Descent of a God

Grand Ball II

Jude POV:

With that, the two of us entered the bright ballroom full of nobles.

"Jewel of the Hyperion Empire, Princess Angelina and Hero from Another World Jude are now entering."

The clamour of the nobles suddenly stopped as silence descended upon everyone. All the nobles turned their heads towards us, with disbelief and curiosity clearly evident in their eyes. 

Many young men were instantly enamoured by the beauty of the princess by my side, while the same could be said for young girls as they stared intently at me. 

Letting the Princess guide me, the two of us weaved through the ordinary nobles with just a few greetings thrown every now and then.

All the nobles showed the highest level of courtesy to me, while I gave them just enough attention as was necessary.

It wasn't before long I met with Cordelia and her escort, the magician named Aluxio. 

'Was Aluxio meant to be the Princess's escort?' I wondered before greeting them.

I gave a smile to Cordelia as she replied with her own smile, not worried about this situation at all.

The Emperor, Alexander, stood on a stage before announcing, "This banquet is to celebrate the victory in the Western Front where the Heroes Jude and Cordelia slew over three thousand two-winged battle angels and one six-winged battle angel. I wish to recognise their valiant efforts in the service of our great empire by giving them the single highest honour that can be bestowed upon a citizen, the platinum Imperial Cross."

Alexander then gestured for us to come up on stage. With a slight nod, the two of us went up to the stage next to the emperor using magic.

Alexander slightly widened his eyes before a smile appeared on his face. 

"Hero Jude, bow and receive the Platinum Imperial Cross."

I bowed in compliance and held my two hands above my head as Alexander gave me the Cross.

I got up, bowing to the crowd before exiting the stage.

Cordelia did the same thing as me. When the two of us were down, Angelina held out her hands for the Cross.

Slightly confused, I gave her the Cross and let her put it on my chest. Aluxio did the same thing to Cordelia and all the nobles clapped.

Suddenly, the crowed parted to let a man with shiny golden hair and similar features to Alexander pass through. A woman's hand was draped around his right hand, and she seemed to be his fiancée.

The woman carried herself with elegance. Her red dress accentuated her beauty and her black hair and eyes created a doll-like face that painfully reminded me of Kathyln.

"Greetings, Heroes Jude and Cordelia. I am the Crown Prince of Hyperion, Prince Samuel."

"Greetings, I am Rose Patalina, daughter of Marquis Patalina."

The four of us greeted them back while I carefully scrutinised the prince. He was wearing a royal white coat with golden highlights and a platinum chain. His green eyes were similar to that of Angelina but sharper. Other than that, he looked very similar to Alexander.

"I thank you, Hero Jude, for ridding the Princess of her curse that caused her to remain in darkness for over a year. It pained my heart to see her suffering so much and I am very grateful for what you have done."

"Thank you for your undeserved praise, Your Highness," I replied with a bow.

His eyes slightly widened as if he was surprised I had such high level of etiquette.

All of us began making small talk as the music mellowed out and the first dance began. The first dance was meant to be for adolescent or young adult nobles.

Even though I really wanted to dance with Cordelia again, I knew that it wasn't right to not dance with the person who is your escort.

Thus, I bowed in front of Angelina and kissed her hand before asking her, "Would you like to dance with me?"

Her verdant eyes widened for a second before a bright smile appeared on her face. With a slight nod signalling me, I got up from the ground and led her to the dance floor.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Cordelia dancing with Aluxio while Samuel danced with Rose.

The song played was quite similar to the nobles songs in Dicathen and even from my previous life.

'Is this some weird kind of connection?' I wondered internally before beginning the dance.

The Princess's skill at dancing was nothing to scoff at, and she was only slightly worse than me. Though a comparison hardly seemed fair because of my Cheonmujiche.

The two of us had an elegant dance but Angelina had a bored expression on her face.

Thinking back several years ago when I first danced with Kathyln, I decided to make this a bit more interesting.

Leaning my head in, I whispered into her ears, "Should we make this more spicy?"

Colour flushed to her cheeks but her eyes were confused as she stared at me. Shaking my head, I began to lead the Princess to the best dance of her life.

I pulled her close to me before spinning her and dropping her. Our dancing continuously got faster but I made sure to not attract too much attention and didn't go as far as I did with Kathyln.

After the last drop, I stopped the fast dancing and slowed down as the music got quieter through decrescendo. 

I flashed the Princess a smile as she smiled back at me.

(A/N: Sorry for the shorter chapter, this was already drafted before I left and I finished this on my phone before uploading it. This is the last chapter I am uploading before New Years, and I just wanted to tell you guys that it has been a wonderful year. This fanfic surpassed 3k votes and is now nearing 100k reads. Not only that, this is the 97th story chapter of this fanfic. I would like to thank everyone for all the support they have given me and allowed me to reach such a level. As planned, this fanfic would regularly upload till 11th Jan when my school reopens. It will be going back to weekly uploads then. I am aiming to slowly increase the chapter length and am aiming to write 1500 word chapters for now since I have gotten into the bad habit of writing short chapters. Enjoy your celebrations and see you guys in 2023!)