As it turned out, Soral had not been bluffing about the magnificence of the garden. The size was more than large enough to host all of the guests they had invited, with gaps in the trees at the outer edges giving sneak peeks into the more exclusive gardens the resort had to offer. Perhaps because Soral had created the garden with his power, magic hung heavy in the air. Not only that, there were several unnatural things about the place. For one thing, the glowing mushrooms.

  "Mushrooms again, Soral?" Ruena asked.

  "What's wrong with a little display of mushrooms here and there?" Soral defended hastily, "I'm not going to feed any of them to the guests. I've gotten much better at telling which ones are poisonous now."

  Ruena would never forget the catastrophes that happened every time Soral cooked with mushrooms. The problem was that since he was immune to poison, he focused on the flavor of the mushroom above all else. She had no choice but to learn that some of the deadliest mushrooms were actually quite delicious, at least according to Soral. It was a miracle no one had died in any of those mishaps.

  "You had better not," Ruena warned sternly, "Tonight is important for both of us. We can't afford any mistakes."

  "Speaking of mistakes, I got a letter from the palace today," Soral brought up suddenly, "Looks like the old man decided to invite himself. You didn't send him an invitation, did you?"

  "Who? Densooth?" Ruena asked, "Of course not. It is in my best interest to keep as much distance from him as possible."

  Soral seemed pleased as she said that. "Then do I have permission to turn away the uninvited guest? I can at least pretend, right? Make him work to get inside."

  "Pretending is fine, but we can't actually deny him entry if he presents himself as the representative of the Queen," Ruena pointed out.

  "I will only moderately try to send him away, then," Soral gave in, none too pleased with the idea, "What about the duchess? Is our plan for her still the same?"

  "Yes. Luckily the informants she bought were loyal so we were able to feed her false information," Ruena mused, "Just what kind of information did you tell them to give her?"

  Soral smirked. "Just enough so that if she dares to try to claim credit for my masterpiece she will embarrass herself completely."

  They continued to discuss their plans as Soral set everything up for the venue. Tables, chairs, and countless dishes of food appeared from nowhere at all. Well, not really nowhere. Ruena knew better than to fall for Soral’s flashy tricks. He had undoubtedly spent hours personally preparing everything to make this event a success. He had shown her his secret storage once. It was an impossible place where time itself was halted so food could be stored there safely and indefinitely.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Not long after the finishing touches were in place, it was time for the first of the guests to begin to arrive. Soral would greet everyone at the gates and have one of his servants guide them inside. It had been a bit of a shock to meet his servants. Even though Ruena had technically been aware Soral was a king now, the fact he could already organize servants more effectively than she could was something she had never expected.

  Once the servants led the guests inside, Ruena and Grant would greet them in the main venue. As for Rosalie and the Warriors, they would be providing the security. As she would not only be the representative of the Alodan House, but the Alodan Warriors as well, Ruena was not wearing a dress.

  The majority of her outfit greatly resembled her Warrior uniform, but with a deep green theme instead of red. What set it apart was the dressy cape with golden tassels in a darker shade of green than the rest of her outfit. Ruena wasn’t really sure if green suited her, but Soral seemed pleased. Green suited a forest gremlin like him perfectly. She could easily picture him in his dress clothes climbing through the trees like a monkey.

  As the guests began to pour in, Ruena couldn’t help but notice the odd looks her outfit was getting. It shouldn’t be a problem of quality. Soral’s skills in design had always been praised. Even if every work couldn’t be a masterpiece, it should at least be decent enough. It was only when Velcorna arrived that Ruena realized what the problem was.

  “Matching outfits?” she asked with a scornful sneer, “What a bold way to declare your continued relationship with that street rat businessman. I suppose you must think that everything will be fine now that he stumbled into possession of some backwater kingdom.”

  “I am not sure what kind of misconception you had, Duchess,” Ruena replied, “but our continued relationship has nothing to do with Vista. I would stay by his side with or without his new royal status. Please refrain from starting useless conflict over unimportant matters.”

  Velcorna seemed truly taken aback. Ruena wasn’t sure if she successfully sounded like a noble, but she wasn’t going to talk in circles either. She had barely started and she was already sick of needing approval or permission just to see the man she was dating. If it wasn’t to keep Velcorna’s claws off of the throne of Altea, she never would have returned to Alodan in the first place. That was the only reason she was putting up with gaining the noble’s favor.

  “Then shall we discuss important matters instead?” Velcorna continued, already collected from her earlier surprise, “I have allowed you to run around as you pleased so far, but as the heir to Alodan I cannot tolerate you attaching our name to some jungle project from some insignificant speck of a kingdom. Altea is the center of all countries, and Alodan is the greatest power in Altea. You would do well to remember that.”

  “You are wrong,” Ruena immediately denied, “Alodan is a duchy. The greatest power in Altea must always be the Queen.”

  “Well said,” Densooth agreed, stepping onto the scene without a servant to guide him. He must have gone ahead. As soon as he appeared, the buzz of conversation from the other guests stilled to a hushed silence. “And yet, for someone who supports the Queen, you seem to have forgotten my invitation.”