Royal Castle
Gerfast
GWE
March 4th
Year 1053
Seated at a quaint tea table adorned with delicate porcelain cups and saucers, a teenage girl with long blonde hair exuded an air of pure contentment, humming a cheerful melody that weaved through the air around her.
She had her hair tied up in French braids + ponytail, and a cat nestled in her arms with black fur starkly contrasting with her golden locks, and eyes reflecting a sense of calm serenity.
"How long has she been like this?"
"Since we got back from Yaton."
"I see…"
This short question-and-answer session went on between one of the other people who was seated at the table with her and the other grey-eyed boy who had just tied her hair up in its current ponytail style.
Standing not too far from the table where they sat, was a grey-haired man who had a pair of asymmetrical bright green eyes, staring in their direction with a confused expression on his face.
His gaze was trained right on the blonde girl who had a radiant smile gleaming brighter than the morning sun, one that reflected the joy that resided within her heart.
"It only took one date?"
"One perfectly normal one; without having to deal with any journalists looking to interview us, hidden guards, Demonic hand spies, and certainly not having to fight off over a hundred assassins afterwards."
"If that's what you've had to deal with on your other dates, then I can guess why she ended up like this after you finally had a normal one."
The youth with dark hair and green eyes replied to his brother's words as he calmly sipped the tea the servants served him.
Seated beside him and leaning on his shoulder whilst fiddling around with a cube device with different colours on each side was chestnut-coloured hair and blue eyes—someone, who more or less could be considered the best friend of the smiling blonde girl.
It went without saying that these three were the two sons of the GWE's Prime Minister; Arnold and Evan Eris, along with the Empire's Princess Laurene Hayes.
"So, I heard you came to look for us a couple of days ago, so we thought we'd stop by before we went over to Awhen."
Evan spoke as he tossed more sugar cubes than necessary into his tea, resulting in Arnold giving him a strange gaze while wondering if it was possible for Master Level existences to become diabetic.
His words explained the reason why he and his radiantly smiling girlfriend, Eliza, were currently within the castle.
As for Arnold, the boy had been called over by Laurene for reasons Evan could guess and wished Laurene luck with.
"I did need you guys' help at the time, but it wasn't compulsory it had to be you two so I had Duke Cheverton's son and daughter handle it for me."
They carried on their conversation without regard for the man who was standing at the door while staring blankly at them. The maids were a bit at a loss on how to handle him, though.
And then someone who made them even more nervous decided to come along.
"Huh? George? What are you doing here?"
"Sir Luke…Nothing serious. I came to meet with Eliza and was told she was over here."
"That so…"
"Mhmm. We were visited by one of those 'Defences' and it made Deborah worried. She wanted to know how Eliza was doing."
Luke's eyes widened slightly when he heard George's words, instantly piecing them together with what he knew about Eliza's recent movements and figuring out who the 'Defence' George spoke of was.
"Hydran, huh?"
"You know him?"
"Yes. Met him when I went to Duscon in the past. I wanted to get to something that was there."
The Sword Saint spoke of his experience meeting the Defence Mechanism of the planet who resided in Duscon, before finally walking into the room where the teenagers were chatting happily.
"Oh, Uncle. When did you get here?"
George nearly tripped over and fell when he heard his niece's question, realizing that she had not noticed his presence until he entered the room.
'And to think it was because of this brat…'
The man still wasn't cool with his precious niece dating Evan, but he had already made plans with her father and grandfather to cooperate in dealing with the boy.
For some reason, Evan felt a chill down his spine and his danger sense skill reacted momentarily, but even after looking around and spreading his aura, he still could not figure out what was wrong.
"What're you doing?"
"I just felt like someone was after me just now."
The boy replied while rubbing his shoulders as if to clear the goose bumps on them, making George raise an eyebrow at how sharp he was.
He did notice George's presence but it didn't occur to him that the chill he felt was because of the man. Eliza, however, seemed to have figured it out and narrowed her eyes in George's direction, making the man look elsewhere and begin whistling suspiciously.
"Good morning, Duke Luke."
"Morning, Your Highness."
The man took a seat at the table as he responded to Larene's greeting while the more experienced maids quickly came over and set a cup and saucer before him.
Giving them a light nod in thanks, he sipped his tea before putting down the cup and going straight to the point of why he was there.
"Evan. You said you discovered that belt in Scieque, right? Was it the only Soul-type artifact you found there?"
"Yeah, that was the only one I found in Scieque."
Luke raised an eyebrow upon hearing Evan's reply, feeling something was not quite right about the boy's choice of words.
'Only one in Scieque? Does that mean he found others elsewhere?'
He decided to ask the question on his mind and as expected, he received a positive answer from Evan.
"I only have two more and they are not with me right now. I had others but I sold them before I found out you were after those kinds of artifacts."
"Nothing can be done about that. But what would it take for me to get the two you still possess?"
Evan placed a hand on his chin with a pensive look on his face, not having expected Luke to still want more artifacts of a similar nature.
He remembered one of the Sword Saint's titles he had seen when they were in Verduracliff—the reason the man wanted to protect his soul so much.
'The One Stained by Time'
'I wonder exactly how he's 'Stained' by Time.
All the Ink Series skill users had similar titles, and I recall a side quest where it was mentioned that it was possible for the Benevolent Series skills to remove these 'Stains'.'
His mind wandered for a bit before he finally made a decision, pulling out a letterbox from his inventory and sorting out six letters from them.
"Just help me pass these on to the people they're addressed to."
Luke accepted the letters that were sealed with Evan's official seal and his Hero symbol, before looking through them and noting the names.
"Hmm? For this one, can't you just ask h-"
"Delivering these sure isn't as time-consuming as going all the way over to Verduracliff, don't you think?"
Evan's sudden statement had cut Luke's question off mid-way, making the man gaze at him strongly for a moment before eventually agreeing.
The recipients of the letters were all people he was more or less familiar with so it was not going to be much of a problem for him to get the letters to them.
After passing on the letters, Evan and Luke chatted for a bit before the Veild Legend took his leave. On the other side, Eliza was busy assuring her worried uncle that she was completely fine and nothing was wrong with her.
With the elder men removed from the scene, the group of four teenagers continued their pleasant early morning tea gathering, engaging in friendly conversation among themselves.
However, like all things, their meeting eventually came to an end as the time for Evan and Elzia's trains to leave.
Their destination was a country near the GWE, Awhen, where Evan planned to tackle the last set of 'side quests' before tackling the 'main quest' once more.
At that time, he'd finally have to go over to the Beast Kingdom—not just him, but with the full party.
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