( The medical dorm, in an underground safe house of the vampires on Maralago )
" Is the hound really in there? Is he fine? " A soldier responsible for guarding the door to the lobby of the safehouse asked the other doorman.
" Yes, I saw him as they carried him on the stretcher, he had ripped muscles and battle scars all over his body, I almost peed my pants when he glanced at me with his blood red eyes, it looked like the eyes of the vampire god himself " the other guard said as he flexed his achievement of looking at the war hero.
" Wow you got to see him, I have taken a double shift today in hopes of seeing him being discharged, but it's a gamble because I had to give up my shift tomorrow.
If I miss seeing him now it would be all for naught " the first guard said as he and the other guard entered a fervent discussion about Max.
Upon Max's orders, his unit had successfully wiped out all barbarians from the region and advanced many hundred kilometres from the southern fort all the way to the muddy swamps where they began creating a temporary encampment.
In times where the vampires had not taken a single inch of land from the barbarians for decades this was the biggest stride in history and the morale in the vampire camp soared high as a reason.
Max's personal legend soared to unprecedented heights on the frontline battlefield as while capturing the northern fort made him a great tactician, him capturing the exponentially more difficult southern fort by himself made him an immortal legend.
Every single soldier serving Max felt immense pride in following such a captain who had such bravery and determination, as exaggerated legends about his personal training routine and his childhood habits began spreading amongst the men.
The best healers had been teleported in from the Titus clan to treat Max's legs, as after a lengthy 2 hour bone regeneration operation, Max's legs were completely healed along with his other surface level injuries.
Despite the warnings from the doctor, Max ordered an unbelievable shipment of mana potions costing a whopping 780 million gold coins, as he consumed a total of 6700 bottles of advanced mana potions to pay his debt off to Angakok over the course of 16 hours.
Max did not want to find out what would happen if he defaulted on his debt to the ancient god, as although spending such a substantial sum of money hurt his finances deeply, he felt that it was better than owing mana to the ancient god.
With this purchase Max's personal finances tanked to a new low, however Max was not too worried about it, he had enough money after the auction to get by for now.
*********
( Max's POV )
" A banquet invitation for me? Haha how interesting, it says the patriarch himself will throw me a party " Max said as he showed the fancy invitation letter to Sebastian who was impressed by the velvet letter covered in runic inscription type glowing lettering.
" Such a fancy invite, says you can bring up to 10 members, needless to say I'm coming " Sebastian said as he passed the letter to Anna
" I'm definitely coming too " Anna said as she raised an eyebrow and passed the letter to Asiva
" Hmm, you will also need a date so I'm also coming. '' Asiva said as she did not care about how fancy the letter was at all.
" Of Course I'm taking you guys, I'll be bored to death without you all " Max said as Anna and Asiva glanced at each other and talked through eye contact only
" It's not the kind of banquet you are thinking about, this one won't just have low level generals or majors, this one will have patriarchs of all major clans present, and there's a slight possibility that the King Regus Aurelius will be present himself " Anna eventually said as Asiva picked up after her and continued the explanation " This letter in velvet is used by clans for official events such as weddings or coming of age ceremonies of their heirs.
It's only used for important events whose priority is decided by the colour of the velvet case.
Yours is ' red ' casing which suggests highest priority.
It's basically the same priority as a new clan leader being elected and having a crowning ceremony.
Considering that the Titus clan is ranked 3rd, everyone except Vampire King Regus Aurelius is more or less compelled to attend the event.
It's going to be a political showdown ".
*Whistling noises*
Max whistled at this news, he was not aware of the clan culture of the vampire clans, but of course the two princesses were more than well versed about such social events.
His victory was undoubtedly monumental for the vampires, but it was not big enough for the patriarch of the Titus clan to turn it into a political showdown, there was definitely something else at play and Max needed to understand what it was if he did not wish to be used as pawn in the scheme of the higher ups.
" I've changed my mind, I'm not coming, it's too much attention for a coward like me " Sebastian said as he decided to back out of the plan
" You are coming, I need you to assure myself I'm not the only socially illiterate person in the room " Max said as he smacked Sebastian on the head.
" I'm not socially illiterate, girls are blinded by my swagger and charm, don't put me in the same club as you- I swirl my wine glass before I drink and have practised my perfect fake smile " Sebastian protested as he puffed his chest and boasted his social skills
Anna and Asiva both coughed violently at the same time as they both recalled the image of Sebastian eating chicken leg piece with his bare hands in the previous banquet, smearing sauce all over his beard.
" Perfect, then you are definitely coming because you can blend in well with the others " Max said as he agreed with Sebastian and counter reasoned with his reasoning on attending the event.
Eventually Sebastian was defeated and had to agree to come along.
What the group did not realise however was that while they were chatting happily in Max's medical dorm, high level politics were being played behind the scenes related to the upcoming banquet gathering.