She found out!

Ethan comes out of the salon, holding the end of his sleeves while giving a side look of his face. He can tell he look entirely different than he went inside.

His hairs have been cut neatly and his bangs from the front have been tied up in his back in form of ponytail while held up by multiple hairpin, showing off his face cut. There is another add to his face that is his piercing on his right ear with a cube and a normal one to his left. His ears were already pierced but he surprisingly never noticed it. The kind man added it and he actually felt that it looks good.

He can tell if he was a 10/10 before then now he is 20/10 right now! Lucas? Adam? All of them will look like an ugly duck in front of him now. He is confident that some might mistake him for a celebrity by mistake. If a philocalist saw him now, he might even try to buy him at the spot…

"…Do you not get tired by your own narcissism?"

"…"

A puddle of darkness rises from the nearby shadow and forms into an alluring figure of a woman. Ethan can't help but felt his pride being hurt when he looked at her. Even with light makeup, he felt outmatched by her when it comes to beauty. It is same as comparing a toad and a swan in lake.

"Let's go. You already waste so much time."

Both of them sunk into shadow and vanished without any trace. He was hoping she might comment on his new look or some reaction but it seems he isn't even worth that to her...

A puddle of shadow rises and formed into two figures inside an alley. Ethan looked around and thought about what they are doing here.

"…Remove your coat…and I won't repeat myself."

Ethan hurried removed his coat as she told him. He doesn't know why but he just followed her words first and looked for an explanation later. She hand a triangular shaped piece of cloth with tight edges and there was also a bow tie at the top collar.

"Tug it into your vest."

Ethan looked at trying to make sense of it. He put it long edge into inside his chest and stick it to his collar. He looked like…

"…I looked like a waiter!"

Raven rolled her eyes at him. She handed him a masquerade mask and tried to see if there is anything wrong with him.

"…What's up with this mask?"

"…It's the theme of party. It will change your voice and won't come out until you want to."

Ethan turned silent for a moment. Why didn't she tell him that in the first place? What the hell he prepared himself for? He groomed himself to best of his look and he won't even get a chance to show it off at all!

"Here is your map, remember it well. You will take turn to left alley and a door will be visible at the end of that alley. Go inside and head to restroom. I don't need to tell you after that. The man you will be looking for will be in black and green mask. You will recognize it right away."

"…How do you know that?"

"I am Raven and I know everything."

Ethan looked at her for a second. Is it him or she has become more expressive to him?

"Go now!"

Ethan hurriedly walks by her directions and stand in front of the door she mentioned. He stood in front of the door. He took a deep breath and went inside the door. Ethan went inside and enters the storage room. Door was surprisingly unlocked. He locked it from inside and comes out of the room.

He knows his way around this place because of map. There were other waiters who threw glanced at him and mind their business after that. Ethan knows that current him have a different charm today.

He is not too worried about getting catch up. Map also had marked the range of cameras. He avoided them all and went toward the main hall where party is supposed to be happening.

He removed the piece of cloth he was wearing on his collar and threw it into trashbin nearby him. He took out his coat and masks from his storage. He wears them in the empty path and enters into main hall.

It was an expected scene of slow and pleasant music played by orchestra in the background and low whispers of people, talking to each other in masquerade masks with occasional loud laughs during conversation. Most of them had a colorful glass of wine in their hand while some people were talking with the beautiful wine itself.

It was quiet interesting that it was easy to tell about who is beauty or not just by a look even with masks on. Ethan looks around within the large hall. It was really large as Ethan couldn't see the end of it because of people standing around.

It was not too long he found his target, matching the description, Raven told him. He didn't look at him directly and try to create more distance from him. Ethan can tell after few more glance that he is the same person whom he served the tea. It was hard to describe how but it was…maybe his body language or presence that bears similarity.

He was talking with few people who looked with same authority level as him. He can't hear him but he is sure that whatever transaction will take place, it will be materialistic. If it was just word and message then it can be done by anyone but if it's a precious object or something else then it must be handover in personal or it won't hold its viability.

