394: 394. The Hustle

394. The Hustle

Unfortunately, he had no chance to follow this line of thought

Today was the day of the party, that Princess Leana hat talked about. He had promised to come and needed to get ready for the event.

"Are you ready?" Mina asked after he got dressed.

The moment he saw Mina in her drop-dead gorgeous dress, he didn't regret having to leave his workshop anymore. She wore a rather revealing black dress with slits that gave a view of her long legs, a deep cleavage, and an open back.

The venue was a wide ballroom at the princess' residence. Everyone wore fine evening attire. A piece of calm music was playing in the background as people stood around and talked.

Seth's entourage only consisted of four people.

It was obvious that Mina came along, and the Princess demanded the presence of Fin. Most of his friends gladly skipped the event to stay at the tower and do their own things. The surprising additions that wanted to come along were Lydia and Mike who joined them at the location.

The cybergoth in a regal evening dress was already an unusual sight. Seeing the handsome and confident beastman, looking awkward and uncomfortable in a suit made it hard for Seth not to smile.

Mike kept blushing and looking away. From the way he was chained down by her interlocked elbow, it was clear whose idea it was to join tonight. Lydia on the other side smiled brightly and ignored her partner's struggles.

"Hoh, Lydia, did you fish yourself a cat boy?" he teased

"I had a great role model." she hinted at Mina at Seth's side.

"I knew you were a person of culture." he praised.

"I couldn't help it."

While the people of culture were talking, Mina and Mike didn't really know what was going on but tried their best to pretend not to know them. Despite holding hands with these people.

"Mou, stop talking couple talk when Fin is alone here!" Fin's voice sounded from Seth's shoulder.

The tiny fairy wore a tiny dress.

"What do you, aren't you here with me?"

"No! You are here with Mina. Fin is alone!"

"Can't I be here with both of you?"

"Then promise to dance with Fin!"

Seth started sweating. Dancing? The problem was that he didn't know how to dance! He was originally terrible at singing, this lack of talent extended to dancing.

Every time he had tied to dance would end in disaster. Seth has already been a mess of destruction before the apocalypse. Just what kind of damage would he cause, when he started to dance now with all his levels and buffs?

He looked at the big dark eyes of the fairy, that were stabbing him with expectations.

He glanced at Mina. If he danced with Fin, he would also have to dance with Mina. The woman at his side actually winked at him as if she had understood his worries. She squeezed his hand and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Don't worry about me. The only dance I expect of you is the mattress-tango," she breathed with a raunchy smile.

Fine, she had asked for it. Assured that the disaster would only happen once, he washed his hands off all responsibilities for the damage he would cause.

"Okay, let's dance later." he agreed to the fairy brute, setting off a squeaky scream of joy.

The fairy shot off after securing his promise. Until the dancing started, she would do her own thing. Seth felt dark clouds rising in the buffet's immediate future. He knew restraint, Fin knew what it was but decided to ignore it.

The only people in the room Seth really knew aside from his friends, were Elza, Marcel, brock, and the Princess. The other person he knew about was the mist demon from the tournament. The others were all strangers.

Two corners of the ballroom were occupied by a dark figure each. One was the brooding silhouette of a tall man with broad shoulders, the other was smaller and seemed to belong to a woman. Both hid their faces using a hood.

In a group of three, there was a somewhat short young woman with short black hair and a tomboyish aura, an older, elegant gentleman with graying hair and an impressive mustache, and Brock. They were already talking quite friendly with each other.

On the side, there was a beautiful woman sitting alone at one of the tables. Her almost sickly pale skin and pale blond hair gave her an ethereal beauty. Her white evening dress was hard at work, keeping her voluptuous chest at bay.

She wasn't Seth's type, but he could appreciate a good view. Mina at his side followed his gaze, and appreciated the good view, too.

The woman was just taking a sip of her drink when the tranquil scenery was disturbed by the approach of a handsome lad with slicked-back hair. He smiled amicably and enthusiastically started talking to the silent beauty.

She did not talk back but also did not shoo him away. He needed high social skills to keep his confidence when facing his aloof and unbudging belle.

There were more people in the room, but those were the ones he recognized from the meeting.

"Seth!" Marcel greeted them as he and Elza approached.

Seth waved at him and introduced them to Mina and the others.

"Lydia Willis? From the Willis family?" Elza asked curiously

"The last of my kind," she answered in playful drama which actually managed to make the cold beauty laugh.

Seth talked a while longer with Marcel before he took aim at the Princess, who had been busy with official-looking people until now.

On his way, he was intercepted by the small woman that had been talking with Brock and the gentleman until now. She had a tanned baby face with a quirky smile and a spark of curiosity in her dark eyes.

