"Oh, Kaoran! You are back! That's good, that's good, haha-"

Cough Cough

Vael, who noticed Illyan coming, waved at him with a hand in greeting before he was overcome by a coughing fit.

It was obvious that Vael’s condition was worse than before. Illyan had even studied the disease; he wanted to find out why Vael had failed to treat it, but only more questions piled up.

Illyan was suspicious that the disease was not mutated tuberculosis but something different.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have a way to find out.

However, at this moment, that was the least of his concerns as he stared at the woman next to him.

The perfect face in front of him, with sparkling emerald eyes and a nose covered with small freckles, appeared before him. From his understanding of medicine, freckles were actually just an imperfection of the skin, but in this case, it didn’t seem to apply, as it looked completely natural on her.

It was a petite woman with robes covering her body, but the red strands of hair couldn’t be hidden.

It was the woman who had hunted down the acolytes in the forest a few months back!

At this very moment, she was also looking at him. At first, her face was indifferent, even a little annoyed, but after scrutinizing him for a second, she widened her eyes.

‘She recognized me?’ Illyan’s heart shook. He had a disguise that made him impossible to recognize at a glance, but she had done it in a matter of seconds. Wouldn’t Ezekiel be the same, then?

‘No. Each acolyte seems to have a different set of powers. Ezekiel can only feel the life force when he consciously looks for it. On the other hand, this woman is different.’

Illyan remembered the time she had told him about his inner flaws. Since she could see that, it meant she had abilities beyond Aziro and Ezekiel in this regard.

When she realized she had stared at him for too long, she simply nodded in greeting before averting her eyes. It seemed as if she was whispering something to Vael next to her.

It was at that moment Illyan realized these two were together, and Vael seemed to be very close to her.

But how could he have such an acquaintance?

‘Wait… Is she part of the Heart Bearer Gang?’

Illyan widened his eyes. He remembered the acolyte trio saying Vael was a member of this gang back then, and he had also mentioned his granddaughter.

Now, Vael was talking with a young woman who was magically talented.

‘I saw her using blood as a catalyst for the spell too… Heart Bearers… That would fit.’

Realizing the origin of the clan’s name, he narrowed his eyes, wondering what this was about.

“Greetings, Vael. What brings you here with this lovely lady?” When Illyan came closer, he smiled slightly as he greeted them.

The young woman rolled her eyes at him at an angle where Vael could not see it.

On the other hand, Vael laughed.

“There’s no need to be so polite, is there?”

While saying that, he used his hands to support himself as he stood up from the bench in front of Illyan’s manor. The woman, seeing this, immediately reached out to help him.

“I need to introduce you. Kaoran, this is my granddaughter, Aurelia. Aurie, this is Kaoran. I’ve already mentioned both of you to each other, so you shouldn’t be surprised, hehe.”

Vael smiled as he introduced the woman called Aurelia to Illyan.

Illyan had some suspicions since Vael had talked about his granddaughter several times already, but it was still a little shocking that this woman was the ‘sweet little girl’ Vael had sung about.

He remembered how Vael had hoped he would help take care of her, but he didn’t expect this girl to be so strong.

To be honest, Illyan wasn’t sure he could beat her.

But he still took a deep breath as he reached out his hand after making a small bow.

“It is my pleasure, my lady.”

Aurelia looked at the hand in silence before sighing and shaking his hand.

“Well met, sir Kaoran.”

As they shook hands, Illyan couldn’t help but notice she wore a pair of white gloves.

Soon, their hands separated, and Illyan quickly invited them inside.

Illyan prepared hot tea before sitting down and making small talk.

It was mainly Vael talking while Illyan chimed in once in a while, while Aurelia remained mostly silent.

She even looked impatient as she sat there.

But Illyan didn’t care much. She didn’t seem hostile, so he turned his attention to Vael.

Vael also saw it was time to stop talking before looking deeply into Illyan’s eyes.

