“Here, Morris, try this first. It’s one of my family’s signature dishes, Dunk red wine braised beef. The meat is tender and melts in your mouth, but the real star is the sauce. Hm? Why don’t you have a silver soup spoon? Wait, I’ll call a waiter for you.”

Watching Yieta calmly, thoughtfully, and gently use her knife and fork to cut open the bright red braised beef on his plate, then lift it to his lips with a fork, her eyes full of expectation, Morris could only feel that he had to be trapped in some nightmare.

He couldn’t embarrass Yieta, so he shut his eyes and bit down on the piece of beef.

As he chewed, the rich, sweet juices spread rapidly across his lips, teeth, and tongue.

Morris wanted to say it was unbelievably delicious, but under Auntie’s murderous glare, he couldn’t force the praise out.

He could only silently pick up a napkin and wipe away the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes.

Sif knew full well that today she was just a little white rabbit who had wandered into a banquet of dragons, so she was especially well-behaved.

First, she obediently greeted Lord Croft.

Then she bowed to Uncle and Auntie and said, what a coincidence, we meet again.

After that, she sat in the corner with a polite smile and quietly ate from her plate.

Everyone left with a good impression of this sensible, courteous, gentle, and lovely girl.

As for Morris and Lenna...

The former knew he’d been tricked into stealing the spotlight from today’s real lead, so he only dared to quietly follow Uncle’s arrangement and sit near the middle-aged man.

The problem was, sitting beside Uncle meant sitting right next to Yieta.

When Morris first heard the man make that arrangement, he’d wanted to roar on the spot: Uncle, what the hell are you thinking!? Why would you do this? Have you really betrayed me!?

Lenna, meanwhile, sat soundlessly beside Yieta.

Even while eating, she didn’t lower the hood of her cloak.

Her whole body gave off a clear keep-away-from-strangers aura.

And with what had just happened in House Lawless today, the atmosphere around Lenna turned cold to the extreme.

Auntie quietly ground her teeth, no one knew what she was thinking, and that originally radiant young man, under the nearly blinding offensive from Morris and Yieta, suddenly looked like he couldn’t even hold his head up.

He looked like the poor sap in an NTR story, forced to watch his wife act intimate with another man while he could do absolutely nothing.

Yieta wasn’t his wife, of course.

But if Morris hadn’t shown up, then this matter probably would’ve already been settled, right?!

Morris looked at this relative he hadn’t seen in who knew how many years.

Seeing the hatred constantly surfacing on that darkened face, he found himself unable to explain his own suffering.

He only wanted to tell everyone: You’ve got it all wrong. I’m the damn victim here. Me!

“Come on, my dear Morris, try this stewed fish too~ The main ingredient is grouper unique to the Boro Coast. Once the fishermen catch it, they pack it in ice and rush it overnight to Hammer County. They say it was still moving when it arrived.” Yieta seemed to suddenly realize something. “Ah, the spoon still hasn’t come yet, right?”

Morris nodded frantically like he’d just grabbed a lifeline.

Sis, please back off, back off. Can’t you see Auntie’s eyes are about to skin me alive?

Stop messing with me here.

If this keeps up, whether I can even go home tonight is one problem.

And whether an assassin will sneak into my room and kill me in the middle of the night is another.

“Then...” Yieta let out a soft laugh.

She picked up her own spoon, scooped half a spoonful of fish soup, and carefully brought it before Morris.

Meeting his stunned gaze, she said gently, “Use mine for now, okay? Don’t worry, I only took one sip. I’m not wearing lipstick today either, so you don’t have to worry about staining. Here, drink up. It’s good for your brain.”

The hell you mean, drink up!

Morris instantly felt his heart jump into his throat.

Sis, your dad is right here, your relatives are right here, my uncle and aunt are right here, and Lenna, the Holy Maiden of the Lunhai Holy Church, is right here too.

And you still dare pull this?!

You think I’m worried about lipstick stains?

I’m worried that tonight, while I’m dreaming, I’ll go straight from meeting Duke Zhou to meeting the King of Hell and discussing where I’ll reincarnate next life!

