Passing through the crowd, Perlis saw the scene in front of the main table: on the red carpet that was previously stained with wine by Venia, four or five Thebite soldiers wearing giant armor were clumsily dancing an uncoordinated tap dance to a cheerful rhythm.
The MK21 "Fortress" series of giant armor is characterized by defense and low mobility. Even in battle, it cannot perform too many high-mobility actions, let alone dance. The giant armor, which was originally used to defend the country and conquer the earth, has become a tool for entertainment like a jester. The dance of those Thebit soldiers is like a juggling, without any aesthetic sense, which makes people laugh.
It was this absurd scene that caused the direct descendants of Venia and the Irenforno family to laugh:
"Hahahahaha!!!"
Venia raised the glass high and poured the wine into the air, onto the heads of the dancers.
"Keep going! Keep going! Try something more difficult! Hahahaha!"
The dancing Thebit soldiers were silent. They all followed Venia's orders with serious expressions, and danced awkwardly in their armored bodies.
Perlis had no idea what they were thinking, but she came to a conclusion without hesitation that made her laugh:
This fighting nation forged by wind and snow is beginning to decline.
The banquet hall was filled with a somewhat incongruous atmosphere of joy. Perlis tried hard to pull her mind away from it and began to look for Ivar in the hall.
Perlis walked slowly in the hall carrying the plate, carefully avoiding the other maids walking around while looking for Ivar. When she passed by the tables, she always heard some dissatisfied murmurs:
"What a stupid show... Damn..."
"The residents of the territory are almost starving to death, but I'm still here..."
"Where is the Iron Lord? Why isn't the Iron Lord here..."
"Forget it... Let's go back after eating. We can't change anything..."
Obviously, the dissatisfaction of the various lords with the Iron Fortress regime has more or less developed to a point where it is difficult to reconcile, but this is not something that Perlis needs to worry about. Perlis focused on looking for Ivar, her red eyes constantly scanning the crowd.
Soon, at a table near the main table with very few people, Perlis saw him:
A head of messy black hair with some green highlights, a sharp face and a pointed chin, and an expression of contempt for everything that Perlis could never forget in her dreams.
[Blade of Babel] The third seat, [Scavenger] Ivar Sekpas.
The hand holding the plate began to tremble slightly, but soon stopped. Perlis suppressed all the emotions in her heart and breathed evenly. She slowly lifted the cover of the plate in her hand slightly, and there was a fat and juicy turkey inside. The aroma of meat was coming out from the gap of the plate, blending into the atmosphere of the banquet.
And next to the turkey was a butterfly knife that was glowing red.
......
6) Blood and Steel (Part 6)
At the end of the giant armored dance, the soldiers lined up in a row, linked arms and kicked their legs covered with heavy exoskeletons, ending this absurd dance with joyful music.
“Wonderful! Wonderful!!”
Venia stood up and clapped loudly, with an extremely proud expression on his face.
"This is an idea I came up with, a fusion of Thebite's iron culture and modern popular elements. What do you think?"
"Awesome! Master Venia!"
At the dining table in front of the main table, a man who looked like a nobleman raised his arms and cheered, but when he noticed Venia's subtle change in expression, he quickly changed his words:
"I'm sorry.. General Venia..."
Venia didn't even look at the nobleman, but looked at Ivar who was sitting at the same table with the nobleman, and his smile faded slightly:
"What do you think, my dear brother? Is there any similar performance in the Federation?"
When the word "Federation" was mentioned, all eyes in the banquet hall turned to Ivar, most of them with disdain or disgust on their faces. The conflict between Thebes and Academe was already getting worse, and this conflict became even worse after Charon's rebellion, which made the Federation people very unwelcome in Thebes.
"Oh, brother, this kind of performance seems a bit ahead of its time even in Wiesel, the federal capital where art flourishes."
Ivar glanced at the eyes of the surrounding lords and let out a mocking laugh.
"Of course, we don't need this bulky armor."
"Oh, is that so? It seems that the brains of the Federation people are really severely constrained, right?"
Venia laughed and looked around the banquet hall. He thought that making a joke about the Federation would cause cheers from the lords, but the lords just stared at Ivar coldly and didn't care at all what Venia said.
After realizing that the atmosphere in the hall was not right, Venia was still a little apprehensive. He was not afraid that the lord would fight Ivar on the spot, as that would not be a loss for him, and they were not Ivar's opponents. But he did not want to ruin his birthday party, that was all.
In embarrassment, Venia cleared his throat:
"Ah... let's change the subject..."
Venia cleared his throat awkwardly and looked at Ivar, who was watching him with interest.
"Tell us about [Blade of Babel]?"
......
Close, getting closer.
Perlis stared at Ivar's back and slowly approached him with a tray of food.
Ivar's attention was on the god Venia, and it was impossible for him to notice her whereabouts.
As she got closer to Ivar, her breathing became more rapid.
It's almost there, he is right in front of us.
All he had to do was slit his throat with the blade and he would avenge his father.
Pearlis remembered Edward's tears when they parted, and the hand that was extended to her in the icy rain.
She was tired and exhausted. She didn't want to listen to Ivar's explanation, nor did she want to stay even for a second longer on this Wanren Mountain that made her completely hopeless.
So she walked forward, through the lords who glared at Ivar but dared not do anything, through the cowards who lived in cynicism.
......
At the dining table, Ivar was still talking with Venia.
"Oh? [Blade of Babel]?" Ivar stared at Venia meaningfully, "Why do you want to hear this?"
"Why do you want to hear it? They are known as the top combat force in the Federation."
