Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 6

The journey back always seemed shorter than the way there—perhaps because the Duke quickened his pace considerably.

Despite an early start, the round trip had consumed most of the day, and by the time they exited the mine, the sun was nearly gone. If they didn’t speed up, they might not reach Maplewood until close to midnight.

The two white horses, likely impatient from waiting, became restless at the sight of their master. Charlie was quite fond of these tall, beautiful horses and hurried over to feed them before setting off.

However, as he approached the carriage, the snow under his feet suddenly gave way, and a force violently tugged at his ankle. Before he could cry out, the world flipped upside down!

The rabbit shopkeeper blinked and tried to straighten his neck to understand what had happened.

Dwight stopped in his tracks, watching as Charlie, like a slender pendulum, dangled slightly in mid-air, his long ears comically drooping down.

It was a trap set next to the carriage.

Dwight ignored Charlie, who began to spin 360 degrees to observe his surroundings. ‘Araceae’ snorted impatiently as three tall men leaped from behind the rocks, bursting into laughter upon seeing Charlie’s predicament.

“Who said the best hunters are helpless in this wretched weather? Todd, we should let that old red-nosed drunk see this. We’ve snared a rabbit!”

“But his body is human—good lord, what is this creature? Does it have fur on its hands and feet like a rabbit too?”

One of them didn’t laugh.

“Forget the rabbit,” he said, eyeing Dwight from the start. “We should first deal with the fat sheep that’s with the rabbit.”

Dwight let the men size him up unabashedly. His face, mostly hidden by his hood, turned towards the continuously wriggling Charlie.

“Rarely traveled?” he said sarcastically.

The rabbit shopkeeper chuckled.

He wasn’t new to the Greenwoods, and he could swear on everything valuable in his shop that he had never seen a single soul in this vicinity before!

“Perhaps it’s because your carriage is too dazzling, its golden decorations sparkling in the snow, piquing the curiosity of everyone within miles.” Even upside down, the shopkeeper refused to be outdone in verbal sparring.

Dwight scoffed.

The uninvited thieves were probably not used to being ignored so completely. A man with unkempt hair pulled out a knife.

“Take off your cloak, boy,” he said maliciously. “Let’s see what else you have on you—a pocket watch? A pipe? Your belt and boots—if you cooperate, I might just swap my precious rat fur coat with you… It’s really freezing enough to turn people into ice sculptures, right?”

“Are you illiterate?” Dwight instead asked a seemingly irrelevant question.

The thieves were momentarily taken aback.

The Duke didn’t seem to actually wait for an answer; he unhitched his cloak, discarding the expensive deep green garment without a second thought onto the snowy ground.

One of the thieves gasped softly. They were all visibly stunned by Dwight’s appearance. The Duke, not yet fully past his teenage years, had pale skin, long and curled eyelashes complementing his light-colored eyes, a prominent nose, and a sharp chin. If not for his short hair, which no noblewoman would wear, they might have mistaken him for a ‘miss’.

“Right.” The leader of the thieves couldn’t help but glance at the pure gold clasps on the cloak, his Adam’s apple involuntarily twitching. “And your coat, it looks really valuable…”

Dwight, of course, didn’t continue undressing.

With a twist of his wrist, he drew a slender sword from his black cane.

“Since you don’t recognize the noble family crest, nor the initials engraved on the carriage,” he revealed his first smile of the day, “then you’re not trained assassins or soldiers with ulterior motives.”

In other words, easily defeated.

Probably no one expected this lavishly dressed noble to also carry a fine weapon. As he drew his sword, someone instinctively stepped back.

But the thief leader, fully prepared to take his luxurious clothes, was incensed by his contemptuous tone and charged at him like an uncontrollable brown bear. The thick snow didn’t hinder Dwight; he sidestepped and swiftly thrust his sword, neatly piercing the man’s ‘precious rat fur coat’ with surprising force, almost piercing the flesh.

The thief leader cried out and rolled backward, his heart pounding uncontrollably. In this snowy weather, they wore as much thick clothing as possible, yet his seemingly effortless thrust penetrated the layers—his weapon was much sharper than theirs!

And his actions made it clear that he wasn’t like the typical corpulent noble, helpless without their bodyguards.

“Todd!” he cried urgently, but his brother misunderstood, thinking he had slipped by accident. As part of the team, he immediately lunged at Dwight.

