Besides, Evan was a 'Hero'. And there were a lot of people who didn't want there to be heroes for reasons only they knew, but that wasn't the main problem.
What the Colonel had issues with, was the fact that the assassination attempt happened in Duscon.
'This is very troublesome.
If it gets out that Evan Eris, the GWE's Prime minister's son, someone with the Alpha Continent's Sword Saint's support was attacked in Duscon, in this state; it'd be bad for us on the International scene.'
At that point, the fact that Duscon should not be held responsible for Evan's security would not be considered. It would not change the fact that he encountered an attempt at his life, in their country.
That's the only thing people would care about.
People would take things at face value, and use it to criticize them, causing problems both internally and internationally.
Rival political parties would take it up with the party Shelde's Governor belonged to and it would delve into chaos.
Though he was on the Military side, he wasn't ignorant of political schemes either so he could already see the potential problems of letting this news get out.
And Evan could also tell these, which is why ever since he got to the part where Craitid attacked, he had used an artifact to isolate the sound around them, preventing people not seated at the table from hearing his next words.
"It would be troublesome for me too, you know? I only informed you because of your position and the current circumstances but I don't have any intention of letting the real facts get out to the public.
That'd make those guys lay low and I don't want them to, at least not yet.
So, what the public is gonna be told, is that I ended up fighting a powerful 'grandmaster' wyvern, and its army of subordinate monsters, and that's what destroyed the forest.
It should also be noted that I did this with the help of powerful ambient spirits"
Evan waved a couple of magic binding contracts he got from Joanna in the air as he spoke, showing that he had his means to prevent those present from leaking information about the true level of Craitid.
Adding the talk about getting the 'help of powerful spirits', was basically an indirect message to the Demonic Hand that he wasn't the one who killed off all the attacking members and Craitid, but the spirits who helped him.
His identity as a Spirit contractor was common knowledge so it would not be strange for him to be looked upon favourably by ambient spirits and offered help by them.
Sure, they were going to change their evaluation of his strength, but they were never gonna think the current him was capable of besting S rankers in combat…that was just too unbelievable for his age, even with his nonstandard growth speed taken into account.
The Demonic Hand was aware that Heroes levelled up twice as fast, but they certainly didn't know Evan levelled up twice as fast as the other Heroes.
Anyway, Evan discussed with the Colonel and the two SS rankers from Shelde and Lastham how they were going to alter the information that would be publicly revealed.
They ended their talks after Colonel Onas decided to return to correspond with Shelde's Governor in person, as well as make arrangements for Evan to be officially escorted back to the city.
A few more foreign adventurers who were staying in Lastham arrived after, and they recognized Evan and Eliza too, along with the SS rankers who were fairly popular too, something that made Evan happy as this showed their popularity amongst adventurers was no less than that of SS rankers.
Some of them who were particularly curious about him came to chat him up while some others returned to continue handling the corpses of the thousands of monsters they had to kill.
"What adventurer rank are you now?"
"B. I'm getting promoted to A next week."
Once again, he was asked about his adventurer rank by another S ranker, but after replying the woman only gave him an appraising gaze while saying.
"A? Your maximum strength shouldn't be in the A range though."
"But my level isn't."
"Oh…But can't you use your authority to bypass that?"
Hearing her question, Evan only laughed lightly before asking back.
"Now where's the fun in that?"
'Passing through each rank without skipping gave one an achievement in the game. Sadly, there's no such thing here in reality but who says I can't just do it for fun.'
Just as Evan thought that he suddenly noticed an increase in the concentration of ambient spirits, and from his knowledge, there were very few reasons why this could happen.
'It could be due to the presence of a high-ranked spirit, but that's already happened because of Kayla and Milena.
Then it's most likely that it's another spirit contractor…'
Coming to that conclusion, the boy turned around and glanced around and locked eyes with an elven woman who just arrived on the scene, appraising her to find that she was Lastham's adventurer Vice Guild Master.
The two instantly realised that they were both spirit contractors with but a glance, naturally due to the fact that they had a couple of dozen low-ranked spirits hovering around them.
Then as if on cue, Evan's usual spirit group switched places with the ones around her, something that prompted Evan to ask a question.
"You're the second spirit contractor I'm meeting so I'm kinda confused. Does this usually happen whenever contractors meet each other?"
He was referring to the fact that the spirits who were with her were now hovering around him and playfully pulling on his hair.
"Now that you mention it, that's kind of what happens every time I meet another contractor…"
"So, I guess it's a spirit thing, huh?"
"It's a spirit thing."
The two chuckled lightly before shaking hands and formally introducing themselves, after which she took a glance at the scene around them and spoke.
"I have been briefed on what happened here, but still, seeing it is a whole different ball game entirely.
This forest is done for."
"Forest? I don't see any Forest anymore."
Evan's reply was met with a light laugh before the Vice GM turned to the mountain that Craitid's breath attack destroyed.
"Even if it was a 'small' one, this guy actually levelled a mountain with a single breath attack. It even took out half of the one next to it too."
"You saw it?"
"It'd be weirder if anyone didn't.
How on Aidos did you beat this?"
Her question was asked gesturing to the wyvern corpse on the floor which still had a lot of residual magic power emanating from it, allowing anyone who knew their stuff to tell the level it was at before death.
A lot of those nearby perked up their ears to listen to Evan's reply as they were genuinely curious about this.
"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask that too."
The SS rank beastman adventurer chipped in too, and Evan only shrugged before using the lie he had agreed on with the spirits beforehand.
"I had help. From another lightning spirit subordinate of hers who's resting."
He spoke gesturing to Kayla who had once again been caught by a bunch of female soldiers due to how cute her doll-like appearance was.
"And from the guy behind you."
The beastman was confused when Evan spoke about the 'guy' behind him as he was certainly sure there wasn't anyone behind him.
"Guy behind me? There's no one behi-WHOA!!"
As he turned on his heel, his gaze met the piercing eyes of a massive black wolf, with an immense stature reaching three metres in height.
He stumbled backwards in shock, losing his balance in the process and succumbing to gravity's pull, falling on his behind.
The Elven Vice GM wasn't too surprised as she had long noticed the wolf's presence, but the same could not be said about the others as to them this majestic-looking creature suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Evan burst out laughing at the beast man's state, while the wolf harrumphed before speaking in a deep voice.
[Told you he was gonna get scared.]
Right after, another massive three-metre-tall wolf, this one having white fur, appeared beside him and asked with a feminine voice.
[Why though? He's a strong person. He should not have been scared of you.]
[Even if he's strong. I am still a ferocious darkness spirit of the highest rank. All shall tremble in fear before me.]
The Black wolf declared with what would have been an expression of pride if he was in a human form, laughing boisterously while his white-furred counterpart only face-pawed and shook her head.
[Idiot brother.]
If it wasn't already obvious, the two were twin light and darkness spirits, and the energy fluctuations coming from them indicated that they were at the very least, above the grandmaster level.
"Oh right. Here."
Evan suddenly spoke as he pulled out multiple items from his inventory and tossed them over to the two spirits; namely Ethereal Essence Orbs, and Luminescent Crystals.
[Hey, don't forget our bet. Gimme yours.]
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