The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Evelyn smiled as she saw Isabella rush over and pick her up as soon as she saw her.

The young mother gave her a loud kiss on the cheek, and was surprised when her generally petulant daughter didn't throw an embarrassed tantrum.

"How was the test? All good?"

The pink haired girl nodded innocently.

"Little Eve isn't angry because momma couldn't come see?"

"No, I know mom was busy, or she would come."

Isabella could only smile and put the uneasy thoughts out of her mind. It really felt like something was wrong, especially with her little sister rushing away as soon as she made sure her niece was now with her. But maybe she was overthinking things, maybe everything really was okay.

Evelyn knew that her mother must be somewhat worried. But she would never know what truly happened today. Maybe the most worrying thing she would hear about is her collapse in the arena, but that wasn't even a big deal.

The celebration was being held in an open area, with dozens of tables full of food and drinks being served to hundreds of guests.

It looked like only a part of those who came to witness the ceremony could stay for the celebration, or it would truly be too crowded for this place. Or maybe the rest of the guests were somewhere else.

Her mother introduced some important guests to her as she passed them by, it was mostly people from the families of rich merchants or powerful warriors, and Evelyn greeted each of them politely.

Her heart, however, was completely elsewhere.

She had instructed the princess to come to the celebration separately, because it would surely cause a commotion if she followed her around like a loyal dog.

And she was glad for her decision, because she didn't know what expression her mother would make when she came across the third princess.

Even if she didn't know about what happened in the arena or in the carriage because she was busy arranging everything for the party, she couldn't possibly forget that the royal carriage tried to run them over just a few hours ago.

When she thought back to what happened in the carriage, her heart still beat wildly.

She didn't know what Bree was thinking, taking such a huge risk, but it wasn't something she could prevent anyway.

When she asked, Bree confessed that her last resort was to simply kill the two royalties, and then silence the royal guardian swiftly as well.

In the time it would take the royal family to find out and react, she would then take her sister and niece away by force, abandoning the rest of the Knox family.

Evelyn was thankful that things hadn't ended up like that, because it would mean not only the rest of the Knox family, but even her two close friends would come in harm's way.

But she couldn't blame Bree either. She knew what she was thinking. Even if they kept conceding to the demands of the royal duo, there was no guarantee when they would let them go.

It would just be a slow trampling to the death.

So Bree struck the lethal blow at the first chance she got. Isolated from their guardian, the overconfident prince and princess were no different from helpless babies in her hand.

But their short victory did little to reassure Evelyn.

The technique Bree had used to turn the princess into her thrall couldn't be used on multiple people, and thus the prince could only become a mindless puppet.

To put it in simple terms, he was already dead. His empty body still performed all the usual functions, but the mind was empty. There was nothing inside.

The strings to this puppet were of course given to her thrall, the princess.

This meant that as long as the prince had to go somewhere, the princess had to follow. The two couldn't be separated too far.

Even if they often ventured out together, the situation would surely appear strange after a while.

Another major worry in Evelyn's mind was how utterly reckless her aunt had been.

She hadn't known her exact amount of soul power, all she felt was that it was higher than her own. But she still bet on the fact that it would be above a thousand points, which was required for the thralling technique in her inheritance.

And to top it off, even her inheritance did not contain any way to channel the technique through someone else. She just went in blindly, trusting that their close relationship and cooperation would help work things out.

It did work out in the end, but Evelyn could feel a stress on her soul. As if something was tied to her heart with a rubber band, and it kept stretching and pulling with every move.

But far more worrying was that she had felt something crack while she was still linked with Bree while executing the technique.

She was sure something went wrong, but her aunt insisted otherwise.

If Bree's words were to be believed, the princess would now think of her like a deity, and obey her whims as commandments. Even if she told her to kill herself, the princess wouldn't think twice.

And she would still remain the same person otherwise, which would greatly help conceal things for a long time.

To Evelyn, it was too good to be true.

There was either something Bree didn't know, or didn't want her to know.

She wished she could have somehow acquired the technique, but it seemed somehow linked to Bree's inheritance stone, which was buried deep inside her.

It is not that she was greedy, although she definitely would welcome having one more skill, but that she wished to know more about how it worked and the possible drawbacks.

The only system prompt she received was 'Warning: Soul Interference Detected', which was of no help at all.

She could only sigh and hope nothing went wrong till she figured out some countermeasures.

'First things first, I have to get back my belt and get together with Ruru. Now that the test is over, there's no need to preserve my spirit power. I should check what skill she obtained for level twenty!'

'And then… since the third princess is now my puppet, I can't let this chance go to waste, can I?'

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Being the birthday girl, she still had some privileges. Even if all the important guests were waiting for her, as long as she threw a tantrum for her pet and her jewelry, her mother could only have them fetched over first.

Now finally reunited with her adorable little fox, Evelyn snuggled the fluffy little thing, rubbing her cheek against Ruru's soft squishy ear while it protested with a few annoyed yips.

Her mother watched her tease the little pink fox with a smile, but still had to harden her heart or the guests would really throw up blood just from waiting.

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Cecilia twirled one of her twintails in boredom as she watched the monkey jump around in front of her.

It was one thing to wait for the ceremony girl to arrive, but it was really something else that one of the 'hosts' responsible for attending to them was so annoying.

"What was your name again?"

The young boy in the burgundy three piece suit looked at her startled as his words were interrupted. "Eh? You forgot already? It's Tristan! Tristan Knox, the eldest grandson of Osmond Knox, future heir to the Knox family!"

The ash blonde haired girl nodded. "Oh… eldest grandson, huh… The little dolly is your little sister, then?"

The boy looked disgusted at the thought. "Ugh, no, she's no sister of mine. My father is George Knox, the first lord! She's just the third lord's daughter."

"Oh…"

Cecilia nodded again, not looking too interested anymore.

Ryan patted the sulking boy on his shoulders. "Don't bother with her, Tristan. She's a stick in the mud. Tell us more about how that little idiot kept biting her tongue while speaking, haha!"

Cecilia flicked one of her pigtails with a snort, looking disgusted at the two of them.

If she wasn't so disgusted with Markus bullying that spineless little brother of his, she would have gone over to them instead.

"Really, birds of a feather, flock together! Ryan, didn't your daddy teach you not to gossip about others behind their back? And the two of you boys don't feel any shame making fun of that little doll? She's so much younger than you!"

Tristan looked embarrassed, but the blonde boy just rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, Cecilia, she's not that much younger than us. Your ceremony was just two years ago, right?"

"I'm not talking about myself, 'uncle' Ryan! Wasn't your failure of a ceremony held decades ago? I wasn't even born then. To think someone who is close to balding is gossiping about a little dolly who was just born."

"It was nine years ago! I'm not balding, I'm only fourteen!"