Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The night was completely dark. Bard sat on the balcony of his room, gazing at the starry night sky.
The candlelight passed through from behind him inside the room, shining on the expensive glass cup in his hands.
The clear yellow fruit wine reflected mouthwateringly beautiful rays of light, but the wine cup trembled incessantly, causing the wine to ripple.
Bard’s hand was still trembling.
1The contemplative smiles Roland and the two other Golden Sons had worn still surfaced before his eyes now.
“We know that there are still a lot of good nobles, for example, someone like you, Mr. Bard.”
1These words kept appearing inside his mind.
Now he understood why Roland and the other two Golden Sons smiled in that way!
That was the kind of smile one revealed when they saw prey, an easy mark.
1Prey!
An easy mark!
These words prodded and even stung at Bard’s cranial nerves. He wanted to rage, to roar, and to smash the ridiculously expensive glass cup in his hands to pieces on the spot.
1However, a sense of shivering fear that stemmed from his soul forcibly suppressed his rage and paralyzed him.
Even when he had offended the fourth prince three years ago, he wasn’t afraid to such an extent.
Those three truly wanted to kill him. They were waiting for him to make a mistake.
In their eyes, there was no respect for nobility, no respect for power, let alone fear.
How many Golden Sons were there?
If they were small in number, they wouldn’t have much influence, not even if they could revive indefinitely. Their influence would be too small.
However, if they were large in number... the nobles would have difficulties in the future.
1There was even the possibility that they would be suppressed into the common class and replaced by the Golden Sons as the new noble class.
1With these thoughts in mind, Bard questioned whether he was being too fearful and thinking too much.
However, his hand trembled uncontrollably, and his instincts told him that this was truly possible.
“I’m truly mad!”
On one hand, Bard felt this was impossible, but on the other, his subconscious told him that this was very likely to be a fact of the future.
He was distraught with anxiety by these two conflicting ideas.
1“How are you crazy?”
A familiar voice came from behind Bard.
Bard didn’t turn around, he continued to look ahead and asked, “How did you come in?”
“You didn’t close the door.” The other noble mage, who accompanied Bard, walked up next to Bard and watched the night sky as Bard did, but he saw nothing beautiful. Then, he asked curiously, “What’s the matter with you? You look depressed.”
“Something happened today.” Bard didn’t know how to tell his companion, for he was afraid of being laughed at if he spoke his mind.
The young noble mage looked at his companion in surprise, then asked, “What are you going to do next?”
Nothing! Bard sighed, feeling tired. “I’m going to go to the tower tomorrow to carry out the authentication with Roland, and then get back to the capital as soon as I can.”
1The young noble frowned. “What happened? Didn’t you try to humiliate Roland this afternoon? Why do you look so unhappy to me?”
Unhappy? It was good enough not to be scared to death. Bard sighed helplessly. “After tomorrow, on the way back to the capital, I will tell you what I think, and you better not laugh at me then.”
The young noble mage somewhat helplessly said, “So mysterious. Forget it! Anyway, you’re the auditor, I just come here to play—do as you wish.”
Bard smiled faintly, but his smile was somewhat bitter.
Roland returned to Betta’s house.
The two women, still weeping, their eyes swollen like peaches, looked expectantly at him.
“Your parents are safe.” Roland nodded and said, “They should be home by now, but I still ultimately advised them to leave this city. We still haven’t figured out who the killer behind the scenes is.”
The two women bowed to him and left Betta’s house.
Meanwhile, Betta took a dish of salted fried peas from the kitchen and put some wine on the table. “Tell me what happened exactly.”
“You already prepared the food to accompany the talk?” Roland smiled, sat down, drank some wine, and said, “When we arrived at the destination, the targets were already killed. However, I also recognized the one who killed the targets. It was Bard from the capital!”
“Did he want to erase the trail?” Betta asked.
Roland shook his head. “No. Before he came to Delpon, your maidservant already suffered an accident. This matter has nothing to do with him. He only scouted out what we were trying to do and carried out our plan one step ahead of us, trying to humiliate me with this.”
“This person’s... got issues?” Betta also ate some salted peas with a frown.
1“How could we normal people understand the young master of a noble family.” Roland recalled how terribly frightened Bard had been by the three of them and couldn’t help but laugh lightly. “Before Bard left, he told us that the boss of the criminal gang took everything on himself. Reasonably, this should be the end of the matter.”
“But he’s clearly taking the rap?” Betta went on to say.
Roland nodded. “We guessed that Lisa was pierced through the heart by an ice sword, that was why there were no traces of her blood on the scene. The murderer must know magic. That gangster boss was fat, his arms larger than his head—he couldn’t possibly be a mage! And I didn’t sense any signs or a sliver of magical element in the gang leader.”
Betta was somewhat irritated. “The trail has gone cold again?”
“No, there is a new trail instead.” Roland sneered slightly. “Bard was originally not too interested in us. He was at most haughty and sought to deny my merits, but then he mentioned that we were Golden Sons, and it seems that he only found out not long ago—clearly someone told him information concerning us in the past few days.”
1Betta was also quite acute; he instantly understood this. “Then the place Bard recently stayed in is...?”
“The castle!” Roland said. “The mayor is out with his troops, so who’s the one in charge of the castle now? Who’s the one with complaints about us Golden Sons?”
Betta’s eyes lit up. “Are there traces of magical elements on that person?”
“Although he tried extremely hard to hide it, I could still sense it. There are!” Roland’s fingers tapped lightly on the rim of the wine cup, a faint passion in his eyes. “Originally, I thought Aldo was more likely the culprit, but now John has also entered my sights.”
2Betta took a deep breath. “This man has a good reputation among the commoners, and many said that he is the good conscience of nobles.”
“It’s just a superficial act.” Roland sneered. “I told Vivian that if he really cared about the people, he should focus on reducing the number of beggars in the city and maintain the security of the city, instead of ignoring the fact that some nobles eat people’s hearts.”
“I’ll try to keep an eye on him.” Betta knocked the wine cup in his hands against the table.