Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation(Vol 5)

Vol 5/ Chapter 22: Michelle Appears

"Why aren't you finding a seat?"

We stood at the tavern entrance for a while. I finally realized the person who was supposed to lead the way wasn't moving at all. As the "master", she should have been showing us where to sit.

"Mi... Mi..."

I pushed Cyra gently several times from behind, but she still didn't want to move forward. Her lips were shaking like she wanted to say something. Her eyes kept darting around, hinting for me to look towards a corner of the tavern. Then she kept shaking her head slightly, as if warning me not to stare too obviously.

"Mi what?"

I couldn't understand what was going on. Just as I was about to turn my head to look where she was looking, Adrian suddenly stepped forward quickly. He whispered to Cyra: "I see her! Relax, don't be too nervous. She hasn't noticed you yet! Don't forget you're in disguise now. She won't recognize you. Just act like you don't know anything and sit down!"

"Huh?"

As he finished speaking, I finally saw who Cyra was pointing at. My whole back went cold. I almost couldn't help turning around and running out of the tavern.

In the right corner of the small tavern by the window sat a young girl. She had fiery red hair and looked exactly like Cyra. Without realizing it, she had caught the attention of many customers around her, many were secretly looking at her.

If I'm not mistaken, that must be Michelle! She was casually sipping from her wine glass, looking out the window one moment and then scanning the tavern the next. But she clearly hadn't recognized me or Cyra.

I never expected Michelle to come drink alone in a place like this. What was her purpose? To capture this city? But it didn't seem like that. The only explanation must be related to the Cycle of Birth that Galadra mentioned. Whatever she was planning to do, we absolutely couldn't let her discover our true identities.

"Don't keep looking over there. Let's just order food like normal!"

With Adrian's reminder, Cyra finally managed to walk to an empty table and lead us to sit down. According to our original plan, to make things look more real, we were going to have Cyra sit alone at one table while Adrian and I, the "servants", sat at another. But now the situation was tense and we couldn't worry about that anymore.

"Waiter, bring us your menu to look at!"

As soon as we sat down, Adrian immediately pretended to speak for Cyra, raising his hand to call the server. There was only one female server in the small tavern. We had to call several times before she responded. She wore a big apron and looked very busy moving between tables.

This series of calls once again drew everyone's attention. Most troubling was that Michelle heard it too. She turned her head to look at us more carefully. Her eyes quickly scanned over my face and Cyra's, then lingered on Adrian's face for a while, as if trying hard to remember something.

In that moment, I felt my scalp tingling. I thought we were about to be exposed. Luckily, she didn't seem to recognize Adrian in the end. After a long time, she finally looked away. She finished her drink in one gulp, left a few coins on the table, then stood up and left the tavern.

That was so nerve-wracking! We all looked at each other, nearly scared to death. It took a while to calm down. Only then did I remember that although Michelle had met Adrian once before, Adrian passed out quickly at that time. So her impression of him probably wasn't very deep. Plus, for her that happened over a year ago (this Michelle was sent back in time a year by the twelve-winged Nicola). It's normal that she didn't recognize him after so much time had passed.