Chapter 93: Eleventh Episode: Chapter 2 (1/2)
Chapter 93: Eleventh Episode: Chapter 2
Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The sun had leapt into the sky above Dulin. A mail carriage drove through the city in the morning mist. A warm spring breeze started blowing in the city, people can even see the ripples of the dirty water mixed with oil in the drains. The carriages started increasing on the streets. One by one, they squeaked when passing by the garden fence. In the fresh air of springtime, the wooden axles of carriages screeched louder than usual. Some of them carried goods, and some others carried nobles.
On the other side of the fence, pedestrians were going about their businesses. There were some children who successfully stole a bread from the bakery, and scampered away on their soot-stained feet. Men and women squeezed with each other at the public carriage stops, some of them having to wait a whole morning just to get a seat. People were complaining about commodity prices, about the situation with prostitutes that was becoming rampant, about the noble carriages that crushed their flower beds. And then of course, some of them don’t complain, they only lose their tempers, sons to fathers, wives to husbands. A thuggish man tugged at a patrol’s horse asking for money to buy alcohol, to which the patrol responded with a lash across his back with a whip as the spectators sniggered.
Finally, the sun found its place in the middle of the sky, and gentlemen, dames, and damsels started coming out for their daily activities. A gentleman classily held onto his cane and flung a brass Ti coin at a beggar. Also immediately, other beggars started making their way to the gentleman, who just happened to turn toward the patrol guards. The ladies would, of course, stayed away from these dangerous vagrants. They held onto their parasols with their arms hooked to each other, walking in a pace that’s neither rushing nor stalling. Whenever a knight crossed paths with them, the maidens would let down the veils attached to their hats in shyly. Usually, the knights would slow their horses down and greet them with utmost modesty. Of course, some of the knights don’t do that, and it’s still not considered inappropriate.
The dames didn’t care about these frivolous customs, they were already past the age of fantasy. No matter how much respect these ladies said they had at the virtues and power these men had, they always thought them to be a bit of a poor nitwit. Of course, if her man could enter the Hamilton Palace without a problem, or if they were paid several hundred Golden Tis yearly in an important department, the ladies would say, ”Look at my poor man, for this contemptibly small salary, he had sold his soul to His Majesty!” and the rest of the ladies would offer their sympathy before continuing to compare whose husband was more idiotic.
***************
Oscar opened his eyes to a splitting headache, and thought his head was not his own. He had found a treasure the previous day, and so he dragged Torry through four midnight clubs consecutively. The aftermath? Obviously, it’s the sharp stench of the spew on the pillow beside his hand. Oscar rolled over in disgust.
When he found his eyes being pierced by a light, however, his mood took a turn for the better. Ecstatically, he grabbed the necklace on his night stand.
”That’s right! It’s you, my darling!” Oscar examined and then kissed the sculpture of the God of Light on the necklace.
The door opened, Paul entered. He was promptly attacked by the foul odor permeated in the room, making him flinch.
”Good gracious, Oscar! Whose body did you hide in here? Why does it smell like rotten corpse in the room?”
Oscar covered his ‘masterpiece’ with his blanket, and swung the necklace toward Paul. ”Keep it safe, we’ll need it in a little while.”
Paul kept the necklace into a delicate wooden box. ”You should get dressed. Thomas waited a whole morning for you.”
Oscar nodded. ”I need to thank him! Oh, right! What time is it now?”
Paul opened the bathroom door for Oscar, ”It’s time for lunch!”
Unfortunately, the warm bathwater lulled Oscar into a nap. When he finally got out of his bedroom fully dressed, Thomas had already left. As the big boss of The Lair, he had endless dirty businesses to tend to daily, there’s no time for him to sit around doing nothing.
”What time is it now?” Oscar combed his slightly unkempt hair.
Helpless, Paul opened his palm, ”It’s tea time.”
There were several streets in Dulin city that were named with numbers, all in the vicinity of the Road of Emperors connecting the Victory Square to the high society living area. Prince O’Neil’s carriage drove into one the 5th Street, one of the famous streets in the Embassy District that houses all the embassies of Westland within several kilometers.
There wasn’t much difference between the 5th Street and the other streets in the district, with their own patrol teams. The street was filled with foreigners. It’s like a quiet suburban district here, there were luscious grass fields, trees neatly planted as if they were walls, as well as vines that climbed up the real walls. Among the rows and rows of flower bushes, clean courtyards were littered with laughter of the women and children. It was as calm as a millpond.
After some walking down that path, gates appeared one after another with insignias of each nations. Guards with colored uniforms stood in front of their own embassy. According to the rule of the Church, once a person entered an embassy, he shall be considered to be in the nation of the embassy. Hidden beneath the tall plane trees were buildings of different styles. There were the Faran Byoric buildings, the Italian Gothic architecture, the Slovenian Polumdan style, and more. As a whole, it is a good place to observe the different styles of buildings of different nations.
Oscar’s carriage stopped in front of the Italian embassy, stopped by the guards. It was apparent that the knight didn’t trust the identity of the carriage owner, so he made the carriage as well as everyone it was carrying wait outside.
”Why didn’t you identify yourself?” Torry asked with his red eyes.
”I believe the Prince whatshisname would have sent someone to lookout for this place! I don’t want him to have that held against me.”
”Oh, so that’s why!” Torry turned his head on one side.
”Be a little more cheery, can’t you? Don’t look like a dead person all day long!” Oscar ranted at his friend.
”Okay…” Torry turned his head to the other side, he was in no mood to entertain the Prince at the moment.
After a short while, Oscar’s carriage finally passed the gate. Through the glass window, Oscar realize the Italian Embassy looked like one of those richly decorated clubhouses, Sabac Manor to be specific. Its main building was a three-storied brick house. In front of it were decorations of all manners like the fountain, flower patches, and hedges. With a glance, the building didn’t seem to have any statues for its decor. Oscar was a little confused. This was not the Italian style he knew. Upon closer inspection, he noticed the bricks were full of patterns, whole walls were used as a mural to tell a story. In other words, it was like a huge jigsaw puzzle. This was a masterpiece! It didn’t only require the bricks to be precisely burnt, the builders also had to make sure every brick was in its place before laying them.
There was only one servant to greet Oscar, who slipped into the building quickly, leaving no chance for anyone to be curious about his arrival.
Up two flights of stairs, and another corridor, Oscar and Paul were invited into a quiet meeting room. The Italian ambassador greeted him with respect, Oscar remembered him, this man had gifted him something valuable on behalf of the Italian King two years ago.
”Your Imperial Highness, I have ordered this room to be cleared. If you don’t mind me asking, is this… because of something confidential?”
Oscar handed over the wooden box, ”It’s because of this.”
The Italian ambassador took the box, and yelped in surprise as he opened the box. ”Oh my God of Light! Finally found you!”
”Hey! Hey!” Oscar slapped the ambassador’s shoulder in discontent. ”I found it!”
”Oh! Of course! Of course you found it!” The ambassador put on a smile. This prince of Titan was not someone normal. Aside from his family on his mother’s side, even his hometown at Narcissus County, with just two fronts, it would flip Italia Kingdom upside down.
”Don’t you have to check for authenticity?” Oscar was a little surprised, the ambassador had already kept the necklace.
”There’s no need, Your Highness! I have been seeing this necklace in my dreams, and not forgetting Her Highness Princess Caro Arsia. My King and Queen had almost torn my ears off when they heard the necklace was in Titan! You saved my life! Your Highness, you’ve saved Her Highness once before, didn’t you? That’s makes it twice! Princess Roya had praised how noble you are during the Swan Lake incident!”
Oscar was very satisfied with what he had heard. ”Mister ambassador, there’s one thing I need to ask you to do.”
”Of course, just say the word, Your Highness!”
”I have returned the necklace to you, so I hope it will be delivered to Princess Caro Arsia without any damage to the necklace.”
”Of course! I will send it with the safest, fastest way I know! Don’t worry!”
”One more thing, this might be a little weird, but you have to promise me.”
”Your Highness, you are most humble!”
”Fine then! I want to ask you to only report this to His Majesty the King, Her Highness the Empress and Princess Caro Arsia. I don’t want more people to find out that I recovered the necklace.”
”Why?” The ambassador was confused. ”This is something worthy of praise isn’t it? My King will send a formal thanks…”
”No! Really! It’s because… it’s hard to explain, but can you ask Princess Roya for me about when she met Prince Kristen of Faran? Princess Caro Arsia is smart, she’ll know what I mean.”
Thoroughly confused, the Italian ambassador still nodded to signify his understanding.
The rest of the time was spent in boring small talks and worthless praises. Oscar devoured a few rich Italian snacks, and inhaled two cappuccino laced with butter, chocolate, and cinnamon powder. Just as he was about to ask for a seafood salad and a cuttlefish macaroni, Paul couldn’t take it anymore, because his lack of table manners was a complete disgrace to Titan. It was supposed to be tea time, but this idiot ordered a dinner-sized meal in front of the ambassador of Italia.
The unwilling Prince Oscar pushed a sleeping Torry aside when he mounted the carriage. Torry leaned against Paul, saliva dripping and all. Paul tried to push him to the other side of the carriage more than a few times, but the thuggish Torry kept his thug-like behavior even as he sleeps and kept falling back against Paul. The King of Assassins knew it was Oscar’s little revenge, so he pressed against Torry’s temple, leaving Torry in deep sleep and probably wouldn’t wake up for a while.
