Chapter 188: Assimilate the Noble (I)

Walking for a while, Zen stared at the Palace Moon Restaurant in a daze.

'Hopefully, she's not purposely hiding from me. Otherwise, I might have to rethink our plan of being an ally.' 

Zen heaved a soft sigh before entering the restaurant. The receptionist lady that saw him was the same person as last time.

However, her attitude changed as she gave a genuine smile and said, "Our Madam is upstairs with the other ladies."

Zen chuckled softly at her attitude and decided to tease her first before having to deal with something much more complicated.

With a wide grin, Zen approached the receptionist lady and placed his hand around her chin. 

"Does the 'ladies' include you?" Zen asked cheekily, completely mimicking like a scoundrel. 

The receptionist lady smiled bitterly as she lowered her head slightly. "Please don't tease me, kind sir. I'm just a lowly receptionist."

'Is every woman such a great actor? A lowly receptionist? You're at least around the intermediate mage.' Zen twitched his mouth slightly when he secretly sensed her mana core which indicated her rank.

"Since you're a lowly receptionist, then shouldn't it be your lucky day that I took an interest in you." Zen decided to act along and see what she would do next.

The receptionist lady was rendered speechless and thought he would have long gone after Madam Evie instead of wasting his precious time on her.

"Sir is surely kidding me. If Madam Evie were to find out that her guest was delayed because of me then I'm going to get punished." The receptionist lady tried to keep her calm and replied in a smooth manner.

Zen laughed heartily and decided to stop since he could feel several gazes at him from above.

Zen stopped holding her chin and turned around before asking, "What's your name, receptionist lady?"

"It's Eleanor," Eleanor replied softly.

Zen nodded his head without turning around as he exclaimed, "I believe we can have a more thorough talk next time, Eleanor."

Afterward, Zen walked upstairs to meet up with Evie and the rest, leaving Eleanor behind as she glanced at his back.

'Madam Evie was right. He truly hasn't changed at all from before.' Eleanor smiled and shook her head as she resumed her duty.

"Did you ladies wait long for me?" Zen asked the ladies as he entered the room and closed the door behind.

At the table, Zen can see multiple dishes that emit a sweet fragrance as he sat down next to Evie and Angela before picking his chopsticks.

"We didn't even bother waiting for you but next time, I would prefer it if you didn't try to flirt with my worker," Evie said calmly as she picked up the meat from a dish and placed it in her mouth.

Zen smiled evilly as he leaned closer to Evie. "What? Don't tell me you're jealous that I prefer touching Eleanor~ over you?"

Before Zen can enjoy the teasing, the other women quickly grab their cup of tea and throw it at Zen.

SPLASH!

Zen's face was now wet with the tea as he didn't expect to have tea thrown at him. Retrieving a handkerchief from his spatial ring, Zen cleaned his face slowly before showing a pitiful expression. 

"What did I do wrong to enrage all of you ladies to dump tea at me?" Zen asked with a depressed face.

However, none of the women here were fools as they know his perfect acting already. Even Angela didn't fall for it this time as she pouted and ignored him.

"Save your third-rate acting to yourself and explain what the imperial guard said." Krista Dragoon snorted as she enquired about the guards.

Meanwhile, Zen showed a bitter smile but inwardly, he was being more cautious toward Krista Dragoon than ever.

"The imperial guard mentioned that the empress had summoned you as soon as they spotted your position," Zen spoke slowly while paying careful attention to her emotion.

Krista Dragoon remained calm and collected as she said, "Hmm, the empress wanted to summon us but only had a few imperial guards to move against us. I guess being here with Madam Evie truly makes a big difference where the empress wouldn't dare to mess around."

Zen was rendered speechless at how she used Evie as a scapegoat to avoid any suspicion.

Meanwhile, Evie chuckled softly from the shrewd move of Krista Dragoon. 

"I'm just a law-abiding citizen so there's no reason the empress would summon a whole army to barge into my place," Evie said kindly as she sipped some tea.

The atmosphere became tense and awkward as Zen's hope in trying to figure out Krista Dragoon's secret was a failure.

There was zero slip up from her part and Leila Dragoon didn't even bother to chat as she stuffed her mouth with food, almost like a little child eating happily.

As for Angela, she wasn't in the mood to listen in on their conversation as she minded herself and ate silently.

Thus, only Zen, Evie, and Krista Dragoon were communicating with each other since they were the ones who called the shots at this table.

"Cough, anyway, what is your plan now Krista?" Zen changed the topic and stopped trying to test her out since there are many more opportunities in the future.

Currently, the main focus is what to do with the other noble family since their members are still stuck in the forest.

This is the time to act against the noble family and Zen is pretty sure the empress is already working on it. Not to mention, the empress must have a head start considering they were also stuck with the other participants.

"I believe we can start working on the Kaiso's family because the empress doesn't know about one thing that we knew." Krista Dragoon said with a smile hanging on her face.

Zen was dumbfounded by her evil smile but nodded his head in understanding.

Daemon Kaiso, their patriarch is already dead, killed by his very own hand but this information is a secret that only Zen, Krista Dragoon, and Leila Dragoon knew about.

However, Zen didn't know that there was also another group of people that knew about Daemon Kaiso's death and that person is also sitting next to him.

"May I ask why you choose the Kaiso family instead of the Scarlet family?" Evie suddenly said, acting like she doesn't have a clue about their patriarch.

Krista Dragoon believed that Evie didn't know she so quickly explained her reason. "Madam Evie, the kaiso family has lost their patriarch already, and considering the heir, Jared Kaiso is also in Zen's hand, I believe they are the easiest family to assimilate to our alliance."

"L-Lost their patriarch?" Evie raised her eyebrow in confusion and continued.

"I understand that Jared Kaiso was captured by Zen previously when he came to my restaurant but Daemon Kaiso should still be alive in that forest considering his intermediate mage rank and skills."

Evie was shocked in disbelief as she showed a confusing expression but inwardly, she wasn't shocked at all and was merely acting up. 

After all, she was the mastermind behind this incident so everything that has happened is in her control except for Daemon Kaiso's death as she wanted to use him further.

Alas, Stuart decided to act on his own and send him to Zen, causing two unnecessary casualties and she could only accept this outcome in the end.

Meanwhile, Krista Dragoon cast a sound barrier around them to prevent any information from leaking.

"To tell you the truth, Zen has already killed Daemon Kaiso and his son, Jared Kaiso in the labyrinth floor before we teleported to the resting area and then to the forest." Krista Dragoon said solemnly.

Leila Dragoon nodded her head at this time and added, "Mhmm, that Daemon Kaiso also transformed into a demon before being slain by Zen with his 'Exterminate Demon Strike' move."

'E-Exterminate Demon Strike?!' Evie said inwardly as she glanced at Zen in disbelief. 

Zen shrugged his shoulders when he saw Evie's glance and said, "I just learned the Exterminate Demon Strike on a whim but it worked perfectly in the end. That strike was really powerful since it managed to penetrate Daemon Kaiso's demon form as his skins were thick and durable."

Evie was in disbelief and thought that he had returned but it seemed to be on a whim only.

"I-I see then I guess we should work against the Kaiso family first since the Scarlet family would be everyone else's target because of their farce in the auction house," Evie said with a somewhat disappointed expression.

"It's decided then, we will go after the Kaiso family once we fill our hunger and as for the empress's summoning us, we can just forget about her since we don't have to give her any face." Krista Dragoon said as she started eating merrily.

Zen didn't say anything further as he stuffed his stomach with food because he was hungry from overusing his brain and torturing Curtis and Dorian.