Reincarnated Hero System

Laurene and David hugged each other with smiles, while the GWE Emperor who was only made aware of David’s visit just this morning shook his head with a sigh at this scene.

David wasn’t alone, as he had come along with Aiko Herrera, the daughter of the Margravine who was his elder sister’s guard.

For some reason, Aiko was a bit fidgety at the sight of Eliza, however, the blonde acted normally and didn’t bring up their last meeting.

With the party in full swing, Laurene couldn’t spend too much time with her fellow Heroes and their partners since she needed to keep herself free for the nobles who came to present gifts.

This was also a form of showing off for the nobles, and some even made an unofficial contest out of it, to show who had the most wealth by giving the most lavish gifts.

The competitive nature of the nobles’ gift-giving highlighted the social pressures and the display of wealth inherent in high-society events.

It was a tiring and time-consuming affair that Laurene wished she could fast forward herself out of.

Evan laughed at her as he moved over to where Jenson and Duke Cheverton were talking, greeting the men and engaging them in a conversation.

“Oh, Jenson. How are Laurene’s spatial magic lessons coming up? They’re gonna be pretty useful very soon.”

Hearing this question, Duke Cheverton narrowed his eyes at Evan as he felt déjà vu. He remembered when Evan had spoken to him about ‘Dungeons and Headless Knights’ in Year 1051 during the Empire’s founding anniversary.

That was his first interaction with Evan, and the boy had dropped those hints about the undead Dungeons in Bultom.

He found it strange then, but thanks to those words sticking at the back of his mind, his attention was on Bultom, as such he wasn’t completely caught off guard by the ‘Dullahan Attack’.

Seeing Evan ask about ‘Spatial Magic Lessons’ and saying they’d be ‘pretty useful soon’, made him figure that the Demonic Hand was gonna pull something off soon.

“Is there something else that we should prepare ourselves for?”

“Oh, no. It doesn’t concern the GWE. Though I’d borrow a few hands from here sometime next year. I’d need you to help me out, Duke.”

“No problem.”

Evan’s presence was crucial in saving the millions of citizens of his Duchy, so if lending the boy a hand to save people elsewhere was his request, then the Duke saw no issues agreeing.

“Gee, thanks.

Also, still be on alert even though the GWE is not their aim. I had a little ‘present’ waiting for the ‘First Finger’ but he never showed up so I’m worried he may be planning something.

They might have backups like they were trying to do in Cheart with the ‘Tenth’ that Rathal killed.”

Evan was talking about the ‘Backup Disasters’ the Demonic Hand prepared in case the main ones failed.

Such was what the Tenth Finger was planning when she was killed by Rathal.

The Demonic Hand had suffered major failures over the past few years, and Evan just hit them with this attack that cost them over 100k combatants.

As such, he was wary of a potential Backup disaster.

Since they didn’t happen in the game, Evan did not know about them, so part of the reason he pulled off the Synchro Attack was so he could cut down their forces to prevent a potential Backup Disaster.

Even so, he felt it was prudent to be wary.

While he was talking with Duke Cheverton, he suddenly remembered something he wanted to do.

“I wanted to import some stuff for my sculpture business.”

“Sculpture business, you say…”

“Yeah. Someone gave me an idea to use my ice and petrification skills to make sculptures and I started a business out of it.”

When they heard ‘ice and petrification’, Jenson’s eyes flashed with recognition as he asked.

“Perhaps… ‘Glacial Stoneworks’?”

“Yeah, that’s mine.”

Jenson and Duke Charles were surprised to find out that this newly rising company was actually owned by Evan behind the scenes.

“Did not reveal it at first ‘cus I wanted to see how it’d fare without my influence, but now I couldn’t be bothered to hide it anymore.”

The boy shrugged, not lowering his voice, as such, the nobles nearby all heard him clearly.

Satisfied he had created a news headline with his casual words, Evan bade the two men goodbye and moved around to find someone else.

He wanted to teleport, but since there were formations preventing that in the Castle, he had no choice but to walk.

The last time he teleported and bypassed the formations, he got a scolding from the Emperor so he behaved himself this time.

But as he took three steps forward, people saw there was no one within a 1-metre radius of his position and they quickly gathered him in swarms.

Family Heads, Young Ladies, Powerful Merchants and the like surrounded him. He was humouring them, and mid-conversation he glanced at the parents of the ladies who came to speak with him, noticing that every single one of them was watching from afar.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and they flinched, before turning around with cold sweat dripping down their backs.

‘Tsk…these fools still don’t learn.

Maybe I should ruin one or two families before they understand that Liz is the only one for me.’

