Max walked into the dombivli palace with a smug smile on his face.
He was expecting a grand welcome, he was expecting Asiva and Anna to swoon over him while he flexed his newfound strength to Kremeth Jr and Sebastian, however, reality was starkly different from his fantasy.
The moment he stepped into the palace, he saw Zippo, Sebastian, Asiva, Anna and Junior all sitting around eating cake, and the moment they saw him everyone simply lost their shit as Asiva screamed at him to rush to the teleportation centre-
" GO! GO! GO! THE LORD'S MEETING STARTS ANY MOMENT NOW! YOU HAD TO REPORT THERE AN HOUR AGO- " Asiva screamed as she began pushing Max towards the teleportation centre.
There was no
' How are you Max? '
Or
' How did your revenge go Max? '
Or
' Are you really tier7 Max? '
Or
' Did you miss me Max '
Or most importantly
' Do you wanna have sex, Max? '
Instead, he was pushed to attend a meeting he had no idea was taking place as the moment he stepped foot inside his palace he was sent away once more.
Max was excited to be back, although it had been only 30 days for them, to him the separation felt like centuries.
Not only did he miss Anna and Asiva thoroughly, his heart ached for the warmth and love of family after the long isolation, however, circumstances forced his hand to fulfil his duties as Lord first.
Asiva had given up hope of Max attending the council meeting, she was already drafting up excuses about his absence when he suddenly showed up unexpectedly.
Naturally she was very happy to see him, however, with him still having a slight chance of making it to the meeting in time, Asiva knew she needed to push him to attend the meeting first.
**************
( Meanwhile at the council meeting )
The council meeting had started to convene and all but one lord were present in the room including the vampire king himself as Regus graciously waited for Max to show up even though the scheduled time for the meeting to start was five minutes ago.
He tapped his fingers with calm as he tried to assess the reason behind Max's absence.
If the boy was planning a rebellion, now was not the best time to do so.
Shockingly his Bloodfall was the only territory that was left untouched in this war so far and Regus could not suppress the gnawing feeling in his heart that Max might have reached a side-deal with Dracula.
While others were unaware of Max's true nature, Regus knew that although Max wasn't a primordial vampire, he was a close relative of the bunch.
It was also very co-incidental that the day that Dracula was unleashed it was Max and group who were inside the dungeon and rumoured to have progressed the furthest, as Regus had plausible reason to believe it was Max who had set Dracula free.
With his wife openly inciting the royals against Regus in tea parties, Regus was expecting the boy to make his move soon, however, the reason behind why he could not suppress the boy even though he suspected him to be a rebel was because of the history the two shared.
Having already publicly persecuted Max once and failed, Regus had damaged his reputation as an unbiased king.
If he persecuted the boy without anything tangible and grave this time around he was sure to lose major support from vampire lords.
Even Though Regus suspected Max to be a snake, he could not deal with the boy due to the political environment he had created and could only bide his time with vigilance and patience.
" Had Dombivli informed us about their absence? " Regus asked eventually to one of his subordinates who looked extremely pale at the question.
" N-No my king, they have not informed us about Lord Ravan not attending this meeting " The subordinate nervously replied as Regus raised an eyebrow.
" It appears Lord Ravan doesn't respect this council's time then…. Very well, let's start today's session without him " Regus commented as he took the opportunity to take a shot at Max and make him look bad.
Regus wasn't wrong either, the other lord's were not morons to have showed up to the meeting on-time.
If Max did not respect the council's time, it was akin to saying that he did not respect the council itself.
" The reason behind why I've gathered you all here today is bec- "
" THE RULER OF DOMBIVLI, THE RISING STAR OF VAMPIRE SOCIETY, THE HERO OF THE DIMENSIONAL BATTLEFIELD, THE SCION OF RAJPUT CLAN, THE PRIMAL GOD MAX RAJPUT HAS ARRIVED " The Titus clan servant announced as Regus frowned at being rudely interrupted mid speech.
All eyes turned towards the entrance as Max walked into the hall in immaculate robes of the Bloodfall clan colours as he walked down the hall with his head held high.
He took his designated seat, the only empty chair in the room without bowing to Regus Aurelius or apologising to the council as his conduct amused Vega but pissed off a lot of lower lord's.
" Nice of you to finally join us Lord Ravan albeit strikingly late…." Regus commented as Max bowed at the comment as if it were a compliment.
" My apologies to you my King as well as to the vampire council, I'm late today because I had no idea there was a meeting happening today.
I was busy with my tier7 promotion test and was hurriedly sent over to this meeting the moment I stepped back into the palace after a successful promotion.
It wasn't my intention to be late, but rather a byproduct of unfortunate circumstances... " Max commented with underlying pride in his voice as the entire vampire council looked at him with disbelief.
" You're a strongman now? " Vega asked in surprise as it had not been more than two decades since Vega had first met Max as a mortal.
" Indeed " Max replied as he enjoyed looking into Regus's eyes as he said it, watching the monarch's pupils constrict in horror.