Lucas was getting dressed as he prepared for the ceremony. 

‘Why would you need to do an awarding ceremony?’

It was not long ago that he completely finished healing up the infected people and thought he finally would be able to get some rest but he felt like his dream crumbled when he was informed there was a letter. 

The letter stating he and his family were invited to the awarding ceremony and banquet for their achievements.

He didn’t want to attend such ceremony because he saw it as bothersome and tiring. Even though he loved social activities in the past life, he didn’t like them now because such activities were really more tiring than the modern ones.

And there was one particular reason why he didn’t like such things, especially such awarding ceremonies.

‘Why do I feel like the king is planning to use us to the fullest?’

Living here for over 10 years made him realize the noblem system and culture of this world. There was no such thing as free. It had been true since his past life but it seemed that the statement proved to be more true in this era.

And he was afraid of what the king would be planning. Lucas wasn’t familiar with politics or political thinking but he was sure that since the king suddenly showed them such favour, he must have had something in his mind.

‘Whatever he is thinking, that’s not going to be so good.’

Lucas trusted his intuition as he decided that he needed to be more cautious in interacting with the king or other royal family members whenever it was. And it was never that good to get tangled with one of them so deeply as the succession war was going on as well. 

‘Why wasn’t there a single week to have a full rest….’

Lucas had thought that he would get some time to rest since it was just the very start of the novel where no trouble appeared but if he recalled clearly, the past three years were pretty hectic, since the start of the hero’s appearance.

Lucas sighed again as he remembered.

“Master Lucas, it is going to be finished. Just wait a little more.”

“Lucas, you look really nice! All the girls are going to fall for you!”

Eura and Tus, who were helping Lucas to get dressed in formal attire for the ceremony, talked with a cheering voice as they thought Lucas was getting bored from preparing. It had been around 3 hours since they started. 

Eura was the most enthusiastic one with the dressing. Not only the dress, but also the skin and hair styles needed to be prepared as well and she thought at a point that it might be overdoing for other people but not with Lucas. She needed to make their little lord shine the most in the ceremony. 

“All done!”

Eura clapped as she attached the brooch of the Evandall Family to the left side of the attire, being satisfied with her effort. 

“Do you have something that you don’t like, Master?”

Even Tus who was staying quiet most of the time joined in, with a smile on his face. It was not like Lucas didn’t realize why they had such expressions. Even Lucas was amazed with their work.

His hair, which was getting a little bit longer, was tied with a blue silk ribbon as Eura insisted so much that they should keep it a bit long this time instead of having it cut. 

And since his skin passed through so many skin caring processes, it looked too soft and smoothing. 

The attire also suited him really well and with the addition of crystal-blue eyes, Lucas noted that he should be able to become a child model if it was in his past life.

“Kid, I didn’t know that you look that good.”

Even Alexios who was staying quiet all the time complimented him so Lucas noted that Tus and Eura knew too well in how to dress him up.

“Thank you guys.”

“No problem!”

“It’s our pleasure, Master.”

“Tus, when would you start calling me Lucas? It is not like we just know each other.”

Lucas tried to make Tus call him by his name because every time Tus called him Master, Lucas felt somehow uneasy but he wasn’t able to do so till now. And this time again, Lucas just got the same rejection that he had always gotten. 

Lucas couldn’t figure out why Tus is so obsessed with such formalities. 

***

“Oh my, Lucas, why would you look so cute like that!?”

Lucas could see that his family was already waiting for him in front of the teleportation circle that would send them to the imperial palace in an instant. 

He also noticed that Edwin was trying to run to him and hug him as usual but stopped by Maria telling that it would damage how Lucas looked if Edwin hugged him like he always did and his father, as always, had a quiet expression.

All the Evandalls, even Maria who was a woman, wore formal attire of coat and trousers in black which had some golden lines at the edges of the sleeves and coat and a blue badge with family crest on the left side of the costume. It really looked like military attire since the Evandall family represented the kingdom’s military after all. 

Lucas could feel that there was a sudden weight on his shoulders and he instantly knew who it was.

“Ali… won’t you consider walking yourself for some time”

“I don’t want to, kid.”

Lucas got a reply inside his head. 

Just recently, he just figured out that no one knew the spirit’s name even though he called it numerous times in front of the others. 

They could only hear Lucas say some words but they couldn’t figure out what those words pronounced clearly because the spirit names were important for the spirits which was why only Lucas, who was Alexio’s contractor, knew and could call.

That’s why Lucas decided to call him Ali in short and introduced him as a pet cat that Lucas adored to others who were not that close with Lucas which meant, others that didn't know that Lucas had summoned a spirit, gaining complains from Alexios that he couldn’t accept such kind of introduction, stating that it hurt his dignity for which he had a higher standing than humans.

But such kind of high being was now currently enjoying roaming around the city and often crawled on Lucas’s shoulders if they were going somewhere, claiming that he was old and didn’t have energy to walk. 

Lucas really doubted that. 

And he didn’t know if the spirit had forgotten his complaints that he made recently.

But it was not that much of a distress and in addition that he loved cats, Lucas had no problem with that even though Alexios had some tension with his family when he did that but the spirit loved to make the glorious look at that time.

Even now it was the same which gave Lucas a headache to make the atmosphere to be lightened. 

“Let’s go then.”

‘You are the savior, father.’

Lucas hurriedly stood beside Cassius on the magic circle, with his brother and sister following him.

The magic circle glowed up as the mage chanted.

“You look nice.”

Lucas could hear some words from the man standing beside him and when he looked up, he saw that Cassius was looking at him as well and for a moment, the sharp and fierce look from the duke's eyes disappeared for a moment until they went back to what they usually looked like.

Lucas was complemented all day but this made him more happier to hear his father's compliments directed to him which was really rare to get so.

Before he could reply, the light emerged and the scenery changed.

They were already at the teleportation point within the imperial palace.

“Welcome, Duke Evandall, from the imperial palace.” 

Lucas could hear an unfamiliar voice and when he looked up, he could see that there was a person with many servants behind him.

 And with that many servants behind him, the voice which didn’t sound to be that friendly even though he welcomed them, the grin looked on his face which seemed that he had a higher standing than the people here and it addition to the similar to appearance to Prince Eldric, Lucas knew who that person was at once.

“Thank you for your words, Your Highness.”

The duke gave a slight bow to the prince as a formality and so did his brother and sister so Lucas also had to follow their actions since he had no choice. 

But Lucas’s mind was not that pleasant.

‘Hey kid? Did you have some kind of grudge on him?’

Alexios, who was on Lucas’s shoulders asked in Lucas’s mind, noticing the atmosphere around Lucas. The duke and the others might not have noticed because they were standing slightly in front of him but Alexios saw.

Lucas’s eyes were as sharp as ever as if he didn’t have a slight trust or friendliness in the person who just greeted him.

‘Yea, sort of.’

Lucas raised up his cautiousness, realizing that Prince Eldric was not here which meant that that person somehow got to interact with them alone, which the reason could possibly be to try to get alliance with them.

Lucas was not that glad.

He was not really glad to meet the middle-class villain boss who messed up the half of the story with the actions he took. 

But it seemed that Prince Albert didn’t notice the hostility of Lucas. 

He gazed at Lucas with a smile, thinking that the kids would be the easiest to manipulate for him.

---

A/N: Thank you so much for reading!! Trying to move on writing to another chap as a Christmas Present! Hope I finish it tonight though XD XD XD