Witch, Fireball and Steam Evil God

Chapter 400 How Nobles Are Made

In the evening, Ethan and the others boarded an airship bound for the capital. He was accompanied by two bodyguards, one in white and one in black. The better news was that the young hero's mental state had improved. Although he still believed himself to be a holy mage of the Silver Empire, at least he no longer had the verbal tic of a noble young lady from the capital.

Due to the lockdown order, there were few passengers on the airship. Those who could board the airship during this sensitive period, apart from stowaways like them, were all nobles or wealthy businessmen with strong connections.

As night fell, the deck became lively. For them, leaving the oppressive city of Gear City was a cause for celebration. They didn't want to go back to that hellhole until the detectives found and brought to justice the group of missing Demon King followers.

It's easy to see that the Holy Mage Ilya is a very ambitious person. After the young hero entered the house, he started investigating the case. He was determined to catch the murderer who killed the Great Summoner Hetia and the Baron Flint family and bring him to justice. Ethan patted him on the shoulder and wished him a speedy resolution to the case.

“Ethan, come on, let’s go up to the deck and take a look at Desuwa.”

However, before Ethan could even catch his breath back in his cabin, he heard the devil's whisper in his ear, and the black cat climbed onto the bedside table, its heterochromatic eyes filled with excitement.

She liked lively places, especially the banquet on the deck, which excited him greatly—the nobles and wealthy merchants who boarded the airship believed they had finally gotten rid of the followers of Gear City and the Demon King, and whoever killed the Flint family was a matter for Sheriff Black to consider, not for them.

"You can go, but what's with your verbal tic?"

But Ethan had to admit that verbal tics often have different effects on different people. The way the brave boy imitated the noble lady's verbal tics gave him goosebumps, but when it was applied to Xiao An, it had a playful and cute feel to it.

"That's a banquet only upper-class nobles can attend; we can't let them discover our commoner identity."

She noticed that class discrimination in the Silver Empire was even more severe than in the previous empire under Julius's rule. At least the Papacy would occasionally do some superficial work, but in the Silver Empire, even the effort to cover it up was omitted.

If the nobles were to discover during this sensitive period that a few refugees had boarded the airship, they would most likely have their guards throw these ignorant lowly people off the airship.

Of course, it wouldn't be bad if those nobles and wealthy merchants found out, because then she could enjoy even more fun.

Xiao An felt that Ethan had unknowingly become a passive personality after living in places like Riverwood and the Imperial City for so long. If it were the old Ethan, Baron Flint of Gear City might have been slapped to death as soon as he entered the hotel, without even having a chance to say a word to them, simply because he "entered with his left foot first."

When she was with Winter, she noticed that Ethan would often skip studying in the living room, but Winter would soon drag him into the house to practice elemental magic.

Alas, perhaps there's something wrong with the Elemental Shaper class; the era of taking the initiative is long gone.

She really wanted to see Ethan kick these disdainful nobles and wealthy merchants off the airship deck one by one, like fireworks.

I'll smash you all to death, Desuwa!

“You should really learn from Winter. Aristocratic manners can’t be acquired by imitating the speech patterns of aristocrats.”

Ethan corrected her, adding that, besides, Xiao An's verbal tic had nothing to do with the speaking habits of a noble lady from the Silver Empire; it was entirely something she had learned from the tablet computer—considering Xiao An's years of internet use, this fully illustrates the harmful effects of the internet on children today.

“Look, Winter has a very aristocratic air about her.”

Whether in human or cat form, this is true. The elegant and haughty appearance of cats even sparked a trend of keeping cats in the capital. However, this matter itself is seriously misleading. After those noble ladies asked their servants to buy cats and bring them home, they found that the cats not only lacked the temperament of nobles, but also acted like hooligans, hissing and scratching people at the drop of a hat.

Ethan felt the problem stemmed from the fact that civilization in this era hadn't yet reached the point where large-scale pet ownership was possible. The cats were almost all captured from the wild, untamed and naturally wild. Moreover, his white Ragdoll cat was a human in disguise, so it naturally seemed much more human-like than a cat.

