The royal family of Lumengarde, led by the crown prince, threw a breakfast banquet the next day, inviting all the nobles of the city as well as the Sages, of which the invitation was honored and they were all made to attend—except for Lucy and Athenae, who had healed but needed to rest, and then Aaron, who was under house arrest by the Sages and was strictly watched until they returned to the island.
Felix wasn’t happy with the dress picked out for him for the event. It was a pretty red gown that would have been just perfect for any other girl, but it was too girly for him. It made him feel like he was on pins and needles going around with a Cinderella dress, and so he chose not to move around too much during the banquet and just sat in one spot as the noble families approached him one after the other to greet and thank him like a celebrity meet-and-greet.
Some had even introduced their sons to him and gave them the privacy to "get to know each other better," while some had outright flirted with him using gifts and compliments that made Felix feel uncomfortable, but he still found it amusing.
After ripping them off all they were willing to offer, Felix shot them down with the same sentence that left most of them baffled and confused: "Sorry, I’m not interested in men." It seems they didn’t see a lot of that here in Vastoria.
As much as Felix was now a woman with no hopes of turning back—at least for now—he still very much loved women.
Felix found the opportunity to sneak out of the banquet while no one was watching and took it to give himself a tour around the place.
It wasn’t as grand as the royal palace now a mess, but still evoked power and status with its architecture and interior design.
He was still touring when he came across an old wooden door, a big contrast to the flashy surroundings, with two armored knights standing guard before it.
This made him curious as to what might be locked behind the doors and spent the next minute stalking the corridor like a petty thief, pretending to be sightseeing for the nth time to avoid suspicion by the guards, trying to use his **[Spectral Resonance]** skill to perceive what was behind the door, but noticed a strong barrier stopping the skill each time which only served to fuel his curiosity the more.
This prompted him to use his appraisal skill on the guards to see their level of strength which would give him a rough idea of the level of importance whatever was locked behind the doors held, but the skill only picked up one name for two guards and nothing more.
"The fuck..." Felix couldn’t help but frown at the skill’s lack of results.
This was one of the downsides of the stupid skill that only gave vague answers at low levels. It was nothing more than a low-budget AI, too lazy and dumb to elaborate.
Of course he knew it was a fucking knight in shining armor. What he wanted to know was the face behind the brand—ahem, visor—and their level of strength.
Was that too much to ask from a Lv1 **[Appraisal]** skill?
Or maybe... the knights could also be enchanted just like the door to prevent anyone from accessing their strengths and probably underestimate them only to end up dead as soon as they made their move.
But no matter how strong they both were, they definitely couldn’t match Felix’s strength. And so he made his move.
The plan? Take both guards out swiftly with as little noise as possible, and also stop them from hitting the floor as their armors clattering against the floor might alert those at the banquet.
Felix came out of his hiding corner and slowly approached the knights with his hands raised slightly to show he wasn’t armed. "The crown prince sent me..." He didn’t finish his sentence and blurred from the spot, reappearing before the guard on the left and throwing out his small fist where their cheekbone should be behind the helmet.
He wasn’t planning on making a dent in their helmet and controlled his strength as his fist impacted with the surface of the helmet, the shockwave would spread across the other parts of the metal and thereby disorienting them and momentarily pulverizing their brain.
Felix didn’t look to see the aftermath and quickly spun around to face the other guard throwing his fist at their chest plate.
Felix was too fast that the guard couldn’t even flinch before his attack hit both of them—or so Felix thought.
When the sound of a helmet landed heavily and clattered loudly as it bounced off the polished floors shook the corridors causing Felix to flinch, followed by the sound of the second Knight armor stand disassembling from Felix’s punch to the chest plate and the metal parts clattering loudly as they scattered across the floors.
There was no person inside any of the armors, and were only knight stands meant for decoration.
The [Appraisal] skill had indeed tried to tell him, but he instead insulted its potency.
Felix pressed his lips tightly in embarrassment as a laughter reverberated in his head from a familiar alluring voice that seemed to have been watching him fool around.
At that moment, the familiar voice of one of the Sages shook the hallways and Felix slowly turned around to see not just that one Sage, but the five of them, the crown prince, and the high nobles all present watching him with varying expressions.
And it didn’t seem like they had just arrived from the noise.
The Sages were being given a tour around the place by the royal and noble families when they stumbled upon Felix role-playing with the armor stands and claiming ’the crown prince sent him’, before knocking them out ’cold.’ This content belongs to novelFɪre.net