Hearing my question, the expression of the young man opposite me instantly changed. The flippancy vanished, replaced by a vein twitching slightly on his forehead.
"Don't mention that Jing Yuan in front of me!" He growled, his attitude carrying extreme suppression.
I smirked. To completely eliminate the margin of error in this test, I decided to add another variable.
"Why didn't you invest in Father Jing's signature Light Cone? His Lightning-Lord is so strong, isn't it?"
"Shut up, #####"(censored for guidelines). He yelled, "Trash-Lord more like!"
Hearing this, the logic system in my head officially closed the identification process. The ultimate bitterness of a Jing Yuan main because Father Jing never gets buffed; at the bottom of this society, I could confirm with 99.36% certainty that the person standing in front of me was Fraud.
The young man in front of me suddenly froze, his eyes widening to their limits in shock. He stared at me from head to toe, then asked:
"How do you know this information? And the way you ask questions and talk... could you be...?"
We looked at each other, blinking a few times, then almost simultaneously blurted out:
"Fraud!"
"Zero!"
In the middle of this strange world, meeting an old friend again was truly a fairy tale I hadn't dared to imagine. All my defenses or the elegant shell I usually wore instantly vanished. Fraud's harsh attitude also disappeared in a flash; he let out a hearty laugh:
"Long time no see, Zero. You look pretty decent now, huh?"
I laughed, stepping forward to pat my old brother on the shoulder.
"Looks like you have a pretty good life too."
"Good my ass!" Fraud clicked his tongue, waving his hand. "But this place isn't very suitable for us to talk right now."
"Yeah."
I nodded, glancing around. The surrounding crowd had been standing there pointing, their curious eyes entirely focused on the two of us. Making a racket in the middle of the street out of nowhere like this truly wasn't very good.
"I know a place that's quite suitable; let me take you there." Fraud jerked his chin forward.
"Ok."
I replied, then turned to wave for Kanade. The girl had been standing there in a daze the whole time, blinking her eyes in complete bewilderment, the two feline ears on her head twitching slightly because she completely didn't understand what kind of strange language we had just spouted.
"Let's go, Kanade."
Immersed in a mess of confused thoughts, Kanade startled slightly upon hearing me call. The feline ears on her head drooped a bit, then she hurriedly took small steps, running over to nestle close beside me.
As we began moving away from the bustling street, I felt a slight tug on my side. Kanade's small hand was tightly gripping my sleeve, her fingers clenching timidly. That clinging probably stemmed from the unease of having to walk with a stranger speaking a bizarre language like Fraud. However, at this moment, I didn't care in the slightest about coaxing the little maid. My mind was completely swept into the roaring laughter and the lively conversation with my best friend after all these years of separation.
Walking along the street, Fraud suddenly glanced at the outfit I was wearing and asked:
"You're dressed pretty well, are you a noble?"
"No, I'm just a commoner, but I'm being sponsored by a sugar patroness." I shrugged in reply.
Hearing that, Fraud nodded, dropping an indifferent sound:
"Ah."
His attitude was strangely calm. Not a single trace of surprise crossed that face, as if finding this kind of reliance was something he had seen someone else do before. Fraud's gaze now shifted to Kanade. Today, she wasn't wearing her familiar maid uniform but was draped in quite a beautiful and neat outfit prepared by Aiselin for the trip. Fraud's eyes flashed with a teasing glint:
"Is this the patroness sponsoring you? Have you smashed yet?"
I grimaced, throwing my friend a speechless look before immediately shutting him up:
"Smash my ass, this is my friend; she helps me a lot with casting magic."
After my retort, both Fraud and I burst out laughing. Done with that, I looked at the paved road ahead, feeling this direction was somewhat strange, and spoke up to ask:
"So where are we going now?"
Fraud kept his steady pace, casually tossing out a light sentence:
"The Aximous family estate."
"HUH?"
I almost screamed, my legs slamming on the brakes, freezing in the middle of the street. My sudden jolt caused Kanade, who was gripping my sleeve, to awkwardly bump into my back.
Are you kidding? I had just used all sorts of diplomatic reasoning to avoid Lady Aximous Arghena at the teleportation station not long ago, and now this monkey was planning to lead me straight into the tiger's den?
"You know Count Aximous?" I asked, my eyes wide.
Fraud shrugged, scratching his head:
"You could say that, but it's all thanks to Ender."
The name that just entered my ears caused the neural system in my head to continuously crunch numbers. I stared at him, unable to believe my own deduction:
"Hey, don't tell me Ender also got isekai'd and ended up here?"
Fraud turned his head back, the corners of his mouth lifting into a meaningful smile, then unhurriedly dropped the bombshell:
"Yeah, exactly as you thought. And Ender is also being sponsored just like you."
"Ah, is that so." I nodded, but then the neural system continued to throw up a massive question mark. I wondered: "By the way, Fraud, how did you and Ender recognize each other? It wasn't because you barked out something in the middle of the street like earlier, right?"
Fraud pouted, waving his hand in reply:
"No, it's because I was selling the fanart I drew. I sat there drawing Hoshino and Hina—naturally uncolored because I have no money and am colorblind—to make a little money to get by. Right when I was at my poorest and most desperate, Ender walked by and saw my drawing of Hina. Then, after chatting a bit, we recognized each other. Ender brought me straight back to the Aximous estate, and since then, my life officially turned a new page."
The logic in my head began to string the data points together. For someone to have the authority to bring a stranger right into the estate of one of the four great families, they must definitely hold a significant position.
"And what is the relationship between Ender and Arghena?" I asked curiously.
Fraud, who was walking, suddenly stopped. He turned his head, looked straight into my eyes, and replied concisely in two distinct syllables:
"Husband and wife."
I stood paralyzed for a few seconds. Going around in circles, the person I had just used all my diplomatic skills to avoid at the teleportation station was none other than the wife of my best friend. Gently bringing a hand up to rub my face, I let out a long sigh:
"It seems Ender is always two steps ahead of us, huh."
Fraud clicked his tongue, nodding:
"Yeah, Ender is a lucky dog."
His words dragged a chunk of my past life memories flooding back along my footsteps on the paved road. In the past, back on Earth, even though we each attended a different university, us brothers still kept the habit of tossing memes, playing games together, and chatting constantly like back in high school. While the rest of us were still burying our heads in games, painstakingly writing lore, or staying up all night grinding general courses just to salvage a few grades and avoid the prospect of failing and having to pay to become a reluctant shareholder of the university, Ender had gone two steps ahead: getting a girlfriend—truly a HUST student hits different.
Thinking back on it felt bitter. Up until the moment I got isekai'd to this world, I still hadn't held a girlfriend's hand once, despite always wearing the UET student label.
About fifteen minutes of walking passed in these streams of thought; Fraud's footsteps gradually slowed and then stopped completely. Coincidentally, this was also when the tightly packed buildings of the urban area gave way to an incredibly overwhelming open space. Appearing before my eyes was a massive, magnificent architectural block with intricately carved iron gates, its scale not in the least inferior to the Shirakawa family estate.
"We're here." Fraud jerked his chin forward.
Just as Kanade and I looked up at the crest carved on the main gate, from the end of the street, the clatter of hooves and the grinding of wheels on the stone surface sounded closer and closer.
A luxurious carriage in dark tones with cold silver trim slowly approached and stopped right before the estate steps. The carriage door opened. The volume of air around us seemed to be drained as a familiar silhouette bearing platinum hair and amethyst-purple eyes stepped down.
Aximous Arghena. She had also just returned.
End of Chapter 26.