After a few moments, the banquet hall fell silent, the reason is that some people entered the hall. The group has Count and Principal Castor in lead while a few people are following them closely.
They moved towards the main table which is very near the table, Sam and the rest of the rankers sat. Sam noticed a young woman, tagging along with a middle-aged woman in the group.
After the group reached the table, the middle-aged lady whispered something to the young lady and the latter left the table. Sam's gaze followed her. She sat at the Violet dew family table. She sat beside a familiar girl whom Sam met before. She is Jessie who was also part of team 6. When he noticed the remaining people, he recognised another person.
The middle-aged who sat on the other side of Jessie. He is the man who sent Kelly back home along with the heads.
Sam turned to Hawk and asked. "Who is that man?"
Hawk followed Sam's gaze and immediately recognised the person. "He is father of Jessie Violet dew."
"Oh, who is that other girl then?"
"She is Jasmine Violet dew. A cousin of Jessie." Sam nodded and didn't ask further.
After everyone settled down, Count Falcon stood up and made his speech.
"First of all, thanks for all the guests here for attending this banquet. Today, we are here to celebrate the successful completion of the tournament as well as to encourage the rankers who are able to enter the Marquis academy.
I don't want to bore you with some superficial words. Everyone let us enjoy all together. Let the banquet begin."
After that the dishes are served. All the tables are being served with meat of Level 2 beasts, spiritual wine and herbal dishes made of rank 1 herbs. Sam enjoyed the food without much of care about all the socialising that was going on other tables. He didn't eat properly in past few days. He was completely struck in the tower working his ass off.
The dinner went on and soon, everyone moved to the Ball room which is adjacent to the banquet hall.
There are some seating arrangements at corners of the room where some wine and some refreshments are arranged. There is a big dance floor. A stage is provided at one end of the room, and musicians are busy playing some melodious music.
This ball is completely a socializing event. While some couples are dancing in the dance floor, the rest of the people are either spectating or talking to others with superficial smiles.
Sam went over towards the Count and Principal Castor to make a toast with a glass of fruit juice. Kelly is tagging along with him.
"Thanks for inviting me, Count Falcon." Sam said with a smile.
"it is our honour for Sir Sam, to come here." Count replied with a smile. After some small talk, the count said.
"Sir, Sam. May I trouble you to stay here after the ball is over? I have something to discuss with you." Sam immediately guessed the intentions, but still agreed.
After that, Sam went to stand at a corner and spectated, young couples and old couples dancing for the music. He felt that he was back at his previous life for a moment. Then he shook his head to not let his thoughts wander.
After sometime, Hawk, Philip, Jack, Ray, Drew and rest all joined him at the corner again attracting attention. Freya is dancing with a young master. Her red hair, white skin and golden-red dress with phoenix design, she attracted a lot of attention. Of course, Haley didn't lose out at all, but since she was conservative, she doesn't let anyone approach her.
Soon, a young master came to their group. This noble second -generation kid is someone Hawk and others are familiar with.
"Kelly, it has been a while since we last met. How about a dance?" The young master directly ignored all the crowd and asked Kelly for the dance. His gaze was completely locked on her as his l.u.s.tful eyes roamed over her figure.
Actually, Kelly is the most beautiful girl in the whole banquet. Only one girl in the younger generation can be compared with her. But no one has come to ask her for a dance and why is that? Because her hands are linked with Sam's.
But the young master completely ignored this.
"Sorry, not interested." Kelly outright rejected. The young man gritted his teeth and looked at Sam.
"Will you let her go for some time?" He is angry. But he can't direct his anger at Kelly, so he is trying to take it out on Sam. So, his voice is actually a bit loud.
Before Sam could even react, Hawk said. "What do you mean Eddy? Do you mean that Sam is not letting her go and stopping her from dancing with you?"
Eddy didn't reply, but his expression said that he really is implying that. He was Kelly's number 1 admirer since they were kids. But he didn't have any progress all these years. Before, he was able to make a retort, someone came.
There are two people who arrived to their corner. They are the middle-aged woman and young woman who came inside with Count.
"Greetings, Artisan Sam. It is an honour to meet you." Maya violet dew greeted with a smile.
"How can that be? Your Violet dew family it very capable and powerful. I am the one who should be honoured." Sam replied with somewhat cold and sarcastic tone.
The young lady beside Maya has a change in her expression. He turned towards her and said.
"This must be the last member of Big four. Jasmine Violet dew."
Hawk and others were stunned. They didn't mention about the identity of Jasmine as part of Big four, because they wanted to see if Sam would guess it correctly. And here he did it.
"Nice to meet you too, Artisan Sam." Jasmine said in neutral tone.
Sam sized her up after looking at her demeanour. She is as beautiful as Kelly. She has a brown shoulder length hair and her eyes are also brown in colour. Her figure is not as voluptuous as Kelly. She has long legs which gave her different type of beauty.
"What do you mean acting like that in front of Lady Maya. Don't you know that she is a rank 4 Artisan? Even if you are rank 3 Artisan you still have to respect her as a senior. Seems like the ranking has gone to your head too much." Suddenly, Eddy who was forgotten by the group chided in.
Sam frowned as he looked at him. Eddy felt even more frustrated after seeing latter's face and said again.
"You might be a young genius Artisan. But you still have to respect the status of the rank 4 Artisan. Do you think so highly of yourself to the point that you can disregard Lay Maya's status?" Sam felt so frustrated by this clown that he wanted to slap him on the face. But he controlled himself. He looked at Maya and said.
"I clearly knew how much Artisan Maya's status is capable of. Her status enough to do anything they like in the Falcon Cliff city. Isn't it right Lady Maya? Even Mr. Eddy also knew how much weight your status can pull." Sam again replied with sarcastic smile.
Maya also felt frustrated. She immediately threw an unhappy glare Eddy. She specifically came here to clear the misunderstanding and prejudice Sam might have towards her, but this idiot has to come here and paint her image as even more tyrannical.
"Who are you?" She asked Eddy with a cold tone. But the latter was clearly unaware of it. He was delighted that he caught Maya's attention and said happily.
"Lady Maya, I am Eddy Rafsa. My father is the head of Rafsa family."
"Oh, the Rafsa family, is it?" Maya muttered and turned towards Jasmine. "Jasmine, remember the name of this family. We will be halting any dealings with Rafsa family indefinitely and tell this to all the families and businesses we have relation with about this."
Hearing this Eddy was completely shocked and felt cold all over.
"L-Lady Maya…" Just as he was about to say something, Hawk interrupted.
"Eddy, one has to know their own limitations. You should know better than to wag your mouth in a conversation which you don't have any qualifications to participate. It will only get worse if you stay here. I think it is best if you go and find your father."
Maya nodded at what Hawk said and turned to Sam.
"Artisan Sam. I know you have some prejudice towards me due to previous incident and I can clearly understand you, but I believe there is some misunderstanding between us. In actual fact, I don't have any relation regarding that incident, I don't even know about what happened until it was reported to me after your way of handling things. The incident is completely done by Jessie and her father and even family head doesn't have anything to do with it.
I hope we can clear this misunderstanding and I am here to invite you to dinner in Violet dew mansion." Sam raised his eyebrow and looked at her with some surprise.
He didn't expect that the matter will be like this, he was really impressed with Jessie's and her father's guts to use a rank 4 Artisan name without even consulting her.
"When?" Sam asked after some thought.
"When are you free artisan Sam?"
"Then, I will contact you with the communication token then. I have somethings keeping me busy for following days." Sam said as he withdrew the communication token the Jessie's father sent him. After both exchanged their spiritual signatures on the tokens, Maya and Jasmine left.
"Master, why are you polite to him?" Jasmine asked with the same neutral tone.
"You will understand in future." Maya said as she patted her on her shoulder.
The corner again reached its initial situation.
Sam was bored and just looked around the dance floor. He then involuntarily noticed that Kelly is looking at the dance floor with some desire and some hesitant expression. He understood and extended his hand as he asked.
"Will you accompany me to a dance?" Sam asked in a gentle tone. Kelly was stunned for a moment and placed her hand in his, then both of them went into the middle of the dance floor and slowly danced for the slow melody.
They immediately gathered the attention of the crowd. After all, a handsome young man and a beautiful young lady, dressed in black which is completely on contrast to their fair skin, dancing to a beautiful melody, this scene was only a petal shower away from becoming a scene from a fairy tale.
While people in the banquet hall are enjoying the dance and conversations, the southern region is in chaos.
Numerous areas in the southern region are smashed and set on fire. Many acolytes are dead and many establishments are destroyed. The damage is very high. The city guards and a certain Novice are having a head ache.
When they noticed that there are no attacks after the Western region, the black pond thought that their restructuring was effective, but within three days their acolytes are again targeted and got attacked.
They are suffering a set back after set back. The manager of the Black pond is going on a spree of destroying the items in his residence. He doesn't know how the other party is able to gain intelligence on what is going on other side. He didn't even have a single clue.
In the southern region on the top of a small inn, two birds are standing and looking at the burning shop. One of them is an ordinary raven and the other one is an ordinary falcon. But nobody is noticing them. Even if they see them, they might not do anything. After all, who would care about two normal birds which are not even level 1 beasts when there is a shop burning in front of them.
"Sky, are we done for the night?"
"Yes, this is the last place Sam that Shadow mice mentioned. Most of the network in southern region is destroyed.
