Dinner passed in an oddly peaceful way.
That alone made it unsettling.
Evelina sat across from , posture refined, movents elegant, as if nothing had happened upstairs. To anyone watching, she was once again the perfect D’Arclight heir. Cold, composed, untouchable.
But her foot brushed against mine beneath the table.
Once.
Then again.
I ignored it.
Not because I didn’t notice, hell, like I wouldn’t, because acknowledging it would only encourage her, and the last thing I needed was that.
My sanity wouldn’t be able to handle the teasing if it happened.
Miss Rose and the other servants kept their heads down, working in near silence. No one dared speak. The air itself felt... obedient.
"So," Evelina finally said, breaking the quiet. "Your parents are barely ho, huh?"
"Yes."
No hesitation.
Her gaze flicked up instantly.
"You don’t mind? I heard that you were very close with them."
"Technically, yes."
I couldn’t really argue with that. The mories I inherited from the original Cael seed happy. Decent, at the very least.
But even those mories weren’t enough to make miss them; the sheer weight of my past life’s experiences overshadowed everything I’d inherited.
She took a sip of wine, eyes narrowing slightly as she studied over the rim of the glass.
"You’re very casual despite the topic at hand."
"We all have to grow up soday."
"Oh?" A faint smile curved her lips. "You know, when I was morizing the details of most of the enrolling students in the academy, I barely even batted an eye at you."
"I couldn’t bla you for doing so."
Her smile widened.
"Yet the mont we first t in the academy, it defied all explanations. You were skilled, powerful, confident, nothing I had heard about from other sources."
She set the glass down gently. "What caused the change?"
Her question was sincere, not calculated or investigative, but a simple, curious inquiry about the most unexpected person who had managed to capture her affection.
Even my servant’s ears twitched at the question; they were curious as well... I acted completely differently in the span of a day without any explanation.
"Random late-night motivation, ended up more productive than I thought it would be."
Evelina chuckled at my answer, her soft laughter making the rest of the servants tense up.
Making a D’Arclight laugh was enough to elevate your position in the nobility a hundredfold, and here I was, the young master they raised as a child, doing it without any problem.
They were both proud and a bit perplexed.
***
Later that night, after the servants had withdrawn and the estate had gone quiet, we stood on the balcony overlooking the courtyard.
We walked to burn off the calories from our freshly eaten al and to gaze at the starry sky. For a city filled with industrial light, its sky still managed to preserve its beauty.
One perk of being a fantasy world, I guess...
"The moon’s beautiful, isn’t it?"
"I guess so..."
She replied bluntly, making laugh. I should have guessed a phrase like that wasn’t present in this world.
And I definitely preferred it that way.
It gets annoying trying to figure out hidden anings behind the most casual words possible.
Reminds of the days I tried seducing forr targets to take them out in secluded areas.
Never again...
"Wait..."
Evelina suddenly stood straight, narrowing her eyes over the distance.
"What is it?"
"Isn’t that... Julius and Lillian?
I looked in the direction she pointed, and she wasn’t wrong; they really were there.
What made it even more interesting was that their actions ca directly from the novel itself.
’The murder of the plaza arc...’
A fairly important arc in the novel, in which Julius and Lillian get caught up in a murder mystery investigation, an arc that ends with Julius receiving a huge power-up.
It never even ca to that today was when it was supposed to happen, not like it mattered to .
Besides, I needed him to get strong for future purposes.
"You know... change of plans for the night, let’s ss with them instead."
"Really...?"
"You sound disappointed."
"I’d be lying if I wasn’t."
Evelina chuckled, placing her thumb on my lip as she admired my small frustration.
"Don’t worry, that still isn’t off the table." She turned back to where she could see Julius and Lillian creeping around so alleys. "Besides, my fun was interrupted back in the tournant."
[Dark Step]
The ground below us suddenly started to morph, indicating the near completion of her teleportation.
"This could be good payback."
"I’ll do as you wish... but."
Evelina raised a brow, curious.
"I’ll do this as your equal."
This ti, I was the one who kissed her first, perfectly tid. Just as a cloak of shadow wrapped around us, we vanished from the balcony and reappeared where the other two lovebirds were.
FWOOSH!
We reappeared on a rooftop a few streets away from them, and after the spell had disappeared, Evelina pushed back with a surprised blush creeping across his features.
"You idiot... we’re already lovers, what do you an equals?" Evelina laughed, surprised that I took the first move this ti.
"I just wanted to say sothing dramatic."
"...Can’t bla you for that."
Evelina adjusted her skirt, the faint shimr of the activated darkyte on her amulet fading as she peered over the edge of the rooftop.
Below us, Julius and Lillian moved cautiously through the narrow streets, their steps hesitant, their conversation hushed. They were trying to be subtle.
They weren’t.
"Still the sa," Evelina muttered. "Too heroic for their own good."
"They wouldn’t be so annoyingly popular otherwise," I replied, crouching beside her. "Classic Prince Charming and her lover."
"You talk as if we’re both any better." Her lips curled into sothing amused.
"It’s because we are." I confidently replied.
The alley ahead of them was darker than the rest, unnaturally so. The torches flickered, shadows stretching in ways they shouldn’t. Even without knowing the novel, anyone with basic sense would’ve felt sothing was wrong.
Lillian hesitated.
Julius didn’t.
It was like watching a live-action adaptation of the Crown of Thorns, seeing Julius and Lillian recreate the events of the novel word by word.
Well... live adaptation would be an understatent...
I’m literally living in that world.
And now currently about to completely change the events of this storyline with the villainess of that sa novel.
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