The Laneford Family.
One of the Five Families that composed the Supre Council which ruled the South Alpha Continental nation of Vathax.
It was neither more nor less powerful than the other four, all of them maintaining a careful balance that prevented any single family's influence from exceeding the rest.
The heads of the Families served as the Counciln, and each family was led by at least a Legendary Level Existence while also possessing Elders at the Sovereign Level.
The total number of Legendries native to Vathax numbered in the hundreds, with over 50 originating from the five families and their combined subordinates, and each family also possessed at least 2 Sovereign Level Elders, allowing Vathax as a nation to satisfy the minimum requirent for Major World Power status.
Naturally, it also fulfilled the necessary standards of economic and military strength expected of a nation of its calibre, with its agricultural sector standing as its greatest source of inco, since it was the largest food exporter across the entirety of the Southern Alpha Continent, maintaining export routes across the Divider Ocean to several island countries and even certain Beta Continental Nations.
This was largely due to the Laneford Family's life attribute users, whose affinities sotis extended into pure plant manipulation, placing agricultural developnt in Vathax far above that of many other World Power Nations.
The south-eastern geopolitical zone of Vathax belonged to the Laneford Family, with their capital, Verdalight City, positioned at its centre.
Verdalight was ho to the Dinsional Realm Vitalis, the pocket dinsion where the Laneford Family's primary residence was situated.
That Realm was the destination of the Aidosian Hero Evan and his fiancée, Eliza Lane, the eldest child of the Laneford Family's current Patriarch, Matthais.
As for the reason behind their visit, it naturally stemd from the fact that Evan had proposed to Matthais' daughter a year prior.
Whether he liked it or not, given their respective standings within their ho nations, their marriage was bound to beco a political matter, so Evan wanted everything handled through the proper channels to ensure no one could speak nonsense about it later on, which was part of why he'd imdiately submitted a formal application to register their engagent and future marriage in the Great Western Empire the mont Eliza accepted.
Of course, he couldn't proceed with the actual wedding process without involving her family, so he was now accompanying Eliza to formally et them.
The way the Laneford Family viewed Evan varied greatly from one mber to another.
For instance, Eliza's mother, Deborah, supported their relationship and had been pestering Eliza to bring him along for quite so ti, while her younger brother and sister, Khristian and Ruth, were also fairly fond of Evan.
However, Evan had no idea what Eliza's remaining brother and sister thought of him, and he also didn't know the opinions of her other two siblings since he'd never t them.
As for Eliza's closest extended family mbers, her uncle George and her grandparents Alden and Marguerite, Evan also ca up empty when it ca to their opinions of him.
He'd never really had opportunities to speak with George outside official settings during their dealings with the Demonic Hand, and Alden had never appeared around Eliza during the tis Evan was present, either.
When it ca to Eliza's father, Matthias, Evan wasn't nearly as uncertain about the man's feelings toward him.
According to Eliza, it didn't matter who the man was, Matthias wasn't going to like anyone she brought ho.
She'd even given Evan explicit permission to smack him if sothing went wrong, and while Evan laughed it off at first, her deadpan expression caused his laughter to slowly fade as he realised she wasn't joking.
Of course, Evan had no intention of smacking his future father-in-law, so he planned to shut down anything Matthias said before it reached that point.
It was either that or Eliza was going to smack him herself.
'Matthias, I may be overbearing, but it's for your sake. Your daughter's crazy strong now, so it wouldn't end well for you if she seriously smacked you!'
That rather silly thought passed through Evan's mind as he stared out the window of the airship carrying them toward Verdalight, watching the blue waters of the Divider Ocean shimr in the distance.
'Now that I think about it, this ocean's strange na finally makes sense to after regaining my 'Prisma' mories.'
Back when Aidos still possessed ten continents, long before the Great Valmone War, the Divider Ocean had been far smaller and stretched directly through the centre of the planet along its pri ridian.
It was the ocean that separated the eastern and western hemispheres of the world, so the Aidosians of that era simply decided to call it the Divider Ocean.
"Sounds like they were just lazy…"
"Hmm?"
Eliza turned toward Evan with a questioning look when she heard his mutter, and he only shook his head before saying, "Nothing serious. I was just thinking about the naming sense of ancient Aidosians."
Naturally, Eliza was confused about how he'd suddenly ended up on that train of thought, but she didn't bother pressing him and returned her attention to the phone she was holding.
They were seated in the airship's lounge, positioned at window seats opposite one another, and Eliza was currently scrolling through the list of functions on Evan's Earth V phone while comparing them to those available on Aidos.
After going through them, she could only co to the conclusion that, when compared to Earth V devices, Aidosian phones were practically primitive.
Earth V phones simply had far more features, applications, and other functions, while Aidosian phones were mostly limited to calling, ssaging, and accessing information archives of Vocational Guilds and similar systems, most of which ca pre-installed on the devices.
Ga apps? Did the Aidosian engineers even know what those were?
