Chetlow Manor

"Hey, have you heard? His Royal Highness the Duke intends to hold a dance party this social season." Under the dim light of the tavern, a woman in a poor-quality golden tunic gossiped to her companion.

This is a tavern in the town. The wooden building structure has been in disrepair for many years, causing the floor to creak from time to time when people walk around.However, the sound was completely covered by the noise in the tavern. The dancers in light gauze were laughing in the middle of the crowd, waving the feather fans in their hands, and occasionally lightly brushing the faces of the men below.The men laughed loudly, sizing up the dancer's body with undisguised and straightforward eyes, and some even boldly stretched out their hands to pull the dancer over and poke under the skirts of these women.

"Oh really? That's really big news. I haven't heard of any young ladies of the right age in His Royal Highness's house." The companion in the golden skirt is a chubby woman with light-colored hair that she is proud of. , at this moment is being coiled into an extremely complicated hairstyle, with a dyed peacock feather inserted on it.

The smell of alcohol permeated the entire tavern. The two women's cheeks flushed from drinking, and their voices were sharp and sweet.

The golden skirt glanced at her companion with disdain, and said: "What do you know, the social season banquet has never been held in Chetlow Castle for so many years, that's because the young and handsome His Royal Highness Huwden has always claimed the family business Busy. But don't forget, there is still a vacancy for the mistress of the castle!"

The golden skirt blinked pretentiously, shaking the feather fan in her hand.

Peacock Feather let out a giggle, "Oh, oh my god, so what if there is a vacancy, anyway, it will belong to a lady from a noble family. And you, hehe, the female proprietor of a broken tavern should not dream." She He stretched out his hand and grabbed a half-drunk young man beside him, pushing him against the body of the golden skirt.

"Look, you can still find some young boys now, go and spend the night with him, my darling!"

The golden skirt was bumped by the sudden man and was about to explode, "Damn it, you little bitch... Hey! Stop that group of people!" Her gaze was fixed on the door of the tavern.

Those were three young men who looked a bit embarrassed, and the night couldn't hide their exhausted expressions. Their clothes were more or less torn, and the boy in the middle who was supported by two companions looked very small, more like It was an underage boy, and now he was wet all over, with some fishy smell unique to river water.

She pushed away the young man on her body, shook the feather fan in her hand, and walked towards the door step by step.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for stopping you," she opened and closed her bright red lips, her tone was disdainful and cold, "but you don't seem like guests who can afford to drink, and..." Her eyes flicked The boy in the middle who looked extra embarrassed said, "The tavern is not a place for children, and the stench on his body will scare away my guests."

The man in the lead, who looked polite, looked a little embarrassed, but he, who had received a good gentleman education, opened his mouth in a gentle tone as much as possible: "I'm sorry, ma'am. As you can see, we are indeed in a bit of a mess. We need a place where we can spend the night. You see, my companion, that he has just come up from the river and is weak, please do."

The golden skirt folded her arms and raised her chin: "As I said, minors who can't pay for drinks are not accepted in the tavern."

The man smiled, took out a pocket watch from his pocket, and put it in the hands of the golden skirt, "I came out in a hurry and didn't bring any extra coins. Let's see how much this pocket watch is worth. I think... I think, It’s okay to pay for more than ten days’ accommodation, and my companion is an adult, he just looks small.”

The golden skirt looked at the pocket watch carefully under the light. The workmanship was fine and the materials were exquisite, and it was expensive at first glance.

"Oh..." The golden skirt raised her head and immediately changed her expression, "Although it's not a silver coin, I don't think I would mind taking the trouble to pawn it myself to do a good deed. Please raise your head and let me confirm this Is Mr. really an adult?"

Hearing the words, the black-haired young man who had kept his head down slowly raised his head, looked at the golden skirt, and said in a fluttering voice, "Ahem, ma'am, ahem...Sorry, I am indeed an adult."

Oh, this face is too beautiful for a man. The big eyes and sky blue eyes seem to be covered with a thin layer of water mist at this moment, and his face is pale, but this can only make him Lips look even redder.

No woman would refuse such a man, Jin Qunqu thought.

Her fiery eyes poked on Mo En, like any cheap prostitute on the street saw a customer, "Okay, okay, of course, it doesn't matter how long you want to stay. You can wait until the money for the pocket watch is used up. Let this gentleman accompany me to chat about the moonlight all night, you know, I..." She was about to say something, when she suddenly saw the man who had been silent by the side with a strange and terrifying look like a beast Stare at her.

The golden skirt shut up.

Julian nodded to her, and half-supported Mo En to the second floor of the tavern.

"Listen, we will give you the money. Don't try to trick my younger brother." A hoarse and rough male voice sounded in the golden skirt's ear, and the man followed his companion upstairs.