He had raised this issue with Ivy before; strictly speaking, Ivy was his only noble friend here. However, Ivy's soul-searching question left Ethan speechless.

"Okay, can you find other 'good cats' like Winter, who are beautiful and elegant, and can also become affectionate cats?"

It's very difficult.

However, the habits of the nobles in the capital cannot be changed overnight. When they see Winter, they feel envious and jealous, and many of them even go crazy. So they can only have their servants catch cats that look somewhat similar to white Ragdoll cats as substitutes for food.

But who would have thought that this meal replacement would be so hard to swallow?

Real cats don't obediently perch on a human's shoulder and gently wrap their furry tails around their necks like scarves. When you forcibly put a cat on your shoulder, the most likely consequence is that you'll end up with several bloody marks on your face.

Upon hearing this, Xiao An straightened up and craned her neck to carefully observe Winter, who was resting on Ethan's shoulder with her eyes half-closed.

"I see, I understand now."

"What do you unserstand?"

"The secret to becoming an aristocrat."

The black cat suddenly realized that, upon closer reflection, Ethan had personally demonstrated to it how nobles were forged back in Darkforge City.

As expected of Ethan, even though he has never been a nobleman for a single day and didn't buy the mansion in the capital with his own money, he can still perfectly grasp the essence of nobility.

The black cat straightened up and awkwardly gave him a thumbs-up with her paw, indicating that she still had a lot to learn from Ethan.

"What do you think."

The confident little dark gave Ethan a sense of foreboding.

"The essence of being an aristocrat is to look down on everyone else; that's the source of arrogance and elegance in the eyes of others!"

She remembered that Ethan had dealt with the ghouls she had spawned using magic in the same way when they were in Darkhearth, saying that they were all from out of town, so that those usually ferocious ghouls couldn't even lift their heads in front of Ethan.

She also figured out, by analogy, why Winter could always maintain her haughtiness and elegance in the eyes of outsiders.

Because this person has antisocial personality disorder!

The nobles of the Silver Empire only looked down on the commoners, but Winter looked down on everyone except Ethan on an equal footing. Come to think of it, Winter had been traveling with them for so long, and she almost never took the initiative to talk to anyone except Ethan.

So that's how it is! She understood completely!
Becoming an antisocial personality is the secret to arrogance and elegance!

"Xiao An, have you misunderstood something?"

"receive."

What does "received" mean?

"I understand what you mean." Clearly, Xiao An didn't understand him at all, but the conversation had successfully calmed her down. She shuddered, composed herself, and then—

Dark, antisocial personality, activate!
Stay away from me, you stinky out-of-towners!

Those bright, heterochromatic eyes began to emanate an unfriendly aura.

Ethan sighed, but he didn't correct Xiao An anymore, because Xiao An like this was better than the usual Xiao An who jumped around at the banquet and caused them a lot of trouble.

When Ethan returned to the deck, the atmosphere of the banquet had reached its peak. The nobles of Gear City, who had been suppressed for several days, had become more talkative after a few drinks. This was also the reason why Ethan decided to attend the banquet, as it was an excellent opportunity to gather intelligence.

As the capital of the Silver Glow Empire, the Imperial Capital is bound to have complex relationships, and judging from the glimpse they have seen in Gear City, there is a high possibility that a replica of Julius also exists there.

Ethan was no longer the naive clerk from Riverwood who had never seen much of the world. Because of Ivy, he had attended many banquets hosted by the Henry family during his time living in the capital.

Learning how to navigate the social circles of nobles he had never met before while holding a wine glass became an essential skill. At those banquets, he not only had to be wary of nobles with ulterior motives, but also of someone trying to poison his wine.

Whenever the royal family holds a banquet, Winter would recall her identity as an alchemist and, on a whim, concoct a bunch of mysterious potions with unknown effects.

Accidentally ingesting potions can have unimaginable consequences—he's serious, and Ethan must warn everyone to be careful that your cat doesn't drug your drink.

