271 The Old Coun (1/2)

Chapter 271: The Old Count

Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion

In the warm afternoon sunshine, a fine coach was heading toward the center of Noble Zone in the southwest of Ural City. Its destination was the count's castle, Dry Vine.

All the pedestrians, when seeing the coach, yielded to it respectfully, as they could easily recognize it as the count's coach.

In the coach, Lucien pretended that he was just going sightseeing, however, he was checking out the empire's map in his spirit library and he paid extra attention to the surroundings of Ural City.

The count's invitation was a surprise, and Lucien could not find any excuses instantly to turn it down. The role Lucien was playing had brought him much convenience, but also some trouble.

Also, because the invitation was out of everyone's expectation, Carleena and Ivanovszki's plan could be interrupted by this. Lucien had no idea what they would do to have things back in their control, but definitely not something good, so he had to be prepared in advance.

Lucien was sure that the invitation was not part of Carleena and Ivanovszki's plan, since before they could be certain that Lucien would work with them, there was no reason that they would want to expose Lucien in front of the count. If the count did like him, but another young lady from family Witte was designated, Carleena and Ivanovszki's effort would all be in vain. And this was one of the reasons that Lucien decided to accept the invitation.

What Lucien felt confused about was that he thought Carleena and Ivanovszki would severely control what Count Witte could see and know. Why this invitation went out of their control? How did the count send out this invitation under Carleena and Ivanovszki's close watch, especially, according to Ivanovszki's words, when the count was so sick and the most trustworthy person for the count was Carleena?

If Ivanovszki did not know how to control the count, Lucien believed that Ivanovszki should rather drop his smuggling business and go home to find a safer job. Smuggling and craving for the count's wealth was not suitable for him.

As he was checking out the map, Lucien casually asked Leo beside him about the surroundings of Ural City, especially whether there were some haunted places around. Lucien wanted to be as prepared as he could.

”Mr. Peter, the Church is around, so those haunted places only exist in the stories to frighten children, or were made up by those sorcerers living deep in the mountains. According to what I know, several mines to the west of the city are called Cursed Place or The Cave to Hell because collapses often happened and many people died there.” The servant of the count, Nicolay, when hearing the conversation between Lucien and Leo, joined them and introduced.

Nicolay was a knight, and he was also a lord. However, he had been working for the count for most of his life since the war against the south Church, and he was saved by Count Witte many times. Therefore, Nicolay was willing to stick around and became the count's servant.

These kind of people were actually not that uncommon. They could often be found around big nobles, dukes, kings and emperors. Unlike those knights whose duty was to protect the nobles because they had joined the Knights, these people were willing to give up their land to stay close to and protect other nobles for various reasons:

Some had passed on the right and title to their offsprings, and by protecting bigger nobles, they could have the chance to obtain an even higher status than the family's hereditary rank of nobility; Some, like Nicolay, wished to pay his gratitude; Some were cultivated by other nobles, so they had made the promise that they would serve the nobles for an amount of years by protecting them; Others worked for nobles just because of the secret methods for improving Blessings that were passed down by inheritance in the noble families.

After hearing Nicolay's words, Lucien smiled, ”Mr. Nicolay, I do know that there are haunted areas in the northwest province and they are right now under the Church's control.” By providing information about the northwest territory, Lucien was trying to show the fact that he knew the family very well.

”Maybe it's true. Maybe there are some places like this around Ural City and they're under the Church's control. But we cannot know for sure.” Nicolay had spent many years on the battlefield, so his way of talking could be quite straightforward.

Lucien did not mind. He kept talking to Nicolay and Leo to get to know more about the surroundings.

...

Half an hour later, the grand castle covered by dry vines was in front of Lucien.

Just as Lucien got off the coach, he saw a fancy coach coming from another direction in a hurry.

As soon as the horses stopped, a beautiful lady wearing a white wool dress got off the coach with the help of her maid hurriedly.

”Mr. Peter…”

”Lady Carleena…”

They were both surprised to see each other in front of the castle gate.

Lucien first smiled and said, ”So you're here to visit the count?”

”That's right. I heard that uncle Witte just invited a guest, and I was worried that he might now follow the doctor's words and get too tired. The count needs good rest right now.” Carleena also put on her bright smile again.