Soon the queens Helena and Hua arrived. Both of them had only one child and the crown prince Helio was defending southern borders while Zia practiced in the Sword sect, therefore they sat together at one end leaving more space for the mothers with daughters in the center since they were the main focus of this gathering. The two mothers, Kalinda and Eldora arrived soon after together with Belia – she was the only one who was left home when “Queen Elizabeth” departed for its first trip. They sat at the side as well leaving four empty seats in the middle. Everyone understood those were meant for the king and the three girls.

To the great surprise of the guests, the next one who arrived was the king. It was unthinkable mistake for someone to be late and let his majesty arrive before them, but soon the misunderstanding was cleared up.

King came over to his seat in the center and, infusing Qi in his voice, announced the opening of the event.

“I would like to welcome everyone today as we celebrate the return of the three ‘flowers of Aurora’. Despite being kidnapped and brought away by Nestri empire’s pirates, they returned safe and sound two hundred and twenty nine days later. Everyone, please raise!”

As soon as the king finished, the three ‘flowers of Aurora’ slowly walked in to the ball hall, but, when everyone expected them entering gracefully wearing colorful dresses and may be those interesting shoes again, what they saw made most jaws drop and everyone gasp in surprise.

Three young women in a white leather armor with swords on their backs entered the hall. Their faces and hands were well tanned that even more accentuated the armor’s white color. On their foreheads they had silver circlets, with a large gem for each of them – ruby, diamond and emerald mounted in. The circlets stood out especially because their hair were gathered in short ponytails behind their heads.

On their forearms they wore armored silver bracelets that together with the circlets and sword handles over their shoulders made them look heroic and valiant. They wore white leather armor boots as well, but, while the boots looked a bit too large and heavy for the slender girls, every step made in those left a heavy impression and reverberated in the hearts of the onlookers.

Nick inwardly sighed. His idea was to make them look as heroic as possible, but he didn’t have many ways to achieve it. Making girls look like amazons was simply silly, so the only thing he could, was to design the costumes in a bit similar way how the ‘wonder woman’ looked. Except for the half-naked parts, of course, where he made them wear the leather armor.

“Why white? I really like yellow, I think it goes well with my eye color.” Kate argued with him at the restaurant when he explained the idea.

“You silly, you don’t have to look pretty! You have to look pure and heroic!” Nick explained.

“But why white? It’s very impractical for armor.” YunYun was confused at the time.

“This whole event has nothing to do with practicality, but with the impression we are trying to make. Do you think the circlets and the pretty fur boots are practical? No! We have to make everyone believe they are some holy maiden warriors and the white color has always been associated with purity, therefore it is very important in our case as well.”

While Nick wasn’t completely certain if they achieved the necessary result, the whole ball hall erupted in cheers and applause. Girls blushed, but because of that they looked even more attractive. They approached the king, slightly bowed and then princesses sat at each of his sides while Kate sat next to Conny.

“Please, everyone, be seated!” King calmed the excited crowd down, “Only few of us know the details of what exactly transpired during these months, therefore I would like to suggest a toast, but the one who will speak will not be me, but Clayton Evans, the man who helped my girls to return home!”

Crowd erupted in applause again. Everyone knew Clayton stayed behind to bring the girls back and respected him even more for freeing another sixty odd captives at the end of their trip.

Clayton stood up nervously. He was used to command sailors, but now he was in a grand reception with hundreds of people watching and that made him feel uncomfortable.

“Before you speak,” king interrupted applause again, “I want you to speak the whole truth. It is time for the world to know the horrible secrets you managed to discover!”

It was a simple trick, but nothing could grab attention of these aristocrats than idea of some unimaginable ‘secret’ they could gossip about over the next months.

Clayton coughed and nodded and then begun his speech. He described on how the “Queen Elizabeth” was captured and expressed sadness and sorrow for the lost comrades. Then he described how the three girls in secret tended to the wounded and sick during the next thirty days while risking being found out by pirates as well as the terrible living conditions that they had to endure in the cargo hold. The crowd gasped when he told how they could only get some dry rations every other day for a month and how people were dying in unhygienic environment despite their best efforts.

After that Clayton illustrated their terror when in the pirate base they found out that the emperor is a pervert who organizes kidnapping of virgins from all around the world and there was no other way as to risk everything to bring the girls back.

He didn’t linger on the events from the next twenty five days, just described the terrible living conditions and the slavery in the empire. Then a vivid description of the capital and emperor’s castle followed in addition to few words about the emperor Osman as well.

“As it turned out, emperor wasn’t as eternal as everyone was thinking. We already brought documented proof to his majesty about the emperor’s Qi technique. What he did was – for almost three hundred years sacrificed young girls and using a special technique sucked out their lifeforce to prolong his own lifespan!”

