Reincarnated Hero System

Maude was dead.

That meant three Executives of the Demonic Hand were gone.

Evan was sure that the First Finger was definitely fuming right now.

The boy quickly began packing up all of the folders present, stuffing them into his inventory. He planned to have enough influence not to need such things to make people do his bidding, but it never hurt to have a backup.

Once he was done, he switched off all the magic projectors and collected the Memory stones from them, arranging it all in his inventory.

He also made sure to take the money as well, not questioning why Maude had boxes of gold coins lying around.

'More money for Nadarus then…'

When he was done with all this, he heaved a soft sigh and took a seat on Maude's chair after wiping off the blood on it. As for her corpse, he encased it in ice and left it not too far from him.

He then retrieved a walkie-talkie from his inventory and switched it on, and though there was interference due to him being underground, the magic signals still went through.

"Duke Kieran, do you copy?"

[I hear you.]

"The two targets have been eliminated, send in the others."

[Got it.]

Evan then dismissed the connection, and not long after sensed a massive surge of magic power coming from a corner of the base.

'Guess they just blasted the entrance open.'

While the Elite soldiers trooped in, Evan decided to entertain himself with some of the Great Eastern Empire's Noble Secrets.

He tossed a memory gem into the magic projector and it displayed the recording of how a Count had ordered for a rival to be killed off so he could acquire a contract from the Imperial Palace.

"Wow, he hired 3 Assassination squads? Must have really hated the guy."

While he was watching this, his shadow expanded and the figure of a familiar blonde-haired teenager clad in a white dress emerged, and though her expression looked calm, there was a hint of worry in her eyes.

"Evan, what happened?"

"Huh? What's up, Liz? Shouldn't you be with the others?"

"I layered multiple buffs on them and left them. Since we're only targeting the grandmasters, it'd be okay if I wasn't there.

Kayla told me something strange happened and I can see why."

Eliza gave Maude's frozen corpse a side glance, before returning her attention to Evan.

Her eyes were infused with her life essence and she could literally see Evan's life force right now.

'It's far higher than before...even if he just levelled up, it shouldn't increase this much.

Something else happened.'

Since she was with Roselia and the others, she knew exactly how many Levels Evan gained from killing Maude, and the increase in life force did not match up.

When Evan saw her eyes, he raised a brow in light surprise but he then remembered what she said about Kayla and shrugged.

"I had someone try to mess with my soul. Didn't end well for them, though.

But besides that, I got some information about another one of the Seven Heroes on the Beta Continent, and I also gained a little Soul Power-up."

Evan gave a quick summary of events while pulling Eliza closer to him and sitting her on his lap. The boy then wrapped his arms around her and rested his face on her chest with his eyes closed.

It had been stated multiple times that Eliza's aura had a calming effect on those around her, and Evan felt like it worked more on him than it did on others.

'Or maybe she's just controlling it to work better on me alone? I did notice she had been doing that for a while now.'

He thought about Eliza's strange reaction on the day they first went to the Tower of Trials, as well as the day they went to the Regal Void Expanse.

'Menace even in death, huh? Guess, she and Artemisia really had something going.'

Evan's mind wandered to his decision to remain silent even though he knew that Artemisia and Eliza must have met concerning him when suddenly, the girl started pinching his cheeks.

"Whash shis ish?"

"Are you okay?"

"Okay? I'm perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"

Eliza looked at Evan with a complicated gaze before sighing and replying.

"I dunno, you seem off."

Since he said he got a Soul power-up, she understood the sudden increase in life force. Changes to the soul were often reflected in the physical body; like Agnes coughing out blood and Maude bleeding from her eyes.

The increase in his soul strength, caused his physical body's life force to increase in turn. His Health Stat had increased by 50 stat levels as a result of this, and now it was at 'S+ Level 94'.

"Off? Maybe I do feel off."

Evan shrugged as he replied, before contacting Roselia and Nadarus.

'I'd leave the rest to you. I'm going to sit the remaining battles out.

Nadarus, don't forget to come to my location to collect your money…I'm looking at seven boxes of gold coins here.'

[Don't move from that spot!]

