CHAPTER 42: CELEBRATORY FEAST

Wash me?

Tyrah’s face looked dead serious, but her sister Tierra was blushing up a storm.

"No, I can wash myself," I responded.

"Very well. Would you like us to direct you to the bathhouse?"

I nodded and got up from my bed. To my surprise, their bathhouse was a hot spring. I questioned Tyrah about it, and she said it was run using magic. Since I didn’t understand magic, I pried no further.

By the time I arrived at the bathhouse, some of my classmates were already there. Some were playing and having the time of their lives, while others were complaining about how they wished it were a mixed bath.

Apparently, their handmaidens had asked the same question mine had, but Ms. Cole forbade them before they could go through with it. She said she’d be speaking to the king about the inappropriate behavior of the handmaidens.

The boys were venting their frustration over it.

"Liam!"

Someone called out to me as I entered the washroom. It was Max—the boy I met on the island who I had given supplies to. He waved me over to where he was sitting with Theo, Ethan, and Tyler. Coincidentally, Max and the others I had met were in the same class as me.

"Man! My handmaidens are so cute!" I heard Theo exclaim as I sat down beside them.

"It does feel good to be called a lord, doesn’t it?" Ethan added.

"Wait," Tyler said, looking like he had just come to a realization. "Do you think they’ll sleep in our rooms tonight?" he asked, practically drooling.

It seemed they were rather excited to have handmaidens. This was par for the course with them; most of their conversations centered around girls—who was dating whom, who was the cutest girl in class—stuff like that.

"What about you, Liam?" Max asked with a huge grin on his face. "Are your handmaidens cute?"

"I guess you could say that," I answered, which prompted them to pry even more for details. When I told them that my handmaidens were twins, it seemed to set off a chain reaction of even more questions.

Why that was so important to them, I didn’t know. I guess it was one of those things I couldn’t understand.

Before we entered the hall where the feast would take place, Ms. Cole gathered us to issue a warning.

"This feast you’re going to attend is no simple affair," she said in a stern voice. "You see, in a world like this, terrorized by monsters, people like you with systems are as valuable as gold. No, in fact, you’re even more valuable. This feast is no better than an auction house; you’ll be approached by countless nobles attempting to buy you off. I want you to stand your ground and let them know you can’t be bought."

Being approached by vultures hungry for our power wasn’t anything new to us. We had been approached by hero agency representatives countless times back home. She was only letting us know that here wouldn’t be any different.

As we approached the banquet hall, we heard the cheerful sounds of nobles laughing and talking. The banquet hall was beautifully decorated with flower petals. In the middle of the room was a long table that looked like it could seat at least 50 people.

All the servants were women dressed in some sort of traditional attire that was a tad too revealing in certain places. The room was filled with laughter and celebration. As we entered, a loud cheer erupted, prompted by the king.

"Welcome! Heroes!" he declared in a voice that seemed to shake the room, which was surprising for a man of his short stature.

We were warmly welcomed by the guests, most of whom swarmed around us, offering compliments that I was mostly sure were insincere. They were clever about it too—some brought along their kids our age in an attempt to make friends.

A lot of my classmates didn’t see through this and were quick to make friends with the delicate girls of nobility or the princely young masters. I quickly noticed something while being questioned by the nobles—they were asking about specific heroes, by their hero names no less.

It seemed the nobles weren’t the only ones scheming; the school was too. They had leaked our ranks to the nobles. I kept hearing mentions of Gravity Girl and Psionic Boy. Those two were the rank 1 and rank 2 heroes of our class.

I even heard my hero name brought up a couple of times. This might be part of the reason why the school advised us to keep our hero names a secret. I was grateful that I had kept mine hidden; otherwise, I’d have to fend them off.

From the looks of things, it seemed they had figured out that the rank 1 hero—Gravity Girl—was actually Amelia, and the rank 2 hero, Psionic Boy, was Hikari.

Luckily, things settled down a bit once the feast started. All 40 students, including myself and our homeroom teacher, sat around the table with the royal family and a few honored guests.

The royal family consisted of the king, the queen, and their four children. The oldest child was a girl who looked rather young; if I had to guess, I would say she was around 20 years old. She took after her mother, the queen, and had red hair and fair complexion. She was a running stiff competition with Amelia when it came to looks.

Looking at her, I could get the sense that she didn’t want to be here. There was also another thing my eyes noticed about her...

The second daughter looked slightly younger than us. Just like her father, she had blond hair. She and Hikari seemed to be getting along well, laughing and chatting, which earned Hikari a few angry glares from some of the boys in our class.

The other two children were both boys who looked no older than 6 years old.

The food was elegantly prepared and placed across the table. They served all kinds of meats and vegetables that were masterfully cooked. From where I was sitting, I briefly heard the king boasting to Hikari and Amelia that he had hired the best chef versed in culinary magic.

The two of them had the closest seats to the royal family, while the rest of the class was mostly spread out randomly. Luckily, their favoritism toward Amelia and Hikari didn’t ruin the mood.

My classmates were just happy to be there, and the conversation around the table remained joyous. When everything wrapped up, we were permitted to leave. After wishing the royal family a pleasant night, we returned to our rooms.

"My Lord, welcome back," the twins greeted me in unison as I entered my room.

Apparently, they had been waiting up for me in case I needed something. After assuring them that I was fine for the night, I sent them back to the servants’ quarters. I ended up passing out on the bed just moments after they left.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

I was awakened early in the morning by loud bangs on my door. Still groggy from sleep, I dragged myself to the door where I was greeted by the panicked faces of my handmaidens.

"My Lord! I’m sorry to wake you, but it’s urgent!"

"What is it?" I asked, a bit grumpily.

"It’s, umm—The monsters have escaped the labyrinth—they’re attacking the city!"