Chapter 89 - Son Of A Betrayer (4)

"You look prettier than your usual self tonight."

"Hoh? Do you even know how I usually look?"

"You look pretty."

Iliana shook her head in amusement. She would like to consider herself being flirted with, but Basil's face was too straight to indicate he was flirting. It felt like Basil had merely stated a fact.

"Good evening, Basil! I hope you still remember me." Clovis, who returned with Xiu Li in tow, greeted. He had just successfully saved Xiu Li from the predators. "Good evening, Brother Basil! You look great!" Xiu Li chimed in, while admiring Basil's appearance.

Basil smiled, and said softly, "Thank you." Looking at the unfolding scene curiously, Iliana asked, "Are you two perhaps...?" Clovis sighed in helplessness. He didn't understand Iliana's obsession toward 'that' kind of thing among men.

"Yes, we are." Basil's answer made Clovis gasped in surprise. "We are acquainted." Upon hearing this, Clovis and Iliana sighed in relief. Bewildered, Clovis sent his gaze at Iliana.

'Well, aren't you obsessed with 'that' thing?'

'Shut your food hole, or I will tear your head off, Woster!'

Surely, Clovis could only dodge her eyes after that.

"You are here quite late, Brother. Mr. Lawson has given his speech already. What took you so long?"

"I forgot there was a banquet tonight. I was too focused on training."

"Oh..."

The surrounding people nodded their head in amusement. Judging by how nonchalant Basil had been the entire tournament, it was very like to happen.

Surely, Basil wasn't saying the truth. His memory was too good to forget even a trivial thing, such as the banquet. He had come late, because he didn't like to hear the boring speech. He had lived long enough. He didn't want to hear that crap again.

At that moment, someone interrupted their circle.

"Good evening."

They turned their head over, and found Kimberley approaching them. She politely greeted everyone with a nod, except two people. They were the conversing Iliana and Basil.

"Kuhum! Good evening." Iliana glanced at Kimberley from the corner of her eyes, before nodding her head as a response. "Fancy meeting you here, Basil Pacifer." Kimberley was slightly irritated Basil didn't return her greeting.

"What a coincidence meeting you here, Bulmer."

"Hoh? The banquet is scheduled. How can you call it a coincidence?"

"To complement your ignorance, it is called pleasantry. You have done the same thing, in case you have forgotten."

Snap!

Something broke, however it wasn't a bark. It was Kimberley's patience. She had thought she could somehow irritate Basil as a payback, however she was the one being irritated instead.

She merely sighed to herself to calm herself down.

"Basil, my boy! I thought you wouldn't come. Fancy meeting you here!"

Blake quickly approached Basil, and gave him a brief hug. Although he had noticed Basil when he had stood in front of the room's door, Blake had chosen to let Basil associate with his peers first, before greeting him.

"Ah, I am sorry to interrupt you, youngsters. I just came here to greet Basil." Blake laughed, and patted Basil's shoulder. "I will resume my conversation with Lawson. You should enjoy the banquet too!" With a wink, Blake left the scene.

Looking at the disappearing back of Blake, Basil shook his head in amusement. Just what was he suggesting? Enjoy the night, and bed some women? Basil didn't like doing that. He would never have a one night stand, except when he was bored.

Yes, our hero, Basil, could be bored.

"Since talking like this will be tiring, why don't we sit ourselves at the nearby table?" Clovis suggested. "That's a good idea." Iliana nodded her head, and took Basil's hand, before leading them to an empty table. The other people could only look at them in surprise.

As most of the people wanted to socialize, and widen their connection, most of them ignored the table set in the room. Therefore, there were quite many empty tables.

The five people sat themselves, and waited for their glasses to be filled. They didn't have to wait for any delicacy, as it was already on the table, fully prepared.

In the midst of this, the conversation started.

"Do we have to drink alcohol?"

"No, you don't have to. The server will provide you with two kinds of drink, non-alcoholic, and alcoholic. You can choose by yourself. However, I will suggest you to try the alcoholic one. In banquet, the liquor served always tastes heavenly."

