The bastard child becomes the empires royal consort-Chapter 68: Female only [1]

"So you made us invisible?" Alan raised a brow, scanning the street around them.

Despite the fact they were four blindfolded teenagers sitting in the middle of the merchant plaza, holding a conversation with another man, not a single eye turned their way, as if the situation were natural.

"I wouldn’t say invisible." Felix remarked, he picked up a teacup from who knows where and brought it to his mouth. "More like... incomprehensible? To their brains, they just can’t comprehend us, if that makes sense."

"How do you even make items that can pull off shit like that?"

"Oh, you really want to know?" Felix tilted his head with gleaming eyes. "It’s a remarkably tedious process, first, you have to secure a fresh supply of mana crystals only from the highest quality there is—"

"Wait, stop. You don’t actually have to say it." Alan interrupted, putting up a hand.

"Yes, I know." Felix smiled jokingly, leaned back into the cushion of the bench, and finally reached up, lifting the fedora clean off his head.

Twitch

A pair of dark, triangular, furry ears revealed themselves, twitching rhythmically as they caught the cool, salty breeze.

Julia’s eyes practically sparkled behind her blindfold the moment she caught a glimpse of the ears, she leaned forward, her hands twitching.

"Can I pet them?"

"No."

"Just once?"

"Don’t even think about it."

While those two were having a mild argument over ear-petting rights, Alan stroked his chin, his eyes narrowing at Felix’s characteristics.

He was well aware other high-intelligence races existed other than humans, primarily elves and beast-folks, humans were actually considered a lesser race amongst the others due to the vast majority being born without the potential of awakening.

Although he was aware and knew of other races, he had never actually encountered one from a different race before, so the knowledge just simply stayed as knowledge without him giving it complete thought before.

But now with Felix sitting before him, Alan was newly reminded of the other races, though Felix wasn’t a full beast-folk, he lacked the thick fur and distinctive animal features, save for his twitching cat ears, Felix was only half beast-folk and looked almost entirely human.

As Alan watched the way Felix’s ears pivoted toward every distant sound, he suddenly remembered a small detail Lucian mentioned a while back, something about Felix’s abilities...

"You can see the future..." Alan muttered, looking up at Felix.

Felix paused amidst his lecture to Julia, his calm smile freezing for a moment before widening.

"Son of a bitch!" Alan erupted. "That’s how you cheated in poker! You knew every card that was coming!"

"Whoa, whoa." Felix said, holding up his hands in a defensive gesture. "These are some very heavy, unproven accusations—"

"Give me back my money!" Alan lunged from his seat, only to be caught mid-air by Lucian, who snatched him by the collar.

"Ahem." Felix cleared his throat. "In my defence, my abilities aren’t that great."

"Bullshit!"

"No, hear me out." Felix waved his hands. "I really can’t see into the future, it’s usually just bits and pieces, also most applications of my abilities are purely coincidental."

"Then fucking explain the shit you pulled at the tavern."

"Oh nah, I just saw the future for that one."

"You piece of shit!" Alan thrashed around. "Is that also how you knew I’d take your artifact and follow you here afterwards?"

"No? I don’t even need to see the future to predict what moronic actions you’ll make when you’re so predictable." Felix let out a sharp laugh.

"I’m going to kill you! Lucian! Release me!"

...

After a while.

"Ready to speak now?" Felix asked.

The group finally settled down, leaving Alan slumped in his seat like a dehydrated plant.

"You won’t give me my money back...?" Alan asked for the last time.

"In your own words, ’What’s the point of gambling if you don’t gamble everything you have?’" Felix chuckled.

"Ugh, just shut up..." Alan rubbed his face, sinking further into his seat.

"Either way, back to the main point." Felix changed the topic. "I can already guess why you’ve come looking for me."

"Is that so?" Lucian spoke this time, allowing Alan to silently sulk in peace, it seemed that in the end he did have some personal feelings after losing everything.

"It’s about the Eastern continent, isn’t it?" Felix tilted his head, resting it against his palm.

"Yes." Lucian nodded.

"Know what I’m curious about." Felix furrowed his brows, observing all four of the people sitting across from him. "What makes you want to go to the Eastern continent?"

