Chapter 437 The Celebratory Party II: Setting Joanna Up?



"Not that, I mean you should speak to her like you would an equal."

"…wait, what?"

Richard let out a surprised voice upon hearing his father's words, not understanding why the man could have possibly said that.

"She's not a commoner like the information you have on her would show."

"So, you mean wherever she's from, she has a level of authority comparable to a World Superpower's Crown Prince."

"Indeed."

Rudeus replied while calling for a waiter and having them summon one of the high nobles he wished to discuss something with before continuing.

"I had her investigated and the results were slightly suspicious.

The information I got from Sir Luke about a certain relative of hers was the deal breaker that let me realise who she was.

The answer was right in our faces the whole time.

Think about it, she's a girl with the last name 'Lane', and she has an absurd level of control over the Life attribute.

Her identity could not be any more obvious."

The Crown Prince's eyes widened in slight surprise as he pieced the information together, turning to his sister and posing a short question to her.

"You knew?"

"She wasn't exactly making a good attempt at hiding it, you know? Anyone with a brain could have figured it out after a certain amount of time."

"You sure about that? Because I highly doubt Evan knows."

"That guy is a different case. His brain works in mysterious ways."

Claudia chuckled upon hearing her daughter's reply to her words, with the three royals shifting to another topic while Emperor Rudeus conversed with one of the High Nobles.

◇ ◇ ◇

"I want to go and sleep."

[I'm afraid that is not possible, Master.]

The voice of a certain black-furred cat-shaped shadow spirit rang out in Evan's head in response to his side comment.

The young hero was currently seated on the railing of one of the banquet hall's balconies, allowing the cool night breeze to blow on him.

"Don't you at least want to see what rewards they have in stock for you?"

"Monetary rewards, limited military authority, and a High Nobility title.

It's all things that I would eventually acquire regardless of the circumstances."

Evan replied to Eliza's words as he pulled out a blue sapphire-coloured flower ornament from his inventory and carefully placed it into her braided hair.

"French braids and ponytails…those two styles suit you the most."

"I know what ponytails are but what the heck are French Braids?"

"What you currently have on ."

"This…? Why'd you call them 'French'?"

The boy held a hand to his chin as he took a moment to think about a reason, but those thoughts were locked out of his head when Eliza turned around and met his eyes.

He was instantly lost in her sapphire eyes, requiring Eliza to snap her fingers in front of his face to bring him back to reality.

She had a slight blush on her cheek as she was able to infer the reason why Evan had blanked out for a moment, she just hoped he wouldn't say it out loud without a ca-

"You're more beautiful than usual today."

"?!"

-and Evan did the exact opposite of what she hoped for.

Then again, it was not like his words were false.

Eliza was currently dressed in a beautiful dark blue dress. It left her shoulders mostly uncovered and flowed down into a delicately draped neckline.

It was a tight fit that made the dress look comfortable, yet elegant and stylish, helping to accentuate her gorgeous skin, and making sure that the focus of anyone looking was on other parts of the dress that Evan would not pull out their eyes for.

Below the waist the dress widened and had several asymmetric layers from top to bottom, reaching just above her ankles, but was slightly longer in the back.

As for the boy himself, he was wearing a plain dark blue shirt, buttoned up fully to support the elegant tie he was wearing.

On top, was a trendy vest with 5 buttons, having a deep v-line which caused it to remain hidden whenever his suit jacket was buttoned up.

The jacket itself was clearly made for him, a perfect fit, with an intricate but subtle plaid pattern, giving the suit a stylish casual look.

Its buttons were left unbuttoned as having them buttoned up would've made the overall look too fancy for his taste.

Although the pants were a different style from the jacket, they complemented each other perfectly and created a perfect balance with his classy pair of split-toe derbies.

Evan had to give it to the Duchess that the woman really knew how to piece together a perfect outfit for him, and easily make it match with Eliza's.

However, their fancy matching clothing was of little concern to both of them right now.

