He quickly concluded the conversation and went to the next person.

“What an idiot!”, Aquous suddenly called out. “You are truly an idiot. Are you pig headed? Why did you finish talking to the girl so quickly?”

Liu Feng was surprised that Aquous brought up the topic but dismissed it. “There are many other nobles here, and it is my responsibility to foster good relations with the future city lords who might be my allies in the future.”

Liu Feng continued talking to the other nobles and started toasting to them. He started conversations and quickly completed them, trying to talk to as many of the nobles as possible. Infact, some of them impressed him. He always thought of nobles and their children as snotty brats who are spoiled and can’t do anything on their own, but it seemed that the introduction of magic into the equation changed things quite a bit. The nobles had to maintain power, so they were well trained in the sword and the basic incantations of magic.

When Liu Feng shook the hands of the children, some of them were rough, tempered by years of training with the sword or any other weapon. He quickly spoke to them all when suddenly another young city lord, Jack Syne, from the city Synail came forward and asked all of the children,

“Fellow nobles, I know that we have only met a few times before, but it is time that we band together. The magic academy is going to be a very competitive place. I was there last year, and it has many quirks that you would not expect. There are many people much more powerful than us, and many who rank higher than us in the nobility ladder. We will be put in the back step, so I will be creating a club for the west, and I request that you join, so we can stand up for each other.”

Jack’s speech was loud, and it attracted the attention of the city lords, and the other nobles. They were all looking at the reaction of the children. Slowly, one by one, half of the children went up to Jack and accepted his offer. Jack looked at the others and said,

“The doors are always open for you. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have a problem in the academy.”. He smiled and retreated from the spotlight. But, all the children went to talk to him regarding the clubs, and how the academy operated. Liu Feng was not interested in that and he tried to avoid that circle of nobles, and went to the other end of the ball. The nobles started talking about this outcome, “Look at that boy there, the one who spoke. He is my son. Quite confident isn’t he? I trained him in the art of speaking myself!”, the city lord of Synail started boasting. The nobles whose children took Jack’s camp also started conversing with the city lord of Synail automatically.

Liu Feng looked at all the proceedings and laughed bitterly.

“What was I going to expect when I hosted a nobles only lunch party? Well, it is soon time to dance. Let me leave now.”, Liu Feng thought to himself. But he was blocked by Sylvette.

She asked him, “May I have the honor of dancing with you?”

“Say yes you idiot!”, Aquous shouted in his ears. Liu Feng cleared them, and complied. They took to the dance floor with many others, but it seemed that Jack was not one of them. Jack was surrounded by a few others asking to be his partners, but it seemed that his eyes were fixated on Sylvette. When he saw her dancing with Liu Feng, his face darkened. Liu Feng noticed this also, but he was too bored to care. He danced for a few minutes and then took Sylvie’s leave. He went back to his room, and lay on the bed.