Chapter 438 The Celebratory Party III: Malaya Thancreed



"Yeah…it's fine."

After that, he scanned the hall and noted the positions of the people he wished to talk to, waving at Finley and Ralphie who were with the Seven Star General that came before taking Eliza's hand and leading her over to where Tisha was.

"Yo. Su-huh?"

To his surprise, the Gravity Mage was right beside his contracted demon Pride.

'Yep. Two Beautiful women standing side by side is a sight for sore eyes.'

Pride was rocking a red dress that left her shoulders mostly uncovered and flowed down in a stylish Queen Anne neckline. It was a comfortable fit that made it enjoyable for her to wear.

Her arms were covered all the way down to her wrists, with tight but comfortable sleeves from top to bottom, allowing for enough movement while still looking stylish.

Tisha was also outfitted in a pretty black dress, covering only her shoulders. A choice that gave only served to add to the elegance and grace of the dress.

"This is one combination I never thought I'd ever see. Where's Greed though?"

Pride just silently gestured towards a certain direction where Evan turned and saw Greed who was swarmed with a lot of Ladies wanting to get to know him better.

"No surprise there.

He really is a handsome bastard."

"E-"

"Evan, your language."

Surprisingly, someone beat Eliza to calling Evan out on his words, with the boy turning around to lock eyes with a dark blue-eyed young lady.

"Myra!

This party has been on for an hour but this is somehow the first time I'm seeing you."

Evan lightly hugged the Young Lady of the Antebellum Marquisate as he spoke, before taking a moment to admire her appearance and then continuing.

"Yep. You look pretty as always."

The instant those words left his mouth, he felt a glare boring into the back of his head, while Myra only chuckled lightly and spoke.

"Thank you.

However, I would like it if you stopped taunting Richard."

Evan rose his hands in mock surrender, ignoring the glare coming from a certain Crown Prince as he replied.

"I'm just stating facts."

The young hero chatted with Myra for a while, and just when he turned his attention back to the others, he overheard Eliza questioning Tisha's wellbeing.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. It's been over a month. Plus, your uncle patched me up well, so there wouldn't be any scars.

Still, didn't know you had such a powerful Life Attribute user in your family. Which side's he from?"

"Mom's side. He's her younger brother."

"...What?"

Evan couldn't help but voice his surprise upon hearing Eliza's reply to Tisha's question, prompting the girl's attention to turn to him but he just stared at her in silence as he sunk into his thoughts.

He remembered the day of the attack on the Falos county; when Eliza was telling him more about her family and how he had felt her family structure sounded frighteningly similar to a certain family he knew of.

And now he just heard her say that the man who he had confirmed with Luke was indeed George Kaur, was her mother's younger brother.

'Nope, I'm not gonna think about it.

There's definitely no way I'm dating Alden Kaur's granddaughter.'

But even as he chose to escape reality, a part of his brain kept thinking about a crucial piece of information.

'It's not adding up.

George Kaur's elder sister was killed by the Eighth Finger more than thirty years ago, that's why he hated Dominik's guts.

And from the Laneford quest, it was clearly stated that Alden didn't have any other kids. Eliza's not George's daughter…but her family sounds just like Matthias' family. Come to think of it, the identity of Mathias' kid's mother was never said, or was it? …just what am I missing here?

Did I skip a cutscene or something in the game? But I made sure to watch every cutscene, I even gave a 10-second grace period after the screen went blank just in case there was more to wa-Wait...now's not the time!'

An inadvertent glance at a wall clock showed him the time and snapped him out of his daze, with him moving behind Eliza and placing his hands over her shoulders before looking towards the other three ladies and asking.

"Now then, I have somewhere to go so would you three wonderful ladies do me the favour of keeping certain 'pests' away from my partner over here?"

"Huh? Evan? What are you talking about?"

In contrast to Eliza's reaction which was a mix of light confusion and surprise, Pride heaved an exasperated sigh as she grabbed a glass from a waiter and asked.

"Seriously, Evan?"

"Pfft…Overprotective much?"

"Yes, indeed."

Evan replied to Tisha's question with a nod, that Is, before Eliza flicked his forehead lightly.

"You can go talk to who you want to. No one would disturb us here."

"Indeed. No one who you'd consider a 'pest' would."

Hearing a familiar voice concurring with Myra's words, Evan turned around and was met with the sight of his fellow hero, the Empire's Princess, Laurene.

"Oh, Laurene.

Where's Arnold?"

The boy greeted her with a light hug as he asked, to which she replied by pointing in the direction of the dance floor. Evan turned there and caught sight of the older Eris sibling dancing with a redhead he recognized as Duke Charles' daughter.

"She really doesn't know when to give up, does she?"

"What are you talking about?"

Myra's question was answered by Evan in the same way Laurene had answered his, and after looking towards the dance floor, she nodded lightly and spoke.

"So, that was the case."

"Indeed, it was. Too bad for her, it's a losing battle."

Evan spoke with a shrug before turning towards Tisha, with the sight of her sparking his memory and making him remember something he wanted to ask her earlier.

"You didn't lose the contacts?"

"Hmm?"

She was lightly surprised that Evan knew her current green eye colour was the work of her colour contact lenses, but she just shrugged and replied.

"I'd leave it like this till I leave the Empire. Then I'd probably change it to another colour."

"Oh well. Suit yourself.

I just wanted to use you guys as a cover."

"Cover for?"

He didn't reply and only walked behind Tisha and Pride who were standing side by side, activating two skills simultaneously and disappearing from behind them, a moment before one of the Major Generals under Luke came up in an attempt to talk to him.

The boy reappeared about a few dozen metres away, exactly a metre away from the tall black-haired cat beast woman who was already staring at him as if she already knew he was going to appear there beforehand.

"How did-oh, Spatial Perception. Forgot about that."

Evan spoke to himself as he remembered one of the skills belonging to the Beast Keeper who was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Good evening to you, Margravine Herrera."

He offered a greeting to the woman, before turning his attention to his main target who was standing beside her and doing the same.

"A wonderful evening to you, Your Highness. I trust you're enjoying the party."

"Good evening to you too. And yes, it has been enjoyable so far, Lord Eris."

Princess Malaya replied to Evan's greetings with a light smile, casually disregarding the very strange means he used to get to her position.

She also showed light surprise when Evan did not initiate the gesture of asking to kiss the back of her hand like all the other nobles did, and instead opted for a more formal handshake.

"Oh, please. Just call me Evan."

Evan replied before turning his gaze towards the Margravine who had been looking at him with a weird gaze for the past half minute.

"…?"

"I was of the assumption that using teleportation magic inside this castle was nigh-impossible for non-royals."

Selah spoke as she spread out her spatial perception field and confirmed the presence of anti-teleportation formations that were woven into the tiles on the floor.

"Oh, that. Yes, that's the case.

As a matter of fact…"

Evan rose up his palm and reactivated his blink skill, with his hand beginning to go transparent, only for something to interrupt the skill activation and forcefully cancel it.

"…It's still not allowed.

I have a certain skill set that allows me to temporarily bypass it, but I'd rather not use it anymore."

He pointed in the direction of the Throne platform with his thumb as he spoke, prompting Selah and Malaya to turn and see Rudeus lightly narrowing his eyes in Evan's direction, showing the man had realised what he had just done.

Looking closely, all the royals, a few Senior Knights and Court mages had also noticed the boy's actions, however, the majority of the guests were none the wiser.

'So even if it's bypassed, they'd know instantly and know who did it, huh?'

"Indeed, it would be good if you didn't do that anymore."