“Then what about those men in black?”
Evelyn’s uncle frowned slightly.
His gaze swept over the bodies scattered across the grass before returning to the three boys.
A fight had clearly taken place here.
If the boys truly hadn’t done anything to Evelyn, then what exactly had happened to all these people?
The boy in green did not answer immediately.
Instead, he looked toward Lord Sterling, who stood nearby.
He recognized the ruler of the White Tiger Clan.
And judging by the way Evelyn’s uncle was holding the unconscious little girl so protectively, it wasn’t difficult to guess that she had some connection to the two men.
No matter how he looked at it, today’s trouble had been brought here because of them.
They had led the pursuers into White Tiger territory.
And a young child had been caught up in the mess because of it.
They were clearly the ones at fault.
With that in mind, the boy quickly straightened his posture and gave Lord Sterling a proper bow.
“I apologize on behalf of the Black Tortoise Clan for causing such trouble in your territory today.”
His tone was serious.
There was no attempt to avoid responsibility.
“Those men were originally after us. As for the reason, I’m afraid I can’t explain it. We only intended to deal with them here, but in the end, this little girl was still dragged into it.”
At that, he glanced toward Evelyn again.
The child remained unconscious in her uncle’s arms.
Her face looked even paler than before, and her small body rested limply against him without the slightest movement.
A trace of unease passed through the boy’s heart.
Even so, he continued,
“I don’t know why she suddenly fainted, but we didn’t hurt her, and we didn’t do anything to her. I can promise you that.”
He did not mention the overwhelming pressure that had suddenly erupted from Evelyn earlier.
Even he wasn’t entirely sure why.
The words had nearly reached his lips.
But in the end, he swallowed them.
He had seen everything clearly.
After the little fire fox fell, Evelyn’s condition had changed almost immediately.
Her originally dark eyes had slowly turned purple.
Then a faint violet aura began spreading from her body.
And after that— the pressure came.
It had been so intense that his chest felt tight and even breathing became difficult.
He had tried to move closer.
He couldn’t.
His feet had felt rooted to the ground.
If the three of them hadn’t already reached the Blue Rank, they probably would have collapsed just like the Green-Rank cultivators.
But if he revealed all of that now— what would happen to the little girl?
He didn’t know.
Especially when the Lord of the White Tiger Clan had shown almost no concern for the child since arriving.
The boy in green glanced quietly at Lord Sterling.
In the end, he decided to keep what had happened to himself.
For now.
Lord Sterling did not speak immediately after hearing his explanation.
The boy before him was young, but clearly well-mannered.
He spoke carefully.
He did not rush to shift the blame.
And even his apology had been properly given.
He was obviously well educated, which meant his status within the Black Tortoise Clan was unlikely to be ordinary.
But regardless of who he was, they had caused a serious disturbance inside White Tiger territory.
And Evelyn had been caught up in it.
A simple apology wasn’t enough to make everything disappear.
So Lord Sterling remained silent, his expression cold as he waited. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
The blue-clad boy looked at Lord Sterling.
Then at his older brother.
For once, he put away his usual playful expression.
They had definitely caused trouble today.
But standing here any longer didn’t seem to help either.
More importantly, the White Tiger Lord’s expression was far from friendly.
Being stared at like that made him uncomfortable all over.
After hesitating for a moment, he stepped forward half a pace and tried to smooth things over.
“Since you’ve already found the little girl, we should probably head back too.”
He did his best to sound polite.
“We’ve been away for quite a while. The people back home are probably worried. We really did cause trouble today, so we won’t stay and make things worse.”
As he spoke, he reached for his older brother’s sleeve.
Then he shot the pretty boy beside them a look.
Time to go.
Unfortunately, they had barely taken a few steps before Evelyn’s uncle suddenly fixed his gaze on the especially good-looking boy.
Earlier, all his attention had been on Evelyn.
He hadn’t taken a proper look at the three boys.
Now that he did, the boy looked increasingly familiar.
Very quickly, a face came to mind.
“Wait.”
All three boys stopped at once.
Even Lord Sterling turned his head.
Evelyn’s uncle stared at the pretty boy for a moment.
Then surprise slowly appeared on his face.
“You’re from the Vermilion Bird Clan, aren’t you?”
The boy froze slightly.
