Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce 

The moment the cheers and applause finished sounding, the ball finally began. 

Dozens of male and female pairs immediately went onto the center stage and began dancing while being accompanied by the beautiful music brought by the choir. 

Plenty of people also grouped together once again and began talking, either to start a new conversation or to continue with their previous conversation a while ago before getting interrupted by Guild Leader Loki's sudden arrival. 

In addition, some people went around the ballroom, trying to find a place they could fit in or they just simply wanted to be alone. 

While a few people, in particular the participants in the top 100 rankings of the Emerald Event, directly approached King Elfin the Fourth, hoping to establish a relationship or to further strengthen it.

Lastly, which was the most crowded place in the entire ballroom as of this very moment, the majority of people gathered around the buffet table with countless dishes prepared and began choosing what food they will eat for their dinner. 

Most of the people, especially normal citizens, always have this misconception of the Nobles that they don't like to eat during important occasions, such as similar to this ball right now, because they are so busy doing other important things. But the truth is, because of numerous socializing activities that they are doing and the time a ball would take to finally end, they would always prepare a staple amount of food on their tables in order to replenish the lost energy and stamina that they have used.

In the case right now, because the Evergreen royal family took a considerable degree of time to finally arrived in the ballroom, people have been consuming a lot of their energy and stamina after all this time. No one also dared to eat the dishes prepared at the buffet table before the host of the ball arrived since that would be the same as disrespecting them.

Leo was no exception to that. As soon as Uncle Elfin finished with his speech, he quickly brought everyone from the Mischievous Lion Guild, including Orcborg and his Blood Orc bodyguards as well, to the buffet table. 

The reason for this was because unlike the majority of the people present whose only purpose for attending the ball was to celebrate the end of the Emerald Event and for being qualified to participate in the Emerald Elven Battle Competition, he and the others, inversely, are here for the secret meeting. 

In such an important meeting where everyone would be discussing the possible life and death of the entire Emerald Tree Kingdom, it is only reasonable for them to eat a lot of food in preparation. 

It wasn't only Leo who had thought of this, Orcborg also has the same opinion as well. 

As soon as Leo and the others finished choosing the dishes that they wanted to eat, they immediately returned back to their table and started eating. 

While eating, Leo didn't forget to continue further strengthening the Mischievous Lion Guild's relationship with the Red Fist Guild through Orcborg for future purposes. 

They talked about possible future cooperation, such as trading Magical resources, sending capable personnel, and the most important of all, a separate alliance between their two Guilds. 

The alliance that was created by the Evergreen royal family was merely to fight against the Naughty Elves organization. 

Although such a goal is completely in line with the purpose of the establishment of the Mischievous Lion Guild, what they needed right now is not more enemies yet, rather they really need more methods to further develop, improve, and build up their strengths and advantages. 

This period of time where only a few organizations of the Gods of the Celestial World are paying close attention to him is very crucial for the development of the Mischievous Lion Guild. If he doesn't take advantage of this opportunity, and would instead focus mainly on going around causing trouble after trouble to all the Gods of the Celestial World, then there is a very huge chance for his force to be destroyed prematurely. At that time, it would be extremely difficult for him to survive, let alone protect all the people important for him and he deeply cared about. 

Orcborg's Red Fist Guild is very crucial for the Mischievous Lion Guild's development, especially considering that Orcborg has a green-colored String of Fate attached to him now. 

Even though the entire Evergreen royal family also has a green-colored String of Fate attached to them, he knows for certain that they will be weighing the loss and gain first before finally deciding on their move against the Gods of the Celestial World. This action of their's alone is not necessarily beneficial for the Mischievous Lion Guild since there is an equal amount of chance that they would also not help them. Well, after all, they need to protect not only their own interests but also the interest of the people living in the Emerald Tree Kingdom too.

On the other hand, Orcborg has a very clear history of really going against the forces of the Gods of the Celestial World for the sake of saving as many people's lives as possible. He had just chosen to retire because he wanted to settle down in the Emerald Tree Kingdom and live a peaceful life with his family. 

