Chapter 204.

Alphonso nodded at my question. "Yeah, Yuria's friend wanted to come early, so we did."

Yuria's friend? To my knowledge, the only person among Yurias friends who could attend this banquet was Arelia, the third imperial princess. Of course, it wasnt like I knew all of Yurias friends, so there was a possibility that a child of a high-ranking noble family was her friend.

"Oho, he seems to be from the Butterfly Tribe. I did not know you also hung out with members of the Butterfly Tribe? Duke Asteria looked at Alphonso curiously.

Alphonso shrank back at the duke's gaze and hid behind my back as I said, "Yes, he's a friend of mine who lives in the same boarding house."

"By boarding house, you mean Mrs. Arscilla's?"

I nodded lightly. "Alphonso, say hello. This is His Highness, Duke Asteria. Even your uncle, General William-nim, often receives help from him, so you should give a good impression."

"Uncle?" Alphonso glanced at Duke Asteria as if he was still a little scared.

"Is this William's nephew? Come to think of it, before I arrived at the capital, I heard from William that his twin nephew and niece had come here to study, so this must be him."

When the duke talked about William, Alphonso hesitantly came out from behind my back and bowed to the duke. "Hello, my name is Alphonso Fendria."

"Yes, it's nice to meet you. My name is Heinz. Although I am a duke, I wont impose imperial manners on a child from the Butterfly Tribe, so just relax." When the duke smiled mildly, Alphonso nodded with some relief.

"By the way, your connections are wider than I thought," said the duke.

I smiled and waved my hands. "Its not that large. How wide would a new civil servants connections be? At most, they are just personal connections from the training center."

"Haha, is that right?" As the duke and I were smiling, the nobles of the banquet began to creep up towards the duke.

The duke sighed lightly as he saw the nobles approaching him. My gosh, they are already coming.

Haha, you are very popular.'

The duke shrugged lightly at my joke. "I am kind of popular. Well, I didnt want this type of popularity anyway.

As he said so, he gently beckoned me to leave. "Fortunately, theres a friend of yours at the banquet hall, so enjoy the banquet as you wish. I'll enjoy the banquet at my own pace."

The duke gave a humorous smile. I felt sorry for the nobles who, seeing the smile, approached the duke to try and curry favor.

I also greeted the duke with a smile. "Please don't be so hard on them just because they are a bunch of suckers; at least leave them with something. Well, if you'll excuse me."

"Hahaha, Ill keep that in mind."

When I took Alphonso away, the nobles that were loitering around the duke approached him like a pack of starving hyenas. However, I was not worried at all because the duke was a monster who could eat the pack of hyenas approaching him.

"Huha! That was scary, Alphonso exhaled when we moved away from the duke.

"It was scary?"

"Yeah, should I say that he was cold? How should I put this... Alphonso tried to express himself with his lack of eloquence but eventually gave up.

I appropriately changed the subject. "What about Yuria?"

"Yeah, Yuria was getting mad at my grandfather, so I came first because I was scared. Yuria will probably come with her friend soon.

"Really?"

It seems that Yuria was nagging him about what happened in the sky over the capital. Let us offer a moment of condolences for the pushover great elder of the Butterfly Tribe. While giving my condolences, I put on my recognition blocking glasses.

"Oh, what are those glasses? Something feels weird." Alphonso was puzzled by the magic on my glasses.

I disheveled Alphonso's hair and adjusted the glasses to exclude Alphonso from their effect, and asked, Do you still feel weird?

Hmm... No."

Then let's go eat.

Okay!

Alphonso and I took empty plates and headed towards the food.

* * *

"I hate you, Grandpa!" While upset with Arpen, Yuria headed to the banquet hall with Arelia, who had been waiting for her.

"Yu, Yuria!" Arpen reached out, holding his chest as if he had been deeply hurt, but Yuria responded by closing the door roughly.

"Um, is that okay?"

When Arelia asked carefully, Yuria nodded with steam coming out of her nose. "It's okay. Grandpa needs to be scolded!"

Yuria had said it was a good opportunity because she thought her grandfather would only teach Den how to control mana or cast basic magic. He did such a horrible thing that it wouldnt be strange for an ordinary magician to become traumatized, but he did that to Den, who didnt know anything about magic. Yuria wondered how she would be able to face Den in the future, lowering her head with guilt.

Unaware of why Yuria was so angry, Arelia comforted her by linking her arm with Yuria. "Relax. He is family that you haven't seen for a while."

"That's true, but....

While Yuria and Arelia were talking, a group of black-haired men whose bulging muscles seemed to be bursting out of their suits w