The Author's POV
chapter-366

Staring at myself in the mirror and fixing my tie, I turned to glance at Waylan who was next to me.

He too was staring at himself in the mirror, putting on a suit.

Tying my hair back with an armband, I muttered in annoyance.

"Why do I have to wear a suit? It's not like dwarves also wear suits."

"Because we're about to attend a banquet with the dwarven leaders. It is costumery to dress well in such an important event." Waylan replied back, neatly fixing his hair.

Squinting, and staring at his figure from where I was standing, I couldn't hide my jealousy.

'Sigh, is this the difference in our genes? Just how high must his charm be to look like that at his age?'

Waylan was probably in his fifties, yet he looked no older than twenty. His perfect jawline which perfectly contrasted with his face and body, made me feel ashamed of myself.

'Hmm, well, not as much actually.'

Stroking my chin and staring my myself in the mirror, my previous thoughts halted.

As I looked at myself in the mirror, I had to say, I looked quite charming myself.

Having signed a contract with Angelica, who used to be the matriarch of the charm tribe, a subsidiary of the charm clan, my charm increased by quite a bit.

It was now in the <B> rank range.

Pretty much my highest stat at the moment.

From the lowest to now the highest. Wasn't that quite an ironic situation?

That said, as I had been wearing a mask throughout the whole ordeal back at Inferno, I wasn't able to get a proper look at my face till this past week and a half when everything was over, and I really do have to say, my charm increase really made a difference.

I could almost rival Jin and Kevin in terms of appearance.

"Aren't you staring at yourself a bit too much?"

Snapping me out of my thoughts, I felt Waylan's large hand rest on my shoulder as he looked at me in the mirror opposite to me.

Scrutinizing my face carefully, he showed an impressed look.

"Gotta say, you really do look a lot better now than before. You're almost unrecognizable."

"You're over-exaggerating."

I replied, my eyes squinting to get a better look at myself in the mirror.

"Although I indeed look a little bit better, I still look like the old me."

Fundamentally, all that happened was that my skin became smoother and all the previous scars that I had on my face had completely disappeared.

While I was in thought, leaning forward, Waylan touched his chin before he shook his head.

"Nope, don't see any resemblance at all. You may as well have had plastic surgery."

"…"

My mouth opened and close multiple times as I had hard trouble stopping myself from throwing as many curses as possible.

"Hahaha."

Waylan suddenly burst out laughing, amused by my reaction.

Smack—!

Slapping me on the back, he consoled.

"Don't worry, I'm just kidding. You just looked a little bit stiff, wanted to help you relax a bit."

"Really?" I asked, raising my brow.

'Was he really just trying to cheer me up?'

I was a bit skeptical of his words since I was not nervous at all. But well, it was the thought that counted.

But it looked like I had been deceived again as Waylan smirked and shook his head.

"Nah, was kidding. You think someone who has no qualms infiltrating the main headquarters of Inferno will be nervous over a banquet?"

"…You."

Pointing my hand in Waylan's direction, who was having the time of his life laughing at me, I shook my finger multiple times.

"I finally get it. The mystery has been solved."

I said out loud.

My wards piqued Waylan's interest as he stopped laughing and asked.

"Get what?"

"I finally get where Emma got her annoyingness from. It was you. You're just as annoying as her!"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Waylan asked, seemingly offended by the fact that I called his daughter annoying.

But I didn't care. Raising my hand and pointing it at him, I continued.

"Face the truth, Waylan. She's the product you created. You should know all too well how her character is."

"...Don't go too far, Ren." Waylan pretended to glare in my direction. "Are you calling my daughter annoying?"

"What you gonna do about it?" I retorted back, puffing my chest.

"Now, now, stop with the jokes. We're about to attend the banquet."

Just as things were about to get heated, entering the changing room was Douglas who merely shook his head at the two of us.

He wasn't mad or anything as he obviously knew that Waylan and I were merely joking around, but his eyes still contained a slight trace of helplessness.

"You guys are wasting too much time chatting. We need to go in the next couple of minutes, lest we want to set a bad impression on the dwarves." Douglas said, checking onto his wrist where a nice watch rested.

'Damn…'

Wearing a nice gray suit, which perfectly outlined his body, I was left surprised by how buff Douglas actually was.

Because he usually wore baggy clothes, I was unable to realize just how fit he actually was. But Douglas was damn fit as his suit perfectly displayed how defined his body was. Especially his shoulders which were extremely wide.

While I was looking at his clothes, turning to face Waylan, Douglas said.

"We'll be leaving in the next couple of minutes. Fix your hair and go downstairs."

Then, turning his head to face me, Douglas's eyes paused on my neck area. Or to be precise where my tie was.

Raising his hand and pointing at it, he asked.

