(A/N: The voting period has ended)
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King Cyan had many things to ponder especially concerning his younger brother: the fact that he was now counted as someone who could take the throne should anything happen to himself and his sons made him wary.
Truth be told, King Cyan is a very cautious man, never quick to trust a single person and he'd been this way since his eldest brothers had killed each other off during the succession wars when he was younger.
Kian Ledris's, his younger brother, sudden return could not be looked over with acceptance just like that. He's whereabouts before his return were completely unknown, how he returned was even more unknown than that. Everything was a mystery, therefore this brother of his was a suspicious person who could pose a threat to not just the king but Ledris itself.
That's why King Cyan already had people watching him, Kieth included. He didn't dare to think it was a coincidence that his brother suddenly returned after the heroes were summoned and the summoners killed by a force unknown whilst there was a sudden and unexplainable increase in corrupted spirit in Ifvnar. There were too many unanswered questions.
King Cyan didn't have the time to be reminisce about things of the past let alone ignore all the obvious signs of possible trouble.
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The upcoming banquet would be to not only announce Kian Ledris's return officially but also celebrate it, it was also the chance to enact King Cyans plan of introducing the summoned ones to the people officially.
He left preparations to his eldest son Levi because the debut of the heroes also involved him and now finally the day had arrived.
Famous nobles along with their families arrived and even royalty from a few neighbouring nations came as well, the generals adorned in their uniforms and high ranking knights, merchants and many more people attended the grand banquet.
Among the attendees was of course the Ledris Royal family, who were hosting the banquet, the royal guard who were in charge of security and finally the summoned ones (A/N: I'll also refer to them as heroes).
For the first part of the banquet, which started in the afternoon and would go on to the evening, Kim Jaehyun and the others were dressed in the official uniform belonging to the royal knights that worked directly under the royal family.
After the main announcement concerning his highness, Kian Ledris, was made, they were introduced as members of Crown prince Levi's elite knights and the fact that they were summoned from the forbidden realm was left out.
Their appearance wasn't a problem at all since even the people from Heiz looked similar to them and many Heiz citizens had once moved over to Arshnix at some point so there was no lack of them. Kim Jaehyun and the others simply looked like foreigners but since they behaved as if they were raised in Ledris no one bothered to think they were actually from the forbidden realm.
There were a lot of gazes following the four of them after that announcement, some of them judging others curious and some were welcoming but that was how it was in the upper echelons of society.
Once the banquet extended into the night, the four were allowed to change into more suitable attire for a ball so they could interact with the people.
Everything was perfectly planned out by Levi, even their clothing for all three parts of the event. Levi had them dressed in the royal colours which were blue and gold, though he told the designers not to make it obvious, what he wanted was for them to give off an aura of belonging when they interacted with others.
The first two parts of the event proceeded quite nicely, everyone enjoyed themselves and there were no unforeseen dangers. Even King Cyan looked pleased with how well the event was going. He didn't mind the fact that the introduction of the heroes as 'knights' had completely overshadowed the announcement of his brothers return... in fact it was a way of keeping him in check. This way Kian wouldn't be able to immediately start amassing power through this event by getting in contact with all the high ranking people present.
At last it was evening and the banquet would soon come to a close after the dance. Kim Jaehyun and the others had already talked with quite a few peoples this point and surprisingly, Lee Byeol was the first one to find herself surrounded with different high ranking nobles here and there.
Though this wasn't actually surprising to someone like Han Shinwoo, after all Lee Byeol was actually the culinary departments 'goddess'. She was beautiful entirely, her dark hair and eyes, small nose and red lips with fair skin, not forgetting her slender yet curvaceous figure. With her looks, it made sense that people flocked to her and it also made sense that she be a part of the protagonist harem.
Of course in actuality the culinary departments goddess is a full blown something-of-an-airhead but wasn't that expected of your usual harem member? At the very least the most common ones were always airheads of a sort..... Han Shinwoo thought.
(A/N: personally I'm starting to wonder just what type of manga and anime this guy got into...)
In any case, Han Shinwoo thought he wasn't quite bad himself, at least he'd had his own share of infatuated people surrounding him back on earth, it's just that they found him a bit weird and some lost their infatuation down the line.