Nadarus' reply made Evan chuckle a bit, and he silently decided not to inform the High Demon that he had already taken his own seven out of the lot.

Just as he closed the connection, he looked up at Eliza who was still looking at him worriedly and felt a strong desire suddenly build up in him.

'Tsk…get the fuck.'

With that single line of thought, he shut off the negative influence of the contract with Nadarus, while also doing the same with Roselia's just for good measure.

Evan then changed the projection's memory stone to the next, drawing Eliza's attention to what was being played.

He did have to turn up the volume due to the constant explosions in the background and loud Barbarian war cries.

'Well, Kieran and Beluar are here so no one is gonna escape and they're all gonna die.'

He could sense Roselia and Nadarus in the directions where he detected demonic energy pulses, and wherever the powerful mass of icy energy that was Kieran moved, the presences he sensed in those areas reduced.

So many things were happening in the background, but Evan and Eliza zoned all of that out and remained in their own little world as they talked.

The subject of the conversation wasn't about the video playing but surprisingly about their future together.

Clearly, this wasn't the right time and place but the two couldn't care less; any random Demonic Hand member who came close to their location was turned to ashes by Mesarthim while their life forces were drained by Eliza's prison (LEDP).

It all started from a seemingly random question from Eliza, about 'how far' he was willing to take their relationship.

His reply, was something she kind of expected.

"Up to the very limit of whatever's on that 'Relationship Scale'."

"Really?"

"Really."

Eliza remained silent for a moment, before pulling on Evan's cheek lightly as she asked.

"Even if I said to wait for a while before you can get to 'last base'?"

"How long is this 'while' we're talking about here?"

"Maybe a year or two?"

"…"

It was Evan's turn to go silent, and he looked up at her and though he saw the seriousness in her eyes, he still asked.

"Do you really mean that?"

"Yes."

"…"

Another short pause on Evan's part, before he finally gave his reply.

"I'd be honest with you…I don't want that.

But with the way things are going, I feel I may end up going along with it. Probably because it's you? This isn't something you can ask me and expect a concrete answer in an instant."

"I know."

"So why did you ask?"

Eliza repeated his reply to her first question to him, about getting to the 'Limit of the Relationship Scale'.

"So, it's my fault now?"

"Yes."

Just before Evan could speak again, Eliza asked a question that was totally unrelated to their current conversation.

"Your birthday is on October 15, right?"

"Huh? Yeah. It's exactly a month after yours."

Both Evan and Eliza were born on the 15th, and the months of their birthdays were right after the other so forgetting it was almost impossible for them.

Still, Evan did not know why Eliza had suddenly asked this and when he gave her a questioning glance, she only smiled lightly and replied.

"Look forward to your birthday this year."

"…"

Evan went silent for a moment, and Time Difference activated itself as his brain tried to figure out what Eliza was insinuating.

However, the boy consciously stopped the skill, deciding to keep whatever Eliza had planned a surprise and made a conscious effort not to think about it as he was sure he'd figure it out in an instant. Especially when one considers their previous conversation.

To get his mind off this, he decided to return them to the conversation they were having beforehand.

"Mind telling me why you asked that in the first place? The talk about 'how far' and all."

The girl's expression lightly contorted when she heard this, and though it was only for half a second, Evan did not miss the change.

"I'm worried? No, I'm scared. Scared that you may end up going far away and I would not be able to reach you anymore. Guess I have a new irrational fear on my list."

The girl's voice lacked its usual cheer, and she wore a depreciative expression in her eyes.

"Far way? I have zero ideas of going anywhere you would not be within reach anytime soon though?"

"Evan, I did not mean that in the physical sense."

Eliza deadpanned Evan and the boy only chuckled lightly as he turned her body by a right angle and made her sit astride his lap.

"I know you didn't. But don't worry, I'm going to be fine."

The girl was silent and just when Evan was beginning to think this 'short silence after talking' thing was a new fad, she suddenly raised her hand.

Evan tilted his head in confusion, but that confusion changed to shock as he saw her draw a magic circle in the air in front of him.

It was one he recognized all too well…a contract Magic Circle.