Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal

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

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Chapter 7

The young and wealthy Duke only stayed in Maplewood for a few days before leaving, but that didn’t stop him from quickly becoming a living legend, largely due to his striking handsomeness.

Although Maplewood was small, it had seen its share of royal processions and foreign merchants with fingers fully decked in gemstone rings, but none had captured the town’s attention like Duke Dwight.

The town’s oldest resident tirelessly told everyone that he had lived for a hundred years and had never seen anyone more beautiful than Duke Dwight.

“Don’t listen to him,” Charlie said loudly, holding up a mug of coarse beer. “Uncle Bob isn’t a hundred years old, and the furthest he’s been is to the corn farm. What kind of beauty would he have seen there? At most, they held a beauty contest for scarecrows…”

The crowd laughed, and a bearded drunkard chimed in, “Old Bob can barely see! I don’t believe it—describing a man with beauty, what’s that about! If you ask me, the most beautiful person is Mona. There’s no one prettier than our innkeeper in the world!”

The innkeeper by the bar couldn’t smile; her earlobes throbbed with pain.

The sheriff’s wife had initially been eager to marry her daughter into the Duke’s castle, but since the Duke was mostly away, she settled for trying to get close to the knight left in charge of the inn, which Mona had blocked several times, causing quite a bit of unpleasantness between them.

Charlie approached the bar, his voice low with a hint of laughter. “Drinks on me for everyone, Mona.”

Mona turned to instruct the bartender, taking the money bag from Charlie and asking, “Made a good profit?”

The manager downed the rest of his drink.

“The Duke is very generous.” According to their agreement, the Duke actually didn’t have to pay him anything this time, but Dwight had still given him a substantial sum before leaving, noting that it wouldn’t affect future payments.

“But you gave too much.” Mona frowned, her beautiful, dark eyes lingering on the money bag. “There’s enough here for everyone to drink for three days and nights.”

Charlie said, “Keep it here, and we’ll use it for drinks at the Bacchus Festival in spring.”

The Bacchus Festival was a spring event to pray for and celebrate the harvest.

The astute innkeeper quickly sensed something amiss in his words. “Why leave it here? Won’t you be in town in the spring?”

Charlie winked at her. “A pretty woman shouldn’t pry into a man’s whereabouts. Don’t overthink it. I just made a big deal and got drunk. It’s rare for me to be so foolish. If you don’t want it, give those lovely silver coins back to me.”

As he said this, he reached out for the bag.

Mona hid the money bag behind her back. “They haven’t paid for their drinks tonight yet!”

Charlie leaned on the bar, whistling long and loudly at her, drawing cheers from the crowd—who all knew the beautiful innkeeper only acted like a young girl when dealing with Charlie.

Mona’s cheeks flushed red, and she shouted, “I must have been crazy to worry about you, you scoundrel! You’re not leaving my pub tonight without spending your last coin!”

The bearded man, who had a crush on Mona, immediately got angry, staggering up with his drink and blowing air through his nostrils like a bull.

“Don’t mess with Mona!” he yelled.

A crowd quickly gathered around.

“A duel! A duel! A duel!”

“Drink! Drink! Drink!”

A drinking contest was undoubtedly the most exciting event on a boring winter night, and once started, it wouldn’t quiet down until after midnight.

Mona glanced at Charlie, who was energetically rolling up his sleeves for the contest, and suddenly felt foolish.

It was just a drunkard’s jest, and she had taken it seriously.

The consequences of excessive drinking were direct. The next day, the men couldn’t get up.

In winter, there was no fieldwork, but hangovers were still annoying, and the women gathered, complaining about their men while discussing which foods would best soothe their alcohol-ravaged stomachs.

Bachelor Charlie had no such domestic troubles, and when his shop remained closed until the next afternoon, people bet he’d only wake up when his stove went out at midnight.

But there was no sign of him the next day or the day after.

Only when his neighbor found an envelope in their mailbox with Charlie’s ornate handwriting asking for help with his garden over the summer did people realize something was amiss.

The envelope contained the key to his garden.

Mona was right. Charlie wasn’t just a scoundrel but also a liar.

Without notice, without saying goodbye, on a night unnoticed by all, the rabbit-headed shopkeeper silently left Maplewood with the little tin soldier.

Almost the day after Charlie’s departure was noticed, the ‘renowned for his beauty’ Duke Dwight sent a messenger.

Unlike the fully armed, sword-bearing knight of the previous visit, this time a well-dressed middle-aged gentleman arrived at 22 Elmwood Street with a letter from the Duke.

21 Elmwood Street was a solidly built fruit grower who had never dealt with nobility and stutteringly told the visitor that the man he was looking for had gone away.

“No one knows when he left,” said Fruit Grower Joseph, standing nervously in front of his house. “Charlie is—probably most of the time, quite mysterious.”

“So, did Mr. Charlie ever mention where he might go?” the gentleman pondered.

