Ⅱ
A quiet chuckle and a few words from the fisherman instantly startled the Old Lion's youngest son.
Pistrie Hamlet stopped in his tracks and eyed the fisherman warily. A black robe covered his clothes, making it impossible to see what he wore underneath, but judging by his fair hands, clean face, and shoes that looked hand-stitched, he came from no ordinary background.
As he speculated, Pistrie's gaze returned to the fisherman's face.
Slender eyebrows and a straight nose complemented those bright black eyes, which seemed infinitely tender yet as clear as a child's, innocent and guileless. The slight upward curve of his lips only deepened that impression. His faint, closed-mouth smile drew the eye without anyone realizing it.
He was exceptionally charming.
That smile, in particular, reminded Pistrie of his father.
Composed, with everything under control.
And unquestionable!
Hiss!
Wait!
Father?!
The thought made the Old Lion's youngest son draw a sharp breath.
He had never seen anyone with a presence like his father's. A face could be copied, but that presence could not. His father, the Grand Duke of Inner Bay, the king of the Pioneer Era, and the acknowledged strongest man in South County, could command people's submission simply by standing there without a word.
However similar someone's face might be, without that presence, they would look like nothing more than a clown beside his father.
But this young man before him...
"Who are you?"
The Old Lion's youngest son asked quietly.
The young fisherman frowned and shot Pistrie a displeased look, as though blaming him for disturbing his fishing.
The Old Lion's youngest son dismissed that entirely.
A straight hook!
A foot above the water!
If he could catch a fish like that, I'd eat it right here.
As he thought this, the Old Lion's youngest