Chapter 310 Embarrased Evelyn!
"Inisael! Mirathion elenia tira i'Anar'quessar, lema eissin!" ('~Intruder! All guards, move to the Divine Tree, and protect it at all costs!~')
The mage immediately backed away as he heard shouts and loud shots coming closer towards them and looked at the entrance of the garden. He saw the same maid that led him to the room leading a couple of soldiers.
Even the king and the other members of the hero party came to the area and saw the Mage sitting alone on the stone slab. But leading all of them was a young girl with killing intent in her eyes. She looked at him with disgust and hatred.
"Thalas'inisael!" the young girl said as soon as her eyes landed on him.
*Shaa!* *Shaa!*
Upon hearing her command, all the guards aimed their arrows at the cloaked man and shot them in his direction.
Seeing the arrays flying in his direction, the mage did not even react at all. Instead, he looked to the side and saw that the woman was no longer there.
'~"𝓦𝓱𝓸 𝓰𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓶𝓲𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝓪𝓽𝓽𝓪𝓬𝓴 𝓱𝓲𝓶?"~' Suddenly, a loud, cold yet beautiful sound interrupted them as branches of the divine tree moved to block the arrows coming at him.
*TING!*
But before the arrows could hit the tree, a sound of them hitting something metallic sounded. Everyone was stunned to see the man they were trying to kill now suddenly standing between them with one of his hands raised in the air.
He had conjured a huge barrier to block the arrows.
"Chant-less magic?" Elena muttered while covering her mouth in disbelief. "That is something only a Tier 6 Mage can do!"
"He is as strong as the royal mage?" Lucian asked with a shocked look on his face. But Lila, on the other hand, shook her head.
"He used short-range teleportation magic to appear in front of the branches, which means he is at least Tier 7." Hearing her words, the shock on Elena's face turned into regret. She looked at the masked man with a hateful look on her face.
But none of the elves were facing that. They all knelt on the ground hearing the voice, even the people from the royal family were the same.
"I am sorry for the mistake, divine lord. I did not know you knew this man!" the girl who gave the order to attack lowered her head and apologized immediately.
"I do not know him, but I wanted to talk to him. You all can leave us alone now." The voice sounded once more as the tree branches moved as if shooing them away. Seeing her actions, they all looked at each other before walking out of the area along with everyone else.
As he stood there, his eyes fixed on the elves leaving the area, now alone in the garden. The mage could still recall the weight of everyone's awe and suspicions lingering in the air even after they had left.
"Why did you do that?" he turned around and asked with a confused look on his face.
"I do not want someone to lose their life just because of my curiosity. And besides, you stopped the arrows from hitting me. Fufu~ You know that even if they hit me it would not hurt me." The mage froze when he saw the woman appearing once again in front of him with a warm smile on her face. She walked towards the same stone slab and sat on it.
*Ba-dump!*
He could feel his cheeks heating just from a single smile on her face, let alone the hearty chuckle she continued with.
"You should not do that. I do not need anyone's protection." He sighed before making his way towards the same slab. "You never told me your name, did you forget it too?"
"Fufu! I remember my name. After all, I gave it to myself. It's… Evelyn." She replied with a subtle proud look on her face. Seeing the smile, the mage felt an urge to tease the woman.
"That's just sad~" Seeing her smile disappear, he felt he had done something wrong and immediately added, "But the name is lovely."
"Hmph! Not as sad as someone forgetting their name." Hearing her scoff at him with a teasing smirk made him sigh in relief inwardly.
'At least I did not lose a friend immediately due to my social awkwardness.'
"So, do you want me to give you a name?" Evelyn suggested while looking at the same calm and serene lake.
"I would love that. After all, you gave yourself such a beautiful name." Hearing his reply, Evelyn did not say anything and watched as a leaf from the tree fell into the calm lake sending ripples through it.
Seeing the scene, the corner of her lips turned upwards as she replied, "Very well. I will look for a name for you, but it might take some time. I don't know you enough to give you a name."
"So come and meet me from time to time, so I can get to know you better." Turning to face the man, a smile graced her face as she raised her hands to once again pull the mask away from his face
, and this time she was able to do it.