The two cats, one white and one black, quickly made Ethan one of the focal points of the banquet. The Silver Empire did not have a culture of keeping pets. In people's general perception, only summoners would deal with monsters, and they usually pursued large monsters with strong destructive power. There was never anyone like Ethan who had two small and cute cats by his side.

As soon as Ethan picked up his wine glass, a group of people surrounded him, mostly women.

Without him saying a word, the two cats confirmed his aristocratic status.

After all, in their eyes, the lowly people living at the bottom of Gear City struggled to even feed themselves every day. Their clothes were always patched up, and a strong stench of sweat would emanate from them if you got close. How could people who could barely survive have the leisure to take such good care of their pet cats?

Look at these two cats, so clean and smelling of some kind of fruit. Their eyes are fixed straight ahead, and they are not frightened at all by the people coming and going at the banquet. This shows that they are already used to such occasions.

The young man named Ethan was handsome and young, and the nobles speculated that he was probably the illegitimate son of an earl or even a grand duke in the capital. Such things were all too common in the empire.

Such relationships are often more valuable than their titles. Take Baron Flint, for example; despite holding only the title of baron, no one in Gear City dared to provoke him, except…

He infiltrated the Demon King's musketeer squad.

Only the Demon King and his followers dare to oppose the great nobles of the empire.

“When it comes to Baron Flint, Grand Duke Esch will certainly not let it go.”

After a brief chat, Ethan subtly shifted the topic to Baron Flin and Grand Duke Ash—the nobles at the banquet had been talking about it when he returned to the deck, and anyone who walked around the deck would know the relationship between Baron Flin and Grand Duke Ash.

Archduke of Escher was one of Henry VI's most trusted ministers, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he wielded immense power.

Ethan silently memorized the name.

Suspect No. 1, "Julius," has emerged.

"You probably heard rumors and that's why you left Gear City overnight, right?"

A lady said in a low voice.

Gossiping behind people's backs was a way for them to pass the time in their boring lives. They were also confident that no one on the deck of this airship would dare to provoke Grand Duke Esch's methods. The more they knew about Grand Duke Esch's character, the more worried they were about being implicated.

Everyone knows that Grand Duke Esh has a pack of mad dogs under his command.

In a time when extraordinary individuals were generally unwelcome in the Silver Empire, Grand Duke Ash extended an olive branch to them, not only providing them with food and clothing but also granting them the right to legally use violence.

"The sound of the wind?"

Ethan pricked up his ears.

"The 'skinners' are probably already on their way."

Upon hearing this title, the ladies invariably revealed expressions of lingering fear, their earlier comforted by the adorable cat replaced by apprehension.

The Skinner was the name the Empire gave to that madman. In reality, no one knew the guy's name, and only a very few people had seen what he looked like. Even now, it's still uncertain whether he was male or female.

But everyone knows what that madman did a few years ago—wearing a cloak and masked, he escorted a commoner who openly opposed Duke Escher to the Plaza de la Diocese, and in full view of everyone, he skinned the poor, unfortunate man alive. It is said that the screams continued until the torture ended.

To deter potential opponents, the newspaper also published the execution process in its pages, so that even in remote border cities like Gear City, people could see the horrific scene of the execution in the newspaper.

The biggest difference between those mad dogs and the Empire's law enforcement is that they take pleasure in torture and killing, so they will not hesitate to drag innocent people into it.

Therefore, upon learning of Baron Flint's murder, they immediately purchased tickets to the capital.

"It won't be long before we see the results in the newspaper."

The lady shook her head. "I heard that the servants at Baron Flint's mansion survived, but the Skinners will certainly not let them go, and Detective Black is probably also in grave danger."

A few days before Baron Flint's murder, a banquet was held in Gear City. As participants in the banquet, they were afraid that Grand Duke Ash would take his anger out on them.

"correct."

The woman suddenly remembered something and solemnly reminded her, "Although I may be meddling, you'd better not let the cat out of your sight once you arrive in the capital."

"thanks for reminding."

Ethan nodded and said, "I'll be careful."

(End of this chapter)