NOVPUB
Chapter 25 - Banquet[3]
On the other side of the mansion,
Ericka walked in gracefully, taking in the opulent surroundings of the hall, recognizing a few familiar faces, and making her way towards an acquaintance of hers.
Approaching the circle, she turned to the elegant lady adorned in a long white dress with minimal accessories, her long black hair cascading down her back and her piercing black eyes.
"Good evening, Duchess Gloria", Ericka spoke politely to a beautiful lady with long black hair, standing gracefully with her group. She looked at the elegant white dress. "You look absolutely stunning".
Duchess Gloria smiled graciously, "Oh my! Well, if it isn't Miss Ericka, good evening," thanking Ericka for the compliment before she introduced her to the rest of the group.
Gloria's eyes sparkled, glancing at Ericka's dress. "You look gorgeous, Ericka."
Ericka smiled back at her compliment, and before she could engage in conversation with the group, the duchess spoke again.
"Let's drop the formalities between us, isn't that right, Ericka?" Gloria's small smile with her eyes glaring a hole at her made her break out in sweat; laughing nervously, she nodded her head.
"Yeah, we are friends," Ericka spoke out each word slowly. The group of ladies continued to talk with each other about various cosmetics, fashion trends, and upcoming events or any rumors.
In the process of their chat, they overheard several whispers from the adjacent group discussing a rumor that has been circulating throughout the empire.
"Have you heard of Marquis Cedric?"
"Yeah, his daughter has been missing for a week."
"Must have hit hard for a guy who already lost his wife."
"There are rumors of random missing cases occurring across the empire."
"Is this another rise of some crazy groups of shits?"
Ericka looked at Gloria quickly to confirm the rumor. "Gloria, is it really another cult like last time?"
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Gloria shake her head. Before she could speak, Gloria intervened..
"The cult part— that's false. As for the kidnapping case... Gloria didn't continue, knowing they would understand what she meant.
Taking another deep breath, Ericka questioned her, "So any leads on the perpetrator or who they are targeting specifically?"
"From my sources, it seems to be a small group of people or even less; their methods are very precise and clean, leading the trail to go cold many times."
"As for their targets, it's really random; there are many missing cases across almost all ages above 8".
Ericka's eyes widened as she remembered the site of the previous cult she had massacred. What she found there left her so disgusted and horrified that she couldn't shake the images from her mind, Too many innocent lives were taken.
Gloria snapped her finger, bringing Ericka out of her daze. "Let's stop this discussion for now; the atmosphere here is more suited for light-hearted conversations."
Closing her eyes for a few moments, Ericka nodded at Gloria's words, flashing a small smile.
Crossing her hands, Gloria changed the topic instantly, "The princess wouldn't have invited you ; that means..." Her eyes widening for the first time, "Don't tell me, Little Nox is here?"
Seeing Ericka nod her head, the duchess stayed silent.
"He's fine. I have been with him for this whole year; he's slowly recovering."
"Hmm, that's good to hear. I and Ethan were worried a lot for the past year. He tried several times to contact Nox, but he seems to be ignoring everyone and closed himself off."
"Yeah, Nox did tell me he wanted to apologize for ignoring them. By now he must have met one of his friends. Well, I hope they would understand him and forgive him", Ericka's soft voice sounded, clearly feeling worried about him.
Gloria nodded, and she flashed a smile as she spoke, "You don't have to worry about my son."
"I hope so."
"By the way, Ericka, a year ago, although the news was suppressed, did it really happen?"
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"E-Ethan", Noctis stuttered, feeling the rising panic inside him. In front of him stood a boy around his age; he was also quite tall compared to others of the same age.
He had short black hair and hazel-brown eyes staring at him. He wore a dark navy blue suit with a white undershirt.
Noctis would rate his appearance at 9 out of 10; he remembered that Ethan was in the top 10 most handsome male characters in the game.
He was Ethan Tharvon, the second son of the Duke Tharvon family.
'Ah, what am I thinking now! I need to talk to him and also apologize.' He kept trying to avoid Ethan's eyes, thinking fast to come up with any words.
Hearing a sigh, Noctis flinched, and then he heard a voice speak out.
"How long are you going to plan on ignoring us, Nox?" Ethan took a seat beside him, looking ahead, watching others talking to their groups.