"What do you mean...?" Lucian asked.

"Well, I’m sure the children of the grand duchy would surely know about the state of the continent right now." Felix replied, looking specifically at Iris.

In response, Iris held the gaze for a moment before releasing a small sigh. "So you knew."

"From the moment we first met, I already knew who all of you were." He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal and went back to the main point. "So knowing that the continent is in the middle of war, what makes you want to go there?"

"The demon’s continent." Lucian replied bluntly. "We’re heading to the demon’s continent."

Felix froze, a myriad of emotions flickering across his face all in the span of a second, before nodding slightly with an amused face. "Interesting."

"You’re not surprised?"

"Not at all." Felix shook his head. "In fact, this only makes more sense."

"Yes, so this is why we came to you."

"Because you think I’m boarding the ship that departs tomorrow?"

"Correct." Lucian nodded.

"Hmm." Felix fell silent, thinking about something, and then he looked up with a small smile. "Well, lucky you, I am indeed boarding the ship tomorrow."

Alan, who’d been listening in on the conversation while decaying into the seat, suddenly jolted upright. "You are?"

"I am."

"Could you by chance help us board the ship?" Alan whispered. "Listen, you are our only hope right now."

Felix just smiled without replying, he reached into his coat, seemingly to take something out. "Do you remember when I mentioned that my application of abilities was coincidental and outside my control?"

"Yeah..." Alan replied slowly.

"Well, I have good news then." Felix took out four bronze ribbons. "I got just the thing to help."

"No way!" Alan immediately took one of the ribbons with joy.

"Now, now." Felix smiled weirdly. "Before you thank me, read the ribbon."

Listening to him, Alan looked down to read what was written.

[Ticket pass for female servant]

"Huh?" Alan read it again, but the words didn’t change.

He quickly whipped his head up at Felix, who, looking back at him with puffed cheeks, looked like he was holding back his laugh.

"It’s a pass for female servants."

"Yes."

"No male...?"

"Nope."

"Why would this shit exist?!" Alan slammed the bronze ribbon on the table.

"I don’t know." Felix simply shrugged. "To improve the variation or something?"

"That also makes no sense!"

"Look man." Felix scoffed. "I’m just a merchant, a travelling merchant, all I want to do is travel the world, selling artifacts is just a hobby."

"So why would you even want to go to a continent in the middle of war right now then?"

"Like I just said, I’m a travelling merchant."

"There’s nothing you can do, is that what you’re saying?"

"Indeed." Felix nodded. "I coincidentally happened to have passes for four people, but all four are for women, not much I can do, really."

Sighing, Alan ruffled his hair, annoyed by the situation, but at the very least they had a means to board the ship, but how would they do it?

While he was asking himself questions, his eyes landed on a nearby shop, or more specifically, on the wigs placed on display.

"I have an idea..."

...

Felix remained seated as he watched the group walking off in the distance, they were browsing the stores, bickering every now and then about something either Alan or Julia did.

Releasing a long breath, Felix brought the fedora back to his head, covering his animal ears once more.

He reached into his coat, where an internal pocket served as an dimensional artifact for him, and then took out a tube-shaped item.

He pressed on a button, the moment he did so, he felt the presence of the group diminish, the wild looks they received from the people nearby vanished, they now looked past the four of them like they weren’t there.

This was Felix’s way of helping them from the background, not for reasons one might expect, sure he knew them well and everything, but that wouldn’t be enough to make him act like this.

"Just what are you?" Felix muttered to himself, his eyes locked onto the retreating figure of Alan.

His grey iris flickered with a small spark of white light, the gleam dancing between his eyes as it disappeared just as quickly as it came.

He could catch small glimpses into the future, usually just events minutes into the future, but glimpses nonetheless.

And for the very first time, when he tried to catch a glimpse of another man.

He saw nothing.

A black, empty slate.

In front of Alan, his clairvoyance was utterly useless, even his small intuitions stopped responding.

Meaning, during the poker match, everything he did against Alan was purely luck, a result from bluffing and pulling through with it.

But after that incident, his curiosity in Alan skyrocketed.

Just who is this child? He surely wasn’t as simple as he appeared.

So for a while longer, he would keep his eyes on Alan.