So even in this world he was surrounded by a fair number of people whilst at the banquet.
Despite that, neither he nor Lee Byeol could compare to Kim Jaehyun once he stepped out to socialise, it was like he was a magnet, he drew people in just by existing and even King Cyan had noticed this.
He just stood there, exuding his usual and natural gentleness and people felt compelled to hold a conversation with him, he had a naturally sociable attitude and his smile made people lower their guards almost instantly.
Only Park Haejin was off on her own, she wasn't a social butterfly and didn't even try to be. She was like that on earth too.
At some point Park Haejin left to go to one of the courtyards. One could tell that this type of event wasn't really her forte or rather she just didn't fancy them all that much.
Park Haejin was standing near a fountain who's stone structure was inlaid with intricate gold carvings and its water subtly glowed with a faint tinge of blue as it reflected the warm light coming from the spirit-infused lanterns.
She reached a hand down into the water absentmindedly, you couldn't really tell what was on her mind from her somewhat blank expression.
Out of curiosity, Han Shinwoo had followed her out though he kept his distance, he was keenly aware of the fact that she'd probably manage to sense his presence if he got too close.
Just as he was passing by a massive stone pillar to go to the fountain, he heard the voice of Kim Jaehyun, it had his usual amicable tone that made it hard to even get mad at him should he say something angering.
"Your highness, is it alright if I take some of your time, I have something to ask you..."
Han Shinwoo instinctively hid himself, pressing closer to the pillar and controlling his spirit so that it wasn't emitted from his body. He didn't even know why he was eavesdropping but he had to at least finish what he started.
Prince Levi answered, "what is it?" His tone was flat as usual.... save for when he's fooling people into taking a ride on Artemis's back, Tch!
"I'd like to ask you..." Kim Jaehyun started but was interrupted.
"Before you continue," it was Prince Levi who cut him off, "drop the facade."
"What do you mean?" Kim Jaehyun asked, seemingly confused.
"I do not know if this is how you were in your previous world, but I can tell from just your aura that that is not how you truly are. Keep in mind, this is Arshnix not your earth."
Han Shinwoo felt as if something clicked in place at that moment... speaking of aura. Long before their training sessions had been halted, they'd started faintly emitting this glow around their bodies whenever they used spirit outwardly.
This spirit aura was a different colour for everyone and according to Hector Lisel, spirit was directly linked to ones persona, thus it would even affect the colour of your aura.
For example, Prince Levi's spirit aura was an icy blue. Han Shinwoo's own aura was orange, perhaps due to his enthusiasm. Lee Byeols was purple and Park Haejins was a darker shade of blue.
But Kim Jaehyuns aura which was expected to be something like green or gold or even pure white was a deep dark red... so dark that it sometimes looked black.
The only person that didn't seem at all surprised by this was Park Haejin, even Lee Byeol shuddered upon seeing Kim Jaehyuns aura and Prince Levi showed faint surprise.
Kim Jaehyun didn't say a word but for a split second there was a dark look on his face just like the one he'd shown after arguing with Park Haejin the other day. That look vanished as fast as it had never appeared.
Han Shinwoo was impressed! After overcoming the shock of course. He realised that Kim Jaehyun was truly worthy of being a protagonist.... that is a black-bellied protagonist! Or an anti-hero protagonist. That would explain his amicable behaviour yet devilish-looking aura!
Perfect! This would be even more interesting than the usual angelic-type protagonist... Han Shinwoo thought, especially since Jaehyun Sunbae seems to have a dark past as well.... I wonder what happened.
Han Shinwoo was also curious about how Prince Levi figured Kim Jaehyun out, because he seemed to have known before Kim Jaehyun started emitting his aura.
At this very moment, Kim Jaehyun who realised he'd been exposed burst out laughing.... I really... I really don't like this world at all
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(A/N: It's time for the legendary "Side characters back stories" arc!!!!!!!!!!... Nah just kidding.... not yet
I admit fleshing out characters isn't something I'm very good at 🤧🤔 but let's try it out and see what happens
Thank you for reading and if you like this book please don't forget to leave a vote and comment😃)