She knew. From the start. And her ancestor probably did too. Which meant he had lied to the face of a pinnacle cultivator and the man knew of it. But then why did he not react? Did he forgive it on the spot? Jin was quite confused. He sighed and dropped all pretense as he asked: "Since you know of this, why did you-"

But before he could finish, the princess stopped him and said: "Why did I and my ancestor mislead you? It's because of this"

As she finished her sentence, she showed her fingers to Jin, or rather the ring on one of them. He recognized it. He had been wearing one with the same pattern for years now. It was the first spatial ring he got and the one he was gifted by a prince back during the border war. Turned out it wasn't just a nice ring with great patterns.

Jin looked back to the Princess and saw her smile lightly. He asked her: "So? What do you want?"

She no longer needed to beat around the bush. She said: "I would like to know how it ended up at your finger"

Jin was rather suspicious of her. For a Princess to be interested in this, it had to be important. But he didn't know why and guesses could only take him so far. He decided to take the easier way out: "It was a gift"

The Princess didn't expect this kind of answer. Sure, he didn't admit to having taken it from the Prince or even that it had been given by him but she believed he was indeed the one who had last seen that idiot. Still, he seemed to be slightly suspicious of her now. She changed her approach and asked him: "Can you tell me how my brother died?"

Jin pondered for a moment before he told her: "He died honorably"

She detected his lie. She smiled slightly at the new knowledge that her brother didn't die honorably. She was slightly upset that he didn't tell her more details but it couldn't be helped. She asked something else: "What did you think of his strategy?"

Jin pondered before he answered her: "It was dumb and we all paid the price for it"

He spoke the truth. She smiled genuinely this time. This man did not know about her involvement. This was great news. As for the ring itself... Since she was here anyways, she could get it back. It would net her a few rewards back home. She told Jin: "On behalf of the Empire, I would like to request for our spatial ring to be returned"

Jin smirked. Returning the ring? It was no longer something that belonged to them but sure, why not? As long as the price was sincere, that is. He asked her: "In exchange for?"

She had forgotten for a moment where she had been. The authority of the Empire was meaningless here. Asking for someone to return something back? She got ahead of herself. As she thought for a few more seconds, she reached the conclusion that she did not need to bargain with this champion. She could just pick it up from his corpse in a few days. She dropped the matter and decided to excuse herself.

As long as he didn't know and spread news of her involvement in that strategy, her image would remain safe and she did not have to care about such a personage. Her Ancestor noticed her leaving and excused himself as well. He didn't really care about Hae-Hyuk to be honest. He never saw this man as a rival for the treasure. Only those from his generation were the dangerous ones.

Hae-Hyuk had seen and heard everything that happened. And it didn't really matter in the end. Those two from the Empire probably got what they wanted and left, whatever that was. It would have no impact on the big picture.

...

As the Ancestor went back, he asked Hyo-Ju about Jin. She told him he didn't know about her plot. That was all he needed to be aware of. As for getting the ring back, he could indeed do so after this kid turned into a corpse. No one would bother him about getting back a spatial ring with his family emblem from a dead body.

He was unaware that the little Princess had a different idea.

...

Jin was finally free from that disturbance and turned back to Min-Su and Sophia. They were enjoying themselves discussing the many different species present here. Jin joined them just as Min-Su pointed towards a weird looking cultivator who seemed to have tusks and a green glow to his skin. He had asked Sophia: "What's this one?"

She looked at where his finger pointed and chuckled. Then, she answered him: "It's a boar-man. They are a race of sentient spiritual beast, boar types. Though if you ask them, they will say that they are elephant-types"

Min-Su asked back: "Why?"

Sophia burst into laughter as she said: "Because they have tusks and giant trunks! Ahahahah!"

It took a moment for Jin and Min-Su to process her words as they didn't see any trunks on that guy's face... Then, they got the joke and laughed along with her. After a moment, she said: "Those guys are perverts to the point they are banned from entering my city"

After that, they discussed the many different races present and enjoyed making fun of some. There were all kinds of beings. From humans to sentient beasts, spiritual beasts who reached a certain step in evolution that enabled them to mingle with humans by physically altering their outward appearances, many different ethnicities were represented.

It wasn't the first time they had seen sentient beasts but they had been quite rare. After all, Hae-Hyuk had only traveled throughout the human territories with the two disciples.

The evening went on like this with a jovial atmosphere on the surface. In fact, there were many undercurrents during the banquet. Betrayals, deals, alliances... Many important discussions took place.