The nights in August were always pitch-black.
Before dusk, the guests attending Henry VIII’s 80th birthday banquet had already begun entering the venue.
Annan didn’t let Dmitri wait for long.
Before the guests had fully arrived, Annan and Kafni had already returned together. Kafni had even changed into a more voluminous, formal, and elegant dress.
Seeing that Kafni could dress up occasionally and tidy up her somewhat fluffy hair, Elizabeth nodded with satisfaction and smiled softly at them.
—Seeing that Annan was able to keep up with his words to return before mealtime, Dmitri also slightly relaxed his brows in satisfaction, showing a less indifferent look.
Dmitri was always like this. He didn’t like surprises, and he valued tradition and commitment. When he was a teenager, he enjoyed mediating other people’s conflicts, reasoning with others, and setting rules. He seemed pretty mature.
His working manner was also reliable.
When Dmitri was 14 years old, he was already following his father to handle government affairs. Even his younger brothers and sisters at home were under his care. Grand Duke Ivan was busy, so Dmitri had to bring up both Annan and Maria.
His constant honest and serious look, his inability to understand the jokes, as well as his brows that were always frowning and rarely relaxed. There was no doubt that Maria would always say that he looked like an old man.
But now, Dmitri’s expression had suddenly become a little different seeing Annan and Kafni huddled in the corner holding hands.
It was like having constipation.
Have you only known each other for an afternoon?
It hasn’t even been an afternoon. How did your relationship suddenly grow so intimate?
Is this appropriate?
However, it wasn’t easy that Annan would be willing to take the initiative to communicate with others with his timid personality. Although Dmitri found it inappropriate, he did not want to stop the two children from playing together.
—After all, you won’t be able to see each other once we return to Austere-Winter.
As for marriage and what not…
We’ll talk later.
But what Dmitri could never guess was why Annan and Kafni were holding hands.
At this age, girls were usually taller than boys of the same age. Therefore, Kafni was the more “dominant” part between the two.
She held Annan’s left hand with her right and put it in the side pocket of her skirt. This was undoubtedly a bold move, so much so that Kafni’s face was slightly blushing.
Both their hands were in the same pocket…
…holding the same gun.
—Indeed, Annan gave “Miss Quiet” to Kafni.
Ferdinand was the Third Prince’s follower. Therefore, there was a considerable probability that Prince Philip knew some of the attributes of Ferdinand’s powerful curse vessel.
Annan had already done his experiment. Aside from himself and other players who have the system, nobody else would know all the attributes of a particular curse vessel. They would only know the domain of the curse vessel and then rely on experience and knowledge to judge its effect.
Aside from Prophet school wizards who could use [Curse Vessel Analysis] to get the attributes of curse vessels below Gold Rank, only Silver Rank Transcendeds and above could gradually understand its relevant attributes when holding a curse vessel to sleep.
Although Prince Philip didn’t necessarily know all the [Miss Quiet] attributes, Annan still wanted to be on the safe side.
Since chatting awkwardly with Phillip alone might make him wary, then the two of them shall chat with him.
Conversations between two strangers would often fall into awkwardness and silence because of the lack of topics. But if you insert a “middleman” who knew both people at the same time, it wouldn’t necessarily be a pleasant chat, but it at least wouldn’t be so silent.
“Your Highness Annan, and… Kafni?” A somewhat surprised but happy and cheerful voice came about, “Wow, the relationship between the two of you is progressing rapidly!”
Annan widened his eyes slightly and turned his head.
The person who initiated the conversation was Prince Philip himself.
Prince Philip sat on Annan’s right and started chatting with them, “Your Highness, did you know each other before? It couldn’t be that you’ve met in a dream, right?”
Before Annan took the initiative to find Philip, he had come over himself.
But this was what Annan had expected.
Because the two of them were sitting on the edge that was two seats away from the “stage”, he deliberately lured Philip over.
Philip’s intention in coming over wasn’t to chat with them but to have a reasonable excuse to sit outside the “ritual area”.
