Chapter 474: 474. It’s Not A Secret Anymore That Both Starlight Sisters Are With Me

She met his eyes across the group with the direct steadiness she typically used for matters she intended to address, indicating that she was choosing the moment to speak.

Then she said to the group at large, with the naturalness of a genuine question, "Where’s Alexander? He’s usually within arm’s reach of Elizabeth."

The group handled this situation with varying degrees of competence, reflecting their different levels of knowledge about the subject.

Elizabeth said, "He’s dealing with some administrative follow-up from the expedition."

Diana said nothing, which was its own kind of answer.

Lily looked at Rex with the expression she used when she had a question she was filing for later.

Elliot replied, "Right, right," in the manner people often do when they accept an explanation without further scrutiny. This was typical for him in situations concerning Elizabeth’s professional life.

Evelyn said, "I see," and glanced at Rex once more; her gaze conveyed the careful consideration of someone who had received an incomplete answer, acknowledged its lack of thoroughness, and was weighing the decision to pursue further inquiry.

She decided not to, at least not in the street, and let the conversation move on.

"Are you still at the inn?" Evelyn asked Rex. It seemed like a straightforward question on the surface.

"For now, yeah," Rex said.

"He’s going to stay at the household for a while from now on," Lily said, with the tone of someone delivering settled information.

Evelyn looked at Lily, then at Rex, then back at Lily. "Elizabeth approved this?"

"Elizabeth suggested it," Diana said.

Evelyn looked at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth stated, "It’s convenient for the review work," her tone reflecting full professional composure. Evelyn listened carefully, as if cataloging both what was said and what was left unspoken, storing each in her memory.

"Of course," Evelyn said, evenly.

"You could stay too," Lily said to Evelyn. "If you want to. There’s room, and you’re going to be family anyway." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"I have lodgings in the eastern quarter," Evelyn said. "Elliot and I both do."

"That’s twenty minutes from home," Lily said. "That’s a long walk every time you want dinner."

"It is," Evelyn said. "We’ll survive it."

Elliot, who had been listening to this exchange with the mild amusement of someone comfortable being discussed in the third person, said, "Though if the dinner is good enough, the walk becomes more negotiable."

"The dinner is always good," Lily said. "Rex figured out the kitchen."

Evelyn looked at Rex with the expression that had the calculation behind it. "He figured out the kitchen," she said as a statement rather than a question.

"Well, he’s experienced because he worked for Mara back then, remember?" Lily said. "He reorganized the spice shelf, and suddenly everything tasted better."

"He reorganized the spice shelf," Evelyn said.

"It was illogical," Rex said. "The arrangement was by container size, not by frequency of use."

Evelyn looked at him for another moment, with the look that meant she was putting something somewhere useful, and then she redirected to Lily.

"I’ll come to dinner," she said. "Tonight, if the invitation is open."

"The invitation is always open," Lily said, with the warmth of someone who has a lot of warmth to distribute and distributes it freely.

"Elliot as well?" he asked, about himself.

"Obviously, Elliot is included as well," Diana said, delivering her words with the mild, tolerant precision of a sister.

"Just checking," Elliot said.

But she would pursue it, Rex noted. Evelyn was careful and persistent, much like someone who had been gathering information about him long before he became aware of it.

Her engagement to Elliot did not signify a change in her nature. In fact, her closer position within the family network provided her with greater access to the information channels she had been monitoring.

Evelyn was going to be intriguing to manage.

’I want to deal with her now, but the satisfaction won’t be good enough, so I had to wait... but at least now.’ Rex thought. ’Better to start making both of them realize that Lily and Diana are devoted to me with love and submission.’

Rex added this to his list of concerns and refocused on the conversation at hand. Lily was asking Evelyn if she would like to join the Starlight household for dinner. Evelyn responded with a heartfelt yes, displaying the genuine warmth of someone about to marry into the family and truly feeling that warmth.

The celebration had reached a natural plateau where everyone had expressed their thoughts, and the conversation began shifting toward practical matters such as directions and timing. Rex glanced at the Academy gate, then back at Diana and Lily. He closed the distance between them, placing a hand on each of their arms to gently guide them in the direction they needed to go.

