BXBX NOVEL Chapter 97: Home
Fortunately, it didn\'t bother Zach too much. He could lie down, relax, joke with Nora, rest his head on Yanael\'s lap when Nora drove the carriage, or sleep.
However, after a day, Zach remembered something.
Yanael\'s sense of direction was at the same level as his.
She couldn\'t be trusted to steer the carriage on her own. As luck would have it, they hadn\'t gotten lost yet, but only because the horses were just walking forward without caring much about Yanael.
After Zach remembered that, none of them spent much time inside the carriage except during the night. It wouldn\'t be fair to make Nora sit out there all by her lonesome the entire trip.
But there were still moments of boredom. And it was during one such moment that Zach decided to check something.
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[Zacharia Evandiel]
[Level 10 Summoner]
[Innate Skill: Divine Luck]
[Contract Skill: Blessed Defense]
[Contracts (1/2): Yanael]
[Yanael – S-Rank Angel *Battle Maid Variant]
Zach\'s eyes widened slightly. Not much had changed since last, but his level had risen more than he thought it would. But more importantly, there was an interesting piece of arithmetic next to the contracts.
\'I guess that means I can summon another familiar?\'
It wasn\'t like the numbers could mean anything other than that he had one out of two available contracts.
It was interesting.
The first part of figuring out how to summon another familiar was completed. Now he just had to do the actual summoning.
Zach frowned.
\'Could I have used the summoning ceremony hall at the Academy?\' Zach remembered where he had summoned Yanael.
\'Probably not.\' Setting aside whether it would be open and he would be allowed inside, Zach couldn\'t be sure it would work the same. For some reason, that Chamber of Ceremony seemed a little more special. It might be a construction that only summoned a first familiar and connected a person with the interface or however it worked.
It also seemed like it would have been too easy. There was no way the principal would allow Zach to just go there and summon another familiar as soon as he woke up from his coma when there were still months left on the holiday.
\'I\'ll just have to stop by that place before I leave again, I guess.\'
Zach swiped away the interface and looked at Yanael swishing through the forest and turning the herd of monsters into minced meat.
The roads were supposed to be well-maintained and all, but they had still run into monsters daily. Zach was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him. Ever since the field trip, he had been continuously hounded by monsters whenever he set foot outside the Academy.
The only exception had been when he, Dukiel, and Julius headed toward the Locale with the tiger or when the underworld assassins dealt with the monsters first.
It was a little suspicious. But Zach didn\'t mind. It wasn\'t like he had to deal with it when he had Yanael. And it was free food and levels serving themselves up to him on a silver platter.
However, most of the monsters that were close to the roads they used were weaklings, and Zach didn\'t gain a single level even as he arrived at Ciel, the Capital of the East.
"Ah, home sweet home!" Zach stood at the front of the carriage between Yanael and Nora with his hands on his hips as he took in the sights of the shops, the people, the houses, and the streets. It was as lively as when he had left.
"Hey, look over there! That orange hair…! Is it one of the Lord\'s children?"
"But who? The young misses all returned last week, and he looks too young to be Young Master Leonidas."
"Could it be the rumored seventh son…?"
"...I think I\'m closing up shop for today."
"...I forgot to make my bed. I better hurry home."
"...Someone\'s calling my name, I better leave."
The streets didn\'t clear out entirely or at once, but the rumors that had reached even the capital and noble children on the other side of the Empire were naturally even more prolific in the duchy Zach came from.
"..."
Zach was silent, his face frozen stiff.
Yanael gave him a worried and pitying look.
Nora looked away to hide and suppress her laughter. Although she couldn\'t with a light heart claim to be a perfect maid, outright laughing at her master in public was one step too far.
"...Let\'s go."
Zach climbed inside the carriage and sat in complete silence until the carriage passed through the city and left its eastern gate. He was silent even when Nora pointed out the Duke\'s estate that stood as a final shield between the savage wilderness and the Empire\'s civilized people.
Zach\'s family, the Evandiel Ducal family, were the fortress that defended the Empire\'s eastern border. If the savages wanted to make a move on the Empire, they would have to go through the Evandiels.
That was their resolution. As long as the Evandiels stood, they would protect the east.
That was how the Empire and the people of the Empire saw the Evandiels and the Evandiel Duchy. They had protected the border for generations and would continue to do so as long as they could.
But to Zach, the mighty Evandiels were just his family. His parents. His siblings.
He was looking forward to seeing them for the first time in a while, and he soon forgot what happened in Ciel. He didn\'t have any trouble passing through the gates.
Some other servants came out and helped unpack while Zach, Yanael, and Nora left for the main building so he could greet his parents.
"No! Don\'t open those doors! Stop her!"
Zach heard a muffled shout as he opened the doors.