The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Evelyn did not see anything too wrong with her request, and so she allowed Cecilia to pet her hair.

It did make her a little uncomfortable, but since the twintailed girl had answered all her questions so faithfully, Evelyn did not mind giving out such a small reward in return.

Thankfully, the girl didn't completely mess it up, and was very gentle, just like she had been with little Ruru. It deepened Evelyn's good impression of Cecilia a bit more.

Unfortunately, the Gilmore siblings had to find her right at that moment, and Vivian immediately demonstrated the might of her 'little hamster quick attack' on Cecilia.

Evelyn felt embarrassed, since Cecilia was a guest after all, and she hadn't done anything to deserve a full set of kiddy teeth marks on her arm.

"Uh, I'm sorry about her, she's very protective of me. Vivi, apologize to Cecilia, okay? You shouldn't attack people out of nowhere."

The tiny redhead glared at the ashy-blonde, her gaze full of unconcealed hostility. If not for Amara holding the little redhead quite firmly, she would probably rush over to do it again.

"I'm sorry. Humph!"

It didn't look like she wasn't sorry at all, and Amara could only apologize on her behalf.

But there was no trace of anger in Cecilia's expression. Instead, she looked more amused than anything else.

"It's fine. I think she's very adorable. Is she also one of your cousins?"

Evelyn sighed. If only her cousin was someone adorable and reasonable, she would be so happy. No, as long as it hadn't been Tristan, she would already be satisfied.

"No… but you can say she's my 'little sister', and this is my 'older sister', Amara Gilmore."

Cecilia nodded politely to the older redhead, even if she was a little confused.

Amara nodded back but remained mostly silent as before, as if something else was on her mind.

Evelyn seemed to get the hint, and bid farewell to Cecilia shortly.

"Please come again whenever you like, okay?"

Cecilia smiled. "I'll try, but it's probably not happening. We'll meet in the academy… so don't forget me until then."

Evelyn could only awkwardly nod. Who knows what could happen in two years? Even if she remembered, Cecilia may forget her instead.

They had only met once, after all, and there was no deep bond between them. As far as Evelyn was concerned, easily established bonds were also the most easily dissolved.

"Um… okay…"

Cecilia watched the three of them leave with a smile, wondering how wonderful it would be if she could stay here longer.

There was a tiny pink fox, a cute pink fox girl, and an angry little red hamster. Wouldn't every day be full of fun and adventures?

Her smile faded away as she walked back to the other ancient family children.

'Hopefully the little fox dolly won't forget me in two years.'

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The three of them arrived at the third lord's mansion not long after, with Vivian constantly trying to jump up and rub Evelyn's hair on the way, as if trying to get some 'dirt' off.

The pink haired girl was quite amused, but didn't stop her. She was far more concerned with the fact that Amara was completely silent as she led her towards her mother's room.

'Nothing's wrong with mom, right? I just saw her in the ceremony, she looked perfectly fine. There's no signal from the third princess either, there should be no issue…'

Her doubts were cleared immediately when she arrived at their destination, however.

'No wonder she didn't say anything…'

Amara looked at her awkwardly, not sure how much sense the little girl could make of the situation in front of her.

"When I came to fetch your fox and belt, I saw her… ahem, she just… shrank and vanished, her clothes falling off, and then this thing, it came crawling out…"

Evelyn didn't need Amara's explanation at all, because the moment she had laid eyes upon the little golden puppy on the bed, she knew it was Bree.

Even if she could ignore its fur shining in the same shade of gold as Bree's hair, or the nearly identical look in its big green eyes, the connection she felt to her couldn't be faked.

This was doubly so after the execution of the technique in the carriage earlier, which had allowed her to get a very concrete grasp of what her spirit and soul power felt like.

The redhead was hoping this was some sort of secret technique in the Knox family that Evelyn knew of, but looking that the girl's curious gaze, she knew that was probably not the case.

She had tried talking to the little puppy, but the dumb little thing just ran away and hid inside the bedsheets. It didn't seem to understand her words at all.

The puppy's ears stood up as it seemed to finally notice their existence, and then it delightedly leaped off the bed towards Evelyn.

Of course, Evelyn was already carrying her little fox, and was barely able to use her chest as leverage to catch the fluffy little thing softly with one arm.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the puppy barked happily, wagging its golden little tail, its big green eyes shining with happiness.

"Wuff!"

Although it was adorable, Evelyn was deeply concerned in her heart.

She could only use her probe on the little puppy, despite it having failed multiple times on Bree so far. Shockingly enough, it actually worked!

- Bree Devaughn: Level 82 [ Exp: 112,450 / 967,230 ]

Hybrid Physique: Blessed Spirit, Thunder Beast

[ Contaminated with unknown object marked as 'Raijuu's Legacy', immediate removal recommended. ]

[ Afflicted with 'Qilin's Tears': Enhanced rate of spirit power recovery, and greatly enhanced experience gain. ]

[ Currently suffering from severe soul backlash. Intelligence is greatly reduced. All stats greatly reduced. ]

[ Severe backlash has caused soul fragmentation! ]

[ Qilin's Tears have prevented soul fragmentation from reaching critical state. Qilin's Tears buff effect is now permanently reduced. ]

[ Unable to determine recovery time. ]

—Physique: 21 / 1156

—Spirit Power: 13 / 786

—Soul Value: 4 / 779

—Vitality: 52 / 1208

[ Enhancement (available): Raijuu's Blessing ]

[ Affection: Stable ]

[ Unable to view skills, higher level of affection required. ]

"Huh…"

Some of her previous doubts were instantly cleared.

Her probe skill had previously failed to get any results from Bree, but after her drastic decrease in stats, she was able to view most of her details.

This meant that as long as someone wasn't absurdly stronger than herself, the probe skill could still show its usefulness.

The so called unknown object was definitely Bree's 'inheritance', and despite the system's recommendation, Evelyn wasn't sure if it was a good idea to remove it from her body.

It was very likely that her current state was due to the misuse of the technique in the inheritance rather than the maliciousness of the inheritance itself.

As for 'Qilin's Tears', it was definitely what had ended up saving her life, even if she didn't know the exact details.

It made her angry just thinking about it. If not for this strange blessing, wouldn't Bree have ended up dead already?

After she figured out a way to fix her up, she definitely had to teach her a lesson!

More importantly, just how was she supposed to deal with this?

The little golden puppy kept trying to jump from her arms towards her face, continuously going 'Wuff wuff' and then licking her palm happily.

Evelyn couldn't bring herself to scold her at all!

Vivian was only a little curious about where the puppy came from, but the look on Amara's face was something to behold.

'No wonder lady Isabella called her little puppy! But wait… does that mean lord Desmond transforms into a pig?!'