"!!!"
Nathan stared at her with eyes wide open.
"Eh... This is..." Evelyn wiped her tears. She had never cried, even when she found out about her existence as a tool. Yet, tears refused to stop this time.
Her heart instinctively recognized it. It had been hard for her the whole time. In the past, Bella cried a lot and even smoked and drank a lot to cope with the pain. Even Melissa destroyed her own body just to forget that banquet.
Evelyn, on the other hand, remained firm. She might be shaken by that fact, but she didnât cry or show any weakness in front of Bella.
Instead, the first thing she did was bring Bella out of that cursed relationship and break away from their families.
It had been hard, but she still persisted. She didnât show any weakness to ensure Bella could rely on her.
But this was the first time in her life where someone who could be a pillar in her life appeared. She had always been the pillar, that she forgot she was a human too. There was a time she wanted to lean on another pillar, but she couldnât do it.
Nathan was different from the others. While he acted as a pillar at a time like this, he never stopped relying on people.
When she saw that weakness from time to time, it made Nathan more humane. The closeness between them grew during that period.
Finally, she learned what it meant to rely on each other. When she needed him the most, he would stand as the strongest pillar. When he needed her the most, she, too, should become his strongest pillar.
Instead of wiping those tears, she just hugged Nathan on impulse.
"Eh?" Nathan widened his eyes in surprise.
"Thank you, Nathan..." Though Nathan couldnât see her smile, he could hear her relieved voice.
Nathan closed his eyes. Evelynâs time might have stopped after that banquet. But this time, her clock finally started again.
"Youâre welcome." Nathan just remained still for two minutes until Evelyn could release all the emotions she had once buried.
Once she regained her composure, Nathan opened his mouth. "You should wipe your tears. We need to get out. Iâm afraid Bella is making a fuss right now."
"Ah!" Evelyn forgot about it. They had been here for almost thirty minutes, so others might be worried about them.
After wiping her tears, Evelyn took several deep breaths until her voice wasnât shaking anymore. "All right. Iâm good to go."
Nathan extended his hand. "Letâs go then."
Evelynâs face became firm again as she walked to the exit and opened the door, finding Bella and Sera outside.
Bellaâs face was pale as if she had prepared for the worst. Once Evelyn was out, her face gradually regained its color. She threw herself at Evelyn. "Evelyn..."
Evelyn patted her back while assuring her, "Donât worry. Iâm fine thanks to Nathan. Donât cry anymore."
"Iâm not crying! Youâre the one crying! Your face is uglier than mine!" Bella shouted back.
Evelyn was bewildered. She hadnât seen her face in the mirror, so she didnât know how red her eyes were.
Nathan chuckled while adding, "Hehehe. Do you know that she cried when trying to say her goodbyes? However, that tearful goodbye ended up becoming an embarrassment when she recovered. You should see her face, Bella."
"What?" Evelyn glared at Nathan, wondering why he spouted such bullshit.
But Bellaâs cry was replaced by laughter. Feeling relieved, she said with a smile on her face. "Really? Tell me about it in detail later."
"You..." Evelynâs body shook, but she didnât deny it since her best friend was fine thanks to it. She only squinted her eyes as if telling Nathan that she would get back at him later.
Nathan shrugged before turning to Sera. "By the way, how is it going for everyone? A lot of time has passed, so I donât know whatâs going on anymore."
"Yes." Sera nodded. "First of all, Sonia has killed most of the people here. Sheâs trying to confirm the body count right now. Alavenya and Noelle have knocked out Eyewood and Tuska and tied them up. Once we return, we can hand them over to the authorities right away.
"Thanks to Bellaâs familiars, Christopher has captured Viola as well. But we donât have enough people to gather the remaining evidence, so we are waiting for you.
"As for Selena, she has defeated Sandra. Sheâs currently watching the surface for any other unexpected things with Flora and the rest of your familiars.
"Revon killed his opponent and helped Neyeid to take down his. Their opponents were not so weak that they could capture them, so they died alongside their master.
"Theyâre patrolling around right now to ensure that everything is safe. Since sheâs all right now, itâs best to tell them about it," explained Sera.
"Yes. I will tell them about it." Evelyn nodded.
"By the way, Anubis..." Nathan glanced at Anubis. The latter shook his head. "Itâs impossible now. Too much time has passed, so his soul must have gone to the underworld. Itâs impossible to carry out the interrogation. Unfortunately, we wonât be able to get the confirmation for that continent and the people behind those banquets."
"Sorry, because of me..." Evelyn lowered her head. If she hadnât been careless, they would have gotten that information.
Anubis reassured her. "While we didnât get that information, there was something I got from his disciple. He mentioned our targets had one similarity. They had a tattoo of a reaper on their chest. Garam often complained to him that he couldnât get that tattoo in the past. Thatâs our current lead right now."
"I see. Itâs better than nothing. We at least know to a certain extent which continent to go to, so weâll have to investigate everything from scratch. Since theyâre strong, itâll be quite easy to find that organization." Nathan nodded.
"Yes. I will do my best to make up forâ" Evelyn paused and turned around as if she sensed something.
"Evelyn? Whatâs wrong?" Bella furrowed her eyebrows.
"A world class summoner..." Evelyn waved her hand. "You guys wait here. I will confront this person."