After finishing his speech, William did not linger in the banquet hall. After exchanging a few pleasantries with the nobles and verbally praising the meritorious guests attending the banquet, the Emperor left Mesunil Manor by carriage beneath everyone's respectful gaze.
However, not long after William departed, most nobles of count rank and above, along with the Empire's senior officials, also began leaving the banquet one after another for reasons unknown. Only a small number of established nobles and core Imperial officials remained.
With William and the higher-ups gone, the originally solemn and dignified banquet gradually became livelier.
Many Reformist Faction nobles proactively approached the war heroes present to strike up conversations.
As the one with the most outstanding achievements in this campaign, John was naturally surrounded by a dense crowd of young noble ladies. The succession of fake smiles made his cheek muscles start to ache.
But compared to John, Sellviya, the new queen of the Red Dragon Sea Dragon Clan whom William had personally appointed as the new Legion General, was likewise surrounded by young male nobles from both the Reformist Faction and Old Guard Party.
Her popularity far surpassed John's.
Nearly half the young men were fighting to display their elegant noble bearing before the newly appointed female general, hoping to win her favor.
Unfortunately, before the Red Dragon Queen, whose mood had already been particularly foul and whose aura of darkness was practically solidifying after seeing John surrounded by women, these young talents of the Empire had no chance.
Every one of them received her death glare, along with merciless mockery and abuse.
One particularly overconfident young Old Guard Party noble even tried to forcibly pull Sellviya into a dance with him.
Sellviya immediately snapped his arm in fury and, amid his screams, hurled him dozens of