348 Caught red-handed

“You look surprised young man.” Caramel chuckled. She closed her fan and opened it again. The pattern changed without noticing that she rotated the fan in the other direction.

“People don’t notice what happens when they aren’t paying attention.” She noticed Vincent was surprised and smirked. “We have information about the mysterious bandaged man at the center of many women. But as you will become a Lionheart soon, we, the Reddawn family, will keep the information to ourselves.”

“We protect our friends and allies. I hope the new Lionheart generation can too, hehe.” Caramel said in a playful tone, with her fan hiding her expression.

However, one crucial detail Vincent and Kazumi didn’t know was that Caramel hated when her face wrinkled because of old age from smiling. Such a misconception makes her look more cunning than she is.

[This woman is scarier than I thought.]

-Yeah, she is a dangerous enemy to have.-

“Ahem. Shall we go and meet the Sunrise and Graymoon families? Vincent has taken little noble etiquette lessons from me today. I fear he might bore you.” Leonis said.

Caramel closed her fan. “Truthful as always because of the curse I see.” She looked at her daughter and noticed a worried frown on her face. “I can walk by myself today, my dear. There is no need to be overprotective.”

“But mother. I want to help. I worry about your health.” Clair insisted.

.....

Caramel sighed and let her daughter hold her hand to stop her daughter’s worrying. Soon, the three of them followed Leonis to the gift room. They left a small jewelry box as the wedding gift. Then they gave Leonis an ordinary-looking book which Leonis immediately called for a hobgoblin butler to store in his safe. Later, the four of them headed to the garden.

In the meantime, Vincent went to check on Plow, Tusk, and Nix. As he and Kazumi thought, Plow was the main attraction until the wedding started.

Nick and Vopor talked to Plow. She cheekily boasted of being the best and cutest familiar in the world. Plow would start pouting when someone teased her and later became grumpy when they giggled at her cuteness.

It was getting late. The priest and a piano player arrived. The priest made the final arrangements with Teresa as she and her old personal maid were taking care of everything. On the other hand, the musician played various melodies in the garden.

Later, the last two families arrived at the same time.

“Announcing! Members of the Griffinheart family, Lord Darwin Griffinheart, Lady Vanessa Griffinheart, and Lady Melissa Griffinheart have arrived.”

The old butler announced. He saw two more people exit the second carriage. They were the last guests invited to the wedding.

“Announcing! Members of the Hawkins family, Lord Biro Hawkins and Lady Helena Hawkins, have arrived.”

Leonis and Vincent went to greet the two groups of guests.

Biro grinned as he looked at Vincent. He congratulated Vincent and introduced his wife to him. Helena Hawkins looked younger than Biro, and as Vincent took a quick look at her stats, she was twenty years younger than her husband.

[Do you feel it too?]

Kazumi asked. She felt as if someone was watching Vincent and peering into his soul. Similarly, Vincent also felt as if someone was staring at him with invisible eyes.

-Yes. It doesn’t feel like murderous or intimidating intent. It feels like knowing someone is watching me, yet I can see them.-

“Is something wrong?” Biro saw Vincent frown after he introduced his younger wife.

“No.” Darwin Griffinheart approached after he talked with his daughter. “Vincent Agius, congratulations on your marriage with my friend’s daughter. I am the Noble Academy Head Master. This is my wife Vanessa and beside her is my daughter Melissa.”

[How does he know your surname? Only a select few people should know unless the Reddawn family shared any information they have about us to the noble families invited today.]

-...-

“Vincent, may I ask, do you possess an Inspection or Appraisal skill? I felt this kind of interference once, and I can’t forget this feeling.” Darwin asked. He looked curious, and later, he realized his mistake. “My apologies Vincent. I peeked at your stats, and I didn’t see such skills, yet I felt someone using it just now.”

Vincent quickly focused his gaze to use Inspection at Darwin, and the feeling of being watched suddenly returned.

.

[Name] Darwin Griffinheart

[Race] Human

[Age] 53

[Condition] Healthy

[Traits] Mana Tempered Body Stage Five, Inspection

[Class] Grand Wizard

[Stats] Strength 30 || Agility 18 || Perception 41 || Mana 5303

.

[Class Grand Wizard]

*Ice Wall

*Ice Dome

*Ice Shard

*Ice Lance

*Ice Spike

*Ice Manipulation

.