'I know this is entirely my fault, but since now it falls on me to solve this problem,' Noctis paused briefly before speaking, gathering his thoughts.
"I-I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"What did you say? I can't hear ", Ethan said instantly.
"I'm sorry!" Noctis raised his voice a little.
"Still can't hear you". By now Noctis's head was ticking..
Breathing in deeply, "I said I am sorry!" his raised voice filled the hallway. Immediately, everyone dropped whatever they were doing and turned in his direction, the source of the raised voice.
As he caught many stares in his direction, Noctis wished he had not spoken so loudly. His gaze fell to the ground, his face burning with embarrassment.
Ethan waved his hand dismissively at the onlookers, scanning the crowd before reassuring them that it was nothing.
Some snickered, murmured, and turned back to focus on their conversations with their circle.
Having felt the gazes disappear slowly, A sense of relief washed over Noctis, accompanied by a small laugh that caught his attention from beside him.
"Pfft, I was worried for a second you had changed a lot, but looking at you now, you are still the same," Ethan laughed for a while, his hand reached out to Noctis's head and ruffled it.
Before Noctis could ask, Ethan spoke first: "And you don't have to apologize to me; I know what happened."
"Although I feel a little sad that you ignored your friends, I will forgive you. Nox".
Noctis said quietly, "Thanks, Eth—," but was cut off again by another voice as a hand closed his eyes from behind.
Irritation prickled at Noctis from the constant interruptions, but he made a conscious effort to stay composed.
"Guess who. If you guess wrong, I will smash a fireball on your face, Nox." A sharp voice came from behind him; he felt the soft pair of hands on his face.
If the voice hadn't mentioned the word fireball, he would have surely guessed it wrong.
"U-uh, Trisha?"
"Correct, but no reward for that, since I gave you a hint", the voice pulled her hands out as she came in front of them.
Noctis turned to face her. Trisha was wearing a red dress with blue embroidery, her long blonde hair up in a simple ponytail with a hairband.
Her face looked stunning, with high cheekbones and a glowing, otherworldly radiance that seemed to emanate softly. Her ruby red eyes were like the color of burning flames.
She was Trisha Emberhart, 1st daughter of the Emberhart family.
She flashed him a wicked grin as she sat down beside him, her eyes shining with light red. Noctis couldn't help but experience some warmth of air around her, probably because of her pyro resonance being high.
Trisha elegantly crossed her legs as she turned her head to gaze at both of us, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "That was quite the loud apology, Nox. I am sure others will be here soon." Her mischievous smile persisted as she continued speaking, embodying the same playful demeanor as her character in the game.
"And also save your sorry for later, when all of them arrive here."
Noctis's face flushed a little as he stayed silent, thinking, 'I should check their status now to see if there are any differences from the game.'
'Status', He glanced at both of them. Two windows appeared in front of him.
[Status]
Name: Ethan Tharvon
Rank: E
Resonance Element: Gravos (S)
Unique Skills: Metallon-Gravity Titan(S)
[Status]
Name: Trisha Emberhart
Rank: E
Resonance Elements: Pyro(S)
Unique Skills: Solar Phoenix (S)
Just as he had expected, they were at E rank, and they had their own S rank unique skills.
'And this is only the beginning; each of them will have their opportunities in the future, although their affinity is quite high, sigh, and I don't have a single S-rank affinity.'
'i don't know if there's any way of increasing them, as this was not included in the game. I should keep an eye out', Noctis pondered over it as he took a quick glance at his rank and mana.
[Rank: E-]
[Mana: 1500/1500]
He was still quite a bit away from the E rank, since he needed 1800 mana to reach it.
The trio didn't wait for long when they noticed two people, one girl with long blue hair with sapphire-like eyes, along with another boy beside her who had a striking resemblance to the girl; he had short light blue hair and blue eyes.
Both of them walked towards them. Noctis recognized them instantly. He called out status in his mind, and two windows appeared in front of his eyes.
[Status]
Name: Lena Vaeloria
Rank: E
Resonance Elements: Aqua (S)
Unique Skills: Leviathan's Embrace (S)
[Status]
Name: Rain Vaeloria
Rank: E-
Resonance Elements: Aqua (S)
Unique Skills: Leviathan's Scale (S)
