoffed.
I glanced over lazily, seeing some rich noble and looked away, not cared.
He was not happy at that, "not going to say anything? Your sexuality is disgusting and you shouldn't force it on others."
I honestly still didn't care. Damon didn't really either. "That any way to talk to the crown prince?"
"You'll turn the empire to ruin with all this nonsense!"
I sighed ad got off of Damon, searching for Elizabeth in the crowd. I spotted her, our eyes connecting. "Apologize in advance!" I shouted, causing some eyes drawn my way before looking back at the snob. Then I punched him square in the face, knocking him clean out. He crumbled like a sandcastle being washed away by waves.
I pulled a wet wipe from my inventory and wiped my hand down, didn't scarfing said wipe before turning back to Damon.
"They seem to forgot that I take no shit from anyone."
"On one hand I really shouldn't condone that, but on the other hand," he glanced at the noble. "He shut up."
"Hard to speak when you're passed out." We saw Liz rush over at an alarming pace.
She was cackling as she approached, "did you really apologize for punching him before you punched him?" She asked.
"It's supposed to be your party and I really didn't want to cause a scene."
Damon chuckled again, "but we did want him to shut up."
"What was he talking about?" She asked.
"Just the usual homophobic remarks. Heard enough of that last life, so I won't put up with it here. Besides, it was merely me doing my duty protecting the prince."
Both Liz and Damon seemed to have it dawn on them that I was Damon's bodyguard. So me sending someone flying was reasonable if I thought they'd cause the prince harm.
"Well, if more people try to harass you and you desire to resort to punching, I'm sure many of our guests won't even notice."
With that, we'd feel much better about how we decided to spend the rest of our night.