Chapter 56: Lilith and Aria

"Misunderstood what?" The woman looked at him sharply, making him flinch. "Have I misunderstood that Prince Aelonen has visited our country as a distinguished and honored guest? Have I misunderstood that some country bumpkin dared to attack our guest on our own territory? Or have I misunderstood that instead of helping, you’re standing back and not intervening?"

"N-no! It’s not like that! It’s—" Kelvin tried to explain, but she cut him off.

"I don’t need your stupid excuses. I’ll deal with this myself." She said before turning back towards Chris.

"Now, do you still intend to continue what you were doing?" she asked, feeling confident that the rogue would back down.

"Indeed, I do." Chris nodded without missing a beat. "Unless you want to take a beating for him, in which case I’ll happily indulge you."

The woman was stunned for a moment, as if she couldn’t believe someone dared to talk to her like that even after everything she had said.

"You seek death!" She raised her hand, and a strange purple energy began enveloping her palm before forming into a sharp claw.

She swung her arm towards Chris’s chest, intending to kill him on the spot.

Chris could sense the danger from the attack and knew he couldn’t let it hit him. For some reason, he also felt something slightly familiar about her energy, but he couldn’t figure out where he had encountered it before.

He raised his own hand, forming a claw out of his dragon scales, and instantly struck towards her attack.

*BOOM!*

Their claws collided, sending a burst of air in all directions and causing several nearby tables to fly away.

They both grabbed each other’s claws, refusing to let go.

The woman’s eyes widened slightly. She would never have expected someone to withstand her attack so easily.

Chris simply looked at her with an unreadable expression. He was surprised himself that the woman had managed to match his attack power, even though he hadn’t used all his strength.

"W-WAIT! B-Big brother, Princess Lilith, it’s all a misunderstanding!" Aelonen stood up and shouted, grabbing Chris’s arm.

"B-Big brother, let’s not escalate this any further, okay?" he said carefully.

"Big brother?" Lilith looked confused. "Do you two know each other?"

"Yes, yes!" Aelonen nodded repeatedly. "This is my big brother, Chris! What happened earlier was my fault. Please, let’s just forget about it."

Lilith felt intrigued. The elven prince was calling a human his big brother. She had never expected such a thing.

She stared at Chris for a moment before smiling. "Then, it seems it really was a misunderstanding." She slowly released his hand.

He also slowly released hers before retracting his dragon scales.

Chris smiled while looking at her before turning towards Aelonen.

"So, which one of you will be taking the beating?" he asked, making them all surprised.

"B-big brother, do you really need to beat me up? You’ve already punched me hard enough!" Aelonen took a step back while holding his swollen cheek.

"Don’t you see that my face is still covered in your spit? Of course I’m going to beat you!" Chris replied, taking a step towards Aelonen.

Aelonen trembled again. "W-wait! I’ll clean it up!" he yelled.

Turning around, he ran towards the counter and grabbed some wipes and a bottle of alcohol before rushing back towards Chris.

"Here, big brother! Let me wipe it for y— AAH!"

However, while running, he tripped over a chair that had been knocked aside during Chris and Lilith’s confrontation. He stumbled forward, losing his grip on the open bottle of alcohol.

*Splash!*

The alcohol spilled all over Chris’s face and clothes.

Silence...

Everyone was stunned into silence by the turn of events. Even Lilith didn’t know what to say.

"B-b-b..." Aelonen couldn’t even form a proper sentence as he looked at Chris, completely terrified.

"Well, now you’ve done it." Chris took a step back and raised his fist.

"Wait— AGHH!" Aelonen didn’t even get a chance to say anything else.

"AGH— B-Big Bro— AGH!"

Everyone simply stared as Chris began beating Aelonen on the ground. Even Lilith didn’t try to intervene this time.

In truth, Chris could have easily avoided the bottle of alcohol flying towards him.

As for why he didn’t, the answer was simple. He was disgusted by the spit on his face and clothes, and the alcohol would help clean it up. It also gave him another reason to beat Aelonen, so it was a win-win situation.

After beating him black and blue, Chris finally stopped and stood up. Taking a healing potion from his storage ring, he poured it into Aelonen’s mouth, as he was now almost unconscious.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!" Within seconds, Aelonen’s injuries healed completely, and he started coughing violently.

"Let that be your lesson. Be more careful in the future." Chris said with a sharp gaze.

"Y-yes, big brother! I wouldn’t dare!" Aelonen trembled.

"Good."

Chris then turned towards Lilith.

"So, you’re Princess Lilith, right?" he asked as he approached her.

"Yes." She nodded, looking at him with a strange expression.

Chris raised his hand and brought it closer to her face. Unexpectedly, she didn’t avoid it as he gently caressed her cheek.

"There’s something awfully familiar about you and your power." He looked at her strangely. "Have we met before?"

Everyone’s eyes widened. They couldn’t believe someone had dared to treat the princess, that tyrant, like that. Everyone there was deeply afraid of her.

Lilith didn’t step back or slap his hand away. She simply accepted his gesture while looking at him strangely.

"Who knows?" she replied.

