The duchess got off the carriage accompanied by her children, the rest of the guards protecting her headed to the training ground where their bedrooms were. From another nearby carriage that possessed the symbol of Marquisate Lerant alighted Eldan Lerant who was followed by a warrior in the fifth rank and a mage in the fourth circle.
Already in the territory of the mansion they could see the destroyed bodies of the invaders.
"What happened here?" the Duchess asked herself, since the way in which the invaders she sent had died could be considered excessively cruel. "Who exactly is protecting that child?" was another question that arose in the duchess's mind and she immediately remembered the day Evans warned her not to approach Aria.
-Sister? What happened here? -Eldant asked, without hiding his astonishment at seeing the mutilated and destroyed bodies.
Before the duchess could respond, Khan Sagant opened the doors of the mansion and introduced himself in a firm but respectful tone:
-Honorable Duchess Jesica de Qualty; My name is Khan Sagant, I am the Imperial representative who will be in charge of the security of Princess Amelia Razvenia's fiancé.
The duchess, who still did not understand what was happening, felt that the representative's words were a warning, and a tacit accusation.
-Could you explain to me what happened? I have just arrived and I am witnessing an atrocious scene. -The Duchess said and finally looked at Rian to say: -Take my children to their rooms, they must be exhausted from the trip.
-As you wish. -Rian answered and then carefully took Henry and Osvald by the wrists and walked inside the mansion.
-Follow me Duchess, we can talk in the living room, I will explain to you in detail what has happened. -Khan said.
Both the duchess and her brother Eldant followed Khan towards the main hall of the mansion.
"I would have preferred to wait; but it would have been more suspicious if I walked away from the mansion, when there was already enough evidence that we had returned," the duchess thought as she sat on an elegant and comfortable leather sofa.
"Our father will not be happy with this result; we invested a lot of money to attack Polt County and we failed to secure the succession," Eldan was thinking as he sat down in a black armchair with gold embroidery.
Khan had been observing them intently, trying to evaluate them since the Duchess's rapid arrival at the duchy seemed quite suspicious to him, but since he had no evidence, and also had not been sent to investigate, he limited himself to telling what he knew based on his deductions and the testimonies of Stan and Evans.
In one room, Evans had changed his clothes, he was wearing a set of white clothes. After changing, he went to his room where Aria was awake. When she saw him, she ran towards him and asked in a worried tone:
-What happened to you, brother?
Aria looked like she was about to cry; But Evans bent down, caressed her head and in a warm voice said:
-You are the most important thing to me; I don't want to see you sad; You don't have to worry, not now, not ever; Just trust me and do what you want, I will support you, okay?
Evans hugged her and she hugged him.
-I love you, brother, don't get hurt. -Aria expressed with a broken voice.
-Aria, do you want to take a walk around the city. If you do the tasks that I will assign to you, I will take you out. -Evans quickly changed the subject.
Aria nodded and he carried her in his arm towards the back garden, and Lizet who was nearby followed them.
Evans was meditating in his room as he had done for the last four nights, circulating the mana through his body, transforming it into healing magic to recover from physical wounds, however, the process was slow, since the fatigue caused by his own energy was great.
"I underestimated the evil of that woman; now I am sure, even if I recover I will not be able to use my energy carelessly; I must take advantage of the fact that the representative is here to go to the city; when the duke returns I will do my best to reach the third circle; if I do not have the opportunity, I will wait until I reach the academy"
Evans finished meditating and went to sleep.
A few days later.
Evans came out dressed in a set of white clothes and with a trench coat over his shoulders that discreetly concealed his current condition; he was accompanied by Aria, Lizet and Stan.
It was the first time Evans took the time to tour the city, and he did not find it at all surprising, because despite being a large territory, the atmosphere was a bit gloomy, people seemed only to live in a monotonous way, to get what was necessary to survive. as they walked in a square, on a dais, a fat man dressed in a yellow shirt, brown pants, announced:
-Here we have 10 slaves; they are on offer. you can imagine, the women are a bit "used".
With the last words of the announcer, the audience that had gathered burst into laughter.
-Are they "used"? How? -Aria asked innocently.
Evans felt like killing the announcer, but restrained himself and said to Aria:
-They've been working hard. Let's go shopping for toys, shall we?
-Yes, I want to buy lots of toys. -Aria said, smiling.
-Let's go, let's not waste time, let's go get those toys.
In a toy store.
A few minutes later Aria was walking with Lizet and Stan, Evans approached and saw a small puppet that looked like a well designed harlequin. She picked it up and decided to buy it.
Since Aria was already sleeping in Lizet's arms, she was trying quite hard. Evans took the opportunity to go to the best blacksmith shop in the city. He didn't go to the most famous one, he strengthened his ears and heard the harmonious sound of metal taking shape.
"Where there is harmony, there is quality"
Evans walked until he was in front of a modest establishment. Upon entering, a dark-skinned woman attended to him.
-Is it strange to see a rich child in these parts? Are you buying things for fun? -The woman asked with a carefree attitude.
-I ask you, please, to tell the blacksmith that I am a client willing to pay the price of his work. -Evans responded respectfully.
The woman looked at him as if she were trying to decipher him, but soon she gave up, walked towards a door and exclaimed as she opened it:
-Old! A pretty strange guy is looking for you!
Evans was speechless when he heard how the woman referred to him.