He clearly hadn’t expected to be recognized here.
The two brothers beside him, however, reacted immediately.
The moment the words were spoken, both became alert.
The blue-clad boy even stepped sideways without thinking and positioned himself directly in front of his cousin.
The movement was far too obvious to miss.
Evelyn’s uncle paused.
His brows slowly drew together.
He had only recognized the child of someone he knew.
Why did these two suddenly look as though they needed to protect him?
Lord Sterling frowned as well.
His gaze moved between the three boys.
A child of the Vermilion Bird Clan was being hunted by people from his own clan.
Two children from the Black Tortoise Clan had risked themselves to protect him all the way here.
And the moment his identity was recognized, they became visibly tense.
Clearly, this situation was far more complicated than it looked.
The boy in green had no intention of explaining further.
He stepped forward slightly, subtly blocking Lord Sterling’s view of his cousin.
Then he bowed once more.
“We’ve already imposed long enough. I apologize again for the trouble today. We should be leaving now.”
With that, he quickly led the other two away.
This time, even the blue-clad boy stayed unusually quiet.
He followed closely beside his brother and cousin.
Only after they had walked a fair distance did he glance back several times.
Once he was sure no one was following them, he finally turned around again.
Evelyn’s uncle remained where he was, staring after the three boys with a puzzled expression.
“What exactly was going on with those kids?”
He muttered the question under his breath.
Originally, he wanted to turn and discuss it with his brother.
But the moment he looked down and saw Evelyn still unconscious in his arms, that thought immediately became less important.
The child came first. This story is hosted at g.com.
He adjusted his hold on her, carefully supporting her small body.
Before he could say anything, Lord Sterling spoke first.
His gaze rested briefly on Evelyn’s pale face.
He did not ask where she was hurt.
Nor did he reach out to take her.
After a moment, he said flatly,
“If you’re going to take responsibility for her, then take proper care of her.”
Evelyn’s uncle blinked.
Lord Sterling ignored his reaction and continued,
“Find her a mentor.”
“Have someone teach her properly.”
“At the very least, she needs to learn how to control her demonic nature.”
Evelyn’s uncle clearly hadn’t expected that.
For a moment, he didn’t even know how to respond.
But before he could speak, Lord Sterling added coldly,
“If something truly goes wrong, I will kill her myself.”
Then he turned and walked away.
“What?”
Evelyn’s uncle stood there with the child in his arms, eyes widening.
If both hands weren’t occupied with holding Evelyn, he probably would have reached up and checked his ears to make sure he hadn’t heard wrong.
His brother had actually told him to find Evelyn a mentor?
That was rare.
Over the past five years, Lord Sterling had almost never asked about Evelyn.
Now he had actually taken the initiative to arrange for someone to teach her.
The last sentence was still cold enough to make anyone uncomfortable.
But at the very least— he hadn’t tried to stop Evelyn’s uncle from caring for her.
Finding a mentor itself wasn’t difficult.
The real question was— what kind of mentor should he find?
Someone to teach her reading and writing?
Or someone to teach her cultivation and combat?
Evelyn’s uncle lowered his gaze toward the little girl in his arms.
For the first time, he found himself genuinely uncertain.
His brother had only said that Evelyn needed to learn how to control her demonic nature.
He hadn’t explained anything beyond that.
Everything else had simply been left for him to figure out.
Which meant he really did need to think carefully about what kind of person would be suitable for Evelyn.
But now obviously wasn’t the time to stand around thinking about it.
Seeing how pale she still looked made his chest tighten again.
He immediately started back with her in his arms.
The mentor could wait.
The most important thing right now was getting this child to wake up.
As for Evelyn herself— she remained completely unconscious.
Naturally, she had no idea what had just been decided for her.
She also didn’t know that the days when she could farm whenever she wanted and sneak into the mountains whenever she felt like it had just been brought to an end by a few simple sentences.
Once she woke up, that endless patch of weeds would probably no longer be the only thing waiting for her.
Whether it was studying or learning to fight— continuing to live as freely as before was probably going to become much harder.
If Evelyn knew in advance, she would almost certainly have several things to say about it in her head.
Still— complaining was one thing.
Actually learning was another.
After surviving all these years mostly by figuring things out on her own, having a proper mentor teach her for once probably wasn’t something she would truly be afraid of.