This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 183

Suspicion

After Aman ensured that Ellie knew how to conduct herself, he left happily, leaving Ellie to be dressed up from head to toe for hours. By the time it was over, she felt like her legs had gone numb.

Since Ellie was an important figure in the Setter family, she was placed on the top floor along with Young Lord Owen and the family head. At the front was Lord Steven, with a chair set for Owen beside him. Aman was positioned behind them along with Ellie, clearly marking the introduction of the next head of the family without hesitation.

The event was crowded with guests, all of whom had to receive an invitation beforehand. These invitations were not easily obtained. Wealth alone wasn’t enough; guests had to be vetted to ensure they had a good background. Anyone found unworthy upon arrival would be promptly expelled.

Naturally, no one dared to cause trouble for the Setter family, so all the invitees were significant figures. The Emperor was in another reception room, arranged to host the rulers of various kingdoms. Meanwhile, the priests were on the other side, in a room of equal stature, reflecting the Setter family’s respect for all parties and their neutrality.

There were many small rooms with clear glass walls, allowing everyone to see who was inside. These rooms housed nobles from various kingdoms. Today, the Setter family had gathered an impressive number of significant figures from every kingdom. Everyone was here to witness the new discovery announced by the Setter family. They had no idea what this new discovery was, despite their attempts to pry. Thus, everyone was filled with excitement and anxiety.

Ellie sat behind Eldest Young Lord Owen. He had instructed Selin to bring her some sweets during the auction. This privilege was extended only to Ellie. However, she didn’t eat them alone but shared them with the two girls who were glancing at her from nearby.

Initially, Athena wanted to refuse, but seeing Eldest Brother Owen’s gaze towards his future fiancée, she couldn’t decline the invitation. It was as if she feared that rejecting the invitation would displease her sister-in-law and also displease her eldest brother.

At first, the two girls ate stiffly, but after the first piece, they became more comfortable with the second. This was because, during their eating, their eldest brother didn’t say anything, and their second brother casually stole some of their sister-in-law’s sweets out of jealousy over her eating the eldest brother’s treats. Seeing everyone so relaxed, the two girls also felt more at ease.

After Ellie enjoyed the sweets and shared them with the two girls, she turned back to see the gentle gaze of the family head, who was watching her fondly without knowing. Ellie furrowed her brows slightly, not understanding why he was giving her such a look. However, Ellie’s gaze startled Steven. He raised his hand to scratch his cheek awkwardly. In his mind, sneaking a glance at someone eating sweets... seemed a bit shameless.

"Have someone bring tea to the table as well. It will help us relax too," Steven cleared his throat and instructed Selin to prepare more tea, which the maid promptly did.

Owen glanced between his father and Ellie before a faint smile appeared on his face. He felt that his family seemed a little more complete.

"I heard you invited Athena and Aya to join you for tea yesterday?" Upon hearing Owen’s question, Ellie nodded without much thought. However, the two girls sat up straight, beads of sweat forming along their foreheads. They bit their lips nervously, unsure if their eldest brother was bringing this up to reprimand them.

"You must be feeling lonely during this time. I’m busy with the auction, and Aman is occupied with his training. You can invite the girls to read with you more often. I’ll have extra seating prepared for them."

However, Owen’s words made Athena and Aya exchange glances. Aya was more sensitive and felt like screaming with joy at the sudden permission to visit the garden of paradise and have their own seats. Her eldest brother’s words were akin to saying...From now on, you can go sit there whenever you like. I’ve made arrangements. Even Athena, who was usually very cautious, couldn’t help but smile.

"Thank you, brother."

"Thank you, eldest brother," they both replied immediately.

"Just be careful not to disturb Ellie too much. And... don’t let her sit alone feeling lonely," Owen said nonchalantly, but he had already absorbed his sisters’ happiness.

The children looked at Ellie again, but this time it was as if a radiant light of kindness emanated from her petite figure. After this, Aya made a firm resolution: "From now on, I will follow sister-in-law everywhere. No matter what others say, I will cling to this golden leg. Following sister-in-law, I will never starve and will always live comfortably!!"

"You can trust Aya, eldest brother. I will make sure sister-in-law is never alone," Aya said with a broad smile. Athena lightly tapped her sister’s leg but didn’t deny that she agreed with her.

Owen nodded indifferently, but Aman was much more attentive!

"Eldest brother, I also keep her company. This morning I chatted with her too," Aman boasted to his brother. Ellie rolled her eyes almost instantly, making Aman nearly ruffle her messy hair if it weren’t for the cold voice of his eldest brother interrupting.

“I heard you disrupted her sleep rather than anything else.”

“Huh? How can you say that? I didn’t disrupt her sleep. That was the time everyone else was already awake. She was the only one still sleeping so late.”

“.................” Aman argued in his defense, but he was silenced by Owen’s piercing glare, which forced him to shut his mouth. Ellie almost burst into laughter.

“You!”

“Ellie trains very hard. While you were resting, she was still working. So, you shouldn’t mess with her sleep schedule,” Owen defended Ellie immediately, not letting Aman glare at her. Aman wanted to argue, but he knew his brother was already blinded by his favoritism.

