Chapter 86

The flower fragrance grew stronger as they approached the banquet venue. Breaking through the light mist, they saw a clear lake surrounded by flowering trees. In the middle of the lake stood a grand and magnificent pavilion, which was to be the venue for the dragon's birthday banquet today.

Though Kinaine had encountered many magnificent things in the past, he had never seen such a beautiful landscape. If the weather had been bright, it would have been truly like a picture-perfect scene.

The interior of the pavilion was decorated even more splendidly than its exterior.

'Seems I'm the first to arrive.'

After scanning the surroundings, Kinaine's gaze finally turned to the chair placed on the high platform. The seat's owner, the dragon, hadn't arrived yet as it was empty.

"Lord Nine, I'll show you to your seat."

The servant guided Kinaine to the table on the right, closest to the dragon's seat. Kinaine was somewhat taken aback by the unexpectedly good position. Usually in such situations, seating position was tantamount to status, and looking around, his seat was the best place after the dragon's.

"Is anything uncomfortable?"

"No, not at all."

"Then, please feel free to let us know if you need anything."

The servant's attitude was so polite it felt awkward.

Kor, who sat down with Kinaine, noticed his discomfort and asked.

"Are you really alright?"

"Yes, I'm just a bit uncomfortable with this situation."

Was it that obvious? Kinaine straightened his posture and erased his awkward demeanor.

Thinking about it, he hadn't received anything good from others since switching bodies with Hasan. That's why he could remain calm even when receiving quarters that were little better than ruins, or when bugs came out of the basket instead of food.

But conversely, receiving better treatment than others felt somehow awkward. It felt even more so because he could guess why he had received a good seat and why the servants' attitudes were so polite.

After sitting and waiting for a while, the other bride candidates soon arrived. Seeing the seats they were guided to, Kinaine was certain his thoughts were correct.

'They assigned seats based on selection test scores.'

The higher the ranking, the closer the seat was to the dragon. Once all the bride candidates were seated, it was clear at a glance who was first and who was last in the current selection tests, even without announcing the scores.

Kor muttered while lifting his teacup.

"They're staring intensely."

Kinaine felt it too. His cheeks stung from the gazes. Various emotions like hostility, wariness, and curiosity flew at them like arrows. If those gazes had physical form, they would have already become porcupines.

Apart from being burdensome, he could understand others' reactions. Not only had Kinaine received unexpectedly high scores, but Kor had officially appeared for the first time in hundreds of years, so it was natural for attention to pour on them.

"Is it burdensome?"

"How could it be? I'm not a newly born spirit, I'm not young enough to feel burdened by such things."

Hearing those words, Kinaine suddenly became curious about Kor's age.

"Lord Kor, how old are you?"

"Well, I haven't counted since after about 800 years."

"Eight... hundred? Do all spirits live that long?"

"Not all spirits, but leaders tend to have long lifespans. Still, even I am like a child before Shinsurial."

To think someone who had lived over 800 years was considered a child. Just how old was this spirit called Shinsurial? Kinaine could only blink at lifespans incomparable to humans.

"Come to think of it, this must be your first time seeing the leaders. You should learn about them while you can."

Kor put down his teacup and swept his gaze around.

"First, that blue-haired man sitting there is Shinsurial, leader of the scaled tribe. Though he has a gentle personality, he shouldn't be taken lightly. The scaled tribe is the only one whose leader has never changed since the spirit realm's existence. He's incredibly old, enough to have connections with Lady Maira, the first dragon."

Maira? Kinaine thought he had seen that name somewhere.

'Ah, I remember. It was the name written on the jar that sealed the magical beast in the first test.'

Though he had guessed Maira was a previous dragon before Asad, to think she was the very first dragon. Realizing he had seen a message left from so long ago made him feel strange.

"And that one with nine tails is Fei, leader of the tailed tribe. Though he seems like an eccentric idler from his behavior, he's actually clever and moves with the trends, so he shouldn't be taken lightly. And the last one is..."

"I'll introduce myself, Kor."

Kinaine wasn't startled by the sudden interruption as he had already sensed someone approaching.

A red-haired woman with horns on her forehead gestured toward Kinaine.

"Hello, first time seeing you since that time on the bridge?"

"Hello, Lady Igni."

Igni raised her eyebrows silently.

"Oh, you remembered my name?"

"Even someone as stupid as me wouldn't dare forget Lady Igni's name."

"You're quite good with words. Well, the humans I've seen were generally good talkers too."

Igni's gaze swept Kinaine up and down. Though not exactly hostile, she didn't hide her dismissive attitude either. Come to think of it, when they met on the bridge too, Igni had shown a subtly dismissive attitude toward humans.

This was more familiar than being treated with respect. Perhaps because his expectations were low, having never seen a spirit who was friendly to him from the start, he didn't particularly feel offended.

Igni tilted her head and asked.

"But this isn't a speaking contest, and it's hard to believe you beat Prim in magical beast hunting. Just how did you catch the magical beast?"

"I was lucky."

"Hmm, luck..."

At that moment, Igni threw a punch toward Kinaine's face. It was so fast it made a sharp whistling sound. If it had hit, it would surely have broken his facial bones.

Kinaine didn't dodge.

Igni inwardly clicked her tongue seeing the black eyes that watched her incoming attack without fear or surprise.

Luck? How modest.

It was Kor who blocked Igni's attack. Catching her wrist, Kor showed his irritation without hiding his displeasure.

"What are you doing, Igni?"

"Excuse me, there was just a bug."

There couldn't possibly be bugs with insect-repelling incense burning everywhere. But Igni made a show of shaking her hand as if she had really caught something.

"If you lay hands on him like that one more time, I won't let it slide."

"Hey, why so scary? I wasn't planning to hurt him anyway. Well, it would have been fun if he had been frightened."

Though it might be disappointing that he didn't meet her expectations, Kinaine had no reason to be frightened. There had been no killing intent in Igni's attack. That's why he had recognized it as provocation early on and deliberately didn't dodge.

Igni too realized that Kinaine had understood her intention and intentionally didn't dodge her attack. But even knowing that, normally one would at least flinch slightly when suddenly attacked, but he hadn't, which meant...

"Human, you're fearless. Some are born that way. I quite like such people."

Shrugging her shoulders, Igni turned back toward her seat and threw words as if entranced.

"But sadly, they all tend to have short lives?"

Kor clenched his fists, bristling. However, instead of rushing at Igni, he closed his eyes and suppressed his temper.

"...Igni naturally has a fiery temperament and likes starting fights. Don't get involved."

Though it seemed more like words to himself than to Kinaine, Kinaine silently nodded.

Kor had no need to worry. Kinaine's life hadn't been smooth enough to get angry and rush at every such comment.

But.

'For words thrown just for provocation, they were quite accurate.'

He did briefly think that.

Suddenly, Kinaine raised his head and looked somewhere.

"What's wrong?"

"...It's nothing."

Kinaine habitually reached for his necklace as he did when anxious. He felt the touch of the necklace safely tucked inside his clothes.

He lowered his eyes and sank into thought.

Though very briefly, he had felt killing intent.

Among the countless types of gazes directed at him, only one contained killing intent. But before he could determine who harbored such feelings toward him, it had instantly vanished.

From bride candidates to their servants and guards, to the dragon palace servants... there were too many to pick just one.

'The most likely would be Biche? He seemed to have negative feelings toward me.'

Anyway, if someone here harbored killing intent toward him, he needed to be careful. Though his life might be short, he at least didn't want to be murdered unjustly.

It was right then. Someone strode into the banquet hall.