The moment Sir Walsh's gaze travelled to Pride, Ralphie's eyes widened in surprise as he recalled her to be the woman he met right after the incident in the Graveyard of the Arrogant.
His eyes narrowed as he watched her closely, as if trying to discern her relationship with Evan.
Right before their very eyes, they all watched the situation transform into a dangerous one as Sir Walsh unsheathed his blade and dashed toward Evan only to be blocked by a translucent barrier of light.
["I should have known you would not stay put.
Oh well, that only means me putting more effort into this."]
They saw him turn to Eliza who had a frown on her face as he activated his aura and moved towards Evan, their surprise increasing as they saw Evan dash towards him.
["You dare attempt to capture this one's contractor!"]
They heard Pride's voice as she released her aura and Sir Walsh's reaction. The next moment, Evan who was supposed to be in front of Sir Walsh vanished from his position and reappeared behind him but the knight was able to dodge and counterattack.
The fight displayed on the screen progressed as they all watched Evan battle Sir Walsh and his occasional attacks with a weird invisible slash.
["Royal Knights Bladework: Ark!"]
They saw Sir Walsh's attempt to end the conflict fail as Evan teleported to his side and attacked him. Although Sir Walsh blocked the attack, he was temporarily stunned due to the lightning on Evan's sword.
Continuing to play, the video showed Evan and Sir Walsh's battle, to the point where they took distance from each other and Evan tossed his weapon into the air before speaking.
["My fighting style is very inefficient. I don't make the most of my large energy reserves and myriad of skills, as such, a can't fight at full power even if I wanted to."]
["Seventeen skills in total, huh?"]
Hearing Evan's voice, their eyes all widened in surprise while Laurene burst into laughter as she shook her head.
"This guy! Hahaha!!"
["You look surprised. I understand why. Having this number of skills isn't normal.
I possess zero defensive skills, four auxiliary skills, seven support skills, two attack skills, and four unique skills.
Yet, I can't seem to make the most of them.]
The video continued nonetheless as Evan went on to list out his skill categories to Sir Walsh, making them wonder why he did that.
["So, Brice Walsh, would you mind helping me use my skills more efficiently?"]
And like so, the battle resumed with Evan using more skills than before, even the Energy Blast skill that Ralphie recalled from the time Evan had fought the leopard monster in the Graveyard of the arrogant.
["Aura Slash."]
Evan used an aura skill much to the surprise of all those present who knew Evan to not be on the 'Master' level.
The battle continued, with Evan switching to bare-handed combat mid-way and giving Sir Walsh a tough time as he utilized a myriad of skills.
In the end, they witnessed Sir Walsh get serious and even use his unique skill, also seeing Evan fail to fully block it with his Vortex as Sir Walsh placed a blade at his neck.
["You're quite strong. But you lost."]
Finley could not help but agree with the words he heard, and was about to speak when the memory cut off.
"Chief Mage, wait a-!"
Jenson casually ignored Sir Walsh's words and switched to the next screen, displaying the next scene from after the battle.
[**CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!!]
In the video, Pride could be seen seated atop the back of one of the royal knights that Sir Walsh left to face her, her expression being one of satisfaction as she studied the remnant traces of the golden aura left in the area.
It was then that Finley studied the video closely and saw the same traces of Aura after tracing Pride's gaze.
His eyes widened as he realised that Evan had truly reached the 'Master' level.
Meanwhile, the others saw the knight who gritted his teeth in shame as he crawled on the ground, carrying Pride on his back while she nonchalantly flicked her fingers.
Sir Walsh's gaze turned to Eliza who felt his gaze and looked up before speaking with a tired voice.
["The rest are all fine, I healed them up. Except, well...him..."]
As she spoke, she gestured to the knight who was very obviously being forced to be a stool for a certain prideful demon who was filing her nails with her sword.
["HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!"]
Evan on the other hand, burst out into laughter, dropping his sword to the ground as he rolled on the floor while laughing.
All eyes turned to him but he continued laughing without a care in the world.
["HA!!
I half expected this but the outcome is even better than I thought."]
The young hero stood up, not minding the blade that was inches away from his neck as he spoke.
["When she told me to face you and leave them to her, I wondered why she wanted to take the weaker ones for herself despite being stronger than I am.
But now I finally activated my aura, I think I understand why."]
Evan picked up his sword and took a deep breath. A golden mist spread out from his body and was infused into the weapon, coating it in a thin layer of golden-coloured energy.
["So, this is how it feels to be an aura user, huh?
I have to say, it is a lot less exhilarating than I had expected, but it is still okay."]
Seeing the golden aura on Evan's sword, all those in the room, Laurene and Finley excluded had their jaws drop in shock.
That Aura signified that Evan was now on the level of at least, a mid-level Royal Knight, a Sword Master level existence.
They watched him make a few practice swings before nodding to himself and deactivating the aura before turning to Sir Walsh and speaking.
["You may have beat me, but she who is stronger than I am, and is in a far better condition is still there.
You sure you wanna go?"]
They saw as Sir Walsh's sword rose up while being covered in aura, however, Evan's words made him drop his blade.
["Oh, just so you know. The stronger her opponent is, the stronger she gets."]
["I'll let you go, in return, release my knight."]
From then on, everything proceeded as the Knights had reported to Rudeus. The memory ended there and Jenson deactivated his magic before going to take a seat.
The room was silent as everyone was lost in their own thoughts.
"What?"
Rudeus heaved a sigh of exasperation and asked the first question on behalf of everyone in the room.
"Laurene, just what is Evan?"
Hearing the question, Laurene chuckled a bit before replying to her father.
"You all watched the memories play and heard the words of the 'demon'."
She paused for a moment and continued after confirming that there was no barrier on talking about 'demons' to the people in the room anymore.
"Evan is a 'Hero' of some sort. I am too.
I originally wasn't allowed to say this but since you all gained prior knowledge on the existence of 'heroes' in 'this generation' from a 'third-party source', I am now allowed to say a bit more.
Evan and I are Heroes, and we aren't the only ones.
I'm still not allowed to tell you anything about the others but it's easy to find them. After all, we all have golden crests in our eyes.
Those crests are symbols of our 'ability' as heroes.
Each one represents something that I doubt I am allowed to tell you about. Well, mine means 'Truth', like I told dad before but if it told you about Evan's, I'd lose an eye.
Can't have that now, can I?"
Hearing her explanation, a lot of things began to make sense to them, including why Evan passed out when he tried to tell the Duchess about his skill the day he vanished.
Although they had deduced most of the situation, Laurene's words served as a confirmation.
"So, Evan's unknown unique skill, is his 'power' as a 'Hero'?"
"Yep.
You have not seen him use said power in person, neither do you have prior knowledge of it, as such, he can't tell you about its specifics.
As for mine, you all know about my 'Lie Detection' and have seen me use it before. Although it is but a fragment of my 'power', it's still part of it nonetheless.
You've also been informed about the research into the 'Seven Symbols' and how it was somehow related to Evan and I.
Even so, telling you the meaning has consequences. It's a word from a language lost to time, after all."
As soon as Laurene finished speaking, she fished a handkerchief out from the pocket in her dress and wiped her lips.
She then set it on fire with magic right after but Rudeus' eyes were sharp enough to catch the bit of red on it.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel