Chapter 583 (2/2)

“Miss Anna.” Carter stood up and greeted her. “Shall we proceed as usual?”

“Yes.” She took a gold royal out of the envelope and handed it to the knight. “Let’s go.”

…

During the reconstruction of Border Town, the natives were each given a new lodging. Anna’s father was no exception.

After he sold Anna for a price of 25 gold royals to the church, she never had any contact with him again.

From that moment, she no longer considered him her father.

However, there were some things which Anna could not completely walk away from.

For example, the gold royal which she let Carter pass to her father as the cost of living.

Like most poor people who suddenly received a windfall, her father did not hold on to the sale money for too long. Within half a year, he became penniless by gambling, as well as being a victim of fraud and theft. At that time, Anna was not yet well known, but her talent was spotted by natives when she used her fire abilities to mend the gaps in the city walls. Her father tried to depute a neighbor to visit Anna, but was invariably rejected and ridiculed. When Carter, who was then in charge of organizing the militia, heard about this matter, he disclosed it to Anna.

From then on, she knew that she had to do something in order to keep her father quiet.

She did not wish to see him cause trouble to Roland.

She walked with Carter to a quiet neighborhood in the east of the city and went up to the second floor of a building.

Carter turned his head back to face her. “Miss Anna, wait for me here.”

“Sorry to trouble you.”

“No, it’s nothing much.” He walked up to a door and knocked forcefully on it.

After a while, the door creaked open. “Ah… it’s you, Knight Sir, I…”

“Why did you take so long to open the door, are you deaf!” Carter yelled. “Move aside and don’t stand in the doorway.”

“Yes, yes…”

Perhaps this is the way things should be.

Anna leaned against a wall along the corridor and heaved a sigh of relief.

In all honesty, she did not want to care about her once father at all, but she knew that matters would only get worse if she completely disregarded him. Furthermore, she could not approach him by herself, or else, this bigoted and conceited man would act as though he was still her father, and the deterrence effect would be lost.

Rather than pleading him not to do anything, it was better to let him know that there was now a world of difference in their societal status. As the renowned Chief Knight, Carter was considered to be a great noble among the commoners of the Border Area. By having him deliver the gold royal as hush money together with a few sentences of harsh warnings, it should be sufficient to keep the old man quiet, and thus ensure that there would be no trouble for Roland.

Anna did not understand this kind of relationship in the past.

After she was captured and imprisoned, she lost interest in everything and her world turned completely dead gray. It was only when Roland rescued her that her world became colorful again. After living in the castle for a period of time, she gradually understood the complex relationships between people, and also the reasons why her father was angry at her.

But she abhorred these kinds of convoluted things.

She could only be truly relaxed when she was with Roland.

Or when she was reading the books which recorded intriguing knowledge—although they appeared complicated and incomprehensible at first, after prolonged reading, one would discover that the relationships between different things were simple and direct, and would not change because of new interests or desires. She wondered why the real world did not turn out to be as clean and tidy as the formulas which explained its workings.

The door opened again. After a brief moment of flattering voices urging him to stay, Carter returned to her side and said, “Miss Anna, it’s done.”

“Okay.” Anna could breathe a lot easier now that the matter was settled. “Don’t tell His Majesty.”

“Of course… I understand.”

She nodded in approval and turned to walk downstairs.

Although she could never get rid of these terrible feelings, she knew that with Roland, the pleasant things in life would only keep increasing. She could not wait to proceed to the North Slope Mountain to continue her research work.

That was a place she was actually fond of.