Chapter 5 - Preparation For The Banquet
Days continued to pass as the maidens were trained. For a normal woman who lived in modern days, the training was rather boring as it mostly involved things that medieval women in human's history would be taught off - reading and writing - in Magi's language of course, history, culture, proper etiquettes, singing, dancing, playing the instruments, and many more. But most of them were topics revolving on how to be a good wife, how to be a good wife, and another how to be a good wife lessons. They even included topics about sexuality and ways of pleasing men in bed.
Until one day, news arrived at each palace.
"Everyone listen up," the Elite magus, also known as "Malum", who led the group of evil women, started. He had dark green hair, light brown eyes, and pale skin tone. His face looked like he's around mid 30's in age, with handsome looks as well - at a human's perspective at least - since the magi race would often describe this as an average-looking face, and a forever listless expression. Like a warlock of some sort, he wore a black suit and pants with dark boots extending to his knees, covered by a big dark green cloak that extended to his ankles.
The girls who were just bickering and smirking at each other, now gathered in front of Malum. They were in the social room inside the Pémptos palace.
"Tomorrow night, a banquet will be held at the king's palace," he spoke with his slow, condescending voice. "This is your first time attending our banquet since you needed to be trained prior to properly meeting and socializing with the king. I do certainly hope that all the things I taught you remained in that little brain of yours."
At this remark, some girls rolled their eyes.
"Also, be ready to entertain the king and of course, gain his favor if you don't want to be given away to some old, stinking noble or experts. As I mentioned before, the king only needs at least 20 concubines or less and a puppet queen to serve him in bed. Since you humans are not that beautiful, it may as well be 10 or less concubines, and a queen, instead. So be sure to do your best in seducing him."
Everyone murmured and started thinking.
"...Oh! Right.. Before I forgot," he continued. "I prepared a little present for each of you. I've placed it in your room, be sure to use it if you want to be ahead amongst the others. And pleeeease, do something about that cunning Aza~lea? Or whoever she is. She definitely used her wits to gain herself the favor of the king last time," and after a pause, "Again, if they can't be your pawn ~..."
" - get rid of them." everyone chorused.
"And if they block your paths.."
" - get rid of them."
"And if they - "
"Yeah, yeah, we get it, old fart," someone interrupted. It was none other than a long-legged, alluring girl, around 18 years of age, with long and smooth purple hair and captivating pink eyes. Her voice, soft yet commanding and very sexy. And her name was "Selena Fidelis".
Malum smirked and raised his right eyebrow.
"Instead of you spouting nonsense over and over again, why don't you just do something about this dress we're wearing? It's like, duh! My hair is purple and I'm wearing dark green? How eggplanty~ can I be? I definitely won't be able to seduce the king at this rate," she babbled nonstop.
"Your straightforwardness always amuses me, Selena." Malum said, smiling. "But of course, I also prepared beautiful gowns for each of you, and don't worry, it's not a pandora dress so it won't change color and design once you wear it. You can also find it in your rooms."
"But aren't we not allowed to dress differently aside from the pandora's dress?" asked the curious one amongst them.
"Oh darling, you're not new here. We never follow orders anyway, so why bother?" Selena answered.
"Yeah, let's just use this to our advantage." answered the other.
"Alrighty~, juuusst asking."
"And what of our very own Odile?" Selena turned to Rania who was staring at the large window, watching the falling leaves outside.
She then turned around to Selena for us to welcome a Rania who lost her glow and brilliance. She now reflected a face of a lifeless yet bewitching doll.
After a moment of silence, she only said two words. "Not interested".
With that remark, Malum was enthralled and got excited about what's to come of tomorrow's banquet.
And so, tomorrow came.
Early in the morning, each palace did their best in preparing for the banquet. Everyone prepared their own gifts for the king since this banquet was to celebrate humanity's utter failure in subduing their kind. Trítos and Tétartos palaces were preparing rather reluctantly knowing the reason for the banquet. Défteros and Próta palaces were also reluctant at the beginning but their will to survive was greater, and so they did their best in preparing their gifts. But woe to those in Pémptos who were taking delight in this event. With no kindness in their hearts, they care not of what happened to their own planet - completely accustomed themselves in the world of Magi.
With all the preparations, it didn't take that long for evening to come and for the banquet to commence.
The palace of the king was decorated so extravagantly that night. The whole "Grand Palace" was filled with red and gold all over. The floor was covered with clear white marble tiles and golden carpet embroidered with white gold roses and other flowers. The middle part of the hall was topped with bright red velvet carpet. Large victorian-looking windows that could be seen at all sides were covered with golden velvet drapes with white gold designs at the seams and ends of each curtain. And what are we to say about the chandeliers? They were simply magnificent and blindingly luminous. They were made of golden gems and crystals supported by white gold metal, very large in appearance, but the distance from the floor to the ceiling made them look a little smaller in size. The marble tables and soft upholstered chairs that looked like mini couches were of very high quality as well. The table was set formally with all the human cutlery, plates, and goblets. There were also musicians prepared at the top right corner of the hall.
The king's throne was set at the farthest center, elevated amongst the rest. Behind the throne was a very large, translucent white crystal - too big that it reached the ceiling of the hall. It was the most extravagant area in the whole banquet hall and the red carpet led to him.
One level below him were 4 smaller thrones, 2 on each of his sides, for his "Judges". Another level below them were 12 other magnificent seats, six in each of his sides reserved for the "Generals".
Judging on human standards, the whole palace decoration seems like how a normal human would decorate the royal palace if it weren't for those small floating orbs of light orbiting the white crystal behind the king's throne. There were 12 of them and each radiated a different color - red, blue, green, yellow, white, black, turquoise, purple, pink, brown, light brown, and orange.
After a little while, everyone gathered. They arrived in different manners. Some arrived via magic portals, some via carriages-looking vehicles, some by flying, and some, just suddenly popping out of nowhere. Most of them wore cloaks of varying colors to protect them from the chilly atmosphere of the night.
The judges and generals sat on their assigned seats. The mythics and legends were in the front row near the king, the nobles on the next, and the others, scattered about. The music began to play as they awaited for the king. None started a thing without him.
Dun-dun-dun-dun!
The mellow music suddenly changed to an upbeat one. In this signal, everyone rose up to welcome the arrival of the king.
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Title: "A Beautiful Catastrophe"
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