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"Is it just me or the place is really crowded this morning?" Ellie muttered with bafflement.

Ikaris and Malia were also puzzled. The hundreds of Portals were already around last time and it was true that they had visited this place in the evening, shortly before dark. However, that didn\'t explain all this crowd.

Sweeping the place with his eyes, he had already spotted over sixty young men and women, half of whom were luxuriously clad and trimmed, including the escort of retinue and Tartarus Enforcers following them that gave away their identity as Stele Owners. If they weren\'t Lords, at least they held important positions in their respective nations.

"This is confusing." Ikaris admitted a beat later. "Anaphiel had hinted that it had been a long time since House Morgunis had recruited a new Lord. Most of these people are as young, sometimes even younger than we are. The ones who are richly dressed might be the offspring of those Lords or promising prodigies, but more than half of them wear the same tunics provided by the Welcome Pack as we do... How strange..."

If she hadn\'t lied to him, that would mean that over 30 Stele Owners had joined House Morgunis in the last 9 days. What on earth had happened in that time?

With the constant stream of Lords and their retinues pouring out of the Portals, Ikaris and his unmoving party soon attracted attention. On the other hand, it made it easy for someone they already knew to recognize them.

"Hey! Malia, Ellie!" A delighted man\'s voice sounded not far from them, a few Portals away.

Turning to the one who had just called their names, they saw a handsome blond man, with lively green eyes, a sparkling grin and a defined jaw. He wore the same gleaming silver armor and navy-blue overcoat with gold embroidery over it. A long sword with a golden hilt hung from his belt, tucked into a navy-blue scabbard that matched his overcoat.

"Asselin Solostar. You\'re still alive." Malia muttured flatly as though she didn\'t care much about it.

"Ouch! You\'re breaking my heart." The noble chuckled as he ogled the pretty Dhampir in great appreciation.

He had missed that enchanting sight. He could feel his foul mood and tension of the past few days dissipate just by gazing at her.

After the elation of his reunion with Malia passed, he naturally paid attention to Ellie whom he already knew, then Danchun, completely ignoring Ikaris and the other men.

"I apologize, I am Lord Solostar a long time friend of Malia. " He declaimed, taking Danchun\'s hand without her permission to plant a kiss on it. Not immediately letting go of her hand after his bold act, he looked up at her and smiled. "Your charm has ravished my heart my beautiful Lady. I can already say that it is love at first sight. If I can\'t know your name, I\'ll probably lose sleep over it... "

" ... "

Danchun maintained the eye contact with the expressiveness of a dead fish, and awkwardness set in. Yet Ikaris and the others had underestimated the nobleman\'s skin thickness because he didn\'t break eye contact either, an aura of confidence radiating from his entire being.

"Psst! Is he always like this?" Ikaris whispered in Malia\'s ear.

"As far as I can remember..." She grumbled with a jaded face.

In the end, Danchun was forced to reveal her first name so he would leave her alone. This blank gave the other members of their group plenty of time to observe Asselin\'s companions standing silently behind him with their faces scrunched up in embarrassment.

Among them, of course, was Toby, the English military man who once held the rank of colonel. His appearance hadn\'t changed much, except that he had a scar still healing on his left cheek. He had also shaved his head and wore an outfit similar to Asselin\'s, but the armor was replaced by a black leather armor while his overcoat was a perfect khaki green to blend into forest environments. He also wore a sword on his belt, but it was a third shorter and did not garner much attention. He also carried several knives, a hatchet, and a roundel slung over his back. Overall, he looked like a typical Ranger.

Behind Toby, two other blond men with military haircuts were wearing similar equipment, but the quality was two tiers lower. Besides their awe at the sight of this place, they were watching everything, their eyes darting around with alertness.

In addition to these two "guards", there was also a young woman with curly red mid-length hair wearing a long, ankle-length green dress with a lace-up bodice that was tight around the waist and emphasized her modest breasts, but was puffier around the legs. With her blue doe eyes, her button nose, a few freckles and a sultry yet innocent smile she had the kind of charm that would appeal to a dashing, hormone-driven young man like Asselin.

When Ikaris met her eyes, she smiled and bowed politely. He frowned at this. He could have sworn she had just winked at him.

Next to the young redheaded woman stood a black man in his forties, about 8 feet tall. Next to him, Toby was like a little puppy facing a huge rottweiler. With his cold and unkind look, his heavy golden plate armor and his huge greatsword hanging behind his back, everything about him screamed the word danger.

Ellie and Taguchi shivered subconsciously as they met his gaze and even Nardor and Danchun who had seen their fair share of strong warriors were touched. Noticing the change in atmosphere, Asselin walked up to the giant and loudly patting his shoulder pad with clanking noises, he looked at Malia and the others and laughed smugly,

"I would like to introduce you to Irkan, my personal bodyguard and also a master of arms. My parents joined me three days ago and have entrusted Irkan with my security. He is a Body Master Sorcerer. My parents and what\'s left of my clan look after my territory in my absence."

A cloud of sadness passed before his eyes as he spoke these words and they guessed that Hadrakin\'s fall to the Glenring invader had not spared his family either. Forcing himself to be cheerful and smile, Asselin continued the introductions,

"You already know Toby, the two men behind him are called Lennart and Stefan. They are brothers, one year apart. They were both summoned by the Stele. They come from the same world, a world called Earth I believe. The same as you if I\'m not mistaken. They were both warriors in their former lives, but it seems they come from a different time than you."

"They\'re from the eleventh century and from what was once Scandinavia." Toby smirked. "Yeah, you guessed right. They\'re fucking Vikings."

Ikaris and Ellie\'s jaws litteraly dropped to the floor upon hearing the news and the former colonel gloated at their reactions. He had reacted the same way when he heard the news.

\'It\'s quite possible.\' Magnus commented in the boy\'s head. \'Souls summoned by the Stele can sometimes remain on standby for thousands of years. At least that\'s the current consensus within the Confederation.\'

\'Does that mean I\'ve potentially been away from Earth for several thousand years as well?\' Ikaris shuddered as he realized the full implications of this revelation.

\'Who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no.\' The old Vampire answered elusively, shunning the question.

During their telepathic talk, Asselin finished the introductions.

"... And finally the lovely young lady with the green dress, that\'s Charlotte Wynphine, another childhood friend of mine. Cough... And technically my bride..."

At this point, he paused to watch for reactions from Malia, Ellie and Danchun but upon receiving only three deadpan faces he lost most of his pep and sighed. He decided to cut it short.

"Her clan was practically wiped out during Hadrakin\'s destruction. She fled the capital Anor with what was left of her clan and many refugees, but only a few dozen have survived to this day. Not having a Stele, she used her family\'s ties with my parents to join my nation."

Ikaris, Malia and Ellie who knew about the drama that transpired in Hadrakin gave her a sympathetic look upon hearing what she had been through. Surviving that hell and seeing everyone she knew being slaughtered one after another by billions of unstoppable Crawlers was enough to traumatize anyone.

"Sorry for your loss." Ikaris sincerely sympathized.

"By the way..." Asselin changed the subject, looking around for someone. "Where is that boy, Ikaris? I was rather looking forward to seeing him again so we could share our respective Lord\'s experiences to see who comes out on top.

" ... "