Kimberley creased her eyebrows at Clovis' reply. She was genuinely curious, however she didn't want to get drunk. Being drunk is every warrior's enemy! A warrior is not allowed to be drunk. Thus, she decided not to drink any liquor.

"What would you like to drink, sir?" A male server stood beside Basil, and presented him two bottles of beverage. "Give me something refreshing." The server nodded, and poured the liquor in Basil's glass.

Then, he proceed to do the same thing to the other people. Surprisingly, out of the five people, only one people chose liquor. Obviously, that was Basil.

"I didn't expect you will actually drink a liquor, Basil." Clovis was gaping his mouth. Iliana was unamused as she chided, "You shouldn't teach something you never do, Woster." The look Iliana gave him was enough to terrorize his soul.

"I am sorry! How could I know Basil would take my word seriously?"

"..."

The deadpan look he got from the others was enough to shut him entirely. All of them had chosen to not drink liquor due to his suggestion. Any strong liquor tastes good. They knew it. Therefore, they tried to avoid it.

"Brother, you can take my sparkling wine. You don't need to—"

Xiu Li paused his words as he saw Basil inspected, judged, and sipped the liquor like an expert. The other people also looked at him in bafflement and surprise.

"Are you an alcoholic?" Iliana blurted out in curiosity. "I am surely not. However, I know how to appreciate a good liquor." Basil took another sip, before putting his glass down.

Shrugging helplessly, the other four decided to do the same, before picking their fork, and knife. They started to feast the delicacies.

Slash!

"The meat is well cooked. It is really tender."

"I agree. Needless to say, it is even better than the one my family's cook made."

"What are you? A gourmet?"

"Hahaha! It's called appreciation, Iliana. You need to loose yourself a little."

"Shut your food hole, Woster!"

"I was merely giving a suggestion, though..."

Clovis sighed helplessly, before throwing his gaze to Basil, who was sipping his liquor calmly. His eyes lit up, before he called out to Basil.

"Basil. I forgot to say this to you..." Clovis bowed his head briefly, before raising it again to look at Basil's eyes deeply, "Thank you for teaching my little brother a lesson." Basil quirked an eyebrow, and replied simply, "Hm."

Harold Woster had been a spoiled child in Basil's last life. However, he hadn't been naturally bad. His family had loved him so much they couldn't bear to reprimand him.

In the end, Clovis, who was the oldest son of Ansley, had personally ended his younger brother's life.

Harold had done something unforgivable that Clovis, as his elder brother, had taken the responsibility of punishing him. Not long after ending Harold's life, Clovis had committed a suicide due to his sorrow over the death of his younger brother.

The story of the siblings had been as romantic as it was tragic. Luckily, the future changed due to Basil's interference.

'Guide, how much time left before the Obelisk of Goap's outbreak?'

[Ding!]

[Answering the Host's ignorance...]

[Rough calculation of the time left untill the Obelisk of Goap's outbreak: 2 months, 7 days, 3 hours, and 13 seconds.]

Basil hummed to himself. He didn't expect winning the tournament impacted the outbreak time that much. Looking at Clovis, he could instantly deduce Harold's change of fate was one of the reasons.

"Are you okay? You look anxious." Iliana suddenly asked. Turning his head on her, Basil asked her back, "Do I look like that?" Iliana shook her head softly, "No. I just feel that you are anxious." Basil chuckled softly.

"Are you a Mentalist?"

"No, you are just easy to read."

Basil shook his head in amusement. It had also been like that in the past. No matter how good his control over his facial expressions was, Iliana could guess what he was feeling.

Basil attributed this to Iliana's abnormally keen Mana Sense.

Basil could hide his thoughts, and control his facial expressions. However, he couldn't stop his Mana from conveying his feeling. Mana had become a part of him. Therefore, the Mana he was exuding naturally conveyed what he felt.

Surely, he didn't have to tightly seal his Mana to protect his privacy, since not just anyone could understand one's feelings by sensing Mana. Iliana was special.

The banquet unfolded with Basil and the other four conversing while having a meal. Like usual, Basil rarely chimed in as he didn't find any Magic Institute related topic was interesting.

