Chapter 349: Evelyn The Stalker [Bonus - ]
Silas stared down at her.
He could feel the genuine vibrating tension radiating from her grip on his sleeve.
’What am I getting myself into?’
His instincts told him that wasting time on a personal detour while carrying seventy-five million credits in digital assets was a terrible decision.
He wanted Vespera’s identity solidified in the World Council databases before any auditors started sniffing around the Umbral Basin.
But he also remembered the crushing heartbreak in her voice when she had whispered that boy’s name.
Silas let out a long, deeply exhausted sigh, running his free hand through his messy dark hair.
"Fine," Silas agreed, his broad shoulders dropping in quiet surrender. "But before we do this, I need verbal confirmation. Is that guy actually your younger brother?"
"Yes," Evelyn confirmed quietly, her gaze darting frantically through the crowd to keep the young couple in sight. "That is Matt."
Silas nodded, slipping his hands into his deep coat pockets as he went along with it.
Honestly, beneath his stoic exterior, he was quite interested in the entire situation.
He wanted to see exactly how the dynamic between Matt and Evelyn functioned.
How did a multi-millionaire Lord who commanded a literal mechanical fortress interact with her completely normal civilian sibling?
"If we are going to tail them," Silas instructed smoothly, stepping closer to her, "we have to blend in... We can’t just lurk in the shadows wearing combat gear and metal masks. We need to act like the couple you told that mask vendor we were."
Evelyn gritted her teeth, but she knew he was right.
If they acted like creepy stalkers, the undercity enforcers or Matt himself would spot them immediately.
"Just don’t make it weird," Evelyn muttered, wrapping her arm stiffly around his waist and leaning against his side.
They tailed the couple through the dense vibrant heart of the Moon Festival.
The first stop was a brightly lit magical-rifle shooting gallery. Matt and his pink-haired girlfriend stepped up to the wooden counter.
"Step right up, folks!" the burly vendor shouted, waving a crude rifle in the air. "Three credits for five shots! Knock down the mechanized targets, win a prize for your lovely lady!"
Matt paid the vendor, picking up the long wooden rifle.
He aimed carefully at a moving row of mechanical steel ducks, laughing as his girlfriend cheered him on from the sidelines.
Just ten feet away, at the adjacent shooting stall, Evelyn aggressively shoved a handful of physical credits at a terrified sweating vendor and snatched a rifle off the rack.
"Oh, look, honey, a shooting game," Silas deadpanned, playing his role as the supportive boyfriend.
He leaned casually against the wooden counter, throwing an arm around Evelyn’s narrow shoulders.
Evelyn didn’t even look at her own targets.
She leaned sideways, pressing the cheek of her Kitsune mask against the thin wooden divider separating the two stalls.
She squinted her dark eyes, desperately straining to eavesdrop on Matt’s conversation.
She completely ignored the rifle in her hands, holding it limp and pointing it dangerously toward the ground.
"You’re holding it wrong, babe," Silas whispered, trying to suppress a smirk.
’WHY AM I EVEN DOING THIS?’
He reached around her with his hands guiding her arms to lift the heavy rifle.
"You have to actually shoot if we want to look natural."
"Shut up," Evelyn hissed under her breath, pressing her ear harder against the wood. "I think he’s talking about his mid-term finals."
Silas sighed. To maintain their cover, he gently squeezed her finger on the trigger.
CRACK!
The bolt flew wild, obliterating a cheap plastic prize hanging from the ceiling instead of hitting the targets.
The vendor shrieked, ducking behind the counter.
"Oops," Silas said loudly, patting Evelyn’s shoulder. "Better luck next time, sweetheart."
Matt’s girlfriend cheered as he managed to hit two targets, winning a small plush keychain.
The couple moved on, laughing brightly. Evelyn instantly dropped the smoking rifle onto the counter and dragged Silas after them, leaving the vendor trembling in the cordite-scented smoke.