But looking at the affection in her eyes, Morris hesitated again.

What exactly was she feeling when she did all this?

Was she really treating him this way because she was in love?

If that was true, then if he rejected her outright, wouldn’t that hurt her badly?

“Hey, hurry up, it’ll get cold,” Yieta said with mock annoyance, though a few traces of laughter still slipped into her eyes. “Drink it already. Help your brain a little, so next time you won’t get tricked.”

Morris nearly slammed the table and shot to his feet.

So you really are messing with me, damn it!

Just as the standoff reached a deadlock, a voice rang out, making the self-absorbed Yieta turn her head.

“Ahem.” Auntie finally seemed unable to watch any longer.

She coughed twice, smiled, and said, “Croft, I’m sorry you had to see this today.”

“Me? No, no, no. I think it’s quite interesting.” Lord Croft laughed twice, making everyone glance over in surprise.

This lord was famous for being cold. He rarely even smiled at his own daughter.

“I truly didn’t expect my little girl to be this close with nephew Morris. Yieta, when you joined the police bureau and chose Macedon City for your promotion, was that for Morris too?”

“Yes,” Yieta said at last, setting down the spoon and looking at her father. “I wanted to see him, so I went.”

Auntie froze.

By this point, the situation had completely slipped out of their control.

This had originally been a matchmaking dinner centered around a younger member of their family and Yieta.

So why had it somehow turned into Morris becoming the main character?

But for Lord Croft, the current situation was better than he could’ve hoped.

House Lawless and the Croft family had always been on good terms.

But if you really asked whether they should become family through marriage, Lord Croft had actually been hesitant.

Yieta’s mother had passed away when she was very young.

Lord Croft had always been busy with family affairs, and he knew he hadn’t spent enough time with Yieta. He carried some guilt over that.

So even if it didn’t show on the surface, this father was, in truth, a complete daughter-doting fool.

Of course, Morris was a reincarnator, so he’d noticed from childhood that something about this father was off.

He was extremely strict with Yieta.

To others, that might’ve looked like the way a great family cultivated refinement in its daughters.

But Morris had always felt the man went way too far.

Back when they were children, he and Yieta had been very close.

Their relationship had been so good that on some nights, they’d even sleep hugging each other.

So sometimes, Morris would hear Yieta talking in her sleep.

Most of it was about missing her mother, and about how her father troubled her too much...

That said, Lord Croft still treasured his daughter deeply.

If someone asked him to trade Yieta’s life for resources, he’d rather have a knife pressed to his own forehead.

And if he absolutely had to do it, then he’d have to guarantee that Yieta’s future life would be completely happy.

If Yieta suffered even the slightest grievance, he’d grab a weapon on the spot and bring out the same ferocity he’d once used fighting his way through the Black Street Brotherhood in his youth, then go all out against that man.

So when House Lawless made this kind of request again and again, he really had been unable to refuse forever.

In the end, he’d decided to bring Yieta today and brush them off with a perfunctory rejection.

But only after seeing him with his own eyes just now did he realize that little Morris, who had left Hammer County as a child and later grown into a towering tree, had returned at a moment like this.

Young and accomplished. Handsome. An Arcane Source Wizard, one born only once among four hundred people. A great wizard, one that only one in a thousand wizards could become. The Pope of an entire faith, a status equal to the reigning emperor. Extremely wealthy too.

Even if the influence of the Church of Lunhai was steadily declining, its overall weight still surpassed the two local gentry families present here by who knew how many levels.

No, more accurately, the two sides weren’t even comparable at all.

And most importantly—

His daughter really did seem interested in Morris.

And judging from the way Morris already looked half henpecked, even if they got married later, Yieta definitely wouldn’t suffer any grievance.

The more this father thought about it, the more excited he became, the more pleased he became, and the more agreeable Morris looked to him.

For a moment, he practically wanted to drag the civil affairs bureau here on the spot, dump it over the two of them, and have them marry immediately and live happily ever after.

Morris was already a Pope himself, so they’d even save the money for a priest.