He already marked him by his eyes so unless he used any Art, it will be unlikely for him to escape. He can't use any Art here if he did that he might as well as scream that he was weapon dealer…

He created a distance of 50ft and keeps his eyes on him. Ethan occasionally looked around as he found this place a sight for sour eyes. Their curvy back and their clothes adhere to their curves. He also found himself wondering about woman body…

His eyes suddenly stopped when he noticed a familiar figure. She had a wheat blonde hair and a feathery black mask. Her curves were well shaped and she was pretty much attracting every single male teenager in party. Ethan finds a sense of nostalgia from it. If she is the person, he is thinking, then he might as well as leave this place.

He starts moving with calm steps and moved away to other side where she can't see him. It won't end well if she noticed him. He stumbled into a black hair lady as he was moving away. Her mask untied and fell down because of light collision.

"My bad, I didn't see you."

"…then sell those eyes of yours because they are useless."

Ethan was bending down to pick up her mask but stops midway when he heard her voice. Her poisonous words were one thing but her voice sound unpleasantly familiar. He picked up her mask and slowly looked up while raising himself up.

"…You-"

It was the same Asian beauty who had insulted him last month in academy, Li Lin! What kind of luck he had to stumble into her here of all places. It also looked like she recognized him at the heartbeat as she looked at him with stunned eyes.

"…What are you doing here?"

It was too late to play it off as misunderstanding. Ethan grabs her hand and took her away from every guy who was trying to poach her. It was kind of satisfying but he didn't forget to steal glance at his target.

Ethan took her behind the pillar and stands in front of her which also gave him view of his target from behind the pillar. Target is engaged in small conversation so he is not worried about it.

"…How did you recognize me?"

"…What in the world are you doing here?"

"…I am…actually here to eat."

"…Haa?"

She was dumbfounded by his response. He is here to eat? Does he know nothing about this party? How the hell did even get into here?

"How did you recognize me?"

Ethan asked her again now that he had answered her. Li Rou looked at him while contemplating about telling him or not.

"…I remembered you."

"…I don't think I leave such a lasting image on you…"

"…"

She turned silent and just stares at him. Ethan tried to guess about the reason. He knows that this lady is also a Rune User and she can also brew potions from what he heard but none of them justify this situation unless she can smell him like a dog...

"…I am sensitive to mana. I can recognize people by their mana as long as they are close enough."

Ethan raised his eyebrows at her. Isn't that some crazy ability she had here? Just being sensitive to mana doesn't justify her ability…He didn't even use his mana in the first place…but since she said that he can only take it with a pinch of salt.

"…What are you doing here?"

"…I told you I am here for food, didn't I?"

"…Do you really expect me to believe that?"

Ethan looked at her while stealing glances at his target naturally. He tried to think of some way to make her believe him.

"…You know I am orphan, right?"

She nods her head while staring at him with silence.

"…You know, no one would ever call me in this party…and you know…I always wanted to come in such a place…I want to see how it looks...so I sneaked myself in."

"…What about your suit, don't try to sell me that it is cheap or something? I can tell the material just by looking at it. Even richest young man here is not wearing suit as expensive as you."

Ethan turned silent at her words. He didn't even know that at all! Raven brought a suit as expensive as this…he is lost for words right now! He calmed down and tried to weasel his way out. If he can't make his way out of suit topic then he can just change it.

"…I stole it… yeah... that's the kind of guy I am. Laugh all you want. I deserve it. I hear about this party and just a day ago I stumbled into this suit. I saw that owner was distracted so I steal it. That's what it is. If you're satisfied then please leave me alone. I will also leave after some time if you're worried."

"…"

She turned silent at his confession. She silently turns around and leaves. Ethan looked at her walking toward crowd in a long sleeveless night blue dress. He must admit that even though quality is different, she doesn't lose to Alice in any way at all!

Ethan glanced at his target again now that he didn't have to be worried about her. It doesn't seem like they will cross path with each other again. He was still talking with his acquaintances around him.

Ethan kept his eyes with minimum glances. He always sends glances toward the people besides him instead of him. He also make sure to keep change his focus on to different person than last time. If Ethan focus on him directly for more than twice then target will become suspicious but what about the people besides him. He can't sense through them can he?

Ethan had suffered because of it in the past and to help with that, he discovered that he just need to make sure he didn't target his focus on the man in question directly even once. As long as he does that, he would have no trouble with spying.

He finally made a move after half an hour.