“Truly, a hero among the young.”
The moment Felix Ravenholt heard those words, he couldn’t help giving Cassian Valerius a strange look.
Are you that old?
No matter how he looked at him, Cassian appeared to be only fourteen or fifteen, clearly younger than Lucian.
Yet he kept talking about “heroes among the young” as though he were some experienced elder who had already seen half the world.
Felix found the whole thing ridiculous, but although he complained inwardly, he did not say anything out loud.
He merely curled his lips slightly and remained beside Lucian, watching the exchange with interest.
Lucian Ravenholt, of course, could hear the hidden meaning beneath Cassian’s words, but he behaved as though he had noticed nothing and replied with the same polite smile.
“Your Highness flatters me. I’m nowhere near as capable as you make me sound. There are still many matters within the clan for which I need the guidance of my elders. I’m merely doing my best to handle the responsibilities entrusted to me.”
He knew perfectly well who the person standing in front of him was.
Over the years, whenever Lucian visited the Griffin Clan, someone always seemed to find ways to make things difficult for him.
Problems appeared both openly and in secret, yet the person truly responsible had never shown himself, as though everything had been carefully hidden.
Once or twice might have been coincidence, but after enough incidents, even a slow person would have noticed something was wrong.
And Lucian had never been slow.
Now that Cassian was finally standing in front of him in person, speaking words of praise while showing very little genuine goodwill in his eyes, Lucian found the situation almost amusing.
Cassian, however, grew even more displeased when he saw how calm Lucian remained.
Even so, the smile on his face did not disappear.
“Very good.”
He lifted his chin slightly, his tone still sounding courteous.
“I heard that my father has summoned you again. It seems the reputation really is deserved. Unfortunately, I still have other matters to deal with today, so I won’t be able to stay and talk with you for long. The next time we meet in the Griffin Clan, we can have a proper conversation.”
He deliberately emphasized the word again.
When mentioning his father, he unconsciously lifted his chin a little higher, making his own status perfectly clear.
His tone carried a trace of arrogance and something faintly unwilling beneath it, yet his words achieved exactly what he wanted.
Several of the gazes that had been resting on Lucian gradually shifted back toward Cassian.
Not far from the banquet hall, Evelyn was still sitting in the pavilion listening to the ghost beside her chatter excitedly.
At one point, the ghost suddenly cupped its cheeks with both hands and sighed dreamily.
“His Highness Cassian of the Griffin Clan is so handsome!”
Evelyn instinctively glanced toward the banquet hall and raised one brow.
For some reason, a complicated feeling surfaced in her chest.
Strictly speaking, she and Cassian should have been twins.
She was the elder sister, and he was the younger brother.
But what had happened back then had been far too strange, leaving even that simple relationship difficult to define.
After Selene’s Core Crystal entered their mother’s body, it barely remained there before surging directly toward Evelyn.
It was precisely because the Core Crystal entered her body that she had been born before the other child.
At the time, she had only just arrived in this world.
Her body had been tiny and fragile, yet an enormous source of power had suddenly appeared inside her.
Every time that power leaked outward, she had to spend tremendous effort suppressing it.
Those days had been anything but pleasant.
Before she had even adapted to her new body, one problem after another had already begun appearing.
The ghosts, specters, and other dark creatures sent by the Devil race repeatedly appeared nearby, barely giving her a single peaceful day.
Their intention had been obvious.
They did not want her to survive.
Fortunately, Evelyn had already understood occult techniques in her previous life, and with the Core Crystal now inside her, she had gradually managed to set up barriers around herself, even while still very young.
Otherwise, whether she would have lived safely to this day was difficult to say. Find the original chapter at g.com.
As for that so-called younger brother…
Evelyn thought about it briefly before beginning to feel a headache.
She immediately gave up.
Forget it.
Her life now was hardly different from that of an orphan anyway.
Calling Cassian her younger brother somehow felt inaccurate, yet saying they had nothing to do with each other also seemed wrong when they had, in fact, come from the same mother’s womb.
If thinking about it only made her uncomfortable, why bother?
As for the Cassian whom the ghost beside her was praising as though no one else in heaven or earth could compare to him, Evelyn had even less interest in taking another look.
At this point, she wasn’t even sure whether they truly counted as siblings.
Whether he was handsome or not had nothing to do with her.
With that thought, Evelyn quickly withdrew her gaze and turned back toward the talkative ghost, continuing to listen as it described what was happening inside the banquet hall.
Back in the hall, Cassian finally seemed more satisfied once the attention around him had shifted back in his direction.
He turned toward Alaric Sterling and put on another well-mannered smile.
“I wish Lord Sterling good health and many peaceful years ahead. I had originally intended to stay a little longer, but I still have other matters to handle and cannot remain here for long, so I must take my leave.”
After saying that, he did not even wait for Alaric’s response before turning away, clearly believing that he had left in a suitably elegant manner.
The hem of his robe shifted lightly with his steps, and even his departure carried an obvious attempt at deliberate composure.
