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In honor of Seren's arrival, her father slaughtered a pack of lambs; each lamb was slaughtered separately from the other lambs, and the lambs were raised in exceptional comfort.

This made the maids recall when Seren first lived in the imperial palace and her rejection of specific foods, and that made them understand why Seren doesn't eat anything that doesn't meet the standards of her homeland.

In her homeland, food is treated with hygienic practices that go beyond just cooking. It starts with the lifestyle itself. An animal should be treated with care before going to be butchered.

Preparing events to celebrate Seren's return.

The father brought traditional dancers, traditional musicians, and made feasts.

The pack of lambs was roasted, amounts of rice were cooked, and an abundance of corn was boiled in a big pot, and served by the Marquis and his assistants.

The food, traditional dancers, and traditional musicians were all taken into the center of the town, where all the citizens, along with Marquis Hamid, his son, and his daughter, as well as the maids, the knights, Hatter, Lotus, and Bala, celebrated the visit of Seren.

Hatter and the maids were dumbfounded; they had never seen something like that. Usually, when a noble hosts a celebration for any occasion, it is done inside the walls of the palace, and no commoner or maids are invited. It was a new view of Seren's world.

After Hamid and his assistants served the food, everyone sat to eat.

Seren sat with her brother and father on her right side, and Hatter Lotus and Bala on her left.

“Oh! I see now,” Hatter said while eating the seasoned steak.

Seren was eating the steak with bread. “Hmm?” She asked, munching on a steak.

“You know, that day when you–” Hatter remembered when Seren had breakfast with the king and how she served Owen. Hatter smiled dryly with his eyes closed, stopped, panicking, realizing his vital mistake quickly changed the topic.

“Oh!" he said enthusiastically.

"You have something on your face,” he lowered his tone.

Seren raised one eyebrow, swallowing her food, and noticing his sudden change in tone.

“For real! It is here,” he pointed at a random spot.

Seren tried to take away the imaginary spot.

“No! No, it's… here–” Hatter pulled out the handkerchief she had given him and cleaned the invisible spot.

Seren's ears grew rosy, she turned her head, and continued eating.

While she ate, she said under her breath, “Don't do this again… don't forget the rules.” She continued eating.

“Sorry, you are right,” he murmured.

He exhaled in comfort, thanking God she got distracted; he had almost forgotten that he was Hatter and almost exposed himself. “It is getting

harder to keep my identity,” he thought.

After the feast was eaten, everyone relaxed over black tea made on a wood fire. The smell of charred wood mixed with the jasmine scent filled everyone's head while the traditional musicians were playing the flute and duf, a type of drum. Then a couple of performers stepped to the center to perform a choreographic sword fight, and besides them, a small groups of guys wearing white garments and a flowing white maxi skirt swirling in their place.

After a short term, the citizens stood next to each other shoulder to shoulder and performed a traditional dance where everyone one stands shoulder to shoulder and would preceed to stomp on the floor in a sophisticated elegance.

Lotus was smiling the whole time, while Bala fell asleep right after she finished eating.

As for Hatter, he was busy watching. Watching the joy on Seren’s face, and how the firelight caused a rim of halo all over her.

He turned away, resting his hand on his mouth. His face flushed.

“How can someone who shines shine even more?” he thought.

After a long day of celebration, it ended at dawn, and eventually, everyone packed and cleaned and went back home.

Hatter excused himself and told Seren that he would go for a short while and come back.

Seren and her family and subjects returned to the castle, Lotus was holding Bala because she still had not woken up properly. Seren took them to her room.

“Since Bala hasn't woken up yet,” she opened her cabinet, scouring for her favorite coffee.

“I'll make blond coffee,”

“Blond?”

Seren giggled, "We call coffee Black if there is no cardamon, but if there is a visible amount of minced cardamom combined with crushed powder coffee beans, we call it blond.” Seren showed the color of the coffee and how light it is, then she went and prepared the coffee.

She served the coffee with cups that had pretty and sophisticated patterns.

Seren then gently tapped Bala's sleepy head with the light copper tray.

They all sat drinking coffee.

“Say, um, Bala…who are the underdogs?”

“The underdogs?”

Seren nodded, sipping on her coffee.

Bala started to explain that the underdogs were not ordinary knights and that contrary to their names, they were quite skillful and even more skilled than the average Knight.

However, their names are derived from their backgrounds.

Underdogs are kids who are usually orphans, extremely poor, or the result of war and are picked specifically by the king, and their loyalty is unconditional to the king, unlike the average knights, who are usually of noble or merchant descent.

Underdogs are divided by skills and based on how their lives were when they were found.

Bala then continued, “I am an underdog, and if you notice I have a raven as a messenger,” she continued to explain that usually raven holders are kids of wars.

She also said, “Underdogs are professional secret agents and you probably will never know who they are or what they are thinking."

"Sometimes you can't see their faces.”

Seren pondered over the idea of the underdogs being excellent masters of disguise.

She thought of Hatter and who he could be, and while she never tried to dig deep, he had always seemed familiar, like a coin with two faces, but she continuously ignored the feeling.

“Well, you show your face,”

Bala smiled, “True, it is because only those who belong to the king wear masks.”

“The king chose us and we might serve him loyally, but we don't belong to him, we are just sponsored by him.”

“I have my own life outside the king's realm,”

Seren nodded, but her brain tickled her like it was trying to regain a memory it never had.

Seren yawned, stood up, “I guess this will be enough for today, let's sleep today,” she pointed to the closet.

“You will find blankets and mattresses to sleep on,” she yawned once more and threw her body onto the bed holding the black swan plushie in her arms.

Before she drifted to sleep, she pouted, looking at the plushie, thinking

“You missed out on things I wanted to show you…” she yawned.

“Are you doing OK at the court?” She mumbled, hugging it closer to her face, and slowly closed her eyelids, drifting to slumber.