This tavern is located not far from the slum area of ​​the town. It was Julian's idea to choose this tavern. He said that the environment in the slum area was really unbearable, and there would even be gang fights on the streets there anytime and anywhere. Or men and women make love without shame in the street.It was unbearable, especially for Mohn, a young nobleman, who should be talking about Renaissance poetry and not vulgar slang and sordid fantasies to those in high society.

Moen really disdains Julian's statement. Although he has never seen the human tragedy in those slums, he claims that he will not be intimidated by it.But in the end, there was no objection to Julian, and they chose this nearby tavern—they couldn’t go to a place that was too well-regulated, because the place where there are more rich people means more knights patrolling. God knows this is Huden’s. After finally escaping from the castle, they didn't want to be captured again.

The sound insulation of the tavern is really poor, the noise of the crowd outside, the colliding wine glasses, and the phrase "putain" (like fucking) from time to time.In addition, the old room was cramped and exuded an unpleasant musty smell, which made Julian, a gentle gentleman, complain: "God, these British drunks!" (Note 1)

It stands to reason that Moen should also be dissatisfied with this, but he is too tired, not only because of the running in the castle and the moat, but also because of the exhaustion in his heart.To be honest, he had always had a kind of awe and fear for Hughden, and now escaping from Chetlow Castle was a torture to his not very brave heart.

"It's better than sleeping on the street," he sighed. "Julian, I have to find a way to take a shower first. We'll talk about it tomorrow if we have anything to do."

Even after trying his best to soak in a hot bath, Moen still caught a bad cold the next day. Although he didn't have a fever, he felt as if his throat was being cut with a small blade, and it was burning. .Moreover, he later found out that he sprained his ankle at some point in the rush yesterday. It was obviously not serious, but every step he took was painful.

"No," the voice in this voice was so hoarse that even he couldn't believe it, "we have to, cough cough, hurry on our way as soon as possible."

Lai Jia patted him reassuringly, and made a harmless joke: "Listen, now we can be recognized as brothers from the sound of our voices."

Mo En looked at him with some embarrassment.

Mr. Doctor didn't intend to accept Moen's suggestion. Maybe Julian took things a little easier. After all, he didn't know the messy past of the Lanson family and the Huwden family.

"No, my dear Moen, you need to rest." Coming out of the tower, Julian regained the aura of confidence that comes with a surgeon, "If you don't want your voice to be crippled. Like you said Yes, it is impossible for us to go out of the city on those flat roads, or hire horse-drawn carriages with great fanfare, and your current situation is obviously not suitable for long-distance bumps."

"But..." Moen still wanted to say something, but Lai Jia gave him a look and answered the sentence for him.

"Monn is right, it's too late to wait for this matter, you don't know Ohairis Hudden." Lai Jia glanced at Moen again, and finally added, "But my dear brother, your body is really not good. To be able to bear this journey, maybe, maybe we should change the way." He fell into thinking.

"Not like this..."

In the end, they decided to let Julian set off alone (after all, he knew the journey), and return to Viscount Lanson's fief first, and inform Moen's family about this, and ask them to send some knights over as soon as possible, and hurry up. In this way, it stands to reason that as long as Hughden is unwilling to tear himself apart with the Lanson family, he will definitely not stop him. No matter how bad it is, they can have an extra security guarantee when they force their way in.

"This, this is too risky." Moen said, but under Julian's repeated insistence, he still gave up.

Julian: "This town is really not too small, don't worry, if Hughden comes to look for it at this time, I'm afraid it will take at least a few days, it will be enough."

However, what they didn't realize was that there was a big net that covered the sky and covered the sky without knowing it, just like a bird jumping on a branch at night, and they didn't know that a poisonous snake spit out a letter followed. Behind them, ready to attack at any time, only scattered feathers and bones remained.

In the early morning of that day, taking advantage of the fog that had not yet faded, Moen stepped on the horses of the post station and ran to the south.

And just behind him, an ordinary worker in a shabby jacket watched him go away, threw a few francs on the pavement of the post station, hummed a song, turned and left.

"As you might expect, the doctor has left town."

Under the cover of night, the tall and straight man faced the window and looked down at his fiefdom. In the distance, the men who had been busy for a day started their fun, and the lowly and low-class prostitutes cheered up. , get ready for a night of sex.

"Oh, this is really worrying," the Duke said with a sneer on his face, "It's not a gentleman's way to leave that innocent young master in such a place. By the way, how is his body? ?”

"Not very well, Your Highness. In addition to stepping on and spraining his feet in the small hole we dug in advance, he seems to have a bad cold."

"Really... Then it seems that we are going to pick him up early, after all..."

"I still want to hear his clear voice, especially in bed."

Note 1: Some original French people think that the British drink too much and are a bunch of drunks.