The moment Lucian Ravenholt recognized the newcomer as Cedric Sterling, he rose from his seat and greeted him politely.
“Lord Cedric.”
“No need to be so formal. I’m not the host tonight.”
Cedric waved a hand cheerfully, signaling for him to relax.
But in the next moment, his gaze shifted past Lucian and landed on Evelyn.
When no one around them was paying attention, he gave her a quick wink.
Evelyn had still been silently criticizing his ridiculously eye-catching red outfit.
The moment she caught that look, however, she froze.
Then she understood.
Her perfectly normal expression immediately crumpled.
She raised a hand to her forehead and let out a low groan.
“Oh… why does my head suddenly hurt so much?”
As she spoke, she swayed slightly, putting on a convincing display of discomfort.
Then, as though she had finally discovered the source of her suffering, she looked accusingly at Cedric.
“Uncle Cedric, this is all your fault. Why did you have to wear such a bright color tonight? You’re so red I can barely keep my eyes open. Just looking at you is making my head spin… Oh, I’m really dizzy.”
Cedric was clearly prepared.
The moment Evelyn began her performance, he stepped forward and supported her, his worried expression so convincing that anyone who didn’t know better might have believed him.
“Why does your head suddenly hurt? This is all my fault. If I’d known you couldn’t stand such bright colors, I never would’ve worn this tonight.”
He even gave her shoulder a concerned pat.
“If you’re feeling unwell, don’t force yourself to stay. Go back and get some rest. If anything needs to be explained here, I’ll handle it for you.”
Evelyn nodded weakly and immediately followed his lead.
“Then I’ll head back first. Uncle Cedric, I’ll leave everything here to you. Make sure you explain things properly.”
“Don’t worry. Leave it to me.”
Cedric gave his promise with remarkable seriousness before adding another reminder.
“Get some proper rest when you go back. Don’t go running around.”
“I know.”
Still holding her forehead, Evelyn slowly rose from her seat, swaying slightly as though she really were dizzy.
Felix Ravenholt, who had been sitting beside her, had watched the entire exchange between uncle and niece.
His eyebrows had climbed higher and higher with every passing second.
He looked at Evelyn, who suddenly appeared weak enough to collapse at any moment.
Then he looked at Cedric, whose concern seemed almost painfully sincere.
For a moment, Felix genuinely didn’t know what to say.
Did these two think everyone around them was an idiot?
Cedric had winked at her.
One second later, Evelyn had developed a headache.
And somehow Cedric had immediately known exactly how to play along.
One started acting, and the other picked up the performance without missing a beat.
Did this uncle and niece pair have any idea how fake they looked?
Felix complained endlessly in his head, but he didn’t expose them in front of everyone.
All he could do was watch as Evelyn held her forehead and slowly made her way out of the garden.
Cedric even called after her with a worried expression.
“Slow down. Don’t fall.”
The corner of Felix’s mouth twitched.
Enough.
If they kept going, even he was going to start feeling embarrassed on their behalf.
Lucian had naturally seen through their little performance as well, but he had no intention of exposing them.
He watched Evelyn gradually walk away before quietly giving Felix a look.
Felix understood his brother immediately.
With no other choice, he got to his feet and quickly followed Evelyn.
“I’ll walk you back.”
Evelyn’s steps paused.
She turned around and looked at him.
“There’s no need. You should stay here. I can go back by myself.”
As she spoke, the corner of her eye had already caught sight of several of her younger sisters nearby.
The looks boring into her back seemed almost sharp enough to tear her apart.
Having Lucian and Felix sitting on either side of her had already attracted more than enough attention.
Felix, however, rejected her suggestion without even thinking about it.
“No.”
Evelyn frowned.
“Why?”
Felix glanced back at the young ladies who kept looking in their direction, and a look of obvious distaste appeared on his face.
“Too many people here keep staring at us. If I stay any longer, I’m afraid it’ll ruin my digestion.”
Evelyn had no response to that.
This parrot really wasn’t afraid of offending anyone.
“Fine. Do whatever you want.”
Since she couldn’t get rid of him anyway, she stopped trying.
Still holding her forehead and maintaining the appearance of someone who felt terribly unwell, Evelyn slowly disappeared from everyone’s sight.
Felix followed close behind.
Only after the two of them had completely vanished beyond the garden did Cedric finally let the exaggerated concern fade from his face.
He casually took Evelyn’s former seat.
Lucian sat down again as well, but he didn’t speak immediately.
He simply looked at Cedric in silence.
Lucian knew perfectly well that Cedric had deliberately come over to help Evelyn escape.
The unusually bright red formalwear and the secret wink he had given her had all been part of creating an excuse for her to leave the banquet early.
Cedric knew Lucian had understood.
There was no point pretending anymore.
After a brief silence, he let out a soft sigh.
“Lucian, I hope you don’t mind what I just did.”
Lucian shook his head.
“There’s no need to explain, Lord Cedric. I know you were helping her.”
Cedric gave a bitter smile before lifting his gaze toward the night sky.
Pale moonlight spilled through the thin clouds, falling across his bright red clothes.
The easy smile that usually rested on his face gradually faded.
“Actually, I’m the reason you two came to the White Tiger Clan to take Evelyn away this time.”
