Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal

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

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Chapter 64

The two girls specifically tasked with washing bed linens and tablecloths had already made several trips back and forth from the yard, each time sneaking a peek at the men in the hallway.

In Mokwen, a country that prided itself on martial prowess, the mainstream aesthetic for men had always been strong muscles, thick beards, and the scent of tobacco. The poets, merchant caravans, or military groups that passed through were usually either weary from travel or mysteriously elusive, partially concealed. The occasional appearance of a few handsome, clean men stood out starkly, like snowflakes in a coal heap.

A few local male servants, although they acknowledged that the wealthy gentlemen who had booked the inn indeed had a remarkable presence, equally couldn’t understand why the women were so frenzied. They made countless excuses to pass by the spacious hallway, which was off-limits to anyone unpermitted, sneaking peeks inside—simply because several gentlemen practiced swordsmanship there every morning.

Clang.

The blunt sword in Eugene’s hand was knocked out again, flying several meters away—this was already the fourth time this morning.

On this cool early spring morning, he was overheated. His face was flushed as if every pore was exuding steam.

“Wait!” He bent over, hands on his knees, trying to alleviate some of the stomach pain caused by too much exertion.

Initially, he had some complaints about the Knight Commander’s insistence on him shaving his beard and cutting his hair short, believing that most of his masculine charm came from his stubble. However, after several days of rigorous training, he began to think it was a wise decision: intense physical activity always led to profuse sweating, and his hair and beard would become a mess. If he dared to appear before the Duke in such a state, the Duke’s glance would make Eugene feel like an indelible stain on a kitchen fireplace.

Shiloh crouched lightly on a hardback chair, complaining, “Your shoulders are as stiff as a rock! That’s why you keep getting disarmed—”

He maintained a half-crouched stance, pivoting forty-five degrees on his left foot for balance, and made a thrusting motion with one hand.

“I must have said it a hundred times, relax your shoulders, relax your shoulders, relax your shoulders,” Shiloh said seriously. “Your physical fitness is also poor. You’re panting like this just from light sword practice. If you wore knight’s armor, you wouldn’t even be able to lift a wooden sword.”

“You make it sound so easy.” Eugene gasped as he went to pick up his sword.

“Shiloh is right,” Shivers, who was passing by after breakfast, chimed in. “Shiloh is a heavy swordsman. With just a weapon and a horse, he can pierce through a formation of up to thirty infantrymen on his own.”

Eugene turned incredulously to look at Shiloh, who was still perched on the chair.

Shiloh grinned at him.

“Is that why you’re always hungry?” Eugene incredulously sized up Shiloh’s still-growing frame.

Shiloh was quite tall, but with a round face and round eyes, he was neither fat nor particularly muscular. Eugene could hardly even imagine him fully armored—it just didn’t fit.

“I’m still growing.” Shiloh jumped off the chair. “I should be able to wield a sword with one hand once I’m fully grown. Alright, alright, lift your lazy arms. Let’s go again!”

Eugene numbly gave up on thinking.

As a pure-blooded low-born thug, Eugene’s understanding of fighting had always been simple: the bigger and more muscular, the stronger.

However, after being recruited by the Duke, he found that although he might be the heaviest among the group, his combat ability was (sadly) the weakest. In group fights, he was just blunt and clumsy, and even the seemingly fragile and slender rabbit-headed shopkeeper could knock him down.

A disgruntled Eugene, whenever he had a chance, pestered the Knight Commander to teach him swordsmanship. Shivers, maintaining his usual grace, was willing to teach him, but Eugene soon learned that just the stance for swordsmanship frustratingly had over a dozen variations!

He thought Shivers was pulling his leg until the rabbit-headed shopkeeper and the Duke both treated it as common knowledge. Therefore, just the stance for holding the sword took him a long time to learn, and the Knight Commander still thought his posture was “not correct or graceful enough”.

When Shiloh saw Eugene letting Shivers teach him swordsmanship, he bristled: Shivers was their Knight Commander, and even proper members of the Brandenburg Knight Order would feel embarrassed to pester him about teaching such basic skills. Shiloh immediately offered to take over the task from Shivers.

Initially, Eugene thought Shiloh was just a kid who probably got his knighthood through his background, and he grumbled, hoping Shivers would continue to teach him. But perhaps Shiloh was taking this opportunity for revenge, scrutinizing his posture while also stepping up the sparring practice, making Eugene howl in pain every morning.

Today, learning that Shiloh was a heavy swordsman, someone who could wield such a cumbersome weapon in full armor (knight armor was as heavy as a joke), surprised him…

They shouldn’t call it the Brandenburg Knight Order, but the Brandenburg Monster Order.

Eugene thought resentfully as he was once again flipped onto the ground by Shiloh.

Shiloh’s timely assistance was perfect, as his master had been somewhat anxious these past few days, which worried Shivers.

Like Erica, he didn’t quite understand why the Duke suddenly cared whether his sister was pregnant, but as the Knight Commander of the Duke’s personal guard, he, like Erica, possessed an extraordinary intuition.

This trait was most pronounced in Duke Dwight, to the point where even the rabbit-headed shopkeeper privately thought his acuity was almost elven.

