Author: 冬瓜茶仙人 / Winter Melon Tea Immortal
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
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Chapter 50
“’Investigate the identities of these people’—what’s wrong with that Rabbit Head? Who does he think I am, the King of Mokwen?” the Duke said, frowning as he sat by the window.
A lively gray-blue pigeon hopped around on the windowsill, its round eyes watching him expectantly—Charlie somehow managed to make this pigeon dazed enough to act as a messenger.
Dwight, also puzzled, stared at it, and after a standoff between man and bird, someone behind him finally couldn’t stand it and fed the pigeon a small piece of breadcrumbs.
“The shopkeeper actually has a good sense of proportion. I believe he knows what he’s doing,” Shivers said objectively.
The Knight Commander knew well how difficult his master was to serve, so during a time they were separated unexpectedly, he worried about not having someone to attend to the Duke, fearing his master might do something irrational out of excessive irritability.
For this reason, he had to push Eugene to hurry on the road, so much so that by the time they reached Ropappas, an exhausted Eugene fell into a deep sleep.
When Shivers saw that the Duke, though picky, had settled down properly in the inn, and even that the rabbit-headed shopkeeper had given the innkeeper some money to hire the innkeeper’s son to run errands for the Duke, ensuring his comfort without stepping outside, he couldn’t help but speak a few words of thanks for the shopkeeper.
“And that woman is really too much,” the Knight Commander added.
His superior physical condition meant that the forced march hadn’t left a mark of fatigue on his face, and he analyzed rationally. “Her actions are definitely illegal. One person alone couldn’t accomplish this. Surely, there must be influential guests covering for her. Classes below high nobility don’t have the capability to use magic items like flying boxes for secret travel like the King of Mokwen, so the town where the guests are staying can’t be too far from the castle—the shopkeeper has already got the names and addresses, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to investigate.”
“Oh, you want to help him?” Dwight said slowly. “Who was it that burst in here three hours ago, knelt at my feet, and swore ‘never to leave your side again’?
“…I say this because ‘they’ have finally arrived.”
Dwight lifted his eyelids and gave the slightly embarrassed Knight Commander a look.
In fact, for someone of Shivers’s temperament, being able to hold back from rushing out immediately to help flatten the castle with that Rabbit Head and rescue the innocent girls was already a great restraint.
“There’s no ‘them’,” the Duke corrected him. “Two days ago, Erica’s letter arrived. Your little brother has been lost for a while now, and still, no one knows where he is. Everyone else has their own uses.”
Shivers became even more embarrassed when he heard this.
“Let Erica go,” the Duke said nonchalantly. “The Rabbit Head will thank me.”
The Knight Commander’s eyes lit up, then his mood became complicated again.
Always Erica… The excellent Erica.
That was the condition for leaving Lemena back then. A journey with just one knight was too worrying, so the Duke had agreed to the old butler’s request to have the Knight Commander accompany him for protection and also to dispatch other men to infiltrate the Doran continent secretly for support.
The leader chosen at that time was one of Shivers’s knights and Shivers’s lifelong rival, the butler’s child, Erica.
Everyone said that Shivers was as handsome as a brilliant sun, his every move graceful and compelling, but Erica was tall and handsome, excellent in swordsmanship, and also had insights into literature and art. Shivers had always been confident that his efforts wouldn’t be inferior to anyone, but Erica’s presence always gave him a bit of pressure—when he was younger, he even suspected that the Duke might prefer to make Erica his Knight Commander.
But he quickly suppressed this trivial annoyance and uncorked the ink bottle to write a letter to Erica.
Unlike the Duke’s party, Erica’s team entered the Doran continent officially as merchants, which meant dealing with complicated procedures, declarations, and documents much easier for Erica.
They wouldn’t meet face to face, but Erica would provide all possible support—with the power of money.
As for some fool who had gotten lost, the troubled Shivers didn’t want to mention him for the time being.
His knight squadron was strong enough to survive anywhere, but not providing backup with Erica felt like dereliction of duty, and Shivers, who had always been secretly competing with Erica, felt like he had been stabbed in the back while writing the letter.
It was probably because Shivers’ troubled expression was too obvious, the Duke, who had been tormenting the pigeon with a bread stick for a while, suddenly seemed to remember something and said, “A few knights also came with Erica. Let them stay in Syriacochi.”
Shivers understood. “Because of Lady Priscilla?”
At this moment, with no outsiders around, Shivers and the staff of Brandenburg still preferred to use the old title “Lady” rather than “Madame”*—perhaps out of some kind of maternal family psychology, everyone had some complaints about the man who she married who was far away. However, the Duke, who always valued etiquette, never blamed them for it.
