Chapter 1443 - 613: Lost the Competition, Won at Life (Part 2)

Chapter 1443: Chapter 613: Lost the Competition, Won at Life (Part 2)

"Not often, you know, Amelia. I’m not as smooth-tongued as Laine." The Emperor shrugged with a touch of humor, and shifted his gaze to Laine, who was chatting with Boris, Vamil and the others in the distance. "He’s very popular with women, am I right?"

"You are too, Carl." Amelia sounded a little resentful as she brought it up; after all, she had never gotten a marriage. The Empire Countess said casually, "But you’re too weak, Carl. Let me think... if you weren’t using the Divine Hammer Gail-Malaz, and not wearing that Silver Seal plate armor blessed by all the Deities of the Old World, would you be any match for Laine?"

"Hmhahaha!" Ivan and Carl Franz burst out laughing almost at the same time. The Emperor shook his head helplessly. "Don’t compare me to Laine, Emmanuelle, let me put it this way: even if I’m holding Gail-Malaz and wearing the Silver Seal, it’s still unlikely I can beat Laine. At best I can rely on the Divine Hammer’s power boost and the protection of the Silver Seal to tangle with him for a while."

"So don’t complain about how popular Laine is with women." Amelia stretched out a small hand wrapped in a long black-and-red lace satin glove, fingers pressed together, and lifted it slightly upward. "A top-quality man like that will never be short of women who like him."

"Hahahahaha!" Carl Franz raised his goblet. "Then let’s drink to Laine’s popularity with women, and to his son, my godson, Little Frederick!"

"Cheers!"

On the other side, sure enough, as Laine chatted with Boris and Vamil they quickly found themselves on the same wavelength. From the lewd laughter of the three men, it was obvious they’d drifted onto a risqué topic. This was nothing strange—when men gather, these topics are inevitable. And once they got onto that, their earlier conflicts and minor unpleasantness were soon tossed to the back of their minds. After a few drinks, the dirty talk heated up. Laine and the Vamil Prince-Elector even had a debate over the sacred, world-origin-philosophy-level question of whether pantyhose or garter stockings were better, and on the basis of "agreeing to disagree," they still managed to reach quite a few points of consensus.

At eight in the evening, the banquet officially ended, but the night was just beginning. There were many forms of entertainment in the Imperial Palace, but the most popular by far was tabletop war games. The Empire’s Great Nobles all had quite a few of these delightful little figurine pieces in their homes, and they were itching to fight a grand battle across the tabletops. Aside from that, some of the Great Nobles and noble ladies preferred to go to the music hall, gather around the pianos and harps to listen to performances and singing, or sit together and play cards.

Laine merely watched everyone play. He wasn’t particularly interested in these tabletop war games, and those exquisitely crafted figurines, whose cost ran extremely high, actually made him break out in a cold sweat. Take Boris Todbringer, for instance—he had the most extensive collection of figurines. That one chest of perfectly preserved miniatures of his could supposedly fetch several thousand Gold Marks on the black market, and even then demand would still outstrip supply.

"Laine, you’re not playing?" Emperor Carl Franz was clearly a master of these war games. Not only did he own a full set of figurines, he even had a miniature of himself—the Emperor mounted on a Griffin—placed at the rear of the army. Both Death’s Claw and the Emperor’s own awe-inspiring bearing had been faithfully reproduced, and even the Divine Hammer Gail-Malaz in the figurine’s hand was carefully sculpted in metal.

"No, I need a bit of my own space, Carl." Laine shrugged, then glanced at Amelia, who was holding onto his arm. "Fine, our space."

"If you two really need some private space, there’s no need to stay here. There are plenty of rooms upstairs." The Vamil Prince-Elector quipped.

The humor of the Wolfen Prince-Elector and Duke of Oster drew a round of laughter.

Laine didn’t refute it either. He gave an awkward smile, neither immediately agreeing nor explicitly refusing, which made him seem guilty. It also made everyone feel that in this relationship, it was Amelia who seemed to hold the initiative.

Only the little Maid knew what Laine was thinking. As the Lake Fairy’s Divine Chosen Champion and Holy Grail Knight Commander, Laine had always presented himself to the outside world as a "perfect man." A man without flaws, immensely charismatic, and overwhelmingly powerful like that was bound to arouse instinctive, subconscious rejection and hostility from his male peers in the circle.

That was not the purpose of Laine’s trip to the Empire.

However, once Laine displayed this "henpecked" trait and a lack of skill in tabletop war games, he quickly shifted from being a perfect man to a target of teasing. After everyone had taken a turn poking fun at him, Laine naturally felt more approachable.

All of this was the man’s disguise. Laine was really... perhaps it’s only this kind of man that could make me willingly fall for him, Amelia thought as she held onto Laine’s arm. She simply went along with the act and said, "In that case, why don’t you play a game with me?"

"Uh... I’m not very good at it." Laine played along, as expected.

"If you don’t know how, I’ll teach you!" Amelia finally tossed out the scheme she’d been nursing all this time. "Come on, let’s play a round. You can borrow pieces from your Godfather. I’m sure Duke Ivan won’t be stingy, right?"

"All right." Griffin Duke Ivan nodded with a wry smile.

And so, under the gaze of everyone present, Laine and Amelia played a tabletop war game match.

Likewise, in full view of everyone, Laine lost to Amelia, just as expected. Although the loss wasn’t too crushing, Amelia never gave Laine any chance to turn the tables. The little Maid seemed particularly thrilled to have defeated Laine. She packed away the pieces and smiled at him with narrowed eyes. "I win, Laine."