Chapter 33

Hearing my answer, the son of Marquis Xuen stared at me without a word. Soon he smiled and spoke.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to think of me as the younger brother of a close friend?”

Would that be okay?

“Alright, Nus. Oh, maybe the definition of name calling hasn’t changed without my knowledge, right? Now people are calling each other by name or something like that.”

“Hahahaha.”

Nus Xuen laughed out loud.

“Haha, fortunately nothing has changed. It will be as Lady knows.”

In the carriage to Hyacinth, Nus asked with twinkling eyes.

“May I call you by your first name, too?”

“Sure, feel free to call me.”

“Thank you, Euel.”

It was funny to see Nus calling me by a nickname. But on the other hand, it was more comfortable this way because there weren’t many people who called me by my full name.

Yes, Tess is the only one who calls me by my full name all the time. He never calls me by my nickname.

I’ll have to ask why later. And that huge red jewel too.

Ugh, I have a lot of questions, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever get an answer.

“Perhaps Sister will come today too.”

“Then aren’t you supposed to go with Aurin, Nus?”

“Haha, Sister has a partner.”

I hadn’t heard of Aurin having a boyfriend. Of course, a partner doesn’t necessarily mean a lover, but somehow I felt betrayed by my friend.

In the meantime, the carriage arrived at the Hyacinth family’s mansion.

“Now, shall we go?”

Nus, who got off first, carefully reached out his hand to me and I placed my hand on top of it. I’m a little nervous because it’s my first time doing serious social activities.

I haven’t officially made my debut in the social world, but I’m an adult so I can attend gatherings. It is the opposite of minors obtaining their right to attend gatherings through a debut.

“This way.”

As we entered Hyacinth’s house, a servant guided us. Nus and I were a bit late, so several people had already gathered in the backyard where the tea party was being held. The party seems to be a bit large.

And it certainly seems right to come with a partner. When I heard the story from Nus, I was dubious, but seeing that everyone came in pairs, it must have been the right thing.

I looked around to say hello to the host, but there was someone who caught my eye first.

“Aurin.”

“Oh, Euel.”

Aurin was not surprised, perhaps she already knew I was coming. Rather, I was surprised to see the person next to Aurin.

“What, were you two like that?”

“What kind of relationship is that! Aren’t you talking too much, Euel?”

The man next to Aurin was Ethyl. Aurin’s eyebrows twitched at her partner’s vehement denial.

“How do you think I would feel if Lord Bonart spoke like that?”

“Oops, sorry. But you never wanted me to be your partner today, right?”

Aurin and Ethyl had a fairly informal conversation. Ethyl turned to me and made excuses.

“Listen, Euel. I was forced to come.”

“Okay.”

“Not ‘okay!’! Since you didn’t reply, I had no choice but to ask this woman how you were doing…… !”

I looked at him, asking what it meant, and Ethyl hurriedly continued his explanation.

“This woman asked me to go to the party with her in return for letting me know how you are doing. Even counted how many time I asked. How many times will I escort her! I was brought here again this time, so don’t think it’s strange, Euel. Alright?”

“Uh…… alright.”

I nodded my head bewilderedly under Ethyl’s force.

“Aren’t the two of you really close though?”

“Does it look like that?”

Aurin asked with a slight smile, so I smiled too.

“Yes. Since good-looking men and women are standing together, you get along quite well.”

“Thank you.”

Aurin was happy, but Ethyl was about to snort, showing his displeasure.

After Ethyl joined the Imperial Palace Knights, his personality became very rough. He soon calmed down his agitation and shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyway, I never thought you would come to a meeting like this, Euel. Do you remember that you hated gatherings like this more than I did?”

“I still don’t like it, but I’m too far behind in society. It was only this time that I realized that it was a meeting with partners.”

“Ah, it’s a trend. If you haven’t been here in a while, you might feel like it has changed a lot.”

Aurin replied calmly, “But since you’re Lady Hardland, it doesn’t matter.”

“Hardland is not what it used to be.”

As I replied with a smile, Aurin shook her head. Her expression looked like I didn’t know anything. I was about to ask what it was, but the host of this party approached.

“Euseniel!”

“Hanil.”

“It is an honor for you to come to the party I hosted. I should have gone to meet you when you returned, but I’m sorry I couldn’t.”

“Uh, no. It’s okay. Rather, I am honored that Hanil sent me an invitation.”

“Euel is still nice.”

Hanil, who had been good as a child, was still the same.

I guess she still has a nice, naive feeling. She greeted me and the others, and left soon after. Seeing that she kept her eyes on Nus, I wondered what was going on.

It was my first time participating in a party since I grew up, so I was a little nervous. But I was able to pass the time well. Ethyl and the Xuen siblings played a big role.

The Xuen siblings were more popular than Ethyl. People were busy currying favors from them, and I could feel how great the prestige of Marquisate Xuen was.

…… Maybe I’m the only one who was lucky to still be fine after acting like that to Lili Xuen.

“Euel.”

“Yes?”

While the men were talking, Aurin quietly dragged me along.

“I’m sorry about the youngest.”

“What are you saying? Just looking at it, it seemed like she wasn’t listening to you.”

“You already know.”

Aurin’s bitter smile showed that my prediction was correct.

Don’t forget to rate and leave a review for this series on novel updates!

For update pings, novel discussions and/or to send mistake reports, join our server~