Whether it was because he himself possessed this special ability and subconsciously gathered like-minded individuals or because they had been gradually trained as part of Dwight’s family reserve forces since childhood, even Shiloh showed similar characteristics, although his thought process was more akin to an animal’s instinctual nature.

The change in the Duke’s attitude was clearly after the private conversation with Charlie, but afterwards, both of them avoided discussing the content of their conversation.

Of course, Shivers couldn’t ask Dwight directly, but even the usually amiable rabbit-headed shopkeeper adopted an evasive stance when Shivers inquired diplomatically. This seemed like a signal, and the frequency of their private discussions increased, giving Shivers a subtle feeling.

He could somewhat understand that sharing various experiences, especially adventures, indeed acted as a catalyst for a sense of camaraderie between people. Not only was this true for the Duke and the shopkeeper, but it was the same for him with Eugene and Columbus, which was why the departure of the little tin soldier made everyone feel very sad.

But on top of that, having secrets in common also brought them closer to each other than to others.

It wasn’t that Shivers had any complaints about Charlie. Although the rabbit-headed shopkeeper was a mystery in many ways, his actions and speech were forthright, and intuition told him that Charlie wasn’t a person with ill intentions.

It was just that he and the Duke had been together almost since they were old enough to write, more like brothers than master and servant.

As the Duke’s first confidant, he had always felt that he was the most trusted by the Duke—indeed, this was also the tradition at Brandenburg. No matter how many marriages and loves a Duke went through, no matter how many children and vassals he had, the head of the Brandenburg Knight Order was always the sword in the Duke’s hand, the person closest to his power and secrets.

Shivers could feel that the Duke was curious about and sought to explore more about this mysterious shopkeeper, and interest often served as the gateway to investment.

The Duke’s unusual interest and trust in Charlie were unsettling for Shivers.

This unease wasn’t about fearing the loss of the Duke’s favor, as his loyalty to the Duke was always one-sided, requiring no feedback or reciprocation from the Duke.

His uncertainty was more about Charlie.

Perhaps Charlie wasn’t a bad person, but that didn’t mean he could necessarily be a good object for the Duke’s emotional investment.

The allure caused by a man’s mystery wasn’t only effective on women.

But behind the secrecy, what kind of person was the shopkeeper, really?

Could he offer the Duke an equal emotional return?

Such a man seemed too much of a wanderer. Aside from Columbus causing him a brief moment of instability, Shivers had never seen him truly reveal his emotions.

Charlie was like a wandering merchant, his baggage filled with countless curiosities that tempted one to explore.

As friends met by chance, his secrets and stories were easily refreshing, intriguing one to draw closer, but at the end of everything, would the Duke, Shivers, Eugene, and Shiloh just be one of the many stories he collected on his journey?

Could the Duke, accustomed to being adored by everyone, foresee or accept such an emotional discrepancy?

But no matter what, this wasn’t something he could meddle in…

The Knight Commander pushed open the door of the study, and his heart tangled even more at the sight of the rabbit-headed shopkeeper also inside, sitting across from the Duke.

Dwight looked up at Shivers, and his brow furrowed at the sight of what he held in his hand.

It was a letter from Erica.

Brandenburg didn’t have a dedicated mage, but they had a rich supply of magical items stored as backup—among them a magic stone used for urgent message delivery.

This magical item called a “Compass” could only be crafted by high-level mages. It involved engraving teleportation magic circles on two gems of the exact same purity. When used, the two gems could create a brief symbiotic space, allowing the magic circles to share information instantly when activated.

The principle was simple, akin to physically splitting a single altar into two linked halves, where the point of sacrifice became the endpoint.

This was a basic magical theory but was classified under advanced magic due to its operational difficulty.

The requirement of identical purity gems alone eliminated many mages with insufficient resources, not to mention the risk of damaging the gems during the intricate process of engraving the magic circles. More crucially, this magic was one-time use. The gems were destroyed after use, and there were limits on the volume and weight of the transported items, typically only allowing the exchange of documents up to five pages—making the investment-to-output ratio terrifyingly low.

Therefore, even though most mages could recite this teleportation circle from memory, this communication method remained affordable only to a small portion of the nobility.

Because Shivers and the Duke were inseparable, the arrangement of the magic stones when they left Lemena was that Erica and Shivers each held a part, to be used for covert communication.

Given Erica’s style of doing things, she should have sent a reply within two days of receiving a letter from Shivers, but this time it was delayed by nearly two days, allowing Dwight to guess the contents of Erica’s letter without even opening the envelope.

As the Duke had expected, Erica’s unusually cautious attitude led her to double-check the information reported back by her own spies with a third party—either local informants or the all-knowing Fox family—for further confirmation.

But for some reason, Erica intuitively felt that this matter should not be investigated too openly. It was better to keep it discreet so as not to let anyone notice that someone was interested in the Countess’ condition.

Thus, she took extra time after arriving in Syriacochi to confirm the facts before writing back to Shivers immediately.

Erica’s prudence was advantageous here—without knowing that Dwight and others had passed through Thorn Manor, Dr. Salman’s experiences there were also included in the letter as part of the information.

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