The guests in the hall were left somewhat confused.
He had barely arrived.
He had not even said much.
How had he suddenly developed urgent business and decided to leave?
The smile on Alaric’s face faded slightly.
Lucian watched Cassian’s retreating figure with a thoughtful look, his gaze darkening a little.
Felix quietly leaned toward his brother and lowered his voice.
“What exactly did that guy come here for? Did he seriously show up just to say a few things and leave?”
Lucian turned his head and immediately raised one finger in front of Felix’s lips, silently telling him to stop talking.
Although there was still a faint smile on Lucian’s face, irritation had clearly entered his eyes.
Felix had followed his brother for many years and immediately recognized the signs.
Realizing that Lucian was not in the best mood, he wisely shut his mouth and said nothing more.
After lowering his hand, Lucian glanced toward the entrance again.
By now, he had roughly reached a conclusion.
Trouble was coming again.
Cassian’s parting remark about “talking properly next time” had obviously not been said casually.
What exactly the other party planned to do this time, Lucian did not yet know.
But if Cassian had no intention of behaving peacefully, then Lucian was hardly afraid of him.
Whatever came, he would deal with it when it arrived.
Most of the young women in the hall, however, noticed none of the tension beneath the surface.
Their attention remained fixed on Cassian’s departing figure.
Even after he had left the banquet hall, several still seemed reluctant to look away.
So that was His Highness Cassian of the Griffin Clan.
Not only was he handsome, but every gesture carried the natural nobility of someone born into the highest ranks of society.
Even his slightly arrogant attitude seemed, to some of them, more like the confidence that came with high status.
Alaric, however, looked toward the doorway with a very different mood. Find the original chapter at novelping.com.
The older Cassian became, the more traces of his mother could be seen in his features.
Certain lines of his face, certain expressions that appeared unconsciously, always reminded Alaric of events from many years ago.
For a moment, a trace of sorrow inevitably rose in his heart.
But almost immediately, the events of the past returned to his mind, and the softness that had briefly appeared inside him quickly cooled again.
Cassian was very likely carrying half-Demon blood.
Until the truth had been completely clarified, Alaric could not lower his guard simply because the boy’s face resembled someone from the past.
Nor could he allow temporary sentiment to make him ignore possible danger.
With that thought, Alaric tightened his grip on the armrest and forced the complicated emotions back down.
While he was still lost in thought, Lucian stepped forward and took a letter from inside his robe.
He respectfully offered it to Alaric.
“Lord Sterling, my father specifically asked me to bring this letter to you. He requested that you read it personally.”
As Lucian stepped forward again, the gazes that had followed Cassian out of the hall quietly returned.
Alaric paid no attention to the reactions around him.
He simply accepted the letter.
After opening the envelope, he unfolded the paper inside.
At first, he assumed it contained nothing more than ordinary birthday greetings.
However, after only a few lines, his expression gradually became strange.
By the time he finished reading the entire letter, he looked both helpless and amused.
The letter read:
“Brother Sterling, first let me wish you a happy birthday. May you remain healthy every year and somehow continue looking younger instead of older. But looking young is one thing. Don’t go taking advantage of the fact that you’re still handsome and fooling around outside. If your wife comes after you, don’t expect me to help.”
“I’m still traveling with my beloved wife at the moment, and life has been far too comfortable to give up just yet. I truly couldn’t spare the time to come celebrate with you in person this year, so you’ll have to forgive me.”
“Still, even though I couldn’t come, I did specially send both of my sons.”
“So there’s no need to be polite. Just hand my future daughter-in-law, Evelyn, over to Lucian and let him bring her back to the Black Tortoise Clan with him.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten what we agreed on all those years ago. If you dare go back on your word, I’ll tell everyone every embarrassing thing you did when you were young. Then we’ll see where you hide.”
Alaric held the letter in his hand and remained silent for a long moment, genuinely unsure how he was supposed to react.
The beginning had still sounded like a proper birthday greeting.
By the end, the man was openly asking for a daughter-in-law.
Even more ridiculous was the way he had written the threat with such complete confidence, as though he had already decided that Alaric would never dare refuse.
Then Alaric remembered how the man had spent all these years traveling around with his wife while dumping almost every important matter of the Black Tortoise Clan onto Lucian.
His sense of helplessness deepened immediately.
They were both clan Lords.
How was one of them living so much more comfortably than the other?
It was one thing for the man to enjoy himself outside.
He had even found time to send a letter back just to create more trouble.
Alaric lowered his gaze and reread the lines mentioning Evelyn.
Then he lifted his head and looked around the banquet hall.
His other daughters were all seated properly at the side.
Only the one person he now needed was missing.
After a brief silence, Alaric turned toward the white-haired old man waiting nearby.
“Go bring Evelyn in.”
The moment those words were spoken, several people in the lively banquet hall visibly froze.
A few still had smiles on their faces, yet disbelief had already appeared in their eyes before those smiles had time to fade.