"Unknown connections to the Demonic Hand? As far as I know, my connection to the Demonic Hand is that of 'mortal enemies,' and it's fairly well known to everyone."
When Evan said that, Matthias imdiately stood, leaving a handprint on the table as he pressed down.
"Are you ss—!"
"Matthias," Deborah interjected, cutting him off.
Her usual calm smile had vanished, replaced by a deep frown aid at her husband.
"Sit down, Matthais," she demanded, and before he could respond, she turned to Evan and warned,
"And you too. Don't try to play gas with him. You know exactly what he's talking about."
With that, she snapped her gaze back to Matthais and asked, "Why are you still standing?"
Her tone allowed no room for refusal, so Matthais sighed and sat down, imdiately after which Deborah fired another question at him.
"How old is our first daughter?"
"Huh? She's 20," Matthais replied almost instantly, his expression shifting to confusion as he couldn't understand why Deborah was asking sothing so simple.
He didn't need further explanation, however, as Deborah provided one in her next words.
"So you do realise that our daughter has fully entered adulthood, and is at an age where she can make decisions about the path of her life, and take responsibility for those decisions she's made, and it's our duty as her parents to support her choices."
"It's also our duty to steer her away from making obviously bad decisions that put her repeatedly in mortal danger, like a relationship with him," Matthais countered imdiately, pointing at Evan, who just scratched his head awkwardly, unsure what to say.
"Oh, please. The boy is more than capable of protecting her. And have you been so blinded by your own thoughts that you fail to see that those sa situations are making her stronger than ever, both physically and ntally? She won't be under our care forever, and you know it."
"I don't care if he can protect her or not! I don't want her in situations where she needs protection at all! You're the only reason I didn't go and bring her back here when she left five years ago, and look how that turned out? She got involved with those shady demonic bastards!"
Matthias slamd his fist on the table, his voice rising as he continued.
"Why do you see no problem with the brat who put our daughter directly in their line of fire!? You of all people should be against this! You know what th—!"
His words cut off abruptly, his expression shifting from anger to guilt the instant he t the complicated look in Deborah's eyes.
His anger instantly went down the drain, and his voice lowered as he muttered quietly, "I'm…sorry."
Evan blinked in shock, completely taken aback at how he'd gone from shouting one second to apologising the next.
Clearly, sothing he'd said hadn't sat well with Deborah, so much so that for a mont, Evan thought the woman was about to cry.
Still, no matter how he replayed the scene that had just transpired before him in his mind, he couldn't figure out exactly what had gone wrong.
Asking was obviously out of the question.
Deborah sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head as she replied to Matthais.
"Don't worry about it."
Turning to Evan before Matthais could say anything, she added, "My apologies for that unsightly display."
Her words pulled Evan out of his thoughts, and with an awkward expression, he replied, "Um…it's no issue. I understand you both care for your daughter very much, but…"
He trailed off, unsure how to continue, when the sound of laughter echoed clearly from the garden entrance, drawing every eye in that direction just as Eliza stepped in, holding the arm of a white-haired, green-eyed elderly man, her expression bright with joy as she spoke with him.
Following closely was another man with bright green eyes set slightly asymtrically on his friendly face. He had long grey hair tied into a single ponytail at the back of his head and wore a grey t-shirt and black trousers paired with leather shoes.
As Eliza and her grandfather approached, she finally noticed the table, imdiately catching sight of the handprint Matthais had left earlier. Her eyes narrowed for a mont, but she quickly composed herself, unhooked her arm from her grandfather's, and closed the distance in a flash.
"Hello there, father," she greeted, then summoned her staff, the moria, raising it high as she looked at Evan. "Did he say anything silly?"
"Eliza?!" Matthias called out, shocked by his daughter's actions. Eliza turned toward him, a bright smile on her face that didn't quite reach her eyes as she replied.
"Yes, father? I suggest you choose your words wisely, or the staff of judgnt shall fall upon you."
"That's the first thing you say to your father in over a year?!"
"Hmm? Of course it isn't. I greeted you first, didn't I?"
Eliza's grip on her staff didn't loosen at all, nor did she move it from a path where it would make direct contact with Matthias's head if she brought it down.
The two n she'd walked in with were taken aback by the scene, and so was Deborah, though she soon burst into laughter alongside Evan, who could no longer hold back his own amusent.
"Don't worry, Liz…pffft-hahaha…he didn't say anything silly," Evan said, barely able to contain how entertained he was.
Still, his words were enough for Eliza to unsummon her staff with a shrug, calmly taking her seat beside Evan and continuing to slice her cake as if she hadn't just threatened to strike her father with a weapon.
Matthias was completely dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open in shock, while Deborah continued laughing, finding the entire situation entertaining.
Matthias, however, wasn't amused at all.
"Deborah, your daughter wanted to hit because of him. Him!"
Deborah, barely holding back laughter, looked at him and replied, "The fact that you think she was actually going to hit you is what makes it even funnier," before resuming her laughter.
