The inside of the building was divided into two floors.
The base floor, where the majority of nobles were seated, was a beautiful, wide, golden hall, with various round tables of three arranged throughout.
On the walls hung several paintings, each depicting what seemed to be a different race of Angels.
Different races, Ryuk thought, because the dressing of each of these Angels was significantly distinct from the others.
But it wasn’t just the paintings—it was the reality around him.
While he was dressed in Victorian-era fashion to fit in with the Eiffel Royal House, other Royal Houses wore entirely different styles.
There was one Royal family dressed in Kimonos.
Two of them: the main Royal, a female wearing an orange-colored full-length dress that hugged closely around her form, and the other—her guard—wore a samurai hakama with a long katana strapped to his waist, its edge just an inch from scraping the ground.
Ryuk didn’t know the name of their Royal House, but they were depicted in one of the paintings around him.
Another group belonged to a Royal House dressed in overly inflated robes, with large woven turbans around their heads.
Another wore the white furry skin of a snow bear, with the wide-open mouth of the beast worn directly above their heads.
The Royal from this House was a burly young man with a scar crossing over his left eye.
He emitted a wild, beastly aura, as if he were a creature of the wild himself—but Ryuk knew better.
The final group consisted of just two people.
One was a female who wore a dark robe that covered all of her features, including a dark hood that concealed even the back of her neck.
The front of her face was masked as the cloth continued upward, covering the lower half of her face, leaving only her piercing golden eyes exposed.
Judging from the different dresses they wore, Ryuk could come to a simple truth:
"There are a total of five Royal Houses in here."
But as he walked through the hall and looked at the painted images above, he couldn’t help but notice—they weren’t just five.
He counted a total of twelve, yet only five Houses were present in the room.
’What happened to the rest?’ he silently thought, but eventually shrugged it off.
He remained on the lower floor, standing beneath one of the images and looking up at it.
The one he had come in with—Princess Eiffel—had been led to a different place than all the rest.
That place was none other than the upper floor above them.
It hung directly above their heads by golden chains, and up there were the remaining four Royal House heirs.
Those who had accompanied each heir weren’t allowed up—all of them, including other nobles not part of the Royal families, remained below.
Up there, only the five Royal heirs were allowed.
But the golden castle itself seemed to have its guards who watched the heirs to prevent any infighting.
Still, Ryuk’s attention covered everywhere, even though he couldn’t exactly hear what the group above was saying, due to a strange barrier around them that distorted sound from them.
He could only hear a few fragments of gibberish.
’Perhaps if I touched the barrier up above, I could adapt to its energy and hear what they’re saying.’
But jumping so high would be too eye-catching.
That seemingly small observation made Ryuk realize the first limit of his power.
And that was: he needed to touch the source of energy to adapt to it.
Without touching the barrier, his senses could never truly press through it.
If he were trapped, he’d need to touch the source before he could adapt to it and then escape.
If someone could prevent him from reaching the source of energy, they could succeed in trapping him in one place.
The discovery of this weakness didn’t leave Ryuk frantic.
It made him smile when he realized it.
A weakness about himself wasn’t something he could easily put into words before, but now he could.
It was a different sensation that made him feel like he understood himself even more.
Still, faint murmurs continued on the lower deck.
Some of the nobles tried to mingle with those who had arrived alongside the Royals, gathering themselves in small groups around the round tables.
Some maiden servants served them drinks, mostly, but all of this wasn’t what he cared about.
He wasn’t used to the Royal way of speaking among themselves, being the brush boy he once was.
Nor did he see the sense in joining them or speaking of topics he likely had no clue about, or of associations that wouldn’t necessarily help him achieve what he was here to do and could even distract him.
So, he simply stood alone, walking from one picture to the next, then to the next, immersing in how distinct each family’s dress style was, and trying to see a difference that was more than their unique dress.
He couldn’t find one.
Quickly, hours passed, and soon enough, the Royals above began stepping down one by one.
This time, the hardened expressions they wore upon entering the hall seemed to have melted slightly, and some of them even smiled and discussed with each other.
’Seems like it went well,’ Ryuk thought to himself.
Soon after, he rejoined with Princess Eiffel, who smiled brilliantly the moment she saw him.
"Seems like you had a good time, Princess Eiffel," he said as she took his arm,
"It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be," She whispered, to which he simply smiled.
The other Royal heirs had also decided to leave after the meeting, and they resumed walking out.
"Welcome back, Princess Eiffel," Coachman Percival greeted as he opened the carriage door.
And just a couple of seconds later, their carriage rose high into the air, returning to the Royal Castle.
’Seems like an easy loyalty quest,’ Ryuk thought to himself, as he sat down with a fulfilled heart.
But soon enough, just as his eyes—wanting to close in relaxation—began to lower...
They opened sharply, a gleam of light criss-crossing within them,
’Just when I thought it’s over...’