After accepting Count Grant's 'invitation,' Vicente asked Nova to return to the Bain estate.
He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't want to get his girlfriend into trouble that might require him to use his powers.
So, after agreeing to accompany the Grant family guards, he left Nova behind.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the Grant estate in the city's wealthiest area, where he soon saw one of the largest estates he had ever seen.
Although this was only a family with the title of Count, this house was as rich as some of the powers with Marquises and even Dukes of the Seidel Kingdom!
The family had many subordinates and people coming and going from their estate. At the same time, there were a considerable number of Mages around.
'This family seems to go beyond the limits of noble houses with the title of Count...' Vicente noticed this and couldn't help but be curious. 'Is it because they also have the title of Viscount and have recently married into a family that also has the title of Viscount? Or is there more to it?'
Vicente's doubts didn't just stem from the number of strong people around the estate. It also had to do with the fact that Dryhaven was one of the few cities in the province that didn't have a known active underworld group.
It wasn't that there weren't any underworld forces working locally. It was just that there wasn't any known local group that did.
If there was a group working in the local underworld, it was very well hidden, and no one knew of its existence.
Because of this oddity, Vicente couldn't help but think of a possibility.
'Could it be them?' He thought of the possibility that Count Grant's own family was behind the invisible underworld of this city.
But he quickly put those thoughts aside when he saw a middle-aged, well-dressed man with the magical cultivation of a High-level Mage staring at him from the doorway of the estate's largest building.
"Andrew Fuller." The man muttered as he looked at Vicente from a distance.
Vicente made a strange face and said. "I beg your pardon? Have you mistaken me for my father?"
The guards around Vicente continued to give him ugly looks, but the Count's expression suddenly changed.
"Father?" The Count took a few steps forward, approaching Vicente to look into the young man's face.
As he looked more closely, the Count realized he had mistaken Vicente for Andrew. 'Your facial contours are similar, but this Magic Gem is different.'
Vicente replied. "Yes, that was my father's name."
Despite his age and the fact that he had mistaken Vicente for Andrew, Count Grant was intelligent. "Was it?" His eyes narrowed as his anger subsided.
Count Grant had almost married one of the most beautiful women he had ever met in his life, Kate Hogan. But a scoundrel named Andrew had taken her from him, fled Dryhaven, and never returned.
Count Grant had searched extensively for Andrew and Kate, but after months of fruitless searching, he accepted defeat.
Still, he never forgot the beautiful Kate, and to this day, his men had orders to arrest Andrew if they spotted such a person.
The day before, one of the Count's men had spotted Vicente and Nova entering the Hogan estate, which had led to this reaction earlier in the afternoon.
Eventually, the Count realized his men's mistake and immediately signaled for them to disperse, quickly finding himself alone with the young man who looked like Andrew.
Vicente answered truthfully. "Yes, my father died a few years ago."
Count Grant was astonished by this information, for perhaps this was his chance. This young man has come to visit Kate's parents... Perhaps she's thinking of returning to Dryhaven?
But he hid his joy and said. "Then I'm sorry for your loss. Andrew and I were not friends. I won't hide that. But you had nothing to do with it, young man.
By the way, what's your name? How is the rest of your family?" He tried to hide his interest in Kate by talking about this boy's family.
"My name is Vicente Fuller. As for my family, I have an older sister who is missing and a younger sister who is studying at Saltstar City. As for my mother, unfortunately, she died years ago when we were traveling through the province."
"What?" The old man stopped walking through the front yard of his estate and looked at Vicente strangely.
"Sigh... That's why I came to Dryhaven. I've been meaning to tell my maternal grandparents for a long time but never got around to it. I finally found some free time recently and decided to come to the city to deliver the news," Vicente said, imagining that the Count could easily find out all this.
The old Count felt like someone was squeezing his heart while the world around him seemed to have lost some of its humor.
He hadn't imagined that someone like Kate would die so prematurely!
Even after Kate's elopement with Andrew, he still thought he would find her one day and get her to marry him. That would be easy when you think about it. Andrew probably wouldn't live long, and sooner or later, that beautiful woman would be widowed. When that happened, it would be this man's chance to act!
But fate took unexpected turns for this man. Not only had Kate had many children in a few years, but she had died before he had his chance.
Feeling the sadness of learning of his beloved's death, the Count looked into Vicente's eyes and again offered his condolences. "I'm sorry, son, these must have been difficult years for you."
Vicente felt a big difference in Count Grant's tone this time, seeing that he was truly sorry for Kate's death.
"Thank you for your words, Your Grace."
The Count then gestured with one of his hands. "Let's go inside and talk about this. Your mother was someone I had the chance to know, but I didn't get the chance to be with her as much as I would have liked. Tell me more about what happened."
Vicente followed the man into the estate's main building and soon began to tell his story and how things had turned out for his mother.
Now that the situation didn't seem so bad to him, he felt he wouldn't have to deal with such a big problem, so he preferred ending this worry with a casual conversation.
If all went well, he would get off scot-free, and maybe he could find some opportunity in Dryhaven!