"Do you need help with that?"

The moment he said those words, my body froze. Lowering my head and staring at my tie, I looked back at Douglas and nodded my head.

"Yes, please."

This was probably the second or third time I had worn a suit, and well, I still couldn't tie my tie properly.

Would always end up almost strangling myself. It was odd, out of all the things I could do, tying a tie was just not one of them.

'I should probably spend some time learning this.'

Would probably only take me a couple of minutes to learn, but it just had never been on my priority list of things I had to do.

With a soft smile on his face, reminiscent of a friendly neighborhood uncle, Douglas beckoned for me to come to him.

"Alright, come here."

"Thanks."

Thanking Douglas, I moved up to him who slowly grabbed my tie and started tying it.

'…this feels like an oddly familiar scene.'

As Douglas was tying my tie, my brows furrowed slightly as an old memory started to resurface inside of my mind.

It was right after the banquet after I defeated Thibaut. Outside of the mansion, tired, sitting on a bench with…

Unbeknownst to me, I had fallen into a slight trance as I reminisced over the past.

"Done."

"Hmm?…Already?"

It was only after I heard Douglas's words that I snapped out of it.

Turning my body slightly, Douglas pointed at my reflection on the mirror.

"There, all set. What do you think?"

"Hmm…"

With my tie now done, and suit that perfectly outlined my body, I had to admit, I looked really good.

Turning my head, I thanked Douglas.

"I like it, thank you."

Smiling softly, Douglas patted me on the shoulder before turning around and leaving the room.

"You look much better now. Let's get going."

"…alright."

Fixing my collar and hair a bit, I turned around and followed Douglas out of the room.

***

The banquet was held in a separate location from the elder council, inside of a large building near the center of the city.

According to Waylan and Douglas, this was an exclusive banquet to commemorate those that participated in the war and contributed.

In other words, it was the award ceremony.

It was where our contributions were announced and our rewards were handed.

If I had to be honest, I was quite excited about this part. Now that everything was over, it was finally time for me to reap the rewards of my struggle.

I already had something in mind. After mulling over it for the past week and a half or so, I thought that I had come up with a good request.

Sitting inside of a small carriage which was in fact an artifact, I turned to face Douglas and Waylan who were both sitting next to me.

"Are you guys sure you told them that I had signed a contract with a demon?"

The fact that my mana was tainted with demonic energy was not something I could hide from the prying eyes of the elders. They may have not been able to tell back at Inferno or were able to but because they were busy trying to fight the duergars, had glossed over it, but now that I was going to attend the banquet, there was no way they wouldn't notice.

I didn't want any unnecessary drama to arise because of the demon contract that I had signed with Angelica.

After all, I didn't want to face a similar situation that had happened back in the human domain where I was forced to leave due to some special circumstances.

Just remembering it depressed me.

Why couldn't the world give me a break…

Fortunately, it seemed as though my worries were unfounded as Douglas shook his head.

"Don't worry, Randur has taken care of that matter already. You can come without any problems. Everyone has already been told about you, just relax and enjoy the small banquet."

"Well…fine."

As long as that was taken care of, I didn't really have to worry about anything else.

Propping my elbow by the side of the carriage and staring at the lively city, my shoulders relaxed a little.

'I really want to go home…'

I thought as I looked at the streets of Henlour.

I really wanted to go back and meet my parents, Kevin, and the others.

But I also knew that I couldn't do that at the moment. There were many things that I still needed to do.

I first needed to remove the chip inside of my head, without it removed, I couldn't go back as the Monolith would always pursue me. After that, I had to have my sword forged which Malvil was taking care of, and lastly wait for the demons to completely retreat before even considering getting out of Henolour.

Although we had won the war, they had still not fully retreated yet. We couldn't quite get out just yet.

'If the conference is happening, maybe I'll meet them there…'

Although I wasn't sure if the conference was still going to be a thing, by the time I was done with all the things I had just listed, it would be the time for the conference to start and also the time when I would finally reunite with the others.

"We're here."

Before I knew it, as I was in the middle of my thoughts, ten minutes had passed and the carriage soon stopped in front of a tall and elegant building.

Ci clank—

With the doors opening automatically, I slowly stepped out of the carriage and took a deep breath of the fresh air of Henlour.

We may have been inside of a mountain, but the air here was just as clean as on the outside. The only thing that was different was the smell as a faint smell reminiscent of that of iron lingered in the air as it traveled through the nostrils of my nose, while I took a deep breath.

The smell used to be something that I disliked, but now that I had been in the city for over a month, it was now a smell that I now associated with the city.

Taking a step out of the carriage, Douglas looked behind, in my direction with a smile on his face.

"Let's go. Make sure you set a good impression on them."

"I know."

Nodding, I followed behind it.