The Prince only used a normal carriage, but his driver was still Wozakad, the former black belt warrior was not only quiet, he treated his driving as strictly as he did his daily life.
The driver knocked on the floor board thrice, both Oscar and Paul looked toward the road behind them, curious. ”Is someone following us?”
Oscar thumped at the front board in response. ”Lose them!”
The speed of the carriage rose abruptly as Oscar felt the carriage tremor. The clops of the horse were like raindrops in a storm, and pedestrians stared at the dust cloud raised by the carriage in amazement.
Within another turn, they would be able to lose their tail due to a crossroad. People at the crossroad halted and searched for the rumbling sounds in horror as Oscar neared it. A carriage charged from the east side, and at the same time, another carriage dashed in from the south.
Before anyone could let out a scream, the two carriages crossed paths with each other at the crossroad. Wokazad had noticed the other carriage as he turned into the crossroad, but the other carriage was even faster than he was. The experienced driver tugged at the reins suddenly, relying on inertia to steer the horse to avoid the collision.
The other driver was not as skilled, he couldn’t stop the horse in time. As the horses were about to crash into each other, the other horse neighed loudly and stood on its hind legs, its strength pulled the fixed shaft of the carriage apart, throwing the car into the shop right beside it! Oscar hopped off his carriage, staring at the car wedged into the display window of the shop.
”Paul! Come look! We witnessed the headline of the Dulin Evening Express!”
Snowstorm ignored the Prince’s exclamation and pulled up his sleeves. ”You can choose to witness the commotion here, or you can choose to help me rescue the poor people.”
Oscar heard some intermittent moans from within the destroyed shop. People around had started dragging the car out of its crash site before Oscar remembered he had to bear the consequence of this incident.
”Ola! Let’s save them!”
Before they got to it, the crowd was parted from the inside as a youth with bloodied head stumbled outward. He saw Oscar’s carriage which is parked diagonally on the sidewalk.
”Who’s the owner of this carriage?”
Oscar came forward. Even though the man also had half the responsibility to the accident, it wasn’t such a big deal apologizing to him, seeing the mess he was in.
”I am! I must apologi-”
The noble young man pushed Oscar aside and walked straight toward the carriage.
”No, I must apologize to you! I hereby expropriate your vehicle in the name of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emergency Department. You can claim your vehicle tomorrow at the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs!”
Oscar stopped the young man from boarding his carriage. ”Don’t you know who I am?”
The man wiped away his blood on his forehead, ”You are?”
”O’Neil Andrew Morisette! Does that ring a bell?”
The nobleman rubbed his eyes, ”Yes it does! Your Highness, even if you’re a Prince, I still have to…”
”Stop! I’ll give you a lift! Have you lost your mind after the crash?” Oscar gawked at the young man with a funny look, this was his first time seeing someone so austere.
After everyone boarded the carriage, the young officer was shocked by Torry who laid unconsciously inside.
”Don’t worry, he’s not dead.” Oscar explained and glanced outside. There were still people rushing over to the crash site, but there was a black carriage stopped in an obscure corner on the other side of the street. Oscar clicked his tongue at it, he was still caught up by that guy! In the open window, Prince Kristen of Faran stared at Oscar’s carriage as he passed.
”Can you tell me what this is?” Oscar turned his attention away from the car window, pointing at the blood-stained document the young nobleman clutched onto.
”Of course! You have the authorization to know about this!” The nobleman sighed in distress. ”The old Deiss King had passed away last month suddenly, and his son who inherited the throne was very well-received by the military. The situation up north will have a huge shuffle soon!”
Oscar pondered for a while in silence. He did nothing except for examining the document.
***************
Hamilton Palace opened its bulky gate to let a humble-looking carriage in. Passing nobles felt it’s strange that a vehicle without a class would be let in. However, the next thing they saw was Prince O’Neil supported a bloodied Viscount Franz Lemus by the arm.
The nobles were even more curious. They surrounded Oscar and his company, asking if he needed help.
Being helpful can be a bad thing sometimes. Oscar navigated through the crowd, but as he entered the foyer, more and more people started gathering. Prince Oscar reckoned the poor sod from Foreign Affairs might not be able to take it much longer!
”Please! Make way! This fellow needs to have an audience with His Majesty, he has a very important news!”
As the Prince yells, the crowd slowly dispersed as people started to understand its importance. Several guards came out, and a colonel lead them to meet the Emperor. Several other people tried to keep the nobleman conscious.
A few side halls later, they saw the Emperor stood in the corridor. Alfa III didn’t look too pleased. He liked liveliness, but he didn’t like it when people create noise in his workplace. When he saw the youngest son of the Minister of Foreign Affairs with blood on his head, he finally couldn’t take it.