David found the two of them just as a round of fireworks over the banquet grounds came to an end.
He threaded through the crowd and spotted Benjamin at once, standing beside a flowerbed in silence with Augusta.
The two of them were standing in almost exactly the same pose.
One hand hung casually at their sides, while the other loosely held a wineglass. Their shoulders were slightly relaxed, and both wore polite, proper expressions that were clearly somewhat vacant.
If not for their exceptionally noble bearing and appearance, anyone could have told at a glance that they were both spacing out.
"Benjamin!"
David strode over, the smile on his face far more genuine than it had been while greeting guests earlier.
He wore formal attire: a dark blue robe with the Colmar Family's golden crest pinned at the collar. He looked more spirited than he had ten years ago, and more composed as well.
Benjamin turned his head and smiled when he saw him, his attitude unchanged.
Benjamin truly did not care that he might have been used.
Although he already knew he might have been dragged into the Colmar Family's power struggle, and had no interest whatsoever in such struggles, David himself was still that blond young man who had fought alongside him on the Plane Battlefield.
David had chosen this path for reasons of his own.
Benjamin did not approve of this way of handling things, but he understood why David had to do it... just as he could understand those veteran Level 6 Wizards who turned to power struggles after exhausting their talent.
After all, not everyone could continue down the path of research. Even Benjamin himself had only been able to keep going because he had been lucky.
At the very least, David was still