Chapter 30: A Night She Would Remember

"Alright, alright! I’ll be honest. Elias actually has a few questions for you."

Elias simply raised an eyebrow while scratching his head with a confused look on his face.

"Of course. I don’t mind."

"Ah, maybe I’ll explain it instead, Uncle."

Evelyn cut in while raising her hand.

’Uncle?!’

Elysia was slightly surprised when she heard Evelyn call Marquis Aurelle "Uncle." She had no idea the Nocturne and Aurelle families were related by blood.

Evelyn then explained what Elias had told her earlier. However, since Elias’s explanation was a little confusing when repeated word for word, Evelyn deliberately added a few details that made more sense.

"Ah... So the reason Elias kept attacking Elysia back then was because he thought he might find an opening or something. And judging by how badly his head was hurting at the time, he was probably only half conscious."

"That sounds about right. He was too focused on one thing, so that’s probably why he didn’t hear Elysia calling him earlier."

"Hmm, alright. That makes enough sense. Now for the next question. A crack suddenly appeared above Elias’s head when Elysia’s attack hit it. What was that?"

Evelyn fell silent for a moment before suddenly glancing toward Elias.

"That... I’m curious about that too. What was it, Elias?"

"Ah... You mean a crack like this?"

Elias held out his hand and channeled some Mana into it. A Spatial Arcana then opened in front of him.

"This is Spatial Arcana."

"Just as I thought."

"Hee~ That’s pretty interesting."

The Arcana was smaller than it had been before since Elias didn’t have enough Mana at the moment, but judging from Evelyn and the Marquis’s reactions, this size seemed to be enough.

"Before that, I’d like to clear something up. I wasn’t hit directly by Lady Elysia’s attack. I was injured, but only from the impact of her sword’s energy. I was also almost out of Mana at the time, so the impact ended up hurting me a lot more."

When Elysia’s sword energy struck the Spatial Arcana above Elias, the Arcana had indeed become slightly wider than what Elias should’ve been capable of creating.

What caused the Spatial Arcana to expand was the energy from Elysia’s sword, which cracked its surface and caused some of its fragments to break off from the impact.

’Luckily, my brain started working again at that moment... Even if it was only at the very last second, I still managed to try something new. It was scary as hell, but at least I’m still alive and got something useful out of it.’

Seraphina, who had already recovered from fainting, suddenly spoke while struggling to get back on her feet.

"Ouch... It’s great that you can use Arcana now, but how did you use an Arcana that isn’t even publicly known?"

"It’s easy. I just imagined it."

"Pfft!"

For a moment, the two of them remembered Elias practicing on the Aurelle family’s training grounds.

"I’m serious this time. Back then, I just imagined the Arcana I wanted to use, and boom! It just happened.

"It wasn’t purely a coincidence. At the time, I was thinking about what Lady Seraphina said about Arcana being Mana that had been given a characteristic, and then—"

"Wait a second..."

Before Elias could finish explaining, Marquis Aurelle suddenly interrupted him, as if he’d just realized something.

"What do you mean you imagined the Arcana you wanted to use? I mean, did you really just imagine a Spatial Arcana right away? Like a crack or some kind of hole?

"How did you even come up with something like that?"

Evelyn, who had been listening the whole time, finally joined in.

"That’s not all. The fact that you couldn’t use Arcana before was already surprising enough. And now you’re saying you simply imagined a Spatial Arcana and made it appear.

"Yet I, Uncle, and probably everyone else in this world have never even heard of Spatial Arcana.

"So how did you know it was Spatial Arcana?"

Suddenly feeling like a suspect being interrogated, Elias grew a little nervous, especially when he saw the serious look on Evelyn’s face.

"Y-yeah... First, like the Marquis said, I just imagined some kind of crack or hole. Obviously, that would’ve been impossible if I’d never seen anything resembling one before, right?"

"Wait, you mean you’ve seen one?"

"That’s right. And how did I know it was Spatial Arcana? Well... because I read it in a book."

"What book?"

"...Could you get my storage pouch for me?"

Evelyn picked up Elias’s storage pouch from the table behind her and handed it to him.

After taking the pouch, Elias pulled out a book titled "Three Easy Ways to Discover Your Arcana for Beginners, No Password!" and handed it to the Marquis.

The Marquis took the book and turned it around in his hands, looking over its thickness.

"Three Easy Ways to Discover Your Arcana for Beginners... No... Pasword?"

"Pfft!"

"What the hell is this book? It’s way too thin to explain Arcana."

The Marquis opened the book and started flipping through the pages.

"Well, it’s for beginners, just like the title says. It only covers the basics."

"Pfft! Oh god, what a ridiculous name!"

Seraphina snatched the book from her father and started flipping through the pages herself.

"Where’d you even get this weird book?"

"A-ah, that?... I-I bought it from a bookstore."