*Clarity: In this case, Lady is equivalent to Miss, while Madame is equivalent to Mrs. (married).
After their bold intrusion into the royal palace, the security at the Mokwen palace was expected to increase by two levels, and organizing insiders during this time would be too difficult. Besides, Priscilla wouldn’t stay long at the palace, but managing a temporary base to keep an eye on the palace and the Earl’s residence was still necessary. Having the Brandenburg knights, who were also familiar with Priscilla, perform this task was suitable. It wasn’t an issue, even if Erica was temporarily absent.
However, one thing that always concerned the Duke was that the cause of death of Tifa’s mistress seemed too familiar.
Whether it was Eugene witnessing the tragedy in the dark alley or the oddities at Thorn Manor, the common point was too striking to ignore. The victims were all pregnant women.
The Duke casually threw the whole bread stick at the pigeon, still hopping on the windowsill. The bread was almost as big as the pigeon itself, which made it extremely happy as it pecked vigorously at it.
These few days of brief rest finally gave him time to connect the events he encountered after entering the Doran continent.
As a hereditary noble, he had read many books and documents on magic, but those mentioning “gestation” were few.
Strictly speaking, the content about needing human “gestation” was scarce. Magic, although marvelous, couldn’t create something out of nothing. In some ways, it must follow natural laws.
Just like humans and wild beasts naturally had reproductive isolation, no matter how many crazy alchemists throughout history had tried to refine elements from humans and other races to create new life, all had ended in failure.
Although there may be similarities in appearance, the bloodlines of humans, angels, demons, mermaids, and elves were incompatible. Mixed-race lives only existed in fantasy stories, and even the evilest of black magics could only take life or change life forms, not create out of nothing.
This had always been an infringement of the domain of the gods, destined not to succeed.
Of course, there were madmen with wild ideas, but Dwight didn’t believe there could be so many people suffering from the same madness at once.
If those poor pregnant women who died tragically weren’t experimental subjects for magical creations, then what were they?
He hadn’t forgotten the non-human creatures he accidentally encountered that night, which Rabbit Head called “Lamp Bearers”—if they really came because they listened to the whispers of demons, what exactly were they after? Did the appearance of Yitzfa indicate that the Fox family was also investigating… or following up on this matter?
If the Fox wasn’t just gathering intelligence but was a participant in the events, then the other Black Gold Families couldn’t be uninvolved either. No one understood better than the high nobility the severe rivalries and constraints among the few major families in the underground empire, which was also why they found it difficult to overthrow the existing struggle for power to seize the mantle of authority—power was too evenly balanced, yet there was no common faith. The dark families were like independent hyenas.
Currently, there was too much missing information, and a severe lack of manpower made the Duke somewhat passive, but once Erica appeared, the situation would be different.
Unlike Shivers, who was nearly invincible in close combat, Erica’s strengths lay in her smooth handling of situations and strong coordination abilities.
Even though she only took ten gold coins when she left Lemena, Erica managed to appear when her master needed her, bringing an entire caravan or a mercenary troop—or both.
Shivers always maintained an unnecessary, subtle hostility towards Erica, but actually, Dwight knew well that the areas of their expertise didn’t conflict.
“Not far downstream from where we were separated, there is a secluded estate,” Dwight said. “There are farms, a mill, and vineyards, and in the mountains, there is—” He saw the Knight Commander’s eyes widening and paused.
“There’s also a mansion in the mountains,” Shivers continued. “Originally, Eugene and I thought you might be there! We planned to wait there to meet up, but…”
Dwight raised an eyebrow, remaining silent.
“But as we approached, the area gave me a bad feeling, I judged that you would not settle in such a place. Before leaving, we saw…” Shivers hesitated, seeming troubled about how best to phrase it. “Strange things. I couldn’t make out their faces, but they gave me a very bad feeling.”
Perhaps feeling that his description was too vague, he added, “My intuition told me not to approach them. The accessories you wear are blessed by the God of Light, which repel dark creatures, and you should feel the same way I do.”
On this point, Shivers truly had a unique talent.
Perhaps because of his straightforward and generous nature, he showed a good talent for the clergy when he was very young. If it weren’t for his own strong physical constitution and his preference to join the knights, he would now be holding holy water in his hands instead of a sword.
Even without deep study, Shivers’ keen sense of dark forces still far exceeded that of ordinary people, and this was one of the reasons he had defeated many competitors to firmly hold the position directly behind Duke Dwight.
Often, the Knight Commander was like a human-shaped early warning device. When malicious black magic was still around the corner in the streets, his hair would stand on end like a wildcat’s.
“That estate is very strange,” Dwight said calmly. “I trust your intuition, and I trust my own. I believe that the secrets buried in that estate are connected to the answers we are seeking.”
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