Chapter 115: A Thai Welcome
I tugged at my collar, making sure it was straight while looking at the mirror.
"You look dashing, my Lord," Olivia assured me.
Despite all the hardcore sex we had earlier where I fucked her in almost every room of the suite before finishing up in the bath where we washed up right afterwards, she looked completely immaculate right now.
It was obvious she had planned ahead for this since she had prepared a fresh suit and even a new set of pantyhose which she changed into to look like she hadn’t spent the last few hours screaming her lungs out in pleasure.
I let out a sigh before turning towards her, "Do you know what the event is about?"
Olivia straightened herself, "If I am not wrong, my Lord, it is most likely a welcoming event for you. They have to at least treat you as a guest of honour, after all."
"Right.. And the real reason?"
"Most likely it’s another attempt to try and tempt you in order to get you to switch your allegiance, my Lord," She answered me without a moment’s hesitation.
She already knows huh...
Well, I also expected something like this before I even came here to begin with so it’s not surprising anyway.
Giving myself a final check in front of the mirror, I turned to nod at Olivia to signal I was ready.
She led the way out of the suite and waiting outside were the rest of my Guardians, all of them also dressed smartly for the occasion.
They immediately surrounded me and started escorting me towards the lift lobby to head towards the hotel’s event floor.
On the way there, I pulled out my phone to check the guild’s chat group that I hadn’t had the chance to check in a long time.
The moment I pulled it up, I found several notifications indicating messages that were directed at me.
Pulling up the message channel, I found several messages from the guild members asking where I had been the last few days and some were even panicking about the absence of vice leader Bas.
I frowned, realising that I’ve completely forgotten that Bas had said he would come over to find me in Singapore.
Things had just gotten so busy the last few days that I didn’t even have time to log into the internet...
I quickly replied to the messages directed to me, pointing them to the announcement I had made earlier indicating that I would be busy with real life issues and would not be able to be active in the guild.
As for Bas...
I checked my DMs with him and the last message I had sent him telling him to contact me did not even have the ’seen’ indicator on it.
I frowned at the screen, quickly switching to the internet app to search if there were any disasters that had happened around the world recently.
Seeing none, I also did a quick check to see if there were any aviation accidents as well but also found zero results.
What happened to you, Bas? Did you suddenly lose your internet or something?
I went back to my DM with Bas to type a question mark to send it to his chat, hoping that he might just have missed the notification to my message and nothing happened to him in real life.
I had to put my concerns for him away when the chime indicating the lift had reached our floor dinged before the doors slid open.
We stepped out and there were already several men dressed in black suits gathered outside, all of them immediately turning towards us as soon as the lift opened.
They only relaxed slightly after realising that it was us and allowed us to pass by them to head towards the function hall.
Entering the venue, the place had been clearly prepared ahead of time for a lavish celebration with all the decorations and staff present around the hall.
A red carpet was even laid out for us to walk into the hall and head towards a large table and high backed chair that was clearly prepared for me.
All around the rest of the hall were also people that were dressed up for the event, clearly people who were part of the country’s elite caste that were here to try and influence me as well.
Incidentally, everyone was on their feet right now though I noticed rows upon rows of low tables and cushions were arranged around the room, which I suspect was where the guests would be seated.
I’m not sure if they had arranged for my seating to be the high backed chair due to my position as a Mortal God and not wanting me to feel slighted by making me sit on the floor... Or because of the difference in culture.
Although... I still have no idea what is going to happen here.
I had to remind myself to keep my head high despite the looks from the people around me.
If it weren’t for the mask, I think they would be able to figure out how nervous and out of place I felt being here.
Surprisingly, most of my Guardians seemed to be used to this and did not falter in the slightest, the sole exception being Jia Lian who looked just as nervous as I was.
Then again, if you were to consider the background of everyone here, I suppose that made sense...
I had to cross an empty space that felt like a stage to reach the table set aside for me, making me believe they were preparing some kind of performance here.
I took my place at the chair and slowly sat down, my Guardians arranging themselves behind me.
Minister Ma then appeared, the minister strolling up to make the traditional greeting again.
I’m not sure if he knew about what happened to the ’gifts’ that were prepared for me earlier in the room but if he did, he was not saying anything about it.
Obviously I wasn’t going to mention it either.
He bowed, "Mortal God. We are honoured that you would choose to join us tonight. To show our appreciation for you, we have prepared a small event to celebrate your presence here. I do hope that you enjoy what we have prepared tonight."
That seemed to be the cue for the event to start as the others took their seats on the cushions and the minister also returned to the crowd, prompting music to start playing from all around the room.
Dancers dressed in traditional thai costumes then came out from the sides, starting a dance performance in front of me.
More people came out from the doorways, all of them holding large, circular containers in their hands as they spread themselves out to deliver the containers to the seated guests.
One of them in particular came up to me, revealing that she was carrying some kind of round serving piece that looked like a pedestal table where intricate carvings decorated the rim.
Various small bowls and baskets filled with different foods were arranged in a circle on top of the container with the centre most dish being filled with intricately cut vegetables.
She placed it in front of me and they seemed to have taken the height of this container into account as despite this table being higher than the ones the other guests were using, I could still easily reach all the dishes from where I sat without needing to peer over it.
Olivia eyed the food placed in front of me critically and I figured she was worried about the food being poisoned.
Although I would like to say that it would not make sense for them to poison me since they need me to help them with clearing the rift, there is still the possibility of some third party trying to sabotage both of our countries and have somehow slipped their way here.
Still, it would be rude of me to leave the food untouched as well so I figured that I could probably counter whatever poison there might be if I were to use life energy to counter it should there be any.
Then I realised there was one big problem... If I wanted to eat, I would need to remove my mask...
Well then... I guess I’m not touching this food then.
A pity too... Since the food actually looks pretty good...
Actually... Do you think they would allow me to take this up to my room instead? It shouldn’t be a problem for me to take away, right?
Oh, I almost forgot to enjoy the performance that was being shown in front of me. The dancers had just finished their piece and I quickly joined in on the applause to pretend like I had been paying attention from the very start.
Right after this group left, another group immediately came in and started their performance as well, making me wonder just how long I would need to sit here and pretend to be entertained before I could leave...
Is this what people in this position have to put up with all the time?