However, since Orcborg's family has gone missing and is yet to be found until this very moment, not to mention it was because of the attack of the Naughty Elves organization, then there is a very good chance for him to successfully persuade Orcborg to return to his previous life. Additionally, Orcborg also seems to truly want to do that as well since he had taken part in the alliance created by the Evergreen royal family for many years now. 

Comparing the Evergreen royal family and Orcborg together, although the latter is much more weaker compared to the former, Orcborg is still the best choice to invite in the alliance that he will be creating. 

While Leo and Orcborg were talking, some people would occasionally interrupt them to offer a toast and have some short conversations. 

A few of those people even offered to establish a business relationship with the Mischievous Lion Guild, which Leo didn't readily agree with nor disagree with, but rather he only informed them that he will be sending some people to discuss possible cooperation with them after this ball.

Unlike the last time with the matter of the sponsorship where he had only chosen the Elves Secret organization amidst the numerous sponsorship letters, this time he can choose to accept everyone as long as it is beneficial for the development of the Mischievous Lion Guild. In short, the more people he cooperated with, the better it would be for them. 

But of course, he can't accept everyone's cooperation just because it is beneficial for the Mischievous Lion Guild. It is always important to choose quality over quantity. 

Speaking about quality and quantity, many women who were far or only equally inferior to Cassandra and the others in terms of beauty, temperament, and capability had also come to their table to try their luck on asking him for a dance, hoping to establish a relationship with him and possibly with a final goal of becoming one of his women. 

Unfortunately, all of those women, with no exceptions or the likes, had failed to make him agree. Though, it wasn't because he wasn't interested in having a dance with any of those women, because honestly speaking, he is more than willing to have a dance with some of them, especially those women who belonged to the Pierce Noble Household, Clarity Noble Household, and Nero Noble Household, since he could establish a good relationship with those powerful forces through those women, specifically not in a romantic way. 

Why else would he not take advantage of such a good opportunity if it wasn't because of Cassandra and the others, right? 

Well, it can't be helped, since he has now considered and recognized that his wives are the bosses when it comes to him establishing relationships with women. If they say no, then it would certainly be a no. No questions asked, or else he would be beaten up again just like the previous time inside the carriage along the way to the Evergreen royal family's castle. 

When there were no longer any people in Leo and Orcborg's table aside from their companions, a seemingly ordinary-looking male Elf receptionist carrying a silver tray full of wine glasses on his hands suddenly approached their table and secretly slipped a piece of paper on their hands while he was handling them a glass of wine each.

Leo noticed the paper and quickly understood what it meant about. He turned to look at Orcborg right away and soon after saw from the latter's eyes that they both have the same thoughts in mind.

"It is time for the meeting to begin," Leo whispered to Ethan and the others around him. 

Hearing Leo's words, everyone immediately nodded their heads in affirmation. They have long already discussed with each other what they would be doing when they are called out for the meeting, so without any exception, everyone quickly left their table and went to the garden at the back of the castle. Orcborg was also informed of their plan a while ago, so he didn't hesitate to follow alongside everyone.

Previously, Leo and Orcborg had come to the garden to talk about the latter's past. 

At that time, Orcborg had noticed some people following them and had informed him about their presence. But because they weren't doing anything suspicious or the likes, he simply disregarded those people and allowed them to continue observing what they were doing. 

As if not being satisfied yet with merely observing from a faraway distance, some of those people had also come to their table a while ago and have a conversation with them. In fact, they actually made up half of the few people who have offered to establish a business relationship with the Mischievous Lion Guild a while ago. As for how exactly he had found out, he simply used his unique capability to see the String of Fate. 

Evidently, the real reason why those people were doing those things was so that they can confirm what precisely they were talking about. While the offer to establish a business relationship with them was so that they can gather more information about the Mischievous Lion Guild in the future.

That was the main reason behind why he had only talked about future cooperation with Orcborg and continued talking about that same topic until the very end. It was simply so that he could mislead them. 

And just like what he had expected, now that he had successfully misled those people already, the moment they went to the garden again, even including everyone this time around, there was no longer anyone who followed secretly behind them. 

In the minds of those people, they already guessed that they would be talking about establishing a business relationship in depth.