Chris narrowed his eyes. He felt that she knew something, but he didn’t press her and slowly withdrew his hand.

Suddenly, he felt someone grabbing his leg.

Looking down, he never expected to see a little girl hugging his leg. Now it was his turn to be shocked.

"Aria! What are you doing!?" Lilith yelled as she grabbed the little girl and pulled her away from Chris. "You can’t just grab people like that!"

But the little girl continued watching Chris with starry eyes, trying to pull away from Lilith and rush towards him. However, Lilith wouldn’t let her.

Chris watched the scene in shock. What surprised him most wasn’t the fact that the little girl had suddenly hugged his leg. It was that he once again felt that extremely familiar sensation he had experienced with Lilith. This time, however, he could clearly understand why it felt so familiar.

The girl gave him the same feeling he experienced whenever he used his white energy, Gwenor.

He crouched down and looked at the girl more closely.

She looked very young, perhaps around five years old. Like Kelvin and Lilith, she also had purple hair and purple eyes, but hers seemed brighter. They looked more violet than purple.

The girl was extremely adorable. She looked like the prettiest child he had ever seen. However, what attracted his attention most was still the strange feeling he sensed from her.

He extended his hand towards her and used Gwenor, forming a small ball of white energy in his palm.

The girl’s eyes widened in delight as she reached out and grabbed the little ball of Gwenor. She brought it towards her small mouth and opened wide.

To Chris’s shock, the little girl swallowed it in one bite.

"Giggle."

She started giggling as she looked at him, her eyes turning into little crescents.

Lilith’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open as she stared at Aria.

Everyone around them looked equally shocked, especially Kelvin and his party.

Chris noticed their reactions and felt a little strange about them. He raised his eyes towards Lilith, who was just as shocked as everyone else, and she understood what he wanted to know.

"Aria has never spoken or made any sounds since birth. This is the first sound she’s made in her life." Lilith explained while looking at Aria with a smile.

She crouched down and hugged the little girl happily, but Aria immediately started struggling.

"What’s wrong, Aria?" she asked, releasing her from her embrace.

Aria didn’t even look at her. Now that she was free, she immediately ran towards Chris and hugged his leg again.

"What the..." Chris couldn’t understand what was so interesting about his leg.

He crouched down and picked up the little girl, and she didn’t resist at all. In fact, she seemed to want to hug him, but he didn’t let her. His clothes were already drenched.

Looking at her again, he couldn’t understand the strange feeling in his chest. He wasn’t used to experiencing such emotions and hadn’t felt them until recently.

But nowadays, he had been forced to experience them on multiple occasions.

First, it had happened with Aelia when they received the legacy. And now, it was happening with Lilith and little Aria. He could feel that all of them were extremely familiar to him, almost as if they were his own kin or family, but he couldn’t understand why.

Aria giggled again in his arms.

*BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!*

Suddenly, everyone heard a sound similar to a siren coming from outside.

"It’s time." Lilith suddenly snapped out of her daze, and a serious expression appeared on her face.

She approached Chris and extended her hands towards Aria.

"Come on, little Aria. We have to go now. I’ll leave you with your maid."

Aria shook her head firmly before completely ignoring her. Lilith didn’t know what to do.

"The time for what?" Chris asked.

Lilith looked at him with slight annoyance but still replied. "It’s time to enter the dungeon, obviously."

"Princess Lilith! Have you seen the little princess? She escaped again, and I couldn’t find her anywhere!" A maid suddenly entered the tent and ran towards Lilith.

However, when she was only a few steps away, she noticed Aria being held by an unfamiliar man and stopped in her tracks, stunned.

Chris approached her and extended his hands towards her, intending to hand over the little girl.

But little Aria held onto his arms tightly, unwilling to let go.

"Little Aria, I have to go now. I’m going to a dangerous place that isn’t meant for children. Please, be good and wait for us with your maid." Chris tried to coax her.

The little girl looked reluctant, but in the end, she nodded and slowly released her grip.

He handed her over to the maid, who finally snapped out of her daze and quickly took the little girl.

"Good girl." Chris patted Aria’s head with a smile, making her giggle again.

"Let’s go, then. Why are you still standing there?" Turning towards Aelonen and Kelvin, he urged them.

"Ehm, this... Big brother Chris... Do you maybe have a spare set of clothes with you? We need to look presentable." Kelvin said carefully while looking at Chris’s still-wet clothes.

"Hm?" Chris looked down, having momentarily forgotten about his clothes.

He raised his hand and conjured a few fireballs, which immediately began circling his body at great speed.

A moment later, he withdrew his mana, and his clothes were completely dry.

"There, is that good enough?" he asked.

Kelvin nodded. "Yes, that should be good."

"Come on, then. What are you waiting for?" Chris was eager to enter the dungeon. He finally had a chance to increase his level, and he had been looking forward to it for a long time.

They all exited the tent, followed by Lilith and her own party, who joined them as soon as they stepped outside.

By the time they arrived at the portal, at least a hundred guards were surrounding it. Not even a bird could enter without permission.

Chris looked around, noticing several hundred people gathered nearby who weren’t guards. They appeared to be the people who would be entering the dungeon.