He had considered doing that before, but thankfully, Laurene was nearby so no Noble Families disappeared overnight.

Suddenly, he spotted the person he was originally looking for and excused himself before heading over to him.

“Count Rami! Nice to see you!”

“Greetings, Count Bourne.”

Count Rami, a slightly plump man of average height responded to Evan’s greeting and Evan slung his hand over the man’s shoulder and led him away from the crowd as he began speaking.

“Remember that little deal I spoke to you about some weeks ago? My friends down south finally agreed and they wanted to bring some things in.

We just have a little problem in the form of ‘Import Taxes’, if you get what I mean.”

The Count nodded in affirmation and Evan carried on.

“Turns out, the amount of time they need to complete all the Cargo Train trips and bring in all the stuff I need would be around 2 Months, with 2 Trips a week. That’s a lot of Train trips, multiple border inspections and the like.

So, I was wondering if you’d be able to help us out a bit there, you know? I mean the Train routes leading to the Cities with my Warehouses cross through your territory.”

“Ah…you see, Count Bourne, those Import Regulations are pretty strict. The Capital’s always got eyes on us.”

A glint flashed in the man’s eyes, his hands rubbing together as he revealed his intentions.

“I’d need a little bit of an incentive, you see…”

Evan nodded to show his understanding, placing a hand on his chin as he appeared to ponder it.

“Is that so? An incentive, huh?”

Suddenly, Evan switched the topic of conversation to something completely unrelated to the previous talk about Imports.

“Did you hear this story? It was about a guy who had a kid out of wedlock and he brought the kid in and made his wife raise him as her own child.

The poor woman got cheated on.

What’s more, he seems to want the illegitimate kid to inherit all his assets!

It’s simply absurd. If he was a noble then people would have a field day with him.”

Hearing this little story of Evan’s, Count Rami flinched and his smile became strained, his hands trembling lightly.

“Ahaha…haha…t-too bad he’s nott a n-noble.”

“I know, right?”

Evan sighed, shaking his head with a ‘saddened’ expression, and Count Rami nodded repeatedly before speaking.

“A-About those import taxes, I-I’ll see what I can do about it…”

“Oh, really? Gee, Thanks!”

Shaking the man’s hands to seal the deal, Evan spoke with a ‘confused’ expression.

“I wonder what changed your mind.”

“…”

Count Rami’s brow twitched repeatedly as he tried to hold in his desire to shout ‘YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!!’, while Evan just patted him on the back and turned around to leave.

Evan’s smile vanished the moment he turned around, his pupils darting around to scan the hall for the second person he wanted to meet.

‘There’

He zoomed off to their location, picking up two glasses of water as he approached a glasses-wearing man with a stern visage.

“Evening, Viscount.”

“Hmm? Ah, Count Bourne. Nice to see you.”

The Viscount greeted Evan and thanked him for the water. This man, Viscount Brewer, was a top dog in the Legal World and a Chief Judge as well.

He started off from being a family lawyer and was an advocate for justice in marriage matters, with no gender discrimination involved.

“So, Viscount, I heard this little story recently.”

“A Story, you say?”

“Yes. About a certain Count who forced his wife to raise a child he had outside the marriage as her own, just so it doesn’t sully his dignity as a noble.”

“What?!”

Having already anticipated the Viscount’s reaction, Evan used magic to lower the sound that escaped a small range around them so he continued without fear of being heard by other nobles nearby.

“You see, the Countess is in a bit of a bind here, as the Count is trying to force her child out of his rightful position as heir, for the sake of the younger illegitimate child.

What’s more, the Count plays favourites a bit too much, even going as far as to hit the Countess’ children!”

“Preposterous!”

Viscount Brewer was incensed. It was one thing if he cheated on his wife, but to even hit the innocent children?

‘There’s a limit to how overboard one can go!’

“A pity, I didn’t hear anything about the other child’s actual mother.

But you see, the Countess is in a bit of a bind here as she’s decided she’s had enough. However, she may not get custody of her children if proper measures aren’t taken and the story may even get twisted against her.

She’s only the daughter of a Countryside Baron, after all.”

The Viscount nodded in affirmation, citing that it’d be troublesome for her to take away all her children with the Count if she were to divorce him.

“Right now, she’s separated from him with the kids under the guise of a ‘vacation’, but I was wondering if you’d help her out.”

“With pleasure.

However, this is a troublesome case so I’d need to spend some time gathering enough strong evidence so the Count can’t use his status to escape. I need to bring it to the attention of the Higher Ups at the Ministry too.”

“Very well.”