“Wait—” another thief sensed something amiss and tried to stop Todd but only grabbed the hem of his clothing, while Dwight switched to offense, striking directly at Todd’s throat!

The thief, who failed to grab Todd, reacted quickly, throwing something hard at him with great force. Dwight couldn’t retract his sword in time and had to duck; the heavy projectile grazed his hair.

As he paused, the thief leader had already scrambled up from the ground, along with another man, and they pulled Todd as they sprinted away.

Dwight didn’t pursue but checked for more ambushes before sheathing his sword back into his cane.

The little tin soldier, frightened into hiding under the carriage, slowly peeked out, regarding Dwight with a new mix of surprise and admiration.

The shopkeeper, completely forgotten at the side, complained, “I’m getting a brain rush.”

“What did he hit you with?” The shopkeeper, having been hung upside down for too long, was still seeing stars and could only climb into the carriage, tripping over his own feet.

The little tin soldier, energetically, had found the black object in the snow and also brought it onto the carriage.

“My joints are frozen,” the little tin soldier exclaimed. “I can barely move.”

“I found some oil in the mine,” Charlie said.

Dwight, sitting far from them, seemed eager to criticize their oiling activities inside his carriage, but considering Charlie had just fulfilled his promise, he reluctantly conceded and pretended not to see the scene that irritated his sense of cleanliness.

But the little tin soldier wouldn’t be quiet, continuing to chatter even after being oiled. “Is this oil or water? Something feels very wrong, Charlie!”

“If you keep your mouth shut for a while, it’ll be much better,” Charlie patiently said, taking the black object from the little tin soldier.

It looked like a clay teapot, unadorned and worn smooth from handling. Dwight glanced at it with disdain and turned away, scolding, “How can you touch everything with your hands? Is it a habit developed from digging?”

“It’s just a teapot—here.”

As Charlie extended his hand, Dwight immediately leaned back, his face full of caution.

“You’re still wearing gloves.”

“Gloves knitted by fairies, worth ten gold coins in the Empire.”

“Alright, alright.”

“Seriously, why pick up this trash?”

Charlie paused in his actions, not answering immediately but instead carefully turning the teapot over to inspect it again. “I always feel there’s something not quite right—”

He stopped abruptly.

Dwight followed his gaze and saw a small, shallow relief on the bottom of the teapot that looked like a strange bird with two heads—one raised high and the other bowed as if drinking water.

“A two-headed raven?” Dwight’s eyebrows raised. “The emblem of the witch Elena.”

The last statement was definitive.

The rabbit shopkeeper was a bit surprised. “I thought people from the Northern Continent weren’t very familiar with witches from the south.”

Witches and female mages were different. Although both were proficient in magic, witches were generally considered mages who had gone astray, trading their humanity for more powerful and evil forces in deals with demons, and were shunned everywhere.

But not many female mages actually succeed in enhancing their powers through evil means. Witch Elena was one of them. However, she had never set foot on the Northern Continent, and this was the first time Charlie heard her name mentioned in Lemena.

Charlie carefully examined the teapot, then suddenly laughed. “Kurt was absolutely right. He really is the best astrologer.”

Dwight didn’t try to understand his muttering. He was contemplating more pressing matters.

His trip was for Priscilla, and now, having obtained the desired results from the astrologer, it brought him even greater dilemmas.

His only sister was in a dire situation.

Now, the roses of Brandenburg were no longer his priority. Dwight didn’t speak again on the way back to Maplewood until they could see its gates from afar, when he unexpectedly asked, “Have you lived in Maplewood all your life?”

“Of course not,” the shopkeeper said without hesitation. “I was born in Maplewood but left when I was very young. It was only three years ago that I came back to Lemena. I thought the old family home was gone. Thank goodness—that saved me a good deal of money. But if you ask me, gold shines no matter where it is, you see…”

He gave Dwight a meaningful look, implying, ‘My shop has served countless important people, and you are just one of them’.

Dwight had almost grown accustomed to the rabbit-headed shopkeeper’s occasional verbal affronts, but this time, he didn’t use his usual sarcastic comeback. Instead, he meaningfully curled the corner of his mouth.

“I agree,” the Duke said. “Gold shines no matter where it is.”

For some reason, in that moment, that nearly whispered phrase made Charlie’s hair stand on end.

Luckily, he didn’t have a tail. Otherwise, it would have been quite embarrassing if it had puffed up.

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