Their second stop was a towering heavy-duty hammer strike machine designed to test raw physical strength.
"Show me those muscles, Matt!" the pink-haired girl giggled, giving him an encouraging shove toward the massive leather strike pad.
Matt rolled up the sleeves of his crisp Valoria College uniform.
He grabbed the oversized wooden mallet, hefting it over his shoulder. He swung it down onto the strike pad with a loud grunt of exertion.
THUD!
The glowing magical indicator shot up the vertical glass pillar, stopping just past the middle mark.
It was a perfectly respectable and average civilian score. A small bell chimed pleasantly.
His girlfriend clapped happily, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and resting her chin on his chest.
Evelyn scoffed quietly from behind the safety of a nearby roasted chestnut cart, crossing her arms in deep judgment.
"His stance was terrible," Evelyn criticized in a harsh whisper. "He completely failed to do a proper one... I tried to teach him basic martial forms so long ago, and he never practiced."
To avoid looking suspicious while lingering near the machine, Silas stepped up to the adjacent striker pad.
He paid the fee and picked up the heavy wooden mallet. It felt like a cheap toy in his hands.
"Don’t draw attention to us," Evelyn hissed at him, grabbing a paper bag of chestnuts to blend in. "Just act normal."
Silas nodded.
He deliberately suppressed his Gold Core, locking his surging mana deep inside his chest.
He loosened his grip on the handle, fully intending to give the machine a weak pathetic tap just to keep their cover intact.
He swung the mallet down with a fraction of a fraction of his true strength.
THOOOM!
The power of his physical stats transferred violently through the wood.
The heavy leather strike pad cratered deeply inward, the internal springs screaming in protest.
The glowing magical indicator didn’t just shoot up the glass pillar; it launched upward like an artillery shell, smashing directly into the metal bell at the top with enough kinetic force to physically shatter the iron casing.
Sparks rained down over the damp cobblestone.
The machine let out a dying mechanical wheeze and powered down into total darkness.
The surrounding crowd went silent.
Matt and his girlfriend paused their romantic embracing, staring at the masked teenager in the trench coat with wide and thoroughly terrified eyes.
"Wow, you are so strong, honey," Evelyn deadpanned sarcastically, her voice dripping with venomous irritation through her Kitsune mask.
Silas carefully set the cracked wooden mallet back down on the ground, shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and casually walked away as if nothing had happened.
Evelyn quickly scrambled after him, punching him hard in the bicep for completely destroying their stealth.
"You idiot!"
’It’s not my fault... it was just... weaker than I expected.’
The third game was a traditional undercity goldfish scooping stall.
Matt and the pink-haired girl knelt near a shallow glowing pool of blue water.
Matt was gently guiding her hand, showing her how to use the delicate paper net to scoop up the darting mana-infused koi fish without tearing the fragile material.
They were laughing softly, their shoulders pressed closely together in the intimate, romantic atmosphere.
"You’re doing great, babe," Matt encouraged her warmly. "Just wait for them to slow down."
Evelyn knelt at the pool directly across from them, paying the grumpy stall owner for a paper net.
But she wasn’t looking at the swimming fish. Her dark eyes were burning with a potent mixture of intense jealousy, betrayal, and quiet sorrow as she watched her brother shower a complete stranger with the gentle affection he always denied her.
Her grip on her paper scooper tightened as her physical strength leaked subconsciously into her trembling fingers.
SNAP!
Evelyn unknowingly crushed the wooden handle of the scooper into jagged, ruined splinters, obliterating the delicate net before it even touched the water.
Silas sat casually on a wooden crate next to her, resting his chin on his hand.
"You are crushing the equipment, Evelyn," Silas whispered, trying to make it look like they were having a playful couple’s argument.
He picked up a spare paper net from the counter. "You have to relax."
"I am relaxed," Evelyn hissed back with her eyes refusing to leave Matt. "I am just observing. Why is he being so nice to her? He yelled at me the last time I tried to buy him dinner."