"...Whatever. If you don’t wanna talk about it, that’s fine."

Realizing Elias didn’t want to say where he’d gotten the book, Seraphina decided not to press him any further.

Elias felt the same way. There was no way he could tell them he’d gotten the book through the System. Even if he explained everything, it’d take way too long.

And sure, maybe they’d believe him afterward. But if some random guy suddenly claimed he was a transmigrator and then went on to explain that this entire world was actually a game he’d played before... anyone would probably think he was joking.

Or worse, they’d think he was crazy.

"I see... That answers everything."

"No, there’s still one more thing... Why did Elysia use power beyond the limit?"

Everyone in the room fell silent for a moment at the Marquis’s question.

Elias remembered something Elysia had said about not liking the way he looked at her.

"Are my eyes really that scary?"

Hearing Elias suddenly ask something so ridiculous made Evelyn let out a soft laugh. She leaned closer to his face and stared straight into his eyes.

"Fufu~ I don’t know what you mean, but... your eyes are truly beautiful. I’ve never seen eyes quite like them. When I look into them, it’s almost like I can see a clear sky and an endless ocean."

Elias tilted his head slightly, returning Evelyn’s gaze.

’I have no idea what this girl is talking about... Is it even possible to see a clear sky and an endless ocean inside someone’s eyes? If it is, then where’s the sky? And where’s the endless ocean?’

"Ahem! Excuse me, Sir and Miss. Please remember that you aren’t alone in this room."

Evelyn immediately sat upright again, wearing her usual gentle smile, while Elias looked toward the Marquis, whose cheeks had turned slightly red.

At first, Elias thought the Marquis might have a fever. He’d been coughing, and his cheeks were getting redder by the second.

’I’ll give Marquis Aurelle some fever medicine later.’

"Where... is Lady Elysia right now?"

When Elias asked where Elysia was, he looked around at everyone in the room. Most of them either shook their heads or shrugged.

* * *

A while later, the sun had already set, and night had fallen.

Even though it was already nighttime, Aurelle City was still lively. People were still walking through the streets, and some of the shops were still open.

And among all those people wandering through the city was Elysia.

She simply walked among the crowd, her expression gloomy. Every now and then, she glanced around, not really knowing where she was going.

Then she caught the delicious smell of food.

Her stomach immediately growled.

It was only natural that Elysia was hungry. She hadn’t eaten lunch at all. It wasn’t because she didn’t want to. She’d simply spent so much time crying on the hill that she’d completely forgotten about it.

She stopped for a moment and looked toward the shop where the delicious smell was coming from. She was about to go buy something when she suddenly stopped herself.

"...I forgot I don’t have any money."

Elysia stood there for a moment before wondering if she should return to the Aurelle mansion.

"Should I go back to the Aurelle mansion? But he’s there... And I’m too scared to face Big Sis..."

Elysia stood there quietly, holding her stomach. She wanted to buy something from the shop because she was hungry, but she was too afraid to return to the Aurelle mansion. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do.

She glanced at the shop a few more times before finally lowering her head. Her eyes began to well up with tears, and she bit her lower lip as she tried to hold them back.

Eventually, she roughly wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before finally turning around and walking away.

She walked with her eyes fixed on the ground, and because of that, she accidentally bumped into someone in front of her.

*THUD

"Ah! I’m sorry, sir..."

After apologizing, Elysia was about to keep walking, but she suddenly stopped when someone grabbed her hand.

"Lady, where are you going?"

"...!"

Elysia couldn’t answer. She froze at the sound of the voice calling out to her. She knew that voice very well, yet her heart felt heavy at the thought of turning around and looking at him.

"Good grief, Lady. It’s already nighttime! As your Caretaker, I can’t just let you stay out playing for too long. It’s bad for your health too.

Or do you wanna stay out a little longer? Well, what can I say? Just for a little while, then! Of course, I’ll come with you!

We can buy some things, clothes, food, or maybe just walk around and see something new in the city."

Elias then stepped in front of Elysia and bent down slightly so their faces were at the same level. That’s when he saw the tears already streaming down her face.

Seeing Elysia in tears made something stir inside Elias’s chest.

’I hate seeing the people close to me cry. And I’m feeling that same thing again right now. I hate it. But... do I really consider this girl someone close to me?’

He could only give her a gentle smile as he wiped away the tears running down her cheeks.

"Ah, but we have to keep this a secret from Lady Evelyn, okay?"

In the end, Elysia couldn’t hold her tears back any longer. She immediately threw her arms around Elias and buried her face against his chest, finally letting all the emotions she’d been holding back come pouring out.

"Waaa~!"

Elias simply hugged her back, gently patting her back as he let her release everything she’d been holding inside.

That night, in the middle of a crowd that kept passing by, busy with their own lives, no one really paid attention to the girl crying in a man’s arms.

But for Elysia, that night might become one of those nights she would remember forever.