As she continued exploring Evan's phone, she noticed a maps application and decided to open it, and while she was getting used to how it worked, she spotted several saved locations that looked familiar to her.
So of them were restaurants Evan had taken her to during their ti there, along with the cinema, and the estate where he'd ended up turning back without going any further inside.
The estate's na appeared because of the 'Ho' pin placed within it, and not far from that marker, Eliza noticed another pinned location bearing a label that made her brows furrow slightly.
'Gabrielle's house?'
She recognised the na imdiately and certainly didn't like seeing it on Evan's phone in the slightest.
Eliza lifted her gaze toward Evan, who was busy watching the clouds drift by, before looking back down and deleting the pin from his map, the satisfaction she felt from doing so being strangely difficult to explain.
Just as she finished, the voice of the airship's captain echoed through the intercom, informing them that their descent into Verdalight had begun.
Within a few minutes, the airship touched down on a landing strip owned by the Laneford Family, and waiting to receive them was a grey-haired elderly woman wearing a warm smile, Eliza's nanny, Darcy Kaur Prichett.
The mont Eliza spotted her, she practically jumped out through the airship door and into her arms, and the older woman welcod her with a hug, her joy at seeing Eliza again plainly visible.
Darcy was a long-standing mber of the Kaur Family, her mother's family from before she'd married into the Lanefords.
Even though she wasn't actually related to them by blood, she'd been given their na and was treated with the sa level of respect as any blood related mber, due to her many years of service and the degree of trust placed in her by the current heads of the Kaur Family, Eliza's grandparents.
Darcy had more or less raised Eliza alongside her mother when she was younger, often stepping in during periods when Eliza's mother was pregnant with her younger siblings and lacked the strength to properly look after an Eliza who was under five years old.
Because of that, she was close enough to Eliza that the 20-year-old treated her like a genuine aunt.
Evan was familiar with Darcy as well, since they'd t roughly two years ago when Eliza had brought him to Vathax to celebrate his birthday.
During that eting, Evan had noticed that Darcy was approaching the end of her natural lifespan, and he'd suggested she visit a particular dungeon to obtain a specific item that would grant her an extended lease on life.
Darcy was over 300 years old, and the item Evan had ntioned would extend her lifespan by as many years as she'd already lived, so her success in obtaining it ant she'd remain around for another 300 plus years.
As for why Evan had told her about such a valuable item in the first place, it was quite simple, since Eliza clearly cared deeply for her, and Evan didn't want her to pass on and leave Eliza grieving.
That thought passed through his mind after he greeted Darcy, before he shifted his attention to the landing strip around them, where several other airships were parked, all of them belonging to the Laneford Family.
While Evan was taking a look around, Eliza was already questioning Darcy about the rest of her family.
"Where are my siblings? And what about mum?"
In response, Darcy said, "Lord Khristian is currently at ho with the Matriarch. Your other siblings are staying with Lady Marguerite in Treeson."
The 'Lady Marguerite' she ntioned was Eliza's maternal grandmother, the wife of Alden Kaur.
Notably, Eliza didn't ask about her father's whereabouts, not because she knew he was in his office at the Main Council Building in Vrine, the capital of Vathax, but because she knew he'd react badly to seeing Evan, and she didn't have the patience to deal with that just yet.
Darcy seed to understand this, chuckling lightly before saying, You'll have to speak with the Patriarch eventually."
At that, Eliza rolled her eyes and replied, "Yeah, yeah, I know, I know."
She then turned toward Evan, who had drifted away from their group at so point and was inspecting one of the nearby airships.
"Co on, Evan. Let's go. My mum's at ho."
"Hm? Okay."
Evan walked back toward them, slipping his hands into his pockets as he added, "Can you find out who's responsible for the paint job on that airship? It looks good. I want mine done like that."
Eliza glanced at the airship he was referring to, raised an eyebrow, and then turned toward the Laneford subordinates standing a short distance behind Darcy.
"You heard him. Look into it."
"It will be done imdiately, my lady," the one at the front replied with a bow.
Eliza then returned her attention to Darcy, who said, "The waypoint is already active. Let's proceed."
With that, the group headed to the Teleportation Waypoint and used it to travel to the Laneford family estate, which contained the entrance to the dinsional realm Vitalis.
The estate served as the official residence of the Laneford family, where they held formal gatherings, parties, fundraisers, and various events.
It featured a grand manor suitable for a family of their standing, along with several smaller mansions spread across the grounds.
Within a restricted area was an arched gate, dense spatial law energy swirling within it, forming the portal that led into Vitalis, the location of the Laneford family's private residence.
As one would expect from a dinsional realm serving as the ho of a family largely composed of life attribute manipulators, Vitalis was overflowing with life.
The mont they stepped through the arched gate, they found themselves within a vast forest.
A cleanly paved road ran straight through its centre, with pedestrian walkways lining both sides, street lamps placed along the divider separating the lanes, as well as along the road's edges. Hanging from those lamps were small barrier gems that kept the wildlife of the realm away from the roadway.
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