At this point most of the people in hall stood up in shock. Emperor Osman being ‘immortal’ and living forever was a common knowledge and a tale across the continents, but this information was a huge bomb. When the crowd calmed down, a bigger bomb followed.

“When our girls were brought into the emperor’s bedroom to become his next sacrifice, the three of them managed to surprise him and kill old the pervert!”

For the next fifteen minutes it was not possible to calm the crowd down. Even mothers of the girls didn’t know this detail and hugged their daughters while crying loudly. Emperor watched the proceedings with a slight smile.

‘Damn! Once again that brat had a great idea. But I bet few things that will follow may surprise him as well.’

Finally king got bored and with a clap of his hands he silenced everyone in an instant and Clayton could continue.

“At this point the three of us desperately were trying to find opportunities to enter the well guarded castle and, with great deal of luck, we managed to evacuate the three girls under the cover of the night and flee. Within day’s the empires biggest cities were bustling with castle’s secret forces, but to our luck, because of inner fighting in the capital, the news of the emperor’s death were not publicly released, at least for now.”

Then Clayton described how the necessity to survive made the three girls pick up the swords and start practicing Qi despite them being brittle flowers of the capital and their age. He told how they practiced for days while they went down the wild river on a raft and how dangers were lurking around every corner. Then a short description followed on how they had to become mercenaries and protected a merchant caravan for almost three months while fighting bandits and even high ranked wild beasts, including desperate fight with a rank five monster snake. In the end they found their way back to the pirate base and, with joined efforts, neutralized another two pirate crews and released their captives.

The whole story was too much to take for any of the present guests. Even the ones who actually took part in the described events, felt the girls have performed one impossible heroic feat after another. Nick was especially impressed and knew Clayton was preparing this speech for days.

Suddenly king stood up and finally relieved Clayton from his torture, “Thank you, Clayton, I see that you are too emotional to continue, so let me finish in your stead.”

He took a pause here, applauded and everyone in the hall joined him.

“After the countless difficulties my daughters and the daughter of the Evans family were finally brought home. Many of you already know, that the three men sitting at this table assisted them during those hard times, therefore as a king and a father I have the duty to reward them.”

Ball hall was filled with murmurs of agreement. Everyone understood those three had done more than just simply providing some assistance.

“Thus, from this day on, Clayton Evans will be known as the First Admiral of our kingdom! He has right to command any ship in our waters!”

Applause resounded again. This title was unique and therefore very special. Evans family didn’t lack anything and giving them some land or gold would be simply laughable, but to become the ‘First Admiral’ was a great honor.

“Nicholas Berglund, you are rewarded with a title of ‘viscount’ and piece of land. Since you helped to bring back my precious daughters, you will be given similarly precious land, right behind the palace in the Royal woods, to live in!”

This was another huge shock to the people in the hall – the Royal woods has always been a sacred place where only royalties could enter, except for one event a year. This was an amazing honor!

YunYun, seeing the commotion, whispered, “Is it really that amazing? Is that land so valuable?”

“Not at all.” Nick smiled back, “King is simply a genius, he is gifting me the property where I already live, so he is not gifting me anything at all, but still looks incredibly generous.”

“Steven Rollen!” King continued, “I would like to reward you as well, but you already married my daughter and there is no greater reward!”

The crowd fell in loud laughter. Conny and Steven blushed and looked at each other while smiling. Indeed, they didn’t need another reward – the king tried to joke, but had no idea he hit the nail on the head.

“But I can’t ignore your heroic performance and promote you to a general. Thus our capital’s Rollen family has produced another general in it’s ranks!”

Surrounding people happily applauded. Rollen family had helped to defend the kingdom for centuries and the title was actually well earned.

“Before we all can enjoy the long awaited drink, there are few other things I would like to say.” King turned serious, “After killing the emperor, the three brave heroines managed to confiscate important documentation along with a magical piece of equipment that emperor greatly cherished. This wristband!”

To great shock of the many present guests, king raised his hand and showed a dark leather wristband on his forearm.

Only now the most knowledgeable people believed that the emperor actually died. His magical wristband was an ‘open secret’ in the well informed circles and was recorded in few secret archives during the last centuries.

“From this day on, this wristband will be kept and guarded in our treasury. But, to celebrate the fall of the evil ruler and tyrant who promoted slavery and kidnapping of people from all around the world, and mostly, to celebrate and mark the heroic deed of the three daughters of our kingdom, I would like to suggest that all of us for some period of time wear a bracelet or wristband, may be even on both hands. Every single one of us owe them a lot and their deed might be even a turn in the history of the whole world!”