All of these were within Annan’s expectations.
Annan also came to a realization judging from Philip’s attitude — He indeed has no ill thoughts towards me, at least he didn’t try to fool me into the ritual area…
…or is it that Dmitri was the only enemy of Austere-Winter to him?
Annan took a careful look at the prince sitting beside him.
Although Philip Noah was older than his younger brother Albert, he looked much younger than Albert and was also shorter than Albert.
He was wearing a black robe with dark gold embroidery, and like the rest of Noah’s family, his buttons had a golden lion pattern. He had his trademark black hair, red eyes, and round babyface.
He looked extraordinarily harmless, with an optimist look on his face all the time. When he sat down, he even sneaked a piece of candy into Annan’s hand.
Philip himself also picked up another piece of candy, took off the candy wrap, and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, he showed a happy and carefree smile, “Why are you not talking, Your Highness? Come and have a taste. This is a delicious toffee!”
“…Brother doesn’t let me eat other people’s food,” said Annan earnestly with a straight face.
“But I’m not any other person. I’m Philip— Philip Noah. Don’t judge by my youthful appearance. I’m actually Kafni’s uncle.” Philip laughed and said in a childlike tone.
Annan’s eyes widened as he let out a young and tender voice, “…Really?”
“If you don’t believe me, just ask Kafni!”
Philip had an ambiguous smile on his face when adults would ask children, “who’s your friend in school?” He said in a low voice, “Speaking of which, Big Brother Philip also has a lovely daughter, comparable to Kafni.”
“…Aren’t you Kafni’s uncle?” Annan blinked and inquired.
Philip laughed again. He squeezed Annan’s face and said with a smile, “I’m young, and you’re a big kid. Of course, you would want to call me big brother.”
“I would still want to call you uncle.” Annan said earnestly with a straight face, “My brother will be unhappy if I call you brother.”
“Oh? What will His Highness Dmitri do?” asked Prince Philip curiously.
Annan’s face immediately showed a terrifying look, as if he was going to tell a horror story. He threatened, “—kill you!”
“Hahahahaha,you are so cute!”
Not sure what tickled Phillip’s funny bone, he suddenly burst into laughter, “Then let him come! If he couldn’t kill me, then you shall be my younger brother!”
“What are you guys talking about that’s so pleasing?” It could be that Philip’s laugh was too loud that Albert came over.
He looked like he was a decade older than Philip. He was over 1.85 meters tall, had broad and skinny shoulders, wore thin-rimmed glasses, and had a well-groomed mustache.
Yet Philip wasn’t too polite towards him. He only laughed and called, “Hey, Albert! This child is much more interesting than you are, hahaha! How about we let him be my brother, and you can go to Austere-Winter? Your Highness Annan, have a candy. I still have a lot of candies!”
Albert frowned when he heard such frivolous words.
But before he could say anything more, several guards suddenly rushed in, looking flustered.
Elizabeth’s expression changed. Instead of scolding the soldiers, she immediately reached out and beckoned the panicked guard over.
“What happened?” She asked in a low voice.
The guard stammered, “The Geraint family… Count Geraint’s eldest son is dead!
“We found the spell casting trace of [Chilling Touch]… on the corpse!”
Elizabeth was taken aback.
She immediately turned her gaze to Old Merlin subconsciously— then she immediately shook her head, dispelling her guess.
“Keep your voice down.” She whispered, “Take me there…”
Philip noticed something and moved in closer.
“What happened, my sister?” He took out another piece of hard toffee and stuffed it into his mouth. As he chewed, he asked, “Do you need help?”
Seeing him, Elizabeth frowned slightly.
—This was the first time Annan saw a somewhat “unhappy” expression on Elizabeth’s face.
It’s Philip’s first appearance. What will happen next? How will the event unfold? Find out what happens next by getting early access to chapters with Patreon! Please do check out the community goal in our Patreon as well! Thanks for the support! Click here to access our Patreon page.
