Arthur, who was already 20 years old, had already reached the Age of Enlightenment.
But the practice of martial arts, magic, the pursuit of the mysterious organization, and the responsibility of revenge for Keynes and the Blue Enchantress Mercenary Group on his shoulders left him no time to stop and enjoy the love that he should have at this age like his peers.
In recent years, the girls that Arthur had contact with more were only Gold and Alia. Both girls had their own advantages. Arthur regarded them as his friends and partners, but he never had the courage to try to turn his partners into lovers. The door of love in Arthur's heart was still closed.
Now, Gold took the initiative to push the door open a crack, but Arthur was still not ready to open the door completely to Gold.
When the music of the second dance stopped, Arthur had not thought about how to respond to Gold's words just now.
Gold moved her blushing face away from Arthur's shoulder and took his hand to walk towards Grand Duke Ross.
Arthur's brain was still in a daze. Apart from keeping a smile, he hardly remembered a word of what the Grand Duke said.
In the end, perhaps even Gold was tired of listening to the Duke's words, and took the initiative to pull Arthur away to get out of the predicament.
Arthur took the red wine handed over by the servant and drank a big sip before he was completely sober. Gold stood beside Arthur with her head down and did not speak. The atmosphere between the two was still a little awkward.
"There are too many people here. I will take you to walk around the Duke's Mansion." It was Gold who took the initiative to speak and broke the silence.
"Okay."
Gold led Arthur through the banquet hall and walked out, but after walking a few steps, he was blocked by three young people of the same age as Arthur, two men and one woman on the opposite side.
"You are so anxious to leave, you won't find a place to have an affair?" A tall young man in a silver dress said in a coquettish manner.
"Cody, if you dare to say another word of nonsense, believe it or not, I will smash that stinky mouth now." Gold counterattacked without hesitation.
The man shrugged, but did not dare to continue provoking Gold. Instead, he said, "I am not interested in provoking you, a thorny rose, today. I want to talk to Viscount Arthur alone. I don't want to disturb you, do I?"
Gold snorted disdainfully, "Whether Viscount Arthur is interested in you is his own business?"
Arthur was quite surprised. He seemed to have never seen these people opposite him, so he looked at Gold for advice.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you. These people are from the family of Grand Duke Hilllo. You'd better be careful when talking to people from the Hilllo family, otherwise they will sell you out without knowing it."
Gold's words were full of sarcasm. Cody tried hard not to explode. He really didn't dare to provoke Gold on this occasion, otherwise he would be the one who suffered.
Cody politely extended his hand to Arthur, "Let me introduce myself. I am Cody Hilllo, the Grand Duke is my grandfather, Keynes is my uncle, and they are Aaron and Tiana."
Arthur gently shook hands with Cody. He later learned that Keynes was from the Hilllo family, but he didn't understand why these people suddenly came to him.
"Golly, let them talk alone, I'll ask you to dance?" Aaron bent down and invited Golly. Aaron was slightly shorter than Cody, had a feminine face, and tied a ponytail.
"I'm not interested in dancing with you." Golly pushed Aaron back mercilessly, "If you have anything to say to Arthur, you'd better tell him quickly, don't delay our time for a secret affair."
Cody frowned, and then said directly to Arthur: "I heard that your surname was given to you by Keynes, so you can barely be considered a member of our Hilllo family. The elders of the family are discussing the matter of accepting you back into the family. I hope you will listen to the opinions of the family before making important decisions in the future."
A nameless anger suddenly surged from Arthur's heart. Arthur didn't know what the relationship between Keynes and the family was? But from the fact that he would rather create a mercenary group to earn commissions than ask for help from the family, it can be roughly guessed that the relationship between Keynes and the family would definitely not be very good.
Now the Hilllo family has inexplicably approached him, regardless of their purpose, regardless of feelings and interests, and they want to restrict his decision right away. They are used to being high and mighty, and really think that as long as they beckon, others will rush over regardless of everything.
Arthur replied coldly: "I'm sorry, you seem to have made a mistake. I have nothing to do with the Hilllo family."
Arthur's answer made Cody and Aaron and Tiana beside him stunned. They didn't expect Arthur to refuse so straightforwardly. They knew what to say after they prepared it.
"Is Viscount Arthur ungrateful? Your relationship with the Hilllo family is not something you can deny if you want to. Uncle Cairns gave you the Hilllo family's surname."
Unexpectedly, it was Tiana who spoke. This beautiful-looking girl spoke very harshly. Although it was harsh, it hit the point. According to the mainland tradition, it is not allowed to add a surname without the royal family or nobles, and Cairns wrote his surname to Arthur on the recommendation letter without the approval of the family. If the Hilllo family now publicly proposed, Arthur could not use the Hilllo family name. Perhaps they were sure of this, thinking that Arthur would never deny his relationship with the Hilllo family.
"In this case, the Hilllo family name will be returned to you. I will formally report to His Majesty the King later." Arthur said expressionlessly.
Arthur gave up his family name without hesitation. This time, not to mention Cody and Tiana, even Gold beside him was completely shocked. For nobles, being deprived of their family name is equivalent to being deprived of their noble status, which is absolutely unacceptable! But Arthur did not even change his expression.
"Do you have anything else to do? If not, please get out of the way."
"Wait a minute." Tiana stretched out her hand to stop Arthur, "You are so cruel, Uncle Cairns's Meteoric Sword is also with you, and after he dies, the sword will also belong to the Hilllo family's property, please keep the Meteoric Sword!"
The murderous aura instantly surged from Arthur, and the Meteoric Sword appeared in Arthur's hand the next second. This time Tiana completely angered Arthur.
Tiana took two steps back in fear, and Cody and Aaron stood in front of her, staring at Arthur with vigilant eyes.
The Meteoric Sword appeared, and the people dancing around were in an uproar, and quickly moved away to a large empty space, which became the focus of the entire dance party.
"It seems that something happened to Gold, Grand Duke, don't you want to go and see?" The familiar marquis who was around, Grand Duke Ross, persuaded with a glass of wine.
The Grand Duke laughed and said, "Our Gold is so beautiful. We have experienced jealousy at the ball when we were young. Let the children solve their own problems!"
Grand Duke Ross, who didn't know the inside story, thought it was because of his daughter, but he didn't expect that the real jealous one was Tiana. The reason why Tiana pressed Arthur step by step was because the Hilllo family also wanted to recruit Arthur. The way they recruited Arthur was naturally not just based on the surname, but also hoped to use the means of marriage, and the candidate for marriage was Tiana.
What the Hilllo family didn't expect was that before they had time to come forward to recruit, Arthur was almost taken by the Ross family, so Cody and Tiana jumped out on their own initiative to stop it. But what Tiana and Arthur didn't expect was that their stupid behavior backfired and completely angered Arthur.
Arthur stared at Tiana and said word by word: "Captain Cairns will not release this sword until he dies. Anyone from the Hilllo family who wants to take this sword from me must have the ability to kill me!"
Cody and Aaron looked at each other, and neither of them challenged Arthur. Not to mention that they were not sure of defeating Arthur, even if they were, they could not do it here today.
"Does Viscount Jiang have no face left? Do you want to take it by force with your own force?" Tiana continued to provoke Arthur without giving up.
Just before Arthur's anger completely broke out, a small flame the size of a soybean flew out from the crowd and landed silently on the tail of Tiana's long skirt.
The flame burned violently when it met the gauze skirt, and the flame, accompanied by screams, pushed this New Year's ball to a climax...