"You brat, when you grow up, you'll definitely be useless."
"Useless is fine. With Big Brother around, I definitely won't go hungry."
"I want to beat you up."
"If you hit me, I'll go find Mother and tell her you insulted her."
"You damned bastard. You love tattling so much—you don't have an ounce of manliness."
"I'm going to tattle. I'm going to tattle."
Long-forgotten memories slowly surfaced in Clara's mind, leaving her eyes filled with confusion.
She remembered that when they were little, her younger brother had loved slacking off. Every day, he talked about taking it easy, and before doing anything, he always thought about how to cut corners.
If their mother and eldest brother had not protected him, their father would have hung him up and beaten him long ago.
In Windsor Castle, there was probably no one better at slacking off than him.
"Clara, what's wrong?" Seeing Clara standing completely still, Morwena could not help pushing her shoulder and asking with concern.
"Nothing... nothing."
Clara came back to her senses, turned around with her back to the bard, stared at the food on the long table, and fell into a daze again.
When Morwena saw the unusually quiet Clara and wanted to ask again, Nephris stopped her.
"Come with me for a moment."
Morwena glanced at Clara, hesitated for a moment, then ultimately followed behind her captain and left the Adventurer's Tavern.
Once they reached an alley, Nephris waved a hand and set up a barrier. Then she leaned against the wall, looked at Morwena, who still wore a worried expression, and asked, "Do you know Clara's surname?"
Hearing that, Morwena seemed to understand something and tentatively asked, "Akes?"
"Yes." Nephris nodded. "Her surname is Akes. Other than you, everyone else in our party, myself included,