It was a subtle gesture, the kind that didn’t call for any fanfare.

Lily glanced at Rex’s hand on her arm before looking up at Evelyn’s ring. A spark of playful mischief lit up her expression, as if she had just thought of something she couldn’t resist saying.

"Rex," she said, "when are you going to give us rings like that?"

Diana turned her head toward Rex with the expression of someone who was not going to say anything but was absolutely not going to stop Lily either.

"Lily," Elizabeth said.

"I’m asking," Lily said pleasantly.

Rex said nothing, which Lily correctly interpreted as permission to continue.

"Because that’s a very nice ring," she said, looking at Evelyn’s hand with the appreciation of someone genuinely admiring the craftsmanship. "And we’ve been considerably more patient than three days."

"Considerably," Diana said, which she delivered at the same mild volume she used for everything, but the word came out with a precision that made Elizabeth close her eyes briefly.

Elliot had gone quiet.

The quiet was not the comfortable kind Elliot usually occupied; it was a more subdued silence, one in which a person processes new information and reevaluates everything they already knew to see how it aligns.

He glanced at Lily, then at Diana, and finally at Rex, who stood calmly between them, exhibiting the unhurried demeanor of a man who had no intention of intervening in the ongoing conversation.

"Diana," Elliot said.

"Yes," Diana said.

"Are you two—" He stopped. Looked at Lily. "Both of you?"

"Yes," Lily said, with a brightness that suggested she had been excited for this conversation for longer than the last five minutes.

Elliot looked at Rex. Rex looked back at him with the expression of someone who was not going to explain something that Elliot had just figured out correctly on his own.

"Huh," Elliot said. "So it is true... but I can’t believe two of them."

He paused for a moment, processing the information. Then he turned his gaze back to Diana, who met his eyes with the steady patience of someone accustomed to these conversations, allowing him to absorb everything at his own pace.

"And you’re okay," Elliot said to her. It wasn’t a challenge; he was simply verifying.

"More than okay," Diana said.

He glanced at Lily, whose expression provided all the answers he needed, so she didn’t feel the need to ask anything. Turning back to Rex, he appeared to be recalibrating several thoughts simultaneously, displaying little visible distress about the process.

"Well," he said, finally, "the handshake still stands, and of course, I respect that since the harem thing is okay here."

"Good to hear you approve them," Rex said.

Elliot glanced between the three of them once more, shaking his head as someone does when faced with a situation that has turned out to be larger than expected but without feeling the need to change his stance. He then focused on the middle distance, embodying the demeanor of a man opting to tackle things one step at a time.

Evelyn had not said anything.

Rex had been aware of this since Lily opened her mouth. Evelyn’s silence had a different quality from Elliot’s, less processing and more the absolute stillness of someone who has been surprised in a way they did not see coming and is cautiously not showing it.

She was looking at Diana and Lily as if she were re-evaluating every interaction she had with them over the past several weeks in light of a new fact she had just learned. Then she looked at Rex, and this time the calculation behind her eyes was working harder than it usually did.

She recovered quickly, as she always did. "That explains the closeness between you three," she stated evenly, though only someone paying close attention would notice the slight crack in her composure.

"They’re the ones who confessed first," Rex said.

"I’m sure it was," Evelyn said.

Lily, either oblivious to the underlying tension or choosing to ignore it for the moment, remarked, "So you see why the ring question makes sense."

"I understand why you asked it," Evelyn said, but her response did not provide any clarity.

"Come on now," Elizabeth said in a tone that indicated she had reached the end of something and was ready to close it.

"We are going to be late." She glanced at Rex, Diana, and Lily, her expression suggesting she was filing away a note to revisit privately later.

Then, she turned her gaze toward the Academy gate and began walking.

"We’ll see you later, Elliot and Evelyn."

Both of them nodded and waved.

"Congratulations, Rex!" Elliot raised his thumbs up.

Rex noticed and then he just nodded.

"Thanks."

"Your fiancé is next, though! Hahaha!"