As she pulled the mask away from the boy, his shoulder-length purple hair fell down, like they had been freed from their cage. His golden eyes looked deeply into the green eyes of the woman opposite to him. His face, smooth as that of a teenager, had no blemishes or scars except the dark circles under his eyes. His sharp jawline was lined perfectly with his oval-shaped face.
Evelyn's attention did not even move away from his eyes as she muttered, "You look… tired."
*Chuckle!*
Not expecting her to say that, the mage broke into a light chuckle and replied, "You look beautiful too."
"I mean the dark circles. To think someone as strong as you would have them…." Evelyn rolled her eyes at his words before she placed her hands on his eyes.
*Shaa!*
A golden light came out of her hands as it flashed for a second. As she took her hands away, there were no dark circles under his eyes anymore.
"How much sleep did you get in these 500 years?" The mage did not know if this was his mind playing tricks or not, but he could have sworn that he saw the woman's eyes glowing dangerously.
"A year?" Suddenly feeling a little nervous, he replied without thinking. He somehow felt glad that the woman was still smiling with her eyes closed. Or so he thought….
*Smack*
This time it was not a wooden branch that struck him, but it was her own hand that he chose not to evade. "You should take a rest."
"You are just a human. Do you think your body can handle the stress no matter how strong you are?" The man silently listened as she continued to berate him with a stern look on her face. The gentle and caring nature of the woman reminded him of the time he spent with all those women hundreds of years ago.
"I am sorry, I kept on blabbering like that." Realizing how long she had been speaking, an embarrassed look appeared on her face.
"No need to apologize, and thank you for caring about me." Although he did not realize it, there was a warm smile on his face. A smile that made the woman in front of him blush a little.
"So what did you come here for?" She suddenly changed the topic before getting up hastily, puzzling the mage. He felt that he said something wrong that weirded her out.
"I wanted the drop of the world tree's nectar. I wanted to experiment on it, but it does not matter any— " Before he could even finish his sentence, the woman waved her hand, breaking a small branch from the tree and collecting the glowing milky white liquid, storing it in a magic bubble.
"Whaaa—" Flabbergasted, the man did not know what to say seeing her suddenly chopping one of her branches as if it was nothing. He just wanted a drop of it, and she passed him a couple of milliliters of it.
"Are you sure?" Seeing her passing the liquid like it was no big deal, he asked with an unsure look on his face. "What if I want to use this to do something bad?"
"If you wanted to do something bad, you would not have been able to find this continent." She replied in a proud tone.
"Thank you for this." The purple-haired man bowed in gratitude.
"Hurry up and go rest, it's already very late." The woman turned around and waved her hand with an indifferent voice. Although he wanted to say something, the man left after a small nod.
Even after he left the area, she did not turn around or enter back inside the tree. Instead, she started trembling on the spot where she stood.
Soon her legs gave up, and she slumped on her knees. Blush started to creep up on her face, causing her to hold her face to lower the heat.
"Fuah! Why did I start to blabber on like an idiot and make a fool of myself…. How I wish I could hide my face in the soil…" Slumping back on the ground. "I am such an idiot, I messed up our first meeting and I have been preparing for it for such a long time."
Unknown to her, while she was rolling on the ground in embarrassment, an illusory shadow of an old man appeared a little farther away from her.
"What you just did did not help at all. Haha!" He laughed heartily. "You should have seen his face; he felt a little hurt seeing how you shooed him away."
*Smack!*
A huge branch pierced through the old man's chest. He did not even bother to dodge as he was just a mirage.
"Go away, don't you have a world to manage, rather than looking over my life." Evelyn glared at him as she stopped rolling and looked up with a dark look on her face.
"How can I not care about my friend." She smiled kindly, making the woman take the branch back. "Besides, you are just as old as me, just a difference of a couple hundred— "
*Boom!*
This time ten branches shot at the old man, all of them aimed at vital parts of a human, but again they did not have any effect on him. It did show him that he spoke something he should not have.
"Alright, I will leave you to your creeping old habits." With the same kind smile on his face, the old man disappeared from the area turning into fragments of light that drifted away in the wind.
Looking at the place he disappeared, Evelyn sighed before dragging her embarrassed self back inside the tree, disappearing from the area as well.