The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 478: Hello, Father

Chapter 478: Hello, Father
Lane stood in the crowded ballroom, sipping champagne and staring absentmindedly at the bubbles rising up in the light golden liquid, bored out of his mind. From the speakers nearby, the words of Director Torres, giving his opening speech, were coming out, but Lane wasn’t registering any of it. He just alternated between watching the air bubbles and staring blankly ahead.
Somehow, he ended up standing with Damien’s sisters. Eloise and Samantha had come over to meet up with Clara, and they greeted Lane since they were at it. They were in the middle of a light chatter, when Director Torres took the stage...
Which was excruciatingly boring, as those kinds of speeches tended to be. And, while Lane had nothing against Eloise and Samantha... They were still Damien’s sisters. Just as expected of his kin, the moment the Director started speaking, they instantly shut up, listening attentively (or at least pretending to listen). After all, it would have been ’inappropriate’ to continue talking when someone was giving a speech. No matter how dull it was.
Of course, Lane could have just left them and find someone else to kill the time with, but... Clara would have undoubtedly ed that to Damien. And Lane had promised him he would ’behave’. He didn’t want to break this promise before the gala even fully began.
All of a sudden, the sound of applause erupted around Lane, snapping him out of his bored daze. He blinked, lifting his eyes, just in time to see Director Torres leaving the stage.
So the speech was finally over. The gala and the summit officially began.
"Where were we... Ah! Right! Alice’s wedding!" Eloise clapped her hands, returning to their previous topic. "You will be coming as Damien’s plus one, won’t you?"
"Hmm?" Lane quirked his brow. "Oh, yeah. It seems that I will."
Although they hadn’t had time to discuss it in detail, Damien had mentioned it to him the other day. Sometime when they had been in the dungeons, Alice, the third oldest of the siblings, had gotten engaged to her long-term boyfriend, and they were now in the middle of planning a wedding... And Damien, as her brother, had naturally received an invite.
For him an a ’plus one’. He had yet to explicitly ask Lane to attend the wedding with him, but it was obvious that he wanted Lane to... And how could Lane possibly say no? He had never been to any wedding before, not as far as he could remember, but it was a great timing. Perhaps he could use this as an opportunity to subtly feel out how Damien felt about getting married? On top of that, he’d finally get to meet the rest of Damien’s family...
"It seems?" Clara repeated with a scoff, staring daggers at Lane. Her attitude towards him worsened ever since the SD card incident (maybe she was salty about the fact that Nyla had approached her to pass information to Lane? It was only Lane’s theory, of course, but...), so when she found something to pick on, no matter how small, she wouldn’t let it slide. "What, are you not sure yet? Or is Damien finally..." She was about to say ’break up with you’, but she bit her tongue at the last moment, and changed to, "Or is planning something months ahead too much for you?"
Lane let out a quiet sigh. Planning to ignore her, he turned her eyes back to Eloise to continue the topic...
But before he could say anything, someone else’s voice came from behind his back. "Alice is getting married? Congratulations!"
The smiles on Eloise and Samantha’s faces instantly faltered, and Clara’s scowl deepened. Even Lane’s expression grew a bit more serious.
He knew that voice. It sounded oddly like Damien’s, except far less pleasant.
"Hello, father." Eloise was the first one to greet the man. "What brings you here?"
"I’m here to attend the summit, of course!" Austin Moore paid no attention to the tension in the air, and joined the group as if he belonged among them. "So, when’s the wedding? How come I haven’t received an invitation yet?" He winked at Samantha.
Everyone’s expression grew even weirder. Although Austin didn’t call Samantha ’Alice’ openly, the way he was looking at her when asking the question made it seem...
"Ahem. Why are you asking SAMANTHA? She’s not in charge of planning the wedding," Eloise spoke up, trying to take control of the situation before Clara lost her patience and snapped at the man.
"Ah, well..." Austin’s smile froze. It didn’t fully disappear though, as the man awkwardly shifted his gaze to Clara.
"CLARA is too busy to help out either," Eloise quickly clarified.
Austin’s eyes shifted to her next. She had mentioned ’Alice’s wedding’ a moment ago, so she obviously couldn’t be Alice... Wanting to make up for his earlier blunders, he asked, "How about you, Julie?"
Clara’s face twitched ominously.
"Uh, well... I’m..." Eloise pressed her lips, unsure whether she should correct the man. Before she could decide, a sound of muffled chuckle interrupted the tense silence between them.
"...Pfft! Sorry!" Lane couldn’t hold back anymore. While he knew that it probably wasn’t funny for the women, Austin’s ignorance was almost comical! To not even remember the names of his children? Sure, he had at least ten of them, but...
Austin finally turned his eyes to him. "And who are you supposed to be?" he asked rudely, dropping his happy-go-lucky attitude from earlier. He only had two sons, one of whom was and S-ranker the Guild he was a part of wanted to scout, so he knew about him very well (and with how similar Damien looked to him, he couldn’t mistake him for someone else), while the other was the youngest of the bunch, so he clearly couldn’t be the man standing in front of him. And Julie... No, Eloise, had mentioned something about ’plus one’... Not to mention his face...
"Ah." Something in Austin’s mind suddenly clicked, and his eyes widened. Just as another voice came from the side,
"He’s my son."