Chapter 77 [part 2] (1/2)

(4)

Roy swallowed hard. His eyes were clouded with despair. With a frozen expression like that of an expressionless doll, Roy turned and began to walk to his Lord. Roy’s flexible body moved robotically as if sound would come from his joints. He walked until he was two steps away from his Lord and knelt on the spot.

A hush fell over the crowd at the unbelievable sight. Most of the nobles in this place had heard of Duke Taran’s strength but they had not actually witnessed it. But they had witnessed Roy’s madness quite a lot. There were also many who had watched Roy’s duels. The man’s personality was insane but they all acknowledged that his skill was superior. One couldn’t help but trust what they saw with their own eyes.

Without realizing it, people began to think that maybe Roy Krotin’s skills were better than the Duke of Taran’s. They thought that even if Duke was his master, he would have a hard time taking the reins of Roy who ran around wild, like a crazy horse. However they realized they got it completely wrong.

For a moment there, people had forgotten. The Duke of Taran was the knight called the War’s Black Lion. His martial art’s greatness was acknowledge even more in enemy countries (1). In front of him, the bold ‘Mad Dog’ was like a frightened puppy. The weak-hearted women grew sympathetic, forgetting that they were just accusing Roy of being barbaric.

“In the time I haven’t seen you, you’ve learnt terrible jokes.” (Hugo)

It was a monotonous voice.

“Stand up.”

Roy leapt to his feet. He seemed like a new recruit that was full of spirit.

‘I’m going to get hit.’

Roy had a premonition. Roy’s premonitions were never wrong, even more so when it was a bad one. It was too scary when his master was angry. The aftereffects from one blow in the stomach would last at least a week. If it were a regular person, their internal organs would burst and they would die instantly. Even if it was himself, he wouldn’t be able to eat properly for a week and would have bloody stool. Roy lowered his gaze, waiting for his punishment but when no punishment arrived, he quietly lifted his head.

‘Oh…’

There was a familiar face beside his Lord. It was the Duchess. In the meantime, Roy was thinking, ‘There is something strange about a blue shawl on a pink dress.’

Lucia broke through the gathered crowd and went up to Hugo. She did not see Roy at the peak of his mischief and did not notice the strange atmosphere of the crowd. He was her destination and the only one in her eyes so she didn’t have time to look around.

When she looked into his eyes, the leftover prickly feeling from meeting those unpleasant people melted away into nothingness. Because she was happy, a laugh escaped her mouth. He immediately extend his arm and wrapped it securely around her waist.

It was thereafter that Lucia noticed Roy standing there.

“Sir. Krotin. It has been a while.”

Lucia felt that Roy was looking at her with a somewhat spirit-less gaze so she spoke carefully.

“Umm…the party is fun, isn’t it?”

It was perfunctory greeting.

‘Kuk.’ someone burst into laughter. The culprit was the King. Kwiz guffawed and broke into fits of laughter. People looked at the King roaring with laughter and one by one, they began to laugh too. Soon, the party venue was filled with the sound of loud laughter. Lucia was confused; she didn’t know why they were laughing.

‘Why are they laughing when I was just greeting him? Did I make a mistake?’

Hugo wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her flustered figure into his bosom. He frowned at Roy who was standing funny and gave him a look signaling: Go back immediately and behave yourself.

Roy understood the unspoken command and quickly made himself scarce. Knowing his master’s nature, he wouldn’t call him back later to punish him for a previous situation.

‘I will not forget this debt, Milady.’

Roy praised Lucia to the skies. She was his life-saver. Roy was quickly making his way out of the party venue in jubilation then suddenly, he stopped. He turned to look at the woman he had just passed by. The woman stood alone at the entrance of the party hall where there were very few people. Her face was familiar but he couldn’t really remember where he had seen her before.

‘She gives off a bad smell.’

The women had a dreary aura around her, contrasting the merry atmosphere of the party and her gaze was fixed somewhere. There were many people gathered where she was looking at so it was impossible to tell who exactly she was looking at. Of all things, the ducal couple was among these people. For some reason, Roy had a bad feeling. He took a very close look at the woman then he turned away.

The middle-aged man who fainted was carried away somewhere by the servants. No one paid attention to the poor middle-aged man. People gathered around the pillar where the knife that the Duke of Taran threw was embedded and whispered amongst themselves. Seeing the knife embedded deep in the stone pillar with only the handle left, people looked on with awe and fear. Someone ‘generously’ tried to pull out the knife but it did not budge.

Later on, the construction expert that was called advised that the pillars could collapse if the knife was carelessly touched. Eventually, the knife was left alone, unremoved. In the future, it even became a specialty that foreign envoys visited to see at least once.

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