'Why do they always have to tack on the prefix of 'little'.'
His internal question may have shown on his face as the beast woman who had initially noticed Evan spoke up to her friends concerning that same issue right after.
"He's a big boy now, don't call him 'little' so much. He doesn't seem to like it either."
All things considered; Evan knew he could only be seen as 'little' from their perspectives anyway, especially from that of the beast woman who just spoke.
'What are the odds…'
Evan was headed towards the Cerul Duchy, arguably the most powerful territory in the entire Beast Kingdom, save for Goras where 'Beast King' Kolvar was from.
And now right in front of him, was that same Beast King's mother-in-law, the Duchess of Cerul and one of the nation's 'Living Legends'—Luisa Maan Cerul.
He also recognized the other woman who called him 'little' from the game, a Peak Epic Level on the cusp of attaining Living Legend Status—Imma Ariadne Randall, mother of the Great Eastern Empire's current First Star General.
She was also a retired noble like Penelope, having relinquished her title to her son's wife at the same time her husband passed over his 'First Star General' title.
That was done partially for the same reason why Luke kept his power suppressed most of the time, one of the regulations that 'The Five' put in place to keep those with Legendary Level power and above in check.
◇ ◇ ◇
While Evan was chatting with the women at one end of the dining hall, Eliza who was wondering where he was after their train's scheduled arrival had been announced, came looking for him.
It wasn't hard for her to locate him though, as the boy's life sign was one that she could single out amidst even a hundred thousand others, so she found him quickly, along with multiple other presences she found familiar.
"Evan, what are you doing he…r…e"
Her words trailed off towards the end, not because of the barrier she noticed, but because of the two familiar faces on the table.
"Hmm? Matt's daughter."
"Auntie Lu!"
Eliza exclaimed with a bit of surprise and joy as she jumped into the arms of the Beast Kingdom's Duchess and hugged her tightly, much to her boyfriend's shock as he had never even imagined the possibility of Eliza being close enough to Luísa, enough to call her by a pet name.
Luisa also hugged her back and patted her back lightly with a smile on her face.
"With how overprotective of you Matt is, I doubted he'd have let you out so easily."
In response to her words, Eliza scratched her hair lightly, her gaze wandering about as she spoke.
"Eh…well…. I may have…kinda snuck out."
"Snuck out?"
"Snuck out."
Luisa blinked multiple times whilst staring at Eliza with a dumbfounded gaze as the girl echoed her words. For a moment, she remembered exactly how protective of her the teenager's father and grandfather were, and just could not fathom how Eliza managed to achieve the feat of sneaking out undetected.
'I bet they probably noticed but just let her go.'
That was the only logical conclusion the woman could draw as she knew Alden Kaur wasn't one to so easily let his favoured eldest granddaughter out of his sight.
"I see…so little Eli only remembers her Auntie Lu, huh?"
"Ah! No! I didn't forget you, Auntie Penny."
More so than anyone, Evan was once again left with another shock upon discovering Eliza was close to his grandmother, and enough to call her with a nickname at that.
[This is a Boarding Announcement for Train Z-A04251 to Arnward. All checked-in passengers are to proceed to the Train for boarding.]
"That's us, right?"
"Indeed, it is."
The train boarding announcements brought their conversations to a close as they had to leave, bidding fare well to the older women who were going a different direction and moving over to the Train's platform.
On the way, Evan asked Eliza how she happened to be familiar with all the women who were on the table and she simply said that they were friends of her father and grandmother who came over to visit 'occasionally'.
This once again made pushed Evan to confront the issue of Eliza's family whom he had all but figured out but was greatly confused as things differed far too much from how they were in the game.
Bluntly speaking, if Eliza's father was who Evan believed he was, then Eliza wasn't supposed to exist as from what he knew, that person's wife should have been murdered by Dominik Velak years ago.
There was the option of a remarriage but then Eliza would not address George Kaur as her 'Uncle' if that was the case.
Leaving Eliza's confusing family matters aside, the group's journey continued for the rest of the month without issue, and they crossed borders into the Beast Kingdom's Arnward Station City which also doubled as a Border City with zero problems.
After Arnward, they took another train to a nearby city before temporarily putting an end to their train trips as Evan wanted to see if he could retrieve an item from one of the nearby towns that was not along the train routes.
◇ ◇ ◇
South Town Gate
Damerel
Alpha Continent's Beast Kingdom
May 1st
Year 1053
The town of Damerel was one of the numerous average-sized towns situated in the North Central parts of the Beast kingdom.
The majority of this town's adventurers were within D and C ranks, with the cream of the crop being the B-rank level adventurers, many of whom were at the peak of that rank.
As for A rankers? The town had very few, and most of them were usually taking long-term quests that required them to travel for extended periods.
This left only a measly six A-rank level combatants in the town, the knight order and police force included in this.
These six had their work cut out for them when an Iron Scaled Cobalt Bone Ape suddenly emerged from the forest with thousands of weaker B and C-rank monsters following it, attacking the town with a crazed frenzy.
They teamed up to eliminate a good chunk of the weaker monsters, lightening the burden of the B rankers before heading over to where the Cobalt Bone ape was and engaging it in combat.
Against the higher levelled opponent, they took advantage of their higher numbers and were able to secure victory, but unfortunately, Iron Scaled mutants of the Cobalt Bone Apes were types that moved in pairs.
Something these A rankers did not know.
This was precisely why they never expected a sudden barrage of swirling water projectiles that surged towards them at sonic speed, crashing onto their bodies and exploding in a controlled torrent of liquid force that left them all disoriented due to the forceful impact of water.
This was when the 'Combatant' of the Iron Scaled Mutant duo made its appearance, weapon encased in a thick aura and primed to deliver fatal blows to all six of them.
But right before I could begin its slaughter, it sensed danger and was just barely able to look up just in time to see the flat side of a great sword smack it in the face, with the strike containing enough force to send its massive 15-metre-tall body flying through the air in a clean parabolic arc.
Before it could even get up, it sensed three other dangerous presences attacking it from multiple directions, quickly making the decision to channel magic power through its arm and into the ground.
The earth cracked open and multiple geysers of hot steaming pressurized water shot up into the air, forming a circular barrier around its body.
Sadly, this hastily casted Tier 2 spell did not deter its assailants even the slightest bit.
A sword and spear came piercing towards it from its both flanks, whilst a massive sword slash cleaved down from its front.
The Ape conjured magic shields to block the two side attacks, and then picked up its aura-laden great sword and stopped the third from which it sensed the most danger.
Just as it barely succeeded in stopping the obsidian black blade that was just short of cutting through its own sword, it was suddenly overcome with a sense of weakness and its strength escaped its body.
"Life Energy Draining Prison."
Those dangerous-sounding words reached its ears and it tried running away from its current position, but its body's strength had been sapped by an unknown force, it was not as fast as it usually was.
And so, it was encased in a prison of green light that sucked out its Health Values like a Vampire sucking a human's blood.
"Flames of Hubris."
The surrounding temperature suddenly increased and the monster retaliated on instinct, swinging out its sword in the direction of the heat source and clashing with a blade coated in bright white flames that gave off a somewhat 'holy' aura.
It quickly pulled back its sword and struck out in one breath, clashing with the white flame-coated sword again multiple times over.
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