“Kaoran, do you remember when I asked you if you could take care of my granddaughter when I am no longer able to?”

Vael asked with seriousness. Meanwhile, Aurelia glared at him, her cheeks pouting slightly. However, no one noticed as she quickly masked her facial expressions.

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“Of course. I just didn’t know she would be…” Illyan glanced at Aurelia. When Vael had given him all the tools in the laboratory, he had made a small condition to help him take care of her. He had expected her to be a young girl who only had her grandfather to depend on.

Little did he know she was a full-grown young adult with power that could take on dozens of armored knights.

“Hehe, I know, I know. Our little Aurie is a beautiful young woman, but she can take care of herself. I don’t want anything too much from you. It’s just…” Vael sighed. It looked as if he were giving up on something.

“You see, since she studied under me in the arts of medicine, a lot of people have wanted to take advantage of her. Now, her darned father made some dealings with the mayor and forced her to participate in that stupid expedition.”

Vael then started to talk about the so-called father and all his misgivings about this person, who was presumably his own son.

Aurelia didn’t give any opinion, but since her face didn’t change at all, Illyan guessed she thought the same.

“Even though her father will also join, I don’t think he’ll even stop to think about her well-being. So, I want you to take her under your wing. Since you’ll be the highest-ranked physician in the expedition, nobody would dare do anything to her.”

After saying that, Vael bowed slightly.

Despite the solemn mood, Illyan couldn’t help but think it was a bit amusing.

He felt that even Aziro would suffer a bit if he dared to offend her, let alone random soldiers who couldn’t even use breathing techniques.

However, it was at that moment when Aurelia glared at him with intensity.

‘Don’t tell him.’ When she made eye contact with him, a sudden voice resounded in his mind. The voice was neither overbearing nor pleading. It was a request that you would give to an equal.

Illyan was surprised and didn’t know how to answer back, so he just winked several times at her.

That made her furrow her eyebrows before she realized he couldn’t speak to her.

But she didn’t continue talking to him as she herself felt that using telepathy was quite difficult.

Especially for someone who wasn’t willing to expend their Mind Power.

What she did was shape the Mind Power into a strand and then connect it with Illyan. After saying what she needed, the Mind Power retracted back to her head.

The efficiency was extremely high, and the distance between these two was small, so there was almost no loss of energy.

Seeing her not talking anymore, Illyan turned his attention back to Vael.

“Take care of her? I don’t know if I will have time. I have to help Korin with some work.”

After saying that, Aurelia narrowed her eyes.

Even Vael had a bad expression.

“Kaoran, for your safety, you should beware of Korin. He is a very obsessed man…” Vael whispered as if fearing someone would hear him as he told this to Illyan.

“Thank you, I will be careful.”

Seeing that Illyan didn’t say anything else, Vael could only sigh. He didn’t know if Illyan took his warning seriously or not. Sometimes, he felt that this young man was kind of unfathomable when it came to what he was thinking.

“In that case, you don’t really need to worry. I just ask you to be beside her once in a while in public and guide her a little if she makes some mistakes. She is a smart girl who learned most of the knowledge from me, but a new angle in the same specialization would immensely help her.”

After saying this, Vael waited for the answer. Illyan could only sigh.

In the end, he already accepted this the moment he took the tools back then. He still had the principle of giving back favors.

Fortunately, this looked like it would be simple, as Aurelia seemed to be able to take care of herself. However, Vael didn’t know this. Or at least, he didn’t seem to know.

Illyan didn’t know why she was hiding this fact and didn’t plan to ask either. He knew that there were some secrets that shouldn’t be asked. He had too many to count himself.

“Haah, alright. This time I will help.”

Thus, Illyan agreed with Vael and nodded to both of them.

Vael smiled broadly.

“That’s good. That’s good… I hope you can get along with each other.”

Suddenly, Vael stood up.

“I still have something to do, so I will have to excuse myself. You two young children arrange the rest yourselves.”

