Can the sadness that magic cannot take away be offset by love?

On a night streaked with stars, Sothos Noviro stood on the terrace, gazing at the carriages and horses surging toward the Noviro family like a tide. The music from the New Year's Eve dinner struggled to seep into the terrace through the crack in the door. His subordinate, standing respectfully behind him, asked:

"Lord Sothos, you just mentioned that Ms. Finney is an undercover agent for both the Onsetin and Ramirez families. After this incident, is there any possibility that she will be exposed?"

Sothos smirked: "How could that be? She's completely outmaneuvered two powerful families, and not a single one of them has suspected her yet..."

The subordinate said, "That's good too. She can continue to serve the future master of the Novello family."

The spirited young man waved his hand, signaling him to stop talking nonsense.

Having been by his side for so long, how could his subordinates not understand his personality? They obediently kept their mouths shut, but in their hearts they were still thinking about how to continue to flatter him while satisfying his need to "remain humble".

"Alright, it's almost time. You can go now."

Sothos asked him to complete his mission for the night.

"Yes, sir. I will bring you victory."

Inside the banquet hall, as Sothos slowly descended the stairs from the upper floor, his most frequent subordinates were nowhere to be seen.

Olivia Noviro slowly swirled the crimson liquid in her glass, subtly averting her gaze, and lowered her eyes to drink the fine wine.

As the only direct descendant of the family, the position of heir should have belonged to her.

However, the family values ​​the continuation of the bloodline more than the strength of the bloodline itself, which is why a short but outstanding mediocre talent from a collateral branch was able to bully her.

Among the four great families of the Kingdom of Aaron, there is a natural barrier between the direct and collateral lines: bloodline magic. Logically speaking, Sothos should not be in charge of a banquet of this level.

Seeing Sothos Novello walk straight past Olivia without even blinking, one of Olivia's family elders chuckled softly:

“Sothos, don’t forget the family rules—at banquets, when people of the same generation meet, collateral relatives should bow or drink one-third of a cup.”

Olivia sat with impeccable manners, but her expression was quite casual: "Let's skip it. It's my brother's first time handling a banquet of this scale, and he's already full of worries. Let's not add to his troubles and lest we ruin the family's affairs."

A girl standing next to her, glancing at Sothos, scoffed, "Times have changed. Back then, some people would have been considered to have broken the rules if they dared to call Olivia 'sister'."

Another girl nudged Olivia with her elbow and whispered, "Olivia, you're too concerned about the family, which is why this idiot got away with it."

The group's teasing didn't spare Sothos Noviro at all, but Sothos had something on his mind and didn't want to cause any more trouble, so he walked away silently with a dark face.

"That's strange, why isn't he replying at all today? He'd usually be furious by now," a girl asked.

"Maybe Olivia was right, they really are too busy, tsk," another girl mocked.

Olivia put down her wine glass, waved, and asked the waiter who had rushed over, "Have all the families arrived?"

Having received the answer, she slowly stood up, politely declined everyone's attempts to keep her, and moved to another place.

Sothos Noviro's every word and action revealed his true intentions to her.

*

She greeted the guests of the Ansetin family, when a small child came running over, the blue bells hanging from his waist jingling incessantly. He said anxiously to the adults, "I still haven't found Alexia..."

In his panic, he caught a glimpse of the silver-haired woman standing quietly looking at him, then giving him a polite smile:

“Mr. Charles, the Ramirez family’s guests have not yet all arrived.”

Having received the answer she wanted, she politely bid farewell to the others and slowly left the brightly lit banquet hall.