About twenty minutes later...

[Self Imposed Objective Complete - Answered King’s Summons: +5,000 XP]

[XP Balance: 217,500]

Ethan had walked out of the palace exit with a flustered look on his face. However, the moment he stepped into the open, he exhaled slowly and forced himself to regain composure before walking all the way to where Eduardo was parked outside.

The only agreement he had reached with the King was that he would consider the alliance proposal, to which the King had given a forty-eight-hour timeframe for a reply.

As soon as he got into the backseat, the car reversed and rolled into the pathway, heading for the exit.

From a room in the palace, Alistair stood by the tall windows, staring down at the car as it departed.

His expression was stern, but then a calm voice called out to him from behind.

"Why did Father send you both out?" Sylvia asked.

Sylvia was Alistair’s sister from the same mother, an elven queen. She bore close similarities with her brother. The same black hair and pointed elven ears.

"I have no idea," Alistair replied. In his left hand was a small circular artifact, etched with runes that glowed faintly. It was one of the listening devices tied to the sigils in the throne room.

Had the conversation remained there, he would have been able to hear every word.

Suddenly, he tightened his grip around it till the veins on the surface of his palm became visible. And with a sharp crack, the artifact fractured in his hand.

Back in Ethan’s sedan, it had been silent for the first few seconds after Eduardo drove out of the gates.

Ethan had just pulled out his Arcphone because he wanted to search the name ’Lady Audrey Desdemona’ in the online space.

The Matriarch being as popular as she was would definitely have her photo there.

As soon as he lit up the phone’s screen, the first thing he saw were a few pop-ups from ’Blue Eyes🦋.’

This was Hayley, and they were from over an hour ago.

When he clicked the texts open, they read:

Blue Eyes🦋: you didn’t think to tell me your girlfriend was on her way? 🙄 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Blue Eyes🦋: [GIF file]

The GIF file depicted a playful expression of a cartoonish character slamming the head of another character with a baseball bat.

Ethan smiled a bit at that, then scrolled away from her chat screen to the next one from Miss Berlene.

Miss Berlene❤️ had about thirty-three new unanswered texts, which left him in a widened gaze.

He could already guess the content of the texts, and right then, as he still looked at it, the screen displayed ’Miss Berlene typing...’

He quickly tapped onto her contact box and typed a reply:

Me: just hold on a bit love, I’ll tell you all about it when I get home

Miss Berlene❤️: okay 🥺

Then he scrolled away from his chat boxes and went into the online space icon.

Tapping the spellings of the name into the search bar, what came out in the image results were similar images of a young-looking woman with a large hat over her head, walking in a certain direction.

The fact that this was the only photo result everywhere meant that it was probably a one-in-a-lifetime chance where someone was standing ready and waiting to take the picture.

But this was also strange as hell.

Why was this Matriarch young? And by young, Ethan was looking at someone who was maybe in her mid-twenties, without the red eyes of a vampire.

The online space had only been an innovation that had come with a certain version of the Arcphone from about three years ago.

And given that the pictures of this Matriarch were colored and not black and white, it also suggested this was a very recent photo.

Unfortunately, the online space, as it was referred to in this world, wasn’t even nearly as comprehensive as the internet of the world the soul in Ethan came from.

So there were no extra results containing any relevant information on this woman, except that this was the picture of Lady Audrey and nothing more.

Eduardo had glanced at the rearview mirror to catch the puzzled frown on Ethan’s face, which is what prompted him to break the silence. "How did it go, Master Ethan?"

Ethan’s focus was drawn away from the screen of his Arcphone and toward Eduardo. "It was... not anything within my expectations."

"How so?" Eduardo asked.

"I’ll get into it, but I was meaning to bring this name up. Lady Audrey Desdemona." Then he added, "And why are her image results all very young?"

Eduardo was quiet for a moment, then heaved a short sigh before replying, "She is the head of House Desdemona, Master Ethan. And for the young images of her, that is because she truly does not age. Or rather, she halted her aging."

"Oh? Damn. She is that powerful," he said thoughtfully.

"She is a Grand Caster who reawakened with the power to manipulate the flow of time," Eduardo said. "That is how she has been able to live two hundred years."

Ethan’s eyes genuinely widened at that revelation. A Grand Caster whose reawakened power was the time magic element? Now it began to make sense why Eduardo would have lost.

Eduardo followed up with the next question. "Master Ethan... can I ask why you brought the name up?"

Ethan glanced over at Eduardo to see he had gotten into a bad mood. "The King mentioned her involvement in your battle against the family heads. I was going to ask for a few more details, but now I’m not so sure with the look on your face. So we don’t have to talk about it."

Eduardo was silent for a moment as he drove before speaking. "Vampires do not age, Master Ethan. Even if you’re a hybrid."

In that moment, Ethan’s widened eyes already depicted he had pieced the rest of it together. But Eduardo finished with the words that confirmed it.

"She is the reason I look this way."

"...The reason I look old."