Lucian didn’t appear particularly surprised.
After everything that had happened since they arrived at the Sterling estate today, he had already begun to suspect as much.
Seeing his reaction, Cedric didn’t bother avoiding the subject.
“Evelyn has never been favored by her family. My brother has barely cared whether she lived or died since she was a child. Most of the time, while living in this estate, she could only rely on herself.”
His expression grew increasingly helpless.
“I’ve always tried to look after her, but there’s only so much I can do. I can’t stay by her side every hour of every day.”
He paused before continuing.
“In the end, when I couldn’t think of any other way, I reached out through someone who has been friends with your father for many years. I hoped the Ravenholt family would be willing to take her away from here.”
“At the very least, once she leaves this place, she won’t have to spend every day watching the people around her. She won’t have to remain somewhere that has caused her so much suffering for all these years.”
Listening to him, Lucian remembered what Evelyn had told him not long ago while sitting in front of the mirror.
She had spoken about those things with an almost indifferent tone.
His gaze slowly darkened.
Cedric remained silent for a moment before continuing.
“Do you know how carefully she’s had to live all these years? There were several times when she nearly lost her life.”
“I couldn’t stay beside her all the time, so the only thing I could do was make sure she learned as many ways to protect herself as possible. As long as I thought something might help her survive, no matter what it was, I found someone who could teach her.”
Lucian looked up slightly.
Cedric seemed to remember those years and gave a helpless laugh.
“Later, I started thinking that she was still a young lady of the Sterling family. She couldn’t spend all her time learning nothing but ways to defend herself.”
“So I found teachers for music, painting, etiquette, embroidery, and all the other things noble young ladies were expected to learn.”
At that point, Cedric himself began to look slightly embarrassed.
“I didn’t expect that girl to learn everything so quickly. Somehow, she ended up becoming good at almost all of it.”
“Thinking about it now, I suppose I should feel a little guilty. Most of us adults probably couldn’t master that many things ourselves, yet I kept throwing one thing after another at her.”
Lucian was genuinely surprised.
He had already known that Evelyn was nowhere near as delicate as she appeared, but he hadn’t expected her to have learned so many things growing up.
Thinking back to the way she reacted whenever danger appeared, as well as all those strange but remarkably effective traps scattered throughout her courtyard, many things that had once seemed unusual suddenly made much more sense.
But that brought another question to mind.
Cedric’s smile immediately turned bitter.
“There’s something you don’t know.”
“My wife is Lillian’s younger sister.”
Lucian understood immediately.
If that was the case, moving Evelyn into Cedric’s household might not have been much better than leaving her where she was.
Cedric could protect her quietly, but that didn’t mean he could keep her at his side indefinitely without creating other problems.
“I see.”
Lucian nodded.
Then another question occurred to him.
“If you wanted her to leave this place all along, why didn’t you contact the Ravenholt family sooner? Why wait all these years?”
“That really wasn’t my fault.”
Cedric gave a helpless shrug.
“It was that girl’s decision.”
“Evelyn?”
Lucian was visibly surprised.
Cedric nodded.
“It’s not as though I never suggested that she leave earlier. She was the one who refused. I couldn’t exactly tie her up and carry her away.”
“As for why she insisted on staying until now…”
He shook his head.
“To be honest, I don’t know either.”
Lucian looked thoughtfully toward the edge of the garden.
It seemed there were still quite a few things about Evelyn that they didn’t know.
Cedric noticed his thoughtful expression, then suddenly seemed to remember something.
His face immediately became a little strange.
He glanced around before leaning slightly closer to Lucian and lowering his voice.
“By the way, I heard you and your brother are planning to stay in Evelyn’s courtyard for a few days. Is that true?”
“It is.”
Lucian nodded.
Cedric immediately frowned.
“But that girl’s courtyard doesn’t have any guest rooms. Where exactly are the two of you planning to sleep?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, his expression became subtly suspicious.
Surely…
The three of them weren’t planning to squeeze into the same room?
Lucian understood exactly what he was thinking from a single look.
He almost laughed.
All he could do was reach out and lightly pat Cedric on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Lord Cedric. Whatever you’re imagining right now is definitely not going to happen.”
Only then did Cedric relax slightly, though he still looked at Lucian with some suspicion.
Lucian, meanwhile, remembered what Evelyn had said before leaving.
Tonight is going to be lively.
A meaningful look appeared in his eyes.
Where they were going to sleep tonight no longer seemed like the most important question.
Judging by Evelyn’s reaction earlier, along with everything that had happened today, whether any of them would get the chance to sleep peacefully at all was still uncertain.
Cedric noticed his expression and looked puzzled at first.
Then he remembered the unusual look on Lillian’s face when he had come to congratulate Alaric earlier that day.
A vague suspicion began to form in his mind.
It seemed tonight really might not be peaceful.
With that thought, Cedric decided not to ask any more questions.
At that moment, the soft sound of music began to drift through the center of the garden.
The guests who had been talking among themselves gradually quieted down.
As the music spread throughout the garden, several dancers dressed in elegant gowns stepped into the open space at the center.
Moving to the lively rhythm, they began to dance beneath the warm lights and pale moonlight.
The banquet had finally begun.