Evan D. Sherden. Prepares For the Dungeon (4)
Evan had made up his mind and searched the mansion for two hours, but couldn't find Belois.
"I have looked at all the spaces where Lua could go in and out alone… I would have usually found her by now. There is no way she can take her secret to her grave." He muttered to himself and looked out the window. The beautiful garden of the Marquis was like a feast to his eyes.
He wondered if Belois was practising magic alone in the garden, but she wasn't there, and Mr Tom, the gardener, was making dragon-shaped flower decorations. They were great.
'Whenever you entered the Marquis Garden in the game, Uncle Tom would always be there. But that's not what matters right now. I need to find Lua.'
While Evan was searching and popping slimes with both hands (it had already become a part of his daily routine), a person walking down the hall called Evan and stopped. Miriam D. Sherden, the Second Wife, passed by with Elizabeth in her arms.
"Evan, what are you doing there? Oh my, Tom is doing his work as always."
"I think it's a wonderful piece of art. Hello, Miriam's mother. Hi Liz."
"Ahhh!"
As soon as Elizabeth saw Evan, she stretched out her arms to him. She wanted to be held by him.
Miriam was a bit confused by seeing Elizabeth, who revered her brother more than her mother, but Liz was struggling so much that she could not help it.
"Howah!"
"If you are doing this already, what will happen later? You have not even grown hair properly yet you are aiming at Master Evan."
Miriam squinted her eyes at Elisabeth, who sighed satisfactorily in the arms of Evan. Then she turned towards Evan and asked.
"So what are you doing? Usually, it's so hard to see that beautiful face of yours. Liz loves you this way, but you don't even come to us, even for a cup of tea."
"I'm sorry Mother. I have so many things to do these days. By the way mother… Have you seen Belois? I have some urgent business, so I'm looking for her, but I can't find her anywhere."
"Belois? Oh my, Evan don't you know yet?"
Evan opened his eyes wide at Miriam's words as if he had always known. But the words that followed still resonated with a great shock.
"From a long time ago, my older sister has been taking her and teaching her in various ways. Tea Ceremony, Poetry, Calligraphy, Appearance…"
"…Why is my mother teaching these things to Lua?"
"Isn't it obvious? She's preparing her for you as your concubine candidate. The child is extremely devoted to you. So the older sister is teaching her gifted education to Belois. Don't you want her to be treated special?"
"No! I don't even have a wife yet! And a concubine!? Besides, I can't have a bride who's just 9 years old!"
"But Evan, that doesn't mean that you can't make a maid a mistress, right?"
'I can't. I'm sure she's from the same world I am in. But still, the world doesn't work that way.?How did she even think of using the Blood Witch as my concubine, in the first place? Why did she come up with such a terrifying idea?'
"I'll go right away!"
"I know it's embarrassing. Don't hurt the heart of a girl as proud as her and you also need a concubine! Oh, that doesn't mean you have to force yourself to do it!?"
"It doesn't work that way!"
"Ahhhhhh!"
Evan handed over Elizabeth back to Miriam gently and ran to find her mother.
It had been three years since he had stopped attending the tea party with his mother.
Evan couldn't begin to imagine that his mother had been teaching Belois this whole time.
But once he started to think about it calmly, he felt strange.
'How were Lua's skills increasing abnormally? Doesn't it mean that she is being taught a special skill in the classes by my mother? Is she teaching her like the butler or a maid… ?'
Evan felt as if he was alone in the Marquis's mansion. At some time, he had suspected that her abilities were growing at a significantly high rate.
This was a world in which status was established upon your skill level if you constantly practised something till expertise. Only after then, you could raise your status.
'In the process of becoming literate to act as a concubine of a nobleman, Belois's mana ability had greatly improved… There was no way she was able to do it on her own!'
Evan soon arrived at the door of her mother's room. Having knocked a few times lightly, he opened the door straight away without waiting for a response from inside.
Evan D. Sherden, who was usually a polite child, was extremely agitated at the moment and thought he didn't have any time to be polite.
"Oh my God, Evan."
"Young Master."
The Marquis's first Wife, Redine D. Sherden, was drinking tea with Belois. There was also a small notebook on the table as if they were in the middle of a tea ceremony class.
The lamp that Belois always carried had been put aside, and Evan glanced at it for a while and then looked at his mother and Belois.
"Mother," Evan said.
"Why have you been hiding the fact that you are a witch?"
"Oh my God, I got caught right away."
The Marquis's wife replied playfully, sticking out her tongue. Belois, realizing that she had also been caught, politely bowed to Evan and apologized. At this point, Evan was completely out of his senses.
"Is it also a secret from father?"
"No, of course, it isn't. Originally, the Sherden family had fantastic qualities of dealing with magic, but because Eric is so talented with magic…"
"So… That's it."
If the Marquis knew it, then it wasn't a problem. But that meant that no one else knew about it.
Evan quietly closed the door first. Marquis's Wife nodded slowly.
"Evan, can a mom ask you something? How did you notice?"
"Well, there are four reasons."
"You have four reasons!?"
"First, the tea you are drinking right now. 'Eporonic' is a very famous tea that is used to help revitalize mana and clear your head to help you practice magic. Of course, that fact is not well known, but that is why it is a tea that is never found and drunk, except for people who practice magic."
"You're right. Eporonic tea is really expensive. It is the same as Elixir for those who learn magic. Evan, you are the only one who has recognized this."
That was because Evan had been looking back and forth to secure some Eporonic for Belois's training! As her mother nodded, Evan spoke confidently.
