Meeting

Aaron blurted out instinctively, "Does this mean I'm meeting your parents?"

"Meeting my parents?" Alice froze for a moment before reacting. She glared fiercely at Aaron.

Hidden beneath the fluffy hem of her evening gown, she "accidentally" stepped on Aaron's foot, then looked around as if nothing had happened.

Aaron wisely let out a miserable cry to avoid suffering a second attack, but the faint twitching at the corner of his mouth had already betrayed everything.

Seeing him silently suffer, Alice finally revealed a sly smile. Then, with great reluctance, she answered his question: "If you mean my relatives, then I suppose so."

Everyone knew that she was Alice of House of Iris. Some even knew that her father was the Grand Duke of Iris, but no one knew who her mother was.

Or rather, her mother truly wasn't worthy of having her name remembered.

She had merely been a maid, and had died in childbirth after giving birth to Alice. Her presence had been especially faint.

Naturally, there could be no such thing as favoritism within House of Iris. The Grand Duke of Iris paid very little attention to Alice.

The number of times father and daughter had spoken privately could even be counted on one hand.

The ones who had accompanied her as she grew up were her swordsmanship instructor, Ed, and her uncle, Degas.

Considering that her father probably wouldn't be willing to meet Aaron, this meant that the person Aaron was actually going to meet was Degas, who was practically Alice's half-father.

"To be honest, this is a little sudden." Aaron scratched his head and gave a bitter laugh. He truly hadn't prepared anything.

Alice reluctantly led him around the edge of the dance floor, then said in a low voice, "If Lord Bals hadn't suddenly requested it tonight, I... I wouldn't have wanted this either."

Amid the gentle music and slightly noisy voices, her deliberately lowered voice was swallowed up, barely audible.

Although she had mentally prepared herself to marry Aaron, whenever she thought of his somewhat unreliable appearance, she always hesitated instinctively.

Well, although he seemed fairly decent in certain aspects, he completely lacked the bearing a noble should have...

With the thought that putting it off for one more day was still one more day, Alice had assumed she could delay the matter a little longer.

But she hadn't expected Lord Bals to invite her to the banquet at this very moment!

Aaron hadn't received an invitation, but she had seen it clearly. The words "Madame Albert" were written prominently on the invitation, which meant she couldn't escape.

As the president of the Iris Merchant Guild's branch, Degas naturally had reason to attend the banquet. Alice simply decided to give up resisting and dragged Aaron along, intending to settle both troublesome matters at once.

"Who are those people?"

Aaron glanced toward the edge of the ballroom and saw several figures hidden in the shadows.

What caught his attention was how excessively sturdy these people were. They even reminded him of Lord Bals. Their arms were slightly too long and thick, and looked especially awkward when matched with their height.

Looking closely, Aaron could even vaguely make out the thick fur exposed on their bodies.

These people looked like uncivilized beasts. Although they wore standard-issue armor, they still radiated a strong wildness.

"Those are Orcs," Alice said in a low voice as she followed Aaron's gaze. "It's best not to stare at them. It's very impolite."

Hmm, Orcs?

Did that mean catgirls or bunny-eared girls?

Aaron's thoughts drifted away the very next second.

"There are quite a few Orc tribes living in Badipila. Most of the Orcs aren't very friendly toward us, and only a small number are willing to cooperate with us."

Alice paused, then added, "They're wearing standard-issue armor. If I'm not mistaken, they should be Lord Bals's attendants. I heard Uncle Degas say that Lord Bals visited Badipila a long time ago and lived there for a while. He probably became friends with those Orcs then, right?"

As she spoke, Alice continued pulling Aaron along.

She had already delayed things for a while because of Aaron's formalwear. Uncle Degas might have arrived already.

Aaron let Alice drag him along, but he kept looking back from time to time, staring thoughtfully at the few Orcs.

This Lord Bals seemed even more troublesome than he had imagined.

To his surprise, Alice led him up to the second floor, where they spotted Bals again at a seat beside the railing.

"He's Uncle Degas." Alice caught sight of Bals's one-of-a-kind metal arm and quietly told Aaron from a distance before leading him over.

Aaron saw Degas's characteristic smiling face, as well as the kind smile in his eyes.

Before Aaron could figure out what to say, Degas had already risen with a hearty laugh and come forward to greet them. "Little Aili, I've been waiting ages just to get a look at him."

As he spoke, he gave Aaron an utterly ungentlemanly bear hug, taking the opportunity to whisper in Aaron's ear, "Be careful tonight."

Alice glanced left and right. Only after confirming that no one else was nearby did she relax and pout, "Uncle!"

"Hahaha, we're all family here. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Aaron. I'll be entrusting Little Aili to you from now on." As he spoke, Degas shook Aaron's hand and gave it a slight squeeze. He quickly glanced meaningfully at Bals, then turned back to Bals and said, "Lord Bals, I assume I don't need to introduce this gentleman?"

"Of course. We've known each other for a long time." Bals looked at Aaron with a smile.

Perhaps because of tonight's banquet, he was also wearing a specially tailored evening suit.

The fabric was clearly extremely elastic, perfectly outlining his explosive muscle definition.

Aaron couldn't help studying his clothes for a moment, somewhat curious about the fabric. He had the distinct feeling that if Bals made any particularly large movement, his clothes would burst off him.

Degas narrowed his eyes and discreetly looked Aaron over. With a few light chuckles, he casually pressed several spots on Aaron's clothes.

After several faint clicks, the metal supports sprang open, and the torture device finally transformed back into clothing. Aaron immediately felt as though the air had become much fresher.

"Don't fool around." Degas said this to Alice, then apologized to Aaron on her behalf. "I'm sorry, Mr. Aaron."

"Uncle!" Alice glanced at Bals.

If Bals hadn't been there, she would have dared to press the metal supports back into place on the spot.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Degas."

"In fact, Lord Aaron, I know you." Degas chuckled. "I wonder if you still remember? When you pawned your estate back then, you came to our Iris Merchant Guild."

Mm, thanks for Aislaya's tip~

And many thanks to the peanut-butter big shot for the generous support...

Good grief... Two-digit numbers of recommendation tickets in a single day. (Kneels down gently.jpg)