The boy's Mystic eyes were currently inactive, giving Eliza a clear unobstructed view of his grey pupils, with the girl momentarily getting lost in them, snapping out of her daze when she heard Evan click his tongue.

His hand that was on the side of her face dropped down to his lap as he turned his gaze towards the balcony door, just in time for a familiar face to walk out through it.

"Oh…it's Joanna."

Evan's displeasure vanished instantly as he jumped down from the railing and walked up to the Vice Chief Grand Magus who had been swarmed by nobles and foreign dignitaries ever since the party began.

"Ohh…Evan….and…and…Evan's girlfriend."

"…You didn't forget her name, did you?"

"…I remember, probably."

"Probably?!"

The tall dark-skinned beauty let out a small chuckle upon seeing Eliza's reaction, allowing the younger girl to realise she was being messed with.

"That's surprising, I didn't think you'd be one to care for little jokes like that."

"I'm learning…to interact with…friends?...acquaintances?....what are we?"

Joanna tilted her head to the side as she asked Eliza, completely leaving it up to the girl to decide where they stood.

Of course, they were just on the acquaintance level as they had only met a total of three times.

"Why'd you come over here anyway? Did Old Man Gavin force you?"

"…mhmm.

…I was considering…resigning. So dragged me…and pushed me into…the teleport waypoint."

"…are you for real?"

Joanna casually nodded, letting out a light yawn while Evan inquired for an explanation of how that happened.

"…story too long."

"Summarize."

"…

…Work Increased. I could not sleep…so I tried to resign so I could sleep."

"Ain't that summary a bit too short?"

Even though Evan said that; he had already gotten the basic gist of the situation, letting out a light sigh as he spoke.

"You're the first person I've ever seen who has the second highest authority in a country yet wants to throw it away just to sleep."

"…isn't sleeping…the goal of life?"

"It's clearly a basic necessity for mortals but it's not life's goal!"

And Eliza came in with the retort, causing Evan to let out a small chuckle before taking her hand.

The trio re-entered the hall while lightly chatting with each other, with many eyes turning to them as various rumours of the supposed close friendship Evan had with Joanna were being 'confirmed'.

Of course, the two couldn't really care less as they made their way over to where the Empire's Chief Court Mage was discussing with some of Kasteblum's Senior mages and a few A-ranked adventurers in attendance.

"I'm sure you'd already know about each other given the nature of your positions, but this is Sir Jenson. Taught me magic for a while, still refused to teach me teleportation magic, though."

"Well, that's because you wanted to use it to run away from training."

"Of course, I wanted to. That shit was spartan."

The adventurers chuckled lightly upon hearing Evan openly admit his ulterior motives, with Jenson sighing softly and muttering something about how he hadn't changed at all.

He did a light introduction for some of the adventurers he was familiar with, but he kept it brief as he knew Joanna was bound to forget their names either way.

More importantly, they were not the main focus.

"Now then…I'd leave you two to it. I have some other people I'd like to talk to."

As he said those words, his eyes signalled the Senior Mages and adventurers, and they all instantly understood the assignment.

Within two minutes, they had all cleared up, leaving Jenson and Joanna alone together, with some of the senior mages even acting as a deterrent against the nobles who wanted to attempt to get on the woman's good graces.

"Was that okay?"

Hearing Eliza's question as they walked away, Evan placed a hand on his chin and thought to himself for a few moments.

'Nothing like this happened in the game.

But even if that game was a potential future, it doesn't mean we have to follow it exactly. Besides, I've changed much more important parts of the future, an extra couple's not gonna cause any issues.'

"Yeah…it's fine."

♧♧♧

Hey, y'all. It's your friendly Author _michael.

So I could not help but notice that when compared to the other Mystic Eye Abilities, Evan's Eyes of Mimicry seem a lot weaker, as such, I would be revamping the Skill in the coming days.

The revamped skill description will be posted at the end of future chapters when I'm done with it.