Chapter 41 So Many Questions

|Name- Patricia Del Eris

Race- Human

Level- 110

Existence Level - Gold

Titles- Duchess of Eris Dukedom, Interrogator of the Intelligence Division.

Class - Apprentice Mage

Health – C-

Energy – B-

Strength – D-

Agility – C-

Durability – D+

Intelligence – B-

Condition- Sad, Emotionally unstable

Magic Tiers- None

Skills- Compulsive Questioning, Fire Magic (Medium)

Unique Skills- None. |

| Compulsive Questioning;

Type; Passive Rare skill

Effect;

The more you ask someone something, the more they feel compelled to give you the answer you want

Restrictions;

Does not work on those with Intelligence Stat two or more ranks higher than the user|

Ignoring the fact that both the Empress and the Duchess were involved in the country's intelligence division, the skill was one that was very effective in questioning.

It was also passive, this meant it was activated at all times and barely consumed any energy.

"Tch...What a troublesome skill, the restriction is as good as useless too. There aren't that many people with such high intelligence stats after all."

Laurene clicked her tongue in annoyance once again. She then felt a gaze on her and turned to stare at her father who was looking at her strangely.

"What?"

Her tone came off as quite harsh as she was still slightly annoyed but Rudeus ignored it and asked a question. The first on his long list of questions.

"About Evan's situation, is the weird skill that causes him to lose levels if he speaks about it related to that strange crest in his eyes?"

The crest symbol in Evan's eyes was something that the boy was not even trying to hide in the first place.

Knowing that they would ask about it, he had planned to use it to get the royal family to start looking into the seven heroes of a thousand years ago.

'Nothing is ever perfect, as far as humans are involved, there would be mistakes. As such, there's bound to be something about the event of a thousand years ago left somewhere, and this would make them look further into it. A human with this crest appearing would make them increase their efforts.'

Those were the words Evan told Laurene on the way back when she asked him why he had not attempted to hide his mystic eyes with magic or artifacts.

Remembering this, Laurene looked around the room before sighting the plain sheets of paper right next to the quill pen on Evan's desk. She walked up to the desk and took a sheet of paper out before writing two letters on it.

'X' and 'O'

She then gestured for her father and the Duke to come closer and dropped the quill pen on top of the 'O'. Rudeus instantly understood that she was not able to answer his question directly, so she used a roundabout method of doing it.

"It's not gonna work a second time, at least for now."

The Emperor nodded in understanding as he sunk into his sea of thoughts.

'The symbol in Evan's eyes is similar to the one in that 'Ruin'. Why does Evan have that symbol in his eyes and what relation does he have to the 'ruin'? There is also a possibility that Roger knows the reason why too. Laurene also seems to know something about it but she can't speak about it, it's just like the researchers said...'

He was sinking deeper into his sea of thoughts, his Thought Acceleration skill working at maximum efficiency as within a few seconds, he had already run through nearly a dozen possible scenarios in his head.

Suddenly, he heard a voice coming from Evan's bed, causing him to put his speculation on hold and turn in the direction of the young hero.

"Would you little critters shut up already?"

Which was followed by a very audible tongue clicking that showed the annoyance of the person who laying on the bed.

"Evan!"

Patricia ran and hugged Evan who sat up on his bed before apologizing repeatedly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

She repeated those words continuously like a broken machine.

Evan was surprised at first, but finally realized why she was apologizing tried to make things easier for her by saying he was fine, but this had the opposite effect as she burst out in tears. Now, Evan was even more lost as he did not know how to console a crying grown woman, especially one that was the mother of the body he was inhabiting.

'My mum was a strong-headed woman who didn't cry even when she nearly cut her finger off when she was cooking while angry at dad.

Bottom line is, I don't know how to deal with a crying mother.!'

The Duke sensed Evan's awkwardness and pulled her off him. After placing his hands on Evan's head and using his skill to confirm the boy was okay, he took his wife out of the room so she could rest as she was very obviously emotionally stressed.

Laurene then pushed her parents out of the room right after the Duke left, as she wanted to talk to him in private. Closing the door, she finally spoke.

"Un-conceal your status, I wanna be sure everything is fine."

"I said I'm fi-"

"Un-conceal. Your. Status."

She repeated each word, weirdly stressing them out while excluding a silent sense of pressure that made Evan reflexively comply with her.

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you are a wuss]

'I'm not okay, it's just so I can go on with the conversation. Definitely not because I'm scared of her okay?'

He tried to convince Artemisia otherwise but she just resent the same message, multiple times, and it got worse each time.

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you are a wuss]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you are a sad wuss]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you are a foolish wuss who forgot to appraise his own mother despite living with her for over seven months]

'Hey! She was just a background character, I didn't expect her to have such a skill. That was a very annoying feeling.

Also, I've noticed it but aren't you sending too many messages lately, I don't want my mind collapsing okay?'

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says your mentality becomes stronger with your level ups, as you are at a higher level, your mind would not collapse easily anymore.]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says your head would physically collapse if you do not pay attention to the girl before you.]

He looked up to see a scene of a very obviously furious Laurene about to knock him on the head. Before he could block or dodge, something strange happened.

"Krrrrrr!"

**ZZAP

A lump of yellow manifested itself and blocked her hand, it growled at Laurene in anger while emitting sparks from its body.

"What the f*ck is that?"