At the corner, under the cover of night, outside the mansion, Lucien stepped onto the marble floor, looked around with cold eyes, and spoke suddenly, seemingly to no one.
"Where are you? Come out."
Now that he knew Velmara had been following at that time, of course, he had to sort things out.
"Kid, I am right here. Who are you shouting to?"
Lucien was scanning everything around with his acute senses, only to hear a voice right beside his shoulder.
He didn’t know when, but a simple owl was tilting his head and looking at him with those big eyes right beside him.
"Were you there at that time?"
But Lucien wasn’t surprised. After all, even Dorian wasn’t able to sense Velmara when he was hiding, let alone him.
So, he directly asked the things he wanted to know.
"Yeah, of course. Malcolm thought you were in danger and sent me to protect you."
Velmara nodded his head naturally, then looked at Lucien with a surprised gaze.
"But... Kid, you are really something. When did you become so powerful?"
The owl’s big eyes were curious, wanting to know more about him.
"Then why didn’t you save me?"
Lucien wasn’t going to answer anything, though, as he instead asked again.
If he hadn’t used the Devour skill before, he was sure he would have been burned alive by the Phoenix fire.
If Velmara had saved him in time, he wouldn’t have had to risk so much. Not to mention, he still didn’t know if Sera hated him and had any plans.
All of it could have been prevented if Velmara hadn’t silently stood behind.
"Oh? I was about to, but then you surprised me."
The owl tilted his head and then explained,
"When I arrived, you were already being attacked by that girl. But just when I was about to save you, you surprised me with your abilities."
Velmara then suddenly looked at Lucien as if he realized something and immediately explained,
"Hey, don’t get mad at me. I didn’t watch your escapade with that princess. I have no interest in how you humans reproduce. I withdrew my gaze as soon as you grabbed that girl. Don’t think of me as a bad guy."
Apparently, Velmara thought Lucien was angry that someone looked at him while doing something erotic with a girl.
"That’s not what I mean. You... sigh..."
Lucien didn’t know what to say. Now that everything had happened, scolding Velmara would do nothing.
Moreover, he could see that this guy was tight-lipped and hadn’t even said anything about the incident to his grandfather. So, he knew he could trust him, at least for now.
"Even though you were surprised, you could have come to save me afterward. Now that Sera is on the loose, what happens if—"
Still, he didn’t like Velmara hiding the entire time and complained.
"Oh? I can’t touch that girl."
Velmara finally understood what Lucien was worried about and explained it lightly.
"This is the Bellenford capital; the home ground of the king. There’s no way we can do anything bad to that princess."
He then looked at Lucien and said,
"Besides, since you already did that to the princess, if I had revealed myself at that time, do you know what would’ve happened?"
Velmara explained why he stayed hidden. Although he was a monster and had no interest in what they were doing, others might not see it that way.
A princess having an affair outside was a big deal. Who knew if Sera would initiate a hunt for him after knowing he saw her getting violated by this boy?
In his opinion, that was very possible.
"Don’t worry, I didn’t sense any strong killing intent from her from beginning to end. And the Eldest Princess is known for her... brazen behavior. She doesn’t hide, especially not when she hates someone. So you don’t have to worry."
Velmara could see what Lucien was worried about and quickly said what he knew.
"She’s a poor girl who was used as an experiment by her own father, Madras. So, she has a somewhat dark personality and is known for making trouble everywhere. But she hasn’t tried to kill anyone, at least not that I know of."
The owl spoke, making Lucien slightly relax, although he knew that ’anyone’ might not have done something as outrageous as he had to Sera. But his attention was now on another thing.
"Experiment? What is this experiment about?"
Lucien suddenly remembered Sera saying that she had been burned alive at the age of five.
He could still remember her words, she said to him:
’Just because you are afraid of a little pain, you rejected a single opportunity to change your life forever?’
’Why can you do that?’
She was clearly annoyed that he could so easily reject going to the Phoenix Nest just because he was afraid of getting burned.
"I don’t know. I heard it was to make a perfect being?"
Velmara tilted his head, then suddenly looked ahead, dismissing the topic.
"Okay, don’t think too much about such things. It’s not good to snoop into things that don’t concern us."
"As for the Eldest Princess, I don’t think she’ll come after your life, nor will she tell anyone about this incident. After all, it’s not good for her either."
"In fact, if you are so worried, why don’t you directly capture that girl? She did seem to like you a little."
He suddenly said, making Lucien stunned in his place.
"What are you on about? Where do you get this from?"
Lucien was speechless.
He was here having a headache about what would happen after today’s incident, and this owl was joking with him.
"Tch... You’re so fast when it comes to doing that to her, and now you’re dense when it comes to feelings?"
Velmara comically rolled his dark pupils in his large eyes, then mumbled,
"You’re just like that, Malcolm. Be careful, or you’ll be thrown out of your house by your wife one day too."
Although his voice was low, since he was basically perched atop his shoulder, of course, Lucien heard it clearly.
Precisely because of that, Lucien was completely stunned.
’Grandpa was thrown out of his house?’
Lucien knew that when Grandpa left for the Carag continent, his father Cedric was already born.
He just didn’t have any memories of his grandmother in his mind. Now, hearing such news from Velmara, he was completely shocked.
"Cough... It seems I said something I shouldn’t."
Velmara acted as if he had slipped and suddenly changed the topic.
"Anyway, don’t worry about revenge from that girl. Besides, I’ll be in the shadows, so you don’t need to worry."
"Just... don’t use your power recklessly anymore, lest you make someone curious."
"Hey, don’t change the topic. Tell me, what happened to Grandpa?"
Lucien’s attention was clearly on his slip, and he didn’t care what else he said. He was now in the mood to gossip about Malcolm.
’I feel like Grandpa lied to me a lot.’
He thought, feeling betrayed.
Didn’t Malcolm say he left home to prove his worth? Why did it feel like that was a lie now?
"Cough... Kid, nothing happened to him. What the hell are you talking about?"
Velmara, clearly annoyed, acted oblivious and immediately spread out his wings, ready to leave.