The other attendees, who were eager to speak with the winners, couldn't hold themselves from rushing toward Basil and the others' table, after they had finished their meal.

It was also at that moment that Basil's Transmission Talisman received a message. When the other curious attendees approached him, he didn't even register it. His attention was focused on his Transmission Talisman.

[The fool loses himself.]

It was a short message from Kuzo, the Assassin he had hired. Standing up abruptly, he surprised the people surrounding him.

"What happened, Sil?" Iliana asked in surprise. "I need to excuse myself." Basil's response was quick and short.

He quickly turned his body toward the door. Iliana was about to stop him, when suddenly a suffocating pressure descended upon the room.

Boom!

Everyone's eyes widened, before throwing their gaze at Basil's direction. However, Basil didn't care about their gaze at all. His mind was on the message. He knew what Kuzo was telling him. Therefore, he needed to hurry.

"Irene, Shirley, please be safe. I don't want to bury another body this soon."

...

Irene and Shirley, who had just arrived at the manor, weren't aware of the atrocity happening inside. Surely, they also didn't know how fast Basil was moving to catch up to them.

They had just arrived after 12 hours of travel. Surprisingly, it didn't take them a day to reach Woster County. With the help of the Teleportation Gate, and the fast Hexapod Horses powered carriage, they could arrive there faster than they had expected.

"Huuh... We have finally arrived!"

"Shirley, you shouldn't be too loud. It's five in the morning."

"Oops... sorry."

Shirley covered her mouth, and smiled playfully. Irene shook her head helplessly, before knocking on the door.

"Why did you do that? I can do that myself!"

"Habits die hard, my dear."

This time, Shirley shook her head. Waiting for the door to open, it didn't take a long time for the waited moment to come.

"Welcome home, Young Mistress." The maid, who opened the door, bowed at Shirley. When she noticed Irene was also there, she gasped, before exclaiming, "Lady Irene?!" In response, Irene chuckled softly, "Yes, I am Irene."

The maid was so shocked she didn't realize Shirley was looking at her. "Kuhum. May you let us in?" That successfully woke her up. She quickly bowed once again, and let the two in.

"Young Mistress, the lord asked me to tell you to meet him right after you arrived."

"Right away?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what is the urgency that Father told me?"

"That is... I am sorry, Young Mistress." The maid bowed, before continuing, "I was told to let you discuss it with the lord himself."

Irene's uneasiness was instantly amplified. Therefore, when Shirley was going to meet Nicholas alone, she quickly stopped her.

"Irene?" Shirley looked curiously at Irene. "I will accompany you." She replied.

Nodding her head, Shirley went to Nicholas' office, the room he often spent his time in, with Irene in tow.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Father, I am coming in!"

Click.

The door opened, and Shirley stepped in, followed by Irene. Quickly enough, a strange smell assaulted her nose. She pinched her nose in disgust, and exclaimed indignantly.

"What is this bloody pungent smell?! It's disgusting!"

She was about to turn her head at Irene, when suddenly she was pulled behind the latter. Bewildered, she threw her gaze at Irene. However, Irene's attention wasn't on her.

"Hoh? Why are you distancing my own daughter away from me?"

"Stay away, you lunatic!"

Irene hissed defensively. Nicholas, who had dressed himself loosely, laughed in amusement. He threw his gaze at the confused Shirley, and his eyes lit up in glee.

"It's nice to finally see you, my daughter."

"Father...? What happened?"

"Ku-ku-ku... Do you really want to know?"

Irene could somehow guess what was happening. Therefore, she was desperately hiding the taller Shirley behind her back, and shouted in rage.

"Stop it, Nicholas!"

"Ku-ku-ku. What are you saying, Irene? I am just going to show my daughter the truth." Nicholas snapped his hand, and Irene exclaimed, "Shirley, close your eyes!"

Sadly, Shirley didn't manage to do that. Therefore, she could see the scene where her mother mingling herself with eight men at a time.. No matter how much she had grown, surely, her young mind couldn't handle the shock.