Only Ellie was taken aback by Owen’s words. It seemed she sensed something unusual about this young lord. Anyone else hearing Owen’s words would think much of it, and understood that he was just defending her, but Ellie knew those words were...entirely true.

She trained intensely, absorbing power and using spores to inspect things. The faster the spores spread, the more life forces they absorbed. Such demanding work required heavy concentration and was far from easy.

After Ellie realized her Purple Mushroom could show its abilities to others at any level, she increased her little Purple Mushroom training efforts. Unfortunately, enhancing the little Apple’s power involved eating, so she had to be more caution in its training. If it ate the wrong things, it could cause problems, possibly revealing the identities of Luke and Ellie.

But whatever her training plans were, it should be a secret from everyone, shouldn’t it?

Ellie observed Owen’s demeanor seriously. She had tried to use her spores to monitor him extensively, but the spores were clearly vulnerable to lightning. No matter how quickly she rooted them or where she hid them, his lightning always burned them to ashes. Eventually, Ellie resorted to having the spores follow those around him, but that hadn’t yielded much information either.

This eldest young lord had a habit of appearing and disappearing unpredictably. She hadn’t figured out where he was yet, he’d already vanish to work alone, causing Ellie no small amount of headache. Keeping track of him required more concentration than anyone else, and ultimately, Ellie had to give up.

In truth, she wanted to ask him directly how he knew she was training. But doing so would confirm his statement that she was indeed training. Instead of making others think their eldest young lord was merely defending her when she was secretly napping, it would expose her. So, Ellie chose to divert her attention forward, as if she didn’t want to discuss the matter further.

“Tch,” Aman wanted to pinch Ellie’s cheek out of irritation. He was jealous of the full affection Ellie received from his eldest brother. Of course, he couldn’t do that, or he might be thrown out of the room by his respected brother.

Before long, the auction began. The host for today stepped up confidently. He was the top auctioneer in Ares Kingdom, a professional who knew how to present himself and handle problems. The Setter family couldn’t avoid hiring him for such an important event, as they had done many times before.

“Good morning to all the auction participants. I won’t introduce myself much, as the auctioneer’s identity is not as important as the items to be auctioned today. Especially since it’s been nearly 20 years since the Setter family last held their own auction, this must pique everyone’s interest, right?”

“Therefore, we shouldn’t keep everyone waiting any longer. Let’s start with the first item to whet your appetites. The first item the Setter family has allowed on the auction stage comes from Rhea Kingdom. Of course, it’s also a rare item, but it will only interest a specific group. Let’s see what it is.”

The auctioneer captured the guests’ attention skillfully. The first item’s price quickly soared to 300,000 gold coins. Despite it not being of general interest, it was highly sought after by beast trainers.

Aman watched the ordinary auction with little interest, but when the first item was successfully sold, he turned to signal Ellie with a mischievous gesture, as if to suggest that she should enjoy the upcoming spectacle!

The other members of the Setter family in the room also noticed his actions. The butler couldn’t help but clench his fists, sensing that his suspicions were correct—Second Young Lord Aman and Lady Ellie were definitely up to something together!

"Whatever this item is, I just hope you don’t mess things up," Steven cautioned again. He had nearly had heart attacks countless times because of this son! He hoped that...this time would be different.

"Don’t you trust me, Father...?" Aman raised his eyebrows challengingly, but inside, he was gleefully screaming.

Yes! He wanted to see the reactions of those agitated by his actions, not the indifferent face of his brother, who acted like Aman could do whatever he wanted, nor Ellie’s look of disapproval as if he were behaving childishly!

"..............." Steven looked at his eldest son and sighed. Since Owen, who was in charge of the event, had no objections, Steven had no choice but to remain silent.

"Alright, let’s move on to the next auction item. It seems that this next item might surprise many of you. However, it’s something that naturally occurs in the medical field, so this discovery should be beneficial to us humans," the auctioneer introduced the next item cautiously, fearing that it might cause an uproar once revealed.

The audience below exchanged glances. With the auctioneer suddenly hinting at something significant, how could they not be even more excited?

In one of the rooms where the Fernal family sat with other high-ranking families, the head of the Fernal family waved his hand dismissively, his boredom clearly evident.

"Sigh, is this all the Setter family has to offer? I had high expectations for this auction. I never thought the first item would be something so uninteresting."

"Indeed, at the Fernal family auction, from the first item to the last, every piece was astonishing. But this...sigh, perhaps we expected too much from them."

"Don’t be too hasty. There might still be one or two interesting items."

"What could be interesting? From the auctioneer’s words, it’s clear he’s just trying to inflate the value of the item up for auction. That means...even the experienced auctioneer knows this next item won’t garner much interest."

"Could it be something from Hestia Kingdom or Gaia Kingdom? He hinted it was related to the medical field, so it could be something along those lines."

"Ah...if it’s medical knowledge or something intriguing in the medical field, then the Fernal family might consider it. But...I truly fear it will be something worthless that we won’t even want to help auction off..."

With that, the family head let out a deep sigh. He took a sip of tea to hide his satisfied smirk. He had initially thought the Setter family would make a grand opening, but it turned out...they were just auctioning items from other kingdoms. The items weren’t even their own; what was there to be proud of...?

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