"Did I hear that right? Are you the Tower master of Minas Mar? Is it true that you are the one who made all the cool weapons at the Turquoise Anvil? Does it mean you are a blacksmith?" she assaulted him with rapid-fire questions.

Seth was stumped for a moment. His thoughts had already been at the talk with the princess, and he needed a moment to change tracks and react. In the meantime, the other had already changed target.

"Are you Mina? The assassin from Minas Mar? I heard a lot about you! It's so cool to meet a real cat person. Are you and the tower master-?"

"Okay, okay, halt. How about you introduce yourself for starters." Seth interrupted her.

She looked surprised and smacked her own forehead.

"Hi! I'm Ellen Culpepper, you can call me Ellie."

"Hi, Ellie." Seth and Mina said with a smile before introducing themself.

"I heard from the Princess, that we could buy equipment from you. Will you join the expedition as a blacksmith?" she asked excitedly with her sparkling eyes.

"No, I am joining with my second class, as a bard. And you?"

"Wow, you already have your second lass. I'm still deliberating about it. My primary class is Slime Rancher. It's a super cool rare class and I can tame and breed all kinds of cute slimes."

Cute? The slimes Seth remembered were far from cute... but there were all kinds of tastes. Who was he to judge? But then she pulled out and round, sparkly jelly ball.

"See! Isn't he cute?"

It was indeed cute, unlike most slimes, he had ever seen in a dungeon. I was much more along the lines of slimes in comics. A wobbly, translucent drop with a core floating inside. This specific one had a light pink hue.

"This one is Humbold. He was my first one and evolved quite a few times."

"Oh, wow! He really is cute!" Mina exclaimed and could barely hold back from snatching it out of Ellie's hand. The girl looked smiled self-satisfied when bragging about Humbold and her nose rose to the heavens.

"But look this one!" Mina suddenly said and brought out a Golmini.

Ellie's jaw dropped, faced with the tiny, chubby golem.

"Oh my god, what is this cute, little abomination?!" the slime girl called out.

"That's not all!" Mina rose the tacks and put golmini down to have him walk around and do tricks.2

"Humbold, will not lose!" Ellie also put Humbold down and had him perform tricks.

What was this sudden competitiveness? And why did you bring out golmini?! Seth couldn't quite follow what was going on.

"Seth made golmini? C-Can I have one, too?" she looked at him with puppy eyes. He tried to evade the piercing lights.

"D-Don't you have Humbold?"

"T-This and that are two completely different things! I have enough love to share it!" she said with a confident fist pump and stars in her eyes.

"F-Fine, I will give you one...?" Seth was weak against this kind of hyped-up and expectant changes. In the end, was it not because she appreciated his work? Yes, it was not a weakness, just reciprocating her awe of him.

"Yay, you are a lot nicer than that Slavemancer guy. Just a lot of empty talk and bragging. And more handsome!" especially the last part was said loud enough that it could be heard by the person in question.

Following Ellie's mischievous gaze, they saw the handsome young man with slicked-back hair lift his head. He had been holding a one-sided dialogue to the pale woman at the table but halted his monologue when his name fell. Or maybe because his handsomeness was called into question?

"A slavemancer?"

"Yeah, just wait and he will probably tell you all about it. Or rather, he will tell Mina all about it. Until that lady came, he had been talking to me about his class without end. The old men Brock and Caden saved me from his unending monologue. "

"It means something when even you didn't get a word in," Seth commented.

Ellie smiled mischievously.

"Right? It's what I'm telling you."

"Hey, don't talk like that about Rich like that. I-it's not nice." a young girl, barely 15, suddenly spoke up to them.

She looked like a small animal and her high-pitched voice shook slightly when she spoke up against them. Seth had noticed her watching the golem and slime with sparkling eyes from close-by before.

"I'm just telling the truth, though?" Ellie answered innocently.

"S-Still, Rich is a good guy and it's not nice to talk behind his back."

"Margaret, what are you doing?" an older woman, maybe in her late thirties followed behind her.

They both wore simple dresses in muted colors. Seth noticed that they were not items with any effects, like most clothes in Delta were at this time, but really just ordinary dresses.

"She talked bad about Rich!" the girl said and pointed at Ellie.

"Don't point at people, Margaret!" the woman scolded and put down the girl's hand.

"I only said that he likes to brag about himself, and Seth is more handsome." the slime girl answered in a rightful with a hand above her heart.

The woman smiled awkwardly.

"Please excuse her, she is still a child. She doesn't understand everything, and she is a little overprotective when it comes to the master." the woman apologized and brought the girl away.

Seth felt a little sorry for her.. She had seemed quite enticed by golmini and Humbold.

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