Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 1211 - 1211: A Chance Encounter

“I have to make preparations for ‘Sea Chronicles’,” Evan said.

The moment they heard those words, all of Evan’s allies who had watched the contingency video he recorded before being sent back in time frowned, and Laurene dropped her pen, turning toward him with narrowed eyes.

“Evan. We just barely finished dealing with the Demonic Hand Disaster, and you’re already planning for another one?”

Her exhaustion and exasperation were shared by everyone present, and hearing this, Evan blinked.

“Wait up,” he said, holding up a hand.

“Phase 5 of my plan for Aidos is ‘Sea Chronicles and Stone Festivals’. The Disaster is the ‘Stone Festival’, and that’s an issue for the Beta Continent, not Alpha. The Demonic Hand has faced far too many setbacks here, so they’re going to refocus on Beta for a while, and there’s a high chance the Beta Continent’s nations may underestimate them because of how much they’ve lost here, which would be disastrous…literally.

On the 4th, I’ll be busy meeting with Beta Continent national representatives to lay the groundwork for that, but there’s not much I can do until I get there myself.”

As Evan spoke up to this point, he realised he had digressed and shook his head lightly, as if trying to clear those thoughts.

“When I say ‘Sea Chronicles’, I’m talking about something completely unrelated to the Demonic Hand,” he continued.

“I have business in the Zeraxes Archipelago.”

With those words, he glanced at his watch and then rose from his seat.

“I should probably start booking my cruise trip there. I’ll see you guys on the 5th.”

He kissed Eliza on the cheek after saying that, then stepped into the shadow her chair cast on the ground, his body sinking into it like a stone falling into water and vanishing.

◇　◇　◇

Like Evan had said on the 2nd, the day after the memorials, he did not attend the first day of the celebrations, the 4th of November, as he had been occupied with private meetings with several of the Beta Continent’s representatives who had come to attend, starting with the Aelum Kingdom’s representatives, those from the Elven Empire and Stonehammer, both ruled by two of Aidos’ Transcendents, and other nations such as Deston, the Solaris Union, and finally Isolon, the nation who was the target for the Demonic Hand’s ‘Basilisk’s Stone Festival’ plan.

As with every other Demonic Hand Disaster, the end goal was the death of millions to feed the World Formation, and Evan was certain there would be changes to the plan to increase the number of deaths, due to the World Formation’s further instability following Deram’s death and to replenish the energy consumed in opening the Dimension Gate from which Kriemler had emerged.

“Still, I can’t believe I’ve come this far already,” Evan muttered as he stood on the balcony of one of the Palaces within the Sandfire Palace complex, overlooking the massive garden where the day’s party was being held, the stars of the night twinkling above and Aidos’ moon shining bright without a cloud in sight.

“The Eight Disasters.

The Dulhan Attack,

The Lizard Lord’s Outbreak,

The Seven Deadly Sins Massacre,

The Wolf of the End,

Fall of the Desert Country,

The Basilisk’s Stone Festival,

The Barbarian King’s uprising, and lastly, the worst of them all,

The Ancient Demonic Dragon’s Resurrection.”

He spoke the names of the Disasters aloud, the sounds leaving his mouth unobstructed and uncensored by the law of causality, as there was no one within earshot.

“Four of Eight Disasters down.”

The Seven Deadly Sins Massacre had been prevented, and four of those Seven Sins were now on his side.

The Dullahan’s Attack had ended with the deaths of the Eight Finger, Dominik Velak, and the destruction of the Dullahan King Vazgan.

The Lizard Lord’s Outbreak had occurred earlier than even he had planned, but it resulted in the deaths of the Lizard Lord Bhak, the White Dragon Faldo, and, subsequently, the end of Maude Gilatryd, the Ninth Finger of the Demonic Hand.

The Fall of the Desert Country, which should have been the greatest Disaster on the Alpha Continent, where Gozon was supposed to establish an Outpost on this planet, had concluded with the deaths of the Fifth Finger of the Demonic Hand and a Peak Rank Demon General, as well as the destruction of the Dimension Gate, and Tarse’s continued survival.

Ten Fingers of the Demonic Hand.

Ten Nodes of the World Formation.

Now, the Tenth, Ninth, Eighth, Sixth, and Fifth had been taken down.

Although the Sixth, Seith Beddoe, was still alive and incarcerated, he was effectively useless to the Demonic Hand, and his Division’s strongest forces had been wiped out by both Evan and the Tarse Defence Coalition Army.

The Tenth Finger had a tentative replacement, and preventing that replacement from fully assuming the position was one of Evan’s objectives for going to the Beta Continent.

“I’ve been on Aidos a little over 5 years, and the progress I’ve made is astounding,” Evan muttered, a proud smile on his face.

“I’m sure the me of four years ago could never have imagined this,” he added with a chuckle.

“Well, no way I could have imagined I was the reincarnation of a Deity even more powerful than Artemisia.”