“Not at all,” Joseph answered proficiently, as this wasn’t the first time he had been asked this.

In fact, Charlie’s unannounced departure left many women in town quite upset. In his view, there were so many good young men in Maplewood; heaven knows why it was Charlie, with his rabbit head, who was the most popular.

After determining that he could learn nothing more, the gentleman didn’t even visit the pub but hurriedly left.

His master was waiting for him.

“It seems he had planned this in advance,” the butler said as he brought the unopened envelope bearing the Duke’s family crest back to Dwight. “Asking the neighbor to look after the garden means he won’t be back until at least the end of summer. I looked through the window from outside the garden, and indeed, all the furniture was covered with cloths.”

Rabbits were indeed very cunning.

The Duke placed the letter into the fire, the flames casting half his face in shadow, giving him the appearance of an unfinished portrait.

“Take the carriage back,” Dwight commanded as the ashes of the letter fell to the carriage floor, stepping down from the carriage. “Shivers.”

The waiting Knight Commander, leading Araceae, assisted his master onto the horse.

“You all go back,” Dwight said to the butler from horseback.

The butler immediately objected, “Your Lordship, you absolutely must not leave Lemena with only one knight. It’s far too dangerous.”

“I won’t be going with just one knight,” Dwight stated gravely. “Alyssa’s husband is not a man of broad spirit. Having Brandenburg’s forces appear in his territory would only harm Alyssa.”

The butler pursed his lips tightly. He had served the Dwight family for generations, and the Duke could tell he wasn’t conceding.

“My plans won’t change,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter if that man has already fled. I will take enough men with me. The Dwights don’t rashly court death.”

Shivers exchanged a look with the butler.

“At least take Shiloh with you.” The butler stepped back, and the baby-faced knight immediately stepped forward.

Dwight glanced at Shivers, and the Knight Commander moved forward to whisper something in Shiloh’s ear.

Shiloh’s expression brightened immediately. “Please take care, Your Lordship, and have a safe journey!”

The butler: “……”

No one ever listened, making life quite difficult.

Regardless, the actual ruler of Brandenburg was Duke Dwight. Seeing that his advice was ineffective, the worried butler could only lead the team back to Brandenburg with heavy concern.

Shivers, riding Midnight, stayed half a horse’s length behind Dwight. Long journeys were a compulsory skill for a knight, but although the Duke had been trained in combat and physical skills from a young age, strictly speaking, he lacked experience in long-distance travel.

After all, he was still very young, and even Shivers couldn’t say for certain that he could handle all potential situations along the way. But the Dwights were always clever, and he believed the Duke had his reasons for insisting on a small team.

“Sir, shall we first try to find Shopkeeper Charlie?” Shivers asked. “But the whole town doesn’t know where he has gone.”

He knew the Duke had mentioned needing more hands, and Charlie was supposedly part of the plan from the start.

But it seemed Charlie, perhaps possessing a prescient ability, had vanished without a trace ahead of time.

“That man is very cunning,” Dwight said gravely. “If he wants to keep something secret, not even the candlesticks in the confessional could overhear him. And since he was born in Maplewood, even if someone knows where he went, they wouldn’t tell us truthfully.”

The Knight Commander couldn’t help asking, “What should we do then? With another snowfall, not even a fox’s tracks will remain, and we’ll have no direction.”

“There is,” Dwight said. “Like us, he has only one route out of Lemena this season.”

Lemena was a peninsula extending from the continent of Pennigra. It was surrounded by sea on three sides, with the seas frozen over in the winter cold. There was only one land route connected to the continent of Doran. If Charlie’s ultimate destination wasn’t on Pennigra, then he was confident in Araceae and Midnight’s stamina, unless he planned to cross the sea by sled. Sooner or later, they would catch up to him.

Whether his hasty departure from Maplewood was because he foresaw Dwight seeking him again or for another reason…

Dwight remembered Charlie’s reaction to seeing the teapot bearing Witch Elena’s emblem. The witch’s realm lay in the eastern part of Doran, and coincidentally—

Dwight’s eyes darkened.

Eastern Doran was very close to Priscilla.

Charlie claimed to be merely a somewhat connected shopkeeper, but Dwight saw him as never truly revealing his identity.

To know an astrologer accessible only to the upper echelons, yet living in Maplewood among farmers; during the days Dwight spent with him, Charlie showed no particular powers, but the little tin soldier accompanying him was clearly a product of magic; and he instantly recognized a witch’s emblem that most would never see in their lifetimes.

Not to mention his conspicuous, odd rabbit head.

But because of his own nonchalant attitude towards his rabbit head, he even managed to suggest to others that ‘it’s a bit odd, but not unacceptable—perhaps he got into some trouble resulting in that.’

It was only upon reflection that Dwight realized that not only did the residents of Maplewood treat Charlie no differently, including the naive children who were used to his presence and sensed nothing unusual—

Even Dwight himself, despite finding his head conspicuous, never thought to ask about it.

Not even once.

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