"Secondly, that notebook is an artefact. It encrypts the written content to another language. It is an artefact that makes things written on it invisible and is very good for writing secrets. Thirdly, since that lamp is so old, it takes some time to stop glowing even after being left alone. It is proof that Lua was touching that just a little while ago."
"Oh, my God!"
Evan's criticism flowed like a river flow, and the Marquis's Wife applauded in great admiration. Belois blushed as she felt ashamed.
"So what's the fourth?"
"Lua couldn't grow so much as she trained alone with the lamp. But as she was with my mother all the time, it meant that my mother was teaching her something."
"It seems like my son also can predict a lot of secrets and check the level of growth of others. I am surprised to see that, whoo!"
"Oh, and one more."
Evan still had a relaxed expression.
"My father seems to be getting older, but my mother is still the same as before." He continued.
"Up until now, I just thought that my mother had been sleeping all this time, but now it seems that there was a different reason that she spent all that time in her room…"
Ms Marquis was silent. The atmosphere had become a little awkward.
When Evan stopped speaking, the Marquis's Wife said with a smile.
"This will take just a while. Okay, Evan?"𝑓𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
"… Yes, mother."
No other answers were allowed. Evan shrugged and nodded gently, and the Wife spoke again with a satisfied expression.
"Evan, do you know about witches?"
"Isn't the woman who deals in magic, a witch?"
"Fortunately, you don't know a lot about them, my son."
Marquis's Wife's smile widened. However, Evan tilted his head. As he thought about it, he didn't know much about them.
What was her mother, a witch, talking about? Was she talking about a secret skill or ability? Evan recalled the Yo-Ma Great War series.
She continued.
"If I talk in detail, it would take longer, so let's keep it simple, right… A witch is a female type of Ain who connects with a special vein of the world. In general, they possess large amounts of overwhelming mana dominance, and are born with special abilities that ordinary humans cannot dare to reach."
It wasn't a skill or an ability; it was a story about a hidden race that seemed impossible!
Evan was surprised by a secret story that far exceeded his expectations and opened both eyes.
"Ain…?"
"An Ain is like a forest fairy (elves) who still hide somewhere deep in ancient forests or like a land fairy (dwarves) who appear in dungeons. We are like them. In the past, God made us save the world and then we mixed up with humans, but in fact, even your mother is not sure about that. It was a long time ago."
God had made them. She carried on.
"Originally, even your mother did not hide her identity or name and travelled around the world. But after meeting your dad, ?falling in love with him, and getting married, I realized I didn't have to wander in the world. That's how your mother decided to become an ordinary human being, Redine D. Sherden."
"Ordinary human…"
Evan was embarrassed. Of course, unless Evan was one of the Yo-Ma Great War series developers, he couldn't be aware of everyone in the game.
But wasn't this different from the games? Evan had played all the Yo-Ma Great War games, including Zero, had downloaded all the DLCs, and cleared them, but a witch never appeared in any of them.
However, after hearing of them for the first time, Evan's world turned upside down.
Was it a secret? Did it make sense that such an important subject had not appeared throughout the series?
There was only one word that could explain this ridiculous possibility, at least for Evan.
"Sequel… The sequel was out."
"What sequel, Evan?"
"Oh, no mother. I'm just so amazed."
The Yo-Ma Great War series had ended at the 4th?game!
If the Earth had not perished since his previous life, the possibility that a new series of Yo-Ma Great War had emerged was overwhelming. And the developers totally could have come up with a new race of witches!
'Of course, I was expecting something, that I didn't know about earlier, to come out so unexpectedly. Having talked to Grandpa Bernard, I had readied myself. I thought I had already secured a lot of things, and I believed that I would be able to cope with anything.'
However, he didn't know that Evan himself had anything to do with this Yo-Ma Great War 5! Strictly speaking, it was his mother, not Evan!
And then, why did the developers kill such a character relentlessly in Yo-Ma Great War 3, when in fact, Evan's unconditional death was the stepping stone for Yo-Ma Great War 5?! Evan cursed and wished for the production crew's death.
"Anyway, there is no other witch in our family. Evan, you have a little bit of a witch's blood, but you'll never become a witch because you are not a woman. As you don't have magical talent at all, it will be counterproductive."
"It's okay because I have no regrets."
"But I found a child who seems likely to be good for the path of a witch."
"That would be Belois."
"Yes."
Belois was also one of the new races. Were these two facts related? Evan thought about it.
Of course, it was not a problem to be solved right now. However, it seemed to be clear that as Belois had gained new strength that she did not attain in the main story, she would become something more transcendent in the future.
"So those were the reasons that led you to know about us. How about it then, are you satisfied now?"
"… Roughly. I already knew that you were keeping a secret. But now I also know how Lua was able to grow so quickly."
"Wowee! Your mother is very happy because her son is so smart!"
Then she asked Evan with a subtle expression on her face.
"Then son, would you like to learn some secrets from your mother? Don't you think it would be to your advantage to just go over the secrets that you don't know currently?"
"That's right."
Evan hesitated but finally nodded. Now that he knew that Yo-Ma Great War 5 existed, it would be better for him to share some secrets with his mother, who was the link to that game and prepare for the future together.
Evan, having cleared up his thoughts, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The Marquis' Wife's eyes sparkled.
Belois, who had understood the situation to a certain extent, had been looking at him from the start.
Half a year passed since then, and spring came again to the dungeon city of Sherden.
It was the spring of promise.