[Darwin has the famed skill only rare mages have. He has the Inspection skill!]

[Does it mean when Inspection is used simultaneously by different people at a certain distance, the users can feel the other person using such skill?]

[However, I wonder how good it is? Is it similar to what you had before? Can he see skills and stats? Curiosity is killing me.]

-Similar to a radio signal?-

[Yeah. Inspection is a Hero skill. Hero skills are or should be invisible to others if we use the Inspection Gemstone as a reference. So Darwin is asking because he can’t see the skill in your sat window or whatever he sees.]

historical

“Yes, you do possess such a skill. Your gaze, looking at something that doesn’t exist and thinking about something that doesn’t exist to no one but the user is the work of skill like Inspection.” Darwin concluded Vincent was the one using the Inspection skill.

*Gulp* Vincent became nervous. “Yes.” He answered.

Vincent bowed and apologized immediately, “I am sorry for the rudeness I displayed. Lady Helena Hawkins looks quite young and attractive. I rudely peeked with Inspection skill and.” Vincent looked at Darwin to place half the blame on him for calling him out. “I was caught red-handed.”

“Hahaha.” Biro laughed loudly. “I don’t think my beautiful wife will mind. Right honey?”

“It is not pleasant to look at a woman’s age soon-to-be young noble. Nobles such as us could be greatly offended, but as this is a joyous occasion, this young and attractive noblewoman will let this slide for today.” Helena lightly scolded Vincent with a smile on her face. It appeared she liked being called young and attractive.

Vincent turned his gaze on Darwin. “I hope Lord Darwin can keep some information to himself. I know how interesting it is to see an amazing person like me, but please, let’s keep special people hidden.” Vincent extended his hand for a handshake. Depending on how one perceives his words, they could be considered a light threat.

“Heh, special... you used a strange storage bag and a powerful enchanted weapon to kill the assassins. Special my ass...” Leonis grumpily mumbled quietly. He was still grumpy. His daughter was going to marry and not live with them immediately after being rescued.

Darwin shook Vincent’s hand. “You piqued my interest, but how can you use a skill that I can see?” Darwin asked. He curved a smile and continued, “I might listen to your request as it is your wedding day.”

“Because I have a class that mutated instead of awakened from a deadly wound made by a strange demonic beast. I now have a hidden basic Inspection skill that can only see the names, age, class, and condition. ” Vincent explained, hoping he could keep Ester, Iris, and Sakura’s classes and skills a secret.

“Ahem, Vincent, you shouldn’t do that to our guests. They not only are our friends, but they helped us a lot. Our safety is because of their help.” Leonis started to feel the simple greeting was heading in another direction.

“Don’t mind my husband, hehe.” Vanessa Griffinheart covered her mouth and chuckled. “This is the second time my husband met with someone of similar skill, but the person is sadly from another kingdom.”

“The Lionheart family will be prosperous in the future with a talented person in their family.” Helena Hawkins praised. Being called young and attractive appeared to have made Vincent on her good side.

“My dear wife can not be more right. That salty guild leader Gevan wanted to come too because he has set his eyes on our special groom.” Biro said. However, the following words were slightly alarming. “But one of the guild masters sent him a request with a deadline. From what I understood, it is about finding a monster of some sort in our continent. But if they can’t find this monster, then we don’t need to worry.”

“Hmm... I will have to ask your father about this since I will meet him tomorrow. He should know what is happening more than us.” Darwin said.

“But enough of the Adventurers Guild stuff. Vincent’s class is close combat one, and I also heard he grasped the basics to use domination aura.” Biro looked at Darwin and continued, “I want to teach Vincent. That’s why I agreed to teach in the academy.”

“So, the famous Paladin Biro was driven to teach again because of Vincent. What about the five years of saying how the current batch of students aren’t suitable enough? Now you suddenly found two, ~ha~” Darwin sarcastically said.

“Since the groom checked our stats secretly, let me take a little childish revenge.” Darwin looked at Vincent’s stats again. “Stage one blood purity, a class I never heard of and some strange like corrupted details, a surname I never heard before, thirty-two years old but looks as young as my daughter, mana body with little mana.”

[As I suspected. Darwin can’t see your Hero class, and his Inspection is similar to that of an Inspection Gemstone, it seems.]