Nobles, huh.
Lynn’s understanding of nobility was limited, whether gleaned from the memories of the previous life or the experiences of this one. What he had heard most about were the opulent and extravagant lives led by those of noble birth.
“I’ve already told you what you wish to know,” Sersi began.
Lynn rose from his seat and said, “I apologize, but your responses do not align with Jerome’s. It appears you’re lying to me.”
“I’m not lying to you, I’m not!” Sersi exclaimed in terror.
“By the way, I remember what that man looked like. I’ve discreetly observed them. They got on a carriage with a rose emblem. It must be Viscount Bolent, that’s the Bolent family crest,” Sersi said.
Lynn approached Sersi from behind, his hand firmly holding Sersi’s head to prevent any erratic movements. In his other hand, he held a small knife, tracing a circle along Sersi’s neck.
“Shh, don’t move. It may sting a bit, but the pain will soon subside.”
With his head held in place, Sersi struggled, much like a dying fish floundering.
***“You rest well,” Hamilton said as he returned home with a large bag of medicine. He looked at Anika, whose countenance bore the weight of sorrow.
Ever since Eva had been abducted, Anika had worn this despondent expression.
Hamilton retrieved a pouch of coins from his pocket and poured the gleaming gold pieces onto the bedspread.
Anika stared at the shimmering gold coins, her reaction pausing for a moment. Anxiously, she grasped Hamilton’s hand. “Where did you get so much money?”
Anika asked nervously, knowing that in their former circumstances, their entire family wouldn’t have earned this much even if they didn’t eat or drink for ten years.
“We have money now,” Hamilton said.
“Can we use this money to get Eva back? We can offer it,” Anika said.
Hamilton fell into contemplative silence, steering the conversation elsewhere. “I saw Lynn today.”
Anika raised her head, her once-dim eyes now alight with hope.
She struggled to move her weak body and leaned her head to look behind Hamilton. “Where’s Lynn?”
“Lynn went to take care of something. He’ll come find us later.”
Pausing for a moment, Hamilton thought about Lynn’s recent changes and added, “Lynn has become quite formidable now, even more so than me as a father.”
Anika felt a sense of disappointment. She didn’t care about how powerful Lynn had become— all she wished for was his safety.
Borg, who was boiling water nearby, heard his father mention his older brother, and his eyes filled with joy. He firmly believed that his big brother was still alive. In his eyes, aside from their father, his big brother was the most formidable person in the world.
***
Armed with the information provided by Big Goldtooth, Lynn arrived at the outskirts of Viscount Bolent’s territory, on a small island in the center of the port city.
Bangor Port had been the hereditary territory of the Bolent family for generations. Originally just an ordinary port, it had thrived in recent years, and the Bolent family had grown in tandem.
Gradually, they had become a prominent and influential family.
The information provided by Big Goldtooth was more extensive than what was publicly known.
It was said that the Bolent family’s ancestors were once fishermen, but one day, they received a blessing from the Sea God. This ancestor came to be known as the Sea God’s spokesperson and even aided a prince in reclaiming lost lands for the kingdom.
After that prince ascended the throne as king, the Bolent family was granted the title of viscount and awarded the fiefdom of Bangor Port.
However, Big Goldtooth and his associates knew more than the average person. It was rumored that each generation of the Bolent family possessed extraordinary beings akin to their ancestors’, suggesting some kind of lineage inheritance.
As for receiving the Sea God’s blessing, people like Big Goldtooth, who grew up by the sea, scoffed at such notions.
The so-called Sea God was nothing more than a jest. Fishermen who urinated on the Sea God’s statues returned with bountiful catches, while devout sailors who worshiped the Sea God daily drowned at sea. If there was a Sea God, he was an idle and ineffectual deity.
The Bolent family estate was located at the heart of Bangor Port, with a canal running through the entire city and the family’s residence positioned close to the waterfront.
Lynn held a skeptical view of the existence of gods. He neither wholly rejected their existence nor blindly placed his trust in them.
Though there were legends of gods, they had never manifested in reality.
Although every town had a church, and priests resided in these churches, the priests were just ordinary people.
Lynn heard that the priest in the small town where he had once lived, a man in his fifties who liked to drink, had fallen in the snow one snowy night and frozen into a popsicle.
He had also attended the priest’s funeral. Despite the priest’s fondness for alcohol, he had been kind and amiable on ordinary days, offering free prayers whenever someone in the town passed away. But the priest had possessed no extraordinary powers.
The kingdom seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally restricting the church. If he could read more ancient history books, he might have understood more, but as an ordinary person, he had no access to such texts.
When Lynn traveled south with his master1, Angley, he had fantasized about encountering grand and epic stories along the way.
However, except for the mining accident that happened during the journey, there had been no other unexpected encounters with people possessing extraordinary powers.
It seemed that there weren’t as many people with extraordinary powers in this world as he had imagined.
Thinking back to his teacher’s words, it seemed that beneath the world of ordinary people, there lay a deeper world.
Perhaps due to its proximity to the sea, the layout of this viscount’s residence was not that of a castle but that of an estate, with hills, greenery, fountains, and statues.
The viscount’s estate was brightly lit, as it was hosting a grand banquet tonight.
Thick thorny vines covered the high walls.
However, this did not pose a problem for Lynn. The ground beneath his feet slightly trembled, and the soil became soft. Soon, a large hole appeared beneath him.
An Iron Earthworm peeked half of its head out and then disappeared into the ground again.
Lynn crawled into the viscount’s estate through the hole, which could easily accommodate a person.
However, in such a large estate, how was he supposed to find the clues he sought?
Footsteps sounded in the distance, and Lynn’s eyes flickered slightly.
He hid in the nearby bushes.
The footsteps suggested that there were several people.
Peering through the gaps in the bushes, Lynn could see that they were dressed as attendants.
None of these individuals spoke, and they hurried along with lowered heads.
Wait a minute, according to the TV dramas he watched in his previous life, shouldn’t there be a few guards or maids chatting away, leaking all the secrets of the master’s household, and conveniently being overheard by the protagonist?
Lynn lurked while slowly making his way toward the central estate.
Suddenly, footsteps came from ahead.
A blonde little girl who appeared to be around thirteen or fourteen years old pouted and ran out of the castle in a huff.
Chasing after her was an older maid.
“Young lady, young lady, where are you going?” the maid asked anxiously.
“Hmph, don’t bother me. I don’t want to marry that count. He’s so old, nearly forty years old, about the same age as my dad. I refuse to marry him,” the blonde little girl said, fuming.
“And he has three daughters and four sons! Do you expect me to face a group of stepsons and stepdaughters older than me every day in the future?”
——
- TL/N: Not sure why the author suddenly used the word (师父 : master) in this one particular sentence. All this time, Lynn had indeed been calling Angley (老师 : teacher). ↩︎
T/L Bonus: Unofficial illustration of Vielvi running from the maid.
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