Look at that. What a perfect son-in-law.

Yieta withdrew the spoon and smiled happily at Morris.

Morris could only nod.

When Auntie saw that scene, then saw the appreciation in Lord Croft’s eyes for Morris, so full it was practically overflowing, her mind buzzed.

Her whole body went limp, and she collapsed back into her chair.

As for the cousin of Morris who had originally come for the matchmaking, he could only give Morris a deep look.

In his imagination, once he got Yieta, his life afterward would be smooth sailing.

With the resources of the Croft family and House Lawless behind him, a bright future would be right within reach.

Not to mention Yieta herself, with that seductive appearance.

Just looking at those fair, soft ankles, so delicate they made him want to hold and toy with them in his hands, was already enough to make his blood surge.

“Sigh, my daughter really has had it hard,” Lord Croft couldn’t help saying as he raised his wineglass toward Uncle. “After joining the police bureau, just to get into Macedon City, she worked so hard. During that time, every single night I could see her bent over her desk studying...”

Yieta hurriedly signaled for her father to stop talking.

Uncle, however, understood at once and happily raised his own glass, helping Lord Croft swallow the rest of that sentence.

This middle-aged man was thinking that, anyway, his nephew was already tangled up with two girls.

One more wasn’t exactly a big deal.

At that moment, Auntie finally managed to sit up straight again.

But when she tried to cut back into the conversation and say something, some kind of light suddenly reflected into her eyes and startled her.

Auntie quickly looked toward the source of the light, only to find a Rapier resting by the edge of a chair, its pig-iron hilt dim and sharp.

She couldn’t help feeling angry.

So now even you dare bully me too?

With that thought, she suddenly bent down and reached out, ready to grab the sword and fling it aside.

But a hand suddenly picked up the Rapier.

Then came three strikes without the slightest hesitation—

the back of the neck, the brow, the spine.

Precise and swift.

Like a black phantom, so fast that even the shadow of the scabbard couldn’t be seen.

The middle-aged woman cried out in pain and crashed to the floor.

A shrill scream rang out at once, instantly drawing every gaze in the room.

Morris hurried to his feet and rushed to Auntie’s side, trying to help her up.

As he helped her, he desperately explained, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Lenna has always treated that sword as more important than her life. I’m sorry. It’s my fault for not explaining things clearly to everyone.”

But taking advantage of his lack of guard, she shoved him away with force.

Caught off balance, Morris was thrown straight into the glass picture frame on the wall.

The glass shattered on impact.

Leaning against the broken shards, Morris forced himself back upright, only to feel dizzy and disoriented.

He could no longer tell heaven from earth.

His vision gradually filled with a thick, vivid red.

Blankly, he raised a hand to touch his forehead.

But the scene appearing before his eyes only grew more and more blinding.

It was the brightly colored overpass beneath the night sky from his memories.

It was the black chocolate hotpot, giving off a cloying sweetness yet somehow making people reach in with their chopsticks again and again.

It was a torrential rain that seemed as if it would never end.

It was countless grudges and hatred.

It was endless death, and cold, cruel destruction.

He couldn’t help murmuring in a low voice—

“No... no... don’t come over... I don’t want anything... please... really, don’t... don’t...”

The space around him suddenly twisted under some incomparable force.

That was Arcanum.

That was the ultimate power beyond the reach of mortals.

“No... no... please...”

He looked as if he were begging.

And yet he also looked as if he were fleeing from something ghostlike.

Lenna’s expression changed sharply the moment she saw him bleeding.

Yieta hurriedly set down her knife and fork, calling his name as she tried to run to his side.

But in the next instant, strands of dim, electric blue suddenly burst from the boy’s deep gray eyes, flickering like lightning.

The space around his body began to visibly explode apart inch by inch.

The power of the Saint that symbolized Destruction surged uncontrollably out of him.

From that point on, his consciousness sank completely into darkness.

At the end of those memory-images, only one thing remained—

a white-haired girl charging toward him without a single thought for herself.

And there was also the pain, so intense it nearly devoured a person whole.