At the sa ti, Evan simply shook his head, turning his gaze toward the other two n who were still taken aback by Eliza's sudden actions, and then spoke.
"Good day to you, Mr George. Long-ti no see."
Shifting his gaze to the older man, he added, "And good day to you as well, Sir Alden. I suppose this is the first ti we're actually speaking."
George at least acknowledged Evan's greeting with a nod, but Alden remained silent, quietly moving his gaze between Evan and Eliza, lingering particularly on the matching rings on their fingers.
Just then, Deborah called out to him, "Co sit down, Dad. I poured your drinks ages ago. They've already ward up."
As she spoke, she tapped two fingers lightly on the table, and a thin frosty mist instantly ford around the glasses she had placed to her left, chilling the juice inside once again.
Alden finally moved, taking a seat and thanking his daughter for the drink.
The mont he did, Matthias turned toward him with an aggrieved expression and said, "Sir Alden, you saw that, right? You gotta help convince your daughter. This kid is clearly a bad influence on Eliza."
As Matthias spoke, Eliza imdiately shot him a side glance, and noticing it, Deborah quickly picked up a fork, speared a cupcake, and raised it toward Matthias's mouth.
Just as he opened his lips to speak again, she pushed the cupcake into his mouth and said, "All right now, Matthias, focus on your cake. Any more words, and our daughter might actually hit you with that thing."
While she silenced her husband with a mouthful of cake, her father, seated to her left, calmly drank his juice and set the glass down before looking up at Evan.
Evan, who had been scrolling through his phone, noticed Alden's gaze and looked up.
"Hmm? Is there a problem?" he asked.
For a mont, there was silence, and then Alden finally spoke. "Not long ago, the lifeline connecting your body and soul was out of sync. So badly out of sync that one might think you were inhabiting a body you were never ant to. Now, suddenly, everything appears fine, as though that disconnect never existed."
Those words poured cold water over the atmosphere, silencing everyone.
Even Eliza, who had been glaring at her father, turned toward him in surprise, clearly shocked that this was the first thing he chose to say to Evan.
Evan himself was mildly surprised, but he did not appear particularly concerned as he set his phone down and replied, "Yeah, that's true. I did have issues with my soul's placent in my body. However, I resolved those issues shortly after I fought that dragon in Lacertilia, so they aren't a problem anymore."
"I care not whether they are a problem now or not," Alden said, his tone reflecting just how unbothered he was about that. "What I care about is the reason they existed in the first place."
Much like Matthias and a no small number of Living Legends, particularly those involved in the Tarse Defence Plan, Alden was deeply suspicious of many aspects of Evan's existence.
Evan's unusual and inexplicable knowledge about the affairs of the Demonic Hand was one matter.
Then there was the fact that both Alden and George had noticed the disconnect between Evan's body and soul, and the older man had made no effort to be subtle about it, his earlier words clearly implying that soone other than Evan was inhabiting that body.
He was actually correct about that much. The one inside that body was 'Evankhell,' not 'Evansen,' who had originally owned it.
What he was wrong about were the assumptions he drew from that truth.
Evan was fairly certain that Alden had at least entertained the idea that he was soone from the Demonic Hand, possessing the body of a Hero, which would conveniently explain how he knew so much about their plans.
The thought made Evan chuckle softly as he shook his head and replied, "The reason, huh? You're right, those issues didn't co out of nowhere, so there is a reason for them.
However, while I'm perfectly comfortable sharing that reason with soone like, say, your granddaughter sitting beside , we don't have the kind of relationship where I feel inclined to share that much personal information with you."
At that, Eliza imdiately spoke up, waving her hands dismissively. "Grandpa, don't brood over it. It's complicated, okay? There are parts of that whole ss I still don't fully understand myself."
When she said that, Evan turned toward her in surprise. "There are parts you still don't get? What don't you understand? Tell later, and I'll explain everything."
He then turned back to Alden, speaking before the man could reply.
"Now then, I have questions I wish to ask about your family, just as you have questions about . I have my own suspicions and curiosities, and I had genuinely intended to pursue them carefully, phrasing my questions with subtlety. But you chose to open that particular can of worms with your question, so I see no reason to sugar-coat my words either."
He pointed directly at Deborah, adding imdiately, "You, Miss Deborah Laneford, are the focus of my curiosity."
The mont Evan said that, Matthias imdiately tried to speak, but Deborah calmly picked up another piece of cake and stuffed it into his mouth, silencing him once again.
Turning back to Evan with a composed smile, she asked, "I am the subject of your curiosity? Pray tell, what exactly about interests you?"
"Your continued existence is exactly what interests ," Evan responded without hesitation.
What followed was complete silence.
Alden's and George's gazes imdiately sharpened, while Eliza turned toward Evan with an incredulous expression.
Feeling her stare, Evan added, "Forgive , Liz, but I have to ask this question since the current reality and history don't line up at all."
eting Deborah's eyes, Evan proceeded to drop a bombshell of a question.
"Mrs Deborah Laneford, pray tell, how the hell are you still alive?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers