Chapter 298: The Housewarming Party [2.]

By evening, all the invited guests had arrived, and the entire house was bustling with activity.

Colorful lights illuminated the different parts of the house, giving the place a lively atmosphere. Guests could be seen gathered in small groups, chatting, laughing, and enjoying the food and drinks that had been prepared for the occasion.

Most of them were people Kael had personally invited, but Lyra had also invited a few of her acquaintances. As a result, the house was considerably more crowded than he had initially expected.

Fortunately, the place was spacious enough to accommodate everyone without much difficulty.

Standing near one side of the living room, Kael took a moment to look around.

He soon spotted Lyra hanging out with Ezra and a few of their female friends in one corner. The girls seemed to be having a good time, occasionally bursting into laughter as they talked among themselves.

His mother, on the other hand, was nowhere near as relaxed.

Despite Kael repeatedly telling her to take things easy, Hannah seemed determined to make sure every guest was properly attended to.

One moment, she was greeting someone who had just arrived. The next, she was checking whether the guests had enough food and drinks or helping with something elsewhere in the house.

Kael couldn’t help shaking his head at the sight of her moving around again. Still, seeing how energetic and happy she looked, he decided not to interfere, at least for now.

After all, everything seemed to be going according to plan.

His gaze continued wandering around the room until it eventually landed on a group of five people gathered near one side of the hall.

Two men and three women.

They were familiar faces.

They were the members of the team he had accompanied into the rift some time ago.

Although, considering everything that had happened inside that rift, Kael wasn’t entirely sure how much of his experience with them could be considered real.

After all, the strange brain-like monsters within the rift had fabricated a considerable portion of his memories, making it difficult to distinguish certain events from what had actually happened.

Nevertheless, that didn’t change the fact that they had gone through a life-or-death experience together.

And experiences like that had a way of bringing people closer, even if they hadn’t known one another for very long.

So when Kael was deciding whom to invite to the housewarming party, their names had naturally come to mind.

He had sent them invitations, and fortunately, they had accepted.

Seeing them enjoying themselves, Kael smiled faintly before turning his attention elsewhere.

As he continued scanning the room, his gaze eventually settled on another familiar figure sitting in the corner.

Unlike most of the other guests, who were busy talking and socializing, this one seemed far more interested in the food. She sat comfortably with a plate in front of her, happily chomping away, barely paying attention to anything around her.

The person, of course, was the Scarlet Fist.

Naturally, he had invited her as well.

Shaking his head slightly, he made his way toward her.

However, before he could get close enough to say anything, the girl suddenly looked up.

Her crimson eyes locked onto him, and a wide smile appeared on her face.

"Hey there, Big Bro!"

Kael’s expression immediately turned helpless.

"I told you not to call me that."

"Whatever." She waved off his complaint without the slightest concern.

Kael sighed.

He was beginning to suspect that no matter how many times he corrected her, she would continue calling him whatever she wanted.

The Scarlet Fist swallowed the food in her mouth before suddenly looking around the house.

"Anyway, you got any spare rooms here?"

Kael raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because the food here is amazing!" she replied enthusiastically. "I’m thinking I should just move in."

"..."

Kael stared at her.

She continued as though she had just made a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

"Come on, think about it. I can fight, you know? If I stay here, I can help protect the place. You get extra protection, and I get to eat food like this every day. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me."

"No, thank you."

Kael rejected the offer almost immediately.

There was absolutely no way he was allowing this battle lunatic to move into his house.

Putting aside her rather questionable reasons for wanting to live here, Kael already had enough things to worry about without adding someone like her to the household.

Besides, he had far too many secrets.

Between his talent, the Tower, Varek, and everything else he was involved in, allowing someone he didn’t fully trust to live so close to him would be a terrible idea.

And the Scarlet Fist certainly wasn’t someone he trusted enough to share those things with.

"Aww, such a bummer," she complained, looking genuinely disappointed.

Kael ignored her expression.

"Well, I can see you’re enjoying yourself, so I’ll get out of your hair. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

"Mm!"

She nodded, already reaching for another piece of meat.

Before Kael could even turn around, she had torn into it with obvious satisfaction.

Seeing that, he couldn’t help shaking his head.

Does she ever think about anything other than fighting and eating?

With that thought, Kael left her to enjoy her meal and continued making his way around the house.

For the next several hours, he moved from one group of guests to another.

Sometimes, he stopped to exchange greetings with people he hadn’t spoken to in a while. Other times, he joined conversations for a few minutes before excusing himself to attend to someone else.

He also occasionally found himself helping Hannah with one task or another.

Despite his earlier attempts to get her to rest, she remained determined to personally attend to as many guests as possible.

In the end, Kael figured the easiest way to reduce her workload was simply to help whenever he noticed her doing something.

He also took the opportunity to meet some of the people Lyra had invited.

Most of them were acquaintances he hadn’t met before, so he spent some time introducing himself and getting to know them.

Naturally, being the owner of the house, he received quite a few compliments about the place.

Kael accepted them with a smile, although he made sure to give his mother and sister most of the credit for the decorations.

At some point, he also ran into Zoey and Adam again.

The two seemed to be enjoying the party, although Adam apparently hadn’t forgotten about the conversation they had started at the entrance.

"Hey, Kael! About that spar we were talking about earlier..."

Kael looked at him.

"You’re still thinking about that?"

"Of course!" Adam replied immediately. "Come on, man, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you fight. I want to see how strong you’ve gotten."

Kael wasn’t particularly surprised.

Knowing Adam, it would have been stranger if he hadn’t brought it up again.

Unfortunately, the man seemed determined to get an answer.

Even after Kael pointed out that they were currently attending a housewarming party, Adam continued insisting that they should arrange a sparring session.

In the end, Kael had no choice but to agree.

"Fine. We’ll have a spar sometime later. Just not today."

Adam immediately brightened.

"Seriously? Alright, it’s a deal!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Kael shook his head, wondering why he seemed to attract so many people who were obsessed with fighting.

Fortunately, that promise was enough to satisfy Adam for the time being.

After exchanging a few more words with the couple, Kael continued on his way.

And just like that, time passed.