Silas sighed.
Using the terrifying flawless hand-eye coordination of a trained Lord, his hand blurred into motion. Within three seconds, he had cleanly scooped five rare glowing mana-koi into a small plastic bag without so much as dampening the paper net.
He handed the bag of swimming fish to a nearby, completely bewildered civilian child who had been struggling to catch one all night.
"Let’s keep moving," Silas muttered, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and lifting her up from the pool.
The fourth game was a balloon-popping stall using weighted iron darts.
"Step right up! Three darts for five credits!" the vendor yelled over the music. "Pop the gold balloons for the grand prize!"
Matt stepped up to the line, throwing the heavy darts with concentrated effort.
He managed to pop enough balloons to win his girlfriend a medium-sized, incredibly fluffy stuffed bear.
The pink-haired girl hugged the bear tightly against her chest, giving Matt a quick affectionate kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you, Matty," she giggled, burying her face in the plush fur.
Evelyn watched the kiss from the shadows of the adjacent stall, her shoulders slumping heavily.
She looked miserable, her fierce untouchable Lord persona completely broken down by the mundane happy reality of her brother’s civilian life.
Silas stepped up to the counter of their stall. He paid the fee and picked up a cheap weighted iron dart.
"They look so happy," Silas said quietly, trying to gently gauge her emotional state.
Evelyn snatched a dart from his hand. "They look ridiculous."
She didn’t even aim.
She threw the dart with the explosive velocity of a military-grade railgun slug, fueled by her simmering sibling jealousy.
THWACK!
The dart didn’t just pop the balloon... it completely bypassed the target board, burying itself three inches deep into the solid concrete wall behind the vendor with a shower of dust.
The terrified stall owner shrieked, hurriedly shoving his grand prize directly into Silas’s chest just to get the masked monsters to leave his stall peacefully.
It was a massive life-sized fluffy stuffed kraken. The thick purple tentacles dragged on the floor, and the head was larger than a boulder.
Evelyn immediately snatched the giant kraken out of Silas’s hands.
She hoisted the massive plushie onto her shoulders and actively used it as a stealth barrier, hiding her entire upper body behind the fluffy purple tentacles as she continued to stalk her brother down the street.
Silas walked beside her, his hands buried in his pockets, feeling a wave of secondhand embarrassment.
An hour passed exactly like that.
It was a bizarre chaotic montage of Warlord destruction and pathetic sibling espionage.
They finally reached the tenth or eleventh game, a brightly lit stall situated near the edge of the central plaza where participants had to throw small wooden rings over the necks of glass bottles to win top-tier electronics.
Matt and his girlfriend were standing at the counter, completely focused on the game.
"I really want that new datapad model," the pink-haired girl said, pointing to the grand prize.
"I’ll get it for you," Matt promised, gripping the wooden rings.
Evelyn, blinded by her massive plushie stealth barrier and her hyper-fixation on her brother, completely misjudged the distance.
She shuffled forward in her heavy boots, bumping directly up to the wooden counter right alongside them.
They were standing side-by-side and mere inches apart.
Silas stopped a few feet back, leaning against a thick wooden pillar covered in neon lights.
He crossed his arms over his chest, letting out a long sigh.
He wasn’t going to step in and save her from this one.
With the way she had been constantly closing the distance on the duo for the past hour, a confrontation was entirely inevitable.
Evelyn stood frozen behind the stuffed kraken, gripping the counter, desperately thinking she was a literal ghost.
’He can’t possibly tell that it’s me,’ Evelyn reasoned in her head, holding her breath. ’I have the Kitsune mask on. I am wearing civilian clothes. I am perfectly blended in.’
Matt slowly lowered his wooden rings.
The clinking of the wood against the counter was the only sound he made.
He didn’t look at his girlfriend. He turned his head slowly with his dark eyes locking directly onto the giant purple plushie standing right next to him.
"How did it feel to stalk us for the past hour, Sis?" Matt asked.