Upon arriving at Gavin's drawing room with the Grand Mages, Evan discovered that the Chief Grand Magus was not alone.
Seated opposite him was a young woman who exuded an air of serene grace. She had flowing locks of chestnut hair, a bit darker in shade than Laurene's and was adorned with intricate braids and feathers.
Her eyes were a striking shade of erald green, reminiscent of lush forests.
The sight of her had Evan montarily stopping in his tracks. He glanced at the row of Grand Mages standing behind Gavin, and then at the row of tall muscular n and won standing behind this green-eyed woman.
They shared a similarity with her, having similar feathers in their hair and seeing this, Evan smiled wryly.
"What's up, Old man?"
Evan addressed Gavin as casually as always, much to the shock of half the people present. Rather than Evan's form of address to Gavin, they were more shocked about the fact that they had not sensed Evan's presence until the boy had spoken.
The surprised ones were the group of tribally dressed people, and Evan didn't spare them as much as a glance as he walked over to the empty chair and took a seat there.
He then turned toward the green-eyed woman present and waved at her while offering a greeting.
"Hello, there. Priestess Gertrude. Nice to et you."
"…You are the Hero Evan, am I correct? Nice to et you too.
I heard you weren't one for formalities, but I didn't think it completely true."
The woman spoke with a calm voice, contrary to how surprised she was at the way Evan—a GWE Count—had addressed the Leader of a World Power Nation.
Just as Evan was about to reply, the door opened once more and a familiar half-dark elven woman stepped in with a large black box in her hands.
Seeing her, Evan's expression lit up and he called out to her.
"Hey, Joanna. How you doing?"
"oh…Evan."
The Vice-Chief Grand Magus of Kasteblum looked the sa as ever, with her black ssy waist-length hair, and thick eyebags under her dark eyes.
Her speech was also slow and 'my pace' like usual.
"…Hello.
It's been…a while."
She set the black box on the table and raised her hand, which Evan t with a high-five.
The Priestess Gertrude who saw this interaction raised a brow in surprise as she looked at Joanna.
'This is the most 'emotion' I've seen this woman display.
What's more, she called him by his actual na and not a random nickna?'
Joanna usually acted like it was too expensive to speak or move, so seeing her not only return Evan's greeting but even high-five him, it stood to reason that the Priestess was surprised.
It was then that she noticed Evan's scrutinizing gaze on her and turned to et the boy's grey eyes. She sensed a skill activation and narrowed her eyes slightly, about to speak when Evan beat her to the punch.
"I thought that all of you Priestesses would be that ridiculous, but it seems she really was just non-standard."
His words insinuated that he had t with another Priestess like her, and seed to have gotten so strange preconceived notion about them from that person.
"Mind if I ask which of my 'Sisters' you have t? What tribe she represents?"
Evan raised his gaze from the status board in front of him and glanced at its owner—the Priestess of the Mason 'Barbarian' Tribe—before shaking his head.
"I wonder, which tribe did she represent?"
From that reply, Gertrude instantly figured that Evan had zero intentions of giving her the answer she wanted so she stopped pursuing the matter.
As for Evan, he sent a cursory glance at the Barbarian Warriors who were looking at him strangely—most likely because they could not sense even the slightest power fluctuation from him.
In their cognition, he looked no different from a completely normal human with no energy or power.
And that was precisely where the problem lay—they could not sense anything.
Every living being had energy within them, it could be infinitesimally small, but it was surely going to be there.
From Evan, however, they couldn't sense even that.
To them, this was proof of Evan's absurd power control.
Ignoring them, Evan spoke with Gavin regarding the 'paynts' he brought over, instructing the man on the processes to unlock the seals.
"Before you give them, make sure they sign a binding contract stating that they owe a favour in the future.
Each box has a prewritten contract inside it, and unless they sign the contracts, they cannot break the seal."
"Did you label the boxes?"
"Yeah. Do warn them that unless they sign said contracts, the artifacts will be as good as pieces of scrap tal.
And they shouldn't bother trying to break it—I wasn't joking when I said you'd need a god to break those seals."
Evan activated his inventory skill, surprising the Barbarians who did not sense the skill's activation. However, their surprise turned into pure shock as his hands pulled out a 1x2x1 tal box and set it on the table.
Not just them, but even the Blue-Robed Grand Mages all looked at Evan with incredulous expressions.
A shocking amount of magic power emanated from the tal box, filling the room with an overwhelming presence. The air crackled with energy, pressing down on everyone present like an invisible, crushing weight.
The nearby Priestess, Gertrude, felt her breath catch in her throat, her chest tightening under the pressure of the raw, unrestrained power.
As for the Living Legends present, they frowned deeply. The amount of magic radiating from the box eclipsed their maximum capacities—which was a lot considering they had enough energy to sink entire islands!
Their expressions shifted from surprise to concern, recognizing the unprecedented and potentially dangerous nature of the powerful items within the unassuming tal box.
What's more, they were genuinely curious as to how Evan ca to gain possession of such things.
If they asked him, his reply would be sothing they'd never understand.
"I played all the Side Quests."
Joanna opened the black box she had brought into the room and Evan moved the box of artifacts he retrieved from his inventory into it.
When he closed the lid, the oppressive energy in the room disappeared like it was never there, and Evan got up right after.
"Please distribute them for , Gavin.
Oh, and there's sothing inside there for you and Joanna as well. Consider it an early end-of-year gift."
He high-fived Joanna once more before walking towards the door, only to pause and turn back before asking.
"What's the na of a Restaurant in the Culinary Heights that serves sothing called the 'End-of-Year Broth'? Liz liked it the last ti we were here so I want to get so for her."
Gavin and the other mages present were confused about what he was asking them for, but he got an answer from Joanna who passed him a voucher for the restaurant in question.
"Gee, thanks."
"…u welco."
Finally, Evan left the room, leaving behind the Barbarians who just stared at the door dumbfoundedly in silence.
"He's like a storm, isn't he? Cos and goes whenever he wishes."
Gavin spoke to Gertrude and the Priestess nodded absentmindedly in affirmation.
Though she resud her talk with him not too long after, Gertrude wondered just which of the Barbarian Nation's—Tharvoria's—Priestesses he t and why he refused to say who it was.
◇ ◇ ◇
The answer to Priestess Gertrude's question was pretty obvious.
Since coming to Aidos, Evan had only t one other Priestess besides her, and that was Agnes Ivloh Lusos, the Priestess of the Lusos tribe and the affiliate of the Demonic Hand whose Homunculus he had killed in Croville last year.
However, the 'eting' he was thinking about, was not the eting in Croville which had quickly turned into a fight, but another occasion.
The two had t again on another occasion, soti towards the end of last year, and besides Evan himself, none of his companions knew that he had encountered Agnes again.
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