NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 172: Unexpected turn
[City of Sarcena]
As Batoim joined the other emperors in creating a throne to tower over the masses from a throne of his own, Serania, Jennia, and Allaire stayed close to Darganth as they made their way through the crowd. Heading for the balcony to use the little bit of time left in the opening ceremony to catch a glimpse of the view from there, they attracted the attention of large parts of the surrounding crowd as they made their way there.
Dressed in a mix of white fabrics with silver edges and greenish pieces of metal armor, Allaire stood out the most from their group. She did so not only because she was openly carrying her bow on her back, though that was a large part of it, but also because no other attendee wore armor.
Furthermore, not even the fabric parts of her clothing looked like they fit into the occasion. Instead of expensive silks, they consisted of a series of cloth pieces above an underlying tunic and pants combination that covered most of her body. Together, these formed a tight-fitting outfit more akin to those seen on rangers and scouts than during a party with nobles.
To this, she wore practical leather boots that went up to her knee and were reinforced with metal at the front. Her forearms were also covered in bracers made of a similar leather and metal mix, with the one on her left ending in a completely fingerless glove while the one on the right ended in one that covered her middle and index fingers.
Her forehead was meanwhile decorated with a fairly simple-looking diadem that held the spell that kept her beastman ears hidden. As a nice side benefit, its physical form also prevented hair from falling in front of her face.
Lastly and most strikingly she wore a metal chest plate that was a mix of functionality and design. Fitting tightly to her torso that it covered completely, its form had two bulges for her breasts despite the drawbacks this had over having a loose fit across the entire chest area to accommodate for them.
Furthermore, its cutout for her shoulder was generously large, only having solid protection from above with the armor there extending to her entire shoulder width. In all other directions, there were at least a couple of centimeters of space between her skin and the armor, leaving enough freedom of movement when using her bow.
This armor was the second major reason she stuck out in the crowd. Both it and the bow and arrows she carried were in flagrant disregard to the fact that normally only the emperors would openly carry weapons or wear armor. Most other participants would still have them on their person as there wasn't a rule that stated that they were forbidden, but they carried them either in personal pocket dimensions or in magic items or artifacts that connected to a pocket dimension.
In comparison to this, the rest of their group were dressed far more alike to at least some other groups of participants.
For Serania this would be the mages present, with her having declined the offer of customized pieces of enchanted clothing that Edylia had made them. Instead, she wore one of the sets of multilayered robes with a comparatively simplistic and minimalistic leather armor beneath it.
That wasn't to say that she didn't put much thought or effort into her outfit for such a day, just that she saw no need for such a striking item.
Her efforts instead went toward adding silver and azure green decorations to the plain black robes, placing more enchantments on them, as well as replacing the hood and cloak that usually went with it with a fitting cape that had the insignia that the dragons on Ikrus used as their identification prominently visible on it. Not only was this cape more fitting for the occasion, but the insignia was practically the only thing differentiating her clothing from what many of the other beastmen mages in attendance wore.
Jennia meanwhile looked similar enough to some of the few other beasts that were present to fit in, making her stand out far less despite also wearing pieces of armor.
Additionally, her hands and forearms were transformed into claws all the way up to her shoulders, leaving only glimpses of skin visible between the point where the scales ended and her sleeveless shirt began.
Above this shirt, she wore the black armor Darganth had made for her out of his scales. This, together with the two horns protruding from her temples and curving backward as well as her draconic-looking eyes added some more dragon-like traits to the similarities she shared with other lesser dragons and clearly distinguished her from these subordinates of Neandra.
Among their group, only Darganth fit in more. Wearing his shoulder long hair loosely combed back and tucked behind his ear, his face would've looked like that of just another human if it weren't for his draconic eyes.
His clothes also didn't stand out much, with them consisting of a loose-fitting red shirt with a large neckline that was held together by adjustable strings, black pants, and a black overshirt. All of these were finely made, blending in perfectly with the clothes worn by many of the other attendees.
The only thing that even made him stand out to a fleeting look was the pair of draconic wings folded behind his back. Though with multiple beasts and mythic rank aura users displaying wings of their own, he still received the least attention out of their group, as he had intended.
Ignoring the still monumental amount of attention he was receiving just like the other three did, Darganth soon stood at the railing of the balcony.
“When this all is over we'll have to take a vacation here.” Allaire said as they let their gazes wander across the clear blue ocean.
“Certainly. Maybe even with Alicia, she'll probably love this view.” Darganth answered her.
“Then let's not make the land suffer too much today.” Jennia said.
Agreeing with a nod, Darganth took in the sight of the ocean for another moment before turning around to look across the crowd.
“What are you thinking about?” Serania asked when she noticed his expression.
“Who might be here as a candidate to be the neutral arbiter. Neandra mentioned that if all emperors besides Batoim have used all their vetoes there should still be just over a dozen candidates left and I'm trying to find out which ones.” Darganth said.
“And, any ideas?” Serania asked interested.
Frowning in dissatisfaction, Darganth shook his head.
“No. But something about Arkuns is off, so I couldn't use my eyes to their full capabilities.”
“He noticed?” Serania asked surprised.
Unsure, Darganth hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Maybe. He's been watching me closely since we separated from the others, but he seems to also keep an eye on them. Well, Yldra and Sarkia at least, Irsyr seems to hiding himself.”
“Then that might be it.” Allaire suggested.
“Let's hope you're right.” Darganth said.
Though he said those words, Darganth wasn't even remotely convinced. Regularly glancing over to Arkuns in suspicion as he continued searching through the crowd, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was amiss.
Still having found nothing concrete when a few minutes later a group of five individuals walked toward Arkuns and stopped in a half circle next to his throne, Darganth stopped searching and instead focused on the arbiter selection that was about to start.
“What do you think they'll use, some ancient artifact maybe?” Jennia asked once the last of them stood in place.
Before Daranth could answer her, the man in the center reached into a pocket dimension. Quickly finding what he was searching for, he pulled out an ordinary looking bag about as large as his palm, much to Jennia's disappointment.
Though as he opened the knot keeping it closed, blue inscriptions started to glow along its side, drawing her interest again. Without the man having to do anything, these inscriptions pulsed with energy a few times as the magic item randomly chose one of the names.
Soon the light coming from it started to dim, and with it, a small inscribed marble rose up from inside the bag. Hovering above it, the name written on its surface started to glow blue as it revealed itself.
“Torrak!” The man announced.
Immediately recognizing the name, Darganth glanced toward Neandra. Though outwardly calm, when he met her gaze he saw the roller-coaster of emotions she was going through as a result of the announcement.
'We need a change of plans.' She transmitted him telepathically, taking great care to not be detected by Arkuns.
'That we do.' Darganth replied grimly.
Quickly searching through the room for Irsyr, he saw in the latter's eyes that his senses hadn't been mistaken and that fate magic had been used to manipulate this drawing.
'This is becoming troublesome.' Darganth thought to himself.
After all, such a direct application of fate magic was vastly more difficult than simply reading the possible futures. Not only would a spell have to have the power to move the strands of fate, but it also had to have enough power left to overcome the passive resistance any involved individual created toward such changes.
Even if he assumed that no one in the room even considered interfering enough to create a remotely probable branch of the future that the spell had to prevent, just overcoming the five mythic ranks whose mana powered the artifact would exceed the capabilities of everyone outside a few individuals that are all on Darganth's side.
As a result, he could come only to one conclusion.
'An unknown faction has started to move.'