Vael said as he winked at Illyan and then looked at Aurelia and patted her head. She just sighed and nodded.

Illyan’s perception didn’t miss this as he wondered what this was about.

In the end, the old man who was the connection between them disappeared, and they sat there in silence.

‘This old man did this on purpose, didn’t he?’ Illyan cursed under his breath while Aurelia took a sip of the tea.

Afterward, she put the teacup down as she spoke:

“So, mister Kaoran… I didn’t expect that you and the smiling devil are the same person.”

She said with a small smile.

Illyan shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I also didn’t expect the ‘sweet girl’ that sir Vael always talked about was such a ferocious woman either.”

Aurelia froze. She didn’t know what was more embarrassing: that Vael talked about her behind her back, calling her a sweet girl, or this guy calling her a ferocious woman.

She felt her cheeks turn crimson a bit, so she tried to mask it with a snort.

“Whatever. You can ignore grandfather’s words. He is overprotective of me, just too much.”

She started to rub her head as if having a headache.

“That’s what having family is about, no?” Illyan gave her a smile.

He had already lost everything, but the embers of warmth were still in his memories.

Aurelia stopped for a moment before nodding in acknowledgment.

“I suppose so.”

Aurelia then turned silent as if thinking about what to say.

But it didn’t take long before she said what Illyan was interested in.

“You already know our origin, right?”

Illyan nodded. Seeing this, Aurelia continued.

“My grandfather himself was a strong individual back in the day. Unfortunately, he lost his foundation early in his life. He never wanted me to go on the same path. Especially since I will… Well, he simply would love it if I just went on the path of healing or at least did something that is not dangerous… But that’s impossible for me.”

Illyan listened carefully. Finding out that Vael was a really strong character back then was a big blow to him.

He would never have guessed that under normal circumstances.

Eventually, Aurelia continued talking.

“So I would appreciate it if you could keep some distance between us. You saw my ability. I can take care of myself just fine. It is nothing personal, but I just can’t trust you since you are quite a dangerous individual. I just hope you won’t betray my grandfather’s trust.”

Saying that, Aurelia showed her indomitable aura. It was not a corporeal aura like that of the aura master, but Illyan could almost feel it.

Feeling a bit awed, he nodded.

“You don’t really need to worry. I don’t care much about your Heart Bearer Gang and have nothing against sir Vael. In fact, he helped me a lot.”

What he didn’t say was that there was some thought of going inside their gang to look for techniques. The acolytes talked about the Heart Bearer Gang not as mere mortals but as a strong gang, which meant they had strong techniques to train in.

But now, he hesitated a little. If such a young woman as Aurelia was this strong, then wouldn’t he be massacred there the moment he entered?

As such, he promptly gave up on the idea.

“Fine, I will believe you.” Aurelia nodded.

She seemed to be reasonable and also didn’t ask Illyan much about his feats as a smiling devil or how he managed to disguise himself the way he did.

Illyan actually liked communicating with such an intelligent woman.

They didn’t exchange any pleasantries as they talked about the expedition and how they would travel together for a bit before she stopped and took out some kind of tool.

Illyan could immediately see the fluctuations of mana wafting out of it, so he wondered what she wanted to do.

“To be honest, if you were just a regular mortal, this would be much easier. You see, we have already noticed for some time Korin’s doings. But he has quite a backing, so neither I nor my grandfather did anything.”

Illyan widened his eyes.

‘So even Korin had some kind of backing, huh?’

“However, he wasn’t happy to find that you even fell into his trap. The moment you sign your name on the magic contract, the hidden clauses would turn you into his slave.”

‘As expected.’ Illyan had already thought of this before, so he wasn’t surprised. He also wouldn’t be surprised if all of Korin’s colleagues were the same as him.

“But since you seem to be capable, I guess you already knew.” Then she narrowed her eyes.

“However, since you still signed it and got this manor, then it means… Kaoran isn’t your name, is it?”

Illyan shrugged his shoulders again.

“I just really needed this manor.”