Venia put on a slightly performative expression of surprise and looked at Ivar with a smile:
"They say 'one blade destroys thousands of troops', could that be false?"
Ivar didn't say anything. He held the fork in his left hand and the knife in his right hand, slowly cutting the steak on the plate.
"It's not that exaggerated..." Ivar muttered.
"Not that exaggerated? In the legends of the Federation, the [Blade of Babel] was portrayed as a being close to godhood, right?"
"No," Ivar picked up a piece of steak, put it in his mouth, and chewed slowly, "It's not that exaggerated."
"Then tell me about your colleagues? How about that? Or do you want to keep it secret for the great Federation and spoil our fun?"
Venia thought that Ivar would definitely not dare to give him the cold shoulder at the birthday party, so he started to act a little unscrupulously. However, Ivar didn't seem to care. He stuck the fork into a corner of the steak and started cutting it with a knife.
"I was born in Lorton, man, and home is always home."
Ivar forked up another piece of freshly cut steak and held it up to examine it.
"The meat on Wanren Mountain is much better than the inferior species in the Federation. If you don't come here, you won't be able to eat such good meat."
Under Venia's gaze, Ivar slowly put the beef into his mouth, chewed it slowly for a while, and then spoke:
"As for the [Blades of Babel]... although most of them are not from the Federation, they are basically the same as the Federation..."
......
After passing countless dining tables and countless maids, Ivar was not far ahead.
As her nerves became more and more tense, Perlis unconsciously pursed her lips tightly.
She stared at Ivar, the leisurely, talkative man.
The fence-sitter who tossed between the Commonwealth and Thebeth.
Why...why is it that someone like you is still alive, but dad has to die...?
Perlis walked slowly towards Ivar mechanically, not noticing the maid pushing the dining cart coming towards her. She accidentally bumped into the corner of the dining cart, causing several plates on the cart to fall to the ground and break.
"Hey! Don't you have eyes when you walk?"
The maid angrily expressed her dissatisfaction to Perlis, but Perlis walked straight past her as if no one was around. In her eyes, there was only Ivar and the Scavenger.
No one noticed this little episode, and almost everyone in the banquet hall focused their attention on Venia and Ivar, paying attention to their conversation.
......
"No different from the Federation people?" Venia filled the glass in his hand with wine and raised it slightly. "How do you mean no different? Can you tell me more about it?"
"Interested in this? That's strange, I thought you were more interested in..."
Ivar glanced at the ceiling and smiled sarcastically at the ornate ribbons.
"...decorating a banquet hall or something?"
Hearing this, Venia's face darkened a little. He put the wine glass on the table with some dissatisfaction, and his tone was a little stiff:
"They are enemies. I am a general of the Thebite Confederacy. Of course I am interested."
"Okay, okay, I got it, General."
Ivar looked at the somewhat exasperated Venya, smiled slightly, then casually inserted the fork into the steak and slowly cut the little steak left on the plate for the third time.
"The [Blades of Babel] are the winners of the [Babel Competition] of all generations. Most of them come from various regions of the continent and are the elite among the elites."
Ivar cut the steak on the plate with a hint of cruelty, as if he was treating the meat as something he could dispose of at will.
"Some of them are agents of the Academy, pure loyal dogs..."
Listening carefully to Ivar's words, Perlis slowly crossed the open space where the giant armor had performed before, and approached the back of the person who was carefully cutting the steak.
Since she was dressed like a maid and everyone's attention was focused on Ivar, no one noticed her at this time.
"Others just want to use the federal resources to realize some of their own ideas..."
10 meters... 5 meters... Ivar was right in front of him, and Perlis placed one hand gently on the lid of the dinner plate.
At the dining table, Ivar cut a piece of steak and slowly lifted it up. Under the lights of the banquet hall, there were still some red bloodstains on the cut of the steak.
"Some people just want to escape from a tragic past and find a place to stay, but..."
Perlis had already walked to Ivar's back, her heart beating very fast, which surprised herself.
Ivar's eyes were still on the steak on the fork in his hand. He looked at the bloody steak as if he was looking at a work of art.
It's now!
Pearlis suddenly lifted the lid of the plate, and the butterfly knife placed next to the turkey appeared under the gorgeous lights of the banquet.
Without hesitation, Perlis grabbed the glowing red butterfly knife, pointed it at Ivar's throat and stabbed it fiercely -
"clang--"
......
How...how...?
The blades of the table knife and the butterfly knife were stuck together, and slight sparks of energy burst out from the place where the blades met...
How..is it possible?
Perlis stared at the scene in astonishment. Ivar's right hand holding the dinner knife naturally stretched back at the moment Perlis stabbed at him, blocking the knife and maintaining a stalemate with Perlis. He still sat at the dining table without even turning his head.
"...But most of the people in [Blade of Babel] are just hopeless fools."
Ivar put the steak on the fork into his mouth, chewed it hastily, then turned his head and looked at Perlis:
"There's no cure... She thought she could attack me from behind."
A paranoid and crazy smile spread across Ivar's face.
"Just like I sneaked up on her dad, huh?"
Instinctively, Perlis ended the stalemate and took a step back to avoid Ivar's knife. The knife just happened to cut off the maid's hat on Perlis's head, and her long snow-white hair spread out, appearing dazzling under the light of the banquet hall.
"No... no way?" Venia stared at Perlis in a daze, with an extremely surprised look, "Why... why can she get in here..."
Perlis took two steps back, took a stance, and stared at Ivar as if she were facing a formidable enemy.
Under her gaze, Ivar slowly stood up, stretched, and turned to her.
"Long time no see, silly little flower, do you miss Uncle Ivar?"