Evan shook his head lightly, continuing to watch as the invited guests mingled, catching glimpses of the nobles from other nations all trying and failing to ingratiate themselves with the elusive Master of Dragondune, who had been announced as the newest of Aidos’ Transcendents the previous night, the 4th.

‘Dragon Lord’ Altrishia,

‘Elven Emperor’ Zaos,

‘Beast King’ Kolvar,

‘Smith Master’ Vulwin,

‘Strongest Human’ Rathal, and now,

‘Glass Dragon’ Rizass.

“What are they going to be now? ‘The Six’?” Evan chuckled to himself, glancing around to find Kolvar, a task that didn’t take long given the Beast King’s imposing presence.

The man was restraining himself as much as possible, but it seemed he was still struggling to fully contain his newly acquired power as an Intermediate Stage Transcendent.

“That’s true. The current Kolvar is stronger than even Altrishia.”

When Evan said that, his expression shifted slightly before he shook his head.

“Why’d Gorm name his daughter that of all things? When I think of the beast of a dragon the true Altrishia is, this one here on Aidos can’t help but seem like a lizard trying to be a dragon.”

His words were ones that Aidos’ Dragon Lord would likely take offence at, but they couldn’t have been closer to the truth.

From Arlan Maddox’s memories, Evan knew that the previous Dragon Lord, Gorm, had named his daughter after a famous dragon, and during his time as ‘Prisma’, Evan had met that dragon.

‘Altrishia Weiss, was it? Arthur always called her just Rishia.’

Gorm had likely been in awe of the power the famed dragoness possessed and had named his daughter after her.

This thought had barely crossed Evan’s mind when his senses detected a ‘fairly strong’ presence entering the party grounds, and he tossed a casual glance toward the garden entrance, wondering if it was any of the ‘Veiled Legends’ he’d been in contact with attending the party in secret.

However, when he saw the figure of the woman walking right past the guards as if she were invisible, he blinked in shock.

She wore a black dress that left her shoulders mostly bare and flowed into a simple Queen Anne neckline, a close fit that made the dress look comfortable while remaining elegant and stylish. The waist was narrow but loosely fitted, with a small cloth ribbon wrapped around and tied in the front. Her arms were fully covered by long sleeves that allowed ample movement. Below the waist, the dress fit snugly and had a sarong style, reaching the ground evenly all around.

The moment Evan saw her, the woman sensed his gaze and immediately looked up in his direction, and he knew that despite being several hundred metres away and standing on a dark balcony with no light source, she could see him as clearly as day.

Then again, the entire palace was filled with superhumans with superior visual prowess.

She waved at him with a calm smile, and Evan chuckled, wearing a wry smile as he returned the wave before glancing away to find a random servant.

He spotted one carrying a tray of drinks and used a combination of Lethe and Blink to teleport to their side, taking two glasses, and then casually walked over to the woman who had just entered, reaching her as she stepped out of the last arch of flowers and into the main garden square.

“Hello, there, my lady,” he said, offering her a glass.

The woman had about 3 inches of height on Evan’s 6 feet, with mid-back length grey hair that curled at the tips. The sides of her head were bare, and there were no ears even under her hair, which was natural, as her ears were positioned at the top of her head, peeking out from within her hair.

Grey-furred and pointed, they were, with small, jewelled earrings dangling from the tips.

Her face was pretty, with soft and simple features, calm eyes, and a gentle set to her mouth. Her rose-red lips curled slightly as she reached out to take the glass Evan offered.

“Thank you,” she said with a neutral smile.

Evan nodded once, then glanced at the arch behind her, seeing that some guests were still arriving and trailing down the walkway, before gesturing to a dimly lit corner of the massive garden.

“We would be in the way here, so mind coming over to this side?”

“Hmm? No problem,” she replied, turning and walking in the direction Evan indicated, all while glancing around at the garden’s decorations.

Evan fell into step beside her, swirling his wine in its glass once before speaking.

“I thought about it so many times. I had so many fantasies in my head, running through different scenarios of how our first meeting could possibly go.”

She turned her gaze from the garden decorations to him when she heard this, and Evan, keeping his eyes forward, continued to speak.

“Not once did I ever imagine this scenario for our first meeting.”

After saying this, Evan turned to her, raising his glass slightly as he added, “While we may already know each other, this is our first actual meeting, so introductions are in order.”

With a calm smile that betrayed nothing of his thoughts, Evan stopped and spoke, not introducing himself, but the woman he addressed.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Rosaline.”

She immediately raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering why he hadn’t said his own name.

Her eyes, a flat glowing grey with no pupils, just solid rings of neon grey irises that seemed empty, met his own mix of dull grey irises and black pupils with a glassy shine in silence for a moment.

Then, she raised her glass and clinked it against his, responding to his unorthodox introduction.

“Nice to meet you, too, Mr Evan.”