The Duke in the Spire of Thorns

The knight brought by Noyce consciously guarded the convoy behind Celeste. He and Celeste walked side by side at the forefront. Along the way, Noyce kept talking.

Either talk about what new fun he had recently, or lament how many new operas Celeste missed, but most of all he talked about the new actress at the Green Opera House.

"She has a voice that's more melodious than a lark," Noyce said. "Every time she's on stage, I can't help but stare at her."

His majesty the playful king clutched his chest and said in an aria: "She stole my heart!"

Celeste has seen him like this a lot, shrugged: "Your heart was stolen again?"

He smiled narrowly: "Before and after, your heart has been stolen nearly twenty times in total, right?"

"My dear cousin." Celeste also imitated Noyes and said in an aria: "I really want to know, how did your stolen heart get back?"

Noyce replied without embarrassment: "Of course it came back by itself. Whenever it feels that the lady who owns it is no longer worthy of love, it will come back by itself."

Celeste: "...then your heart is really smart."

Noyce waved his hand, "Let's not talk about this, by the way, Hill, how is that Yaris?"

"Yaris?"

Celeste didn't remember who it was, "Who is he? I don't remember."

"It's the guy who eagerly wants to be your attendant." Norris asked curiously, "Why, didn't he come around in front of you?"

"I don't know." Celeste said indifferently: "There are so many servants in the castle, how can I remember?"

Noyce sighed regretfully: "Oh, I originally wanted to send him to you as your purse, that guy has a lot of money, and, from my observation, as long as you Be willing to smile at him or do something casually, and he will be willing to lose everything for you."

"You think I'm poor?"

Celeste asked unhappily: "When will I need a servant to give me money?"

Noyce quickly said no.

But Celeste still felt very annoyed, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and finally raised his voice: "Escrito!"

The loyal knight commander drove the horse to walk a few steps, approached Celeste, lowered his head slightly, and waited for the order:

"Do you have any orders?"

"Is there a servant named Yaris in our castle?"

"Yes." Escrit replied, "He just arrived at the castle two months ago, and his position is your attendant."

Celeste raised his hand: "I don't want him to be my servant, you go back and deal with it."

Eskrit nodded, but at this time, Hillest added: "Don't take any money from him, and don't accept any gifts from him."

"of course."

Eskrit nodded: "I will handle it."

He stepped back again, keeping a close distance from the two people in front of him.

Celeste and Noyce walked on, and they resumed their conversation, which, though the cousins' conversations always involved mutual irony, lasted a long time.

When both of them were very young, they often quarreled and chatted at the same time. Sometimes one of them still refused to give up the conversation when he was angry and cried. It was very interesting to watch.

The two walked forward while talking, and soon arrived at the city gate of Briarson. The gray-black city gate was tall and tall, exuding a solemn atmosphere.

Celeste already has a residence of his own in Briarson, but he doesn't live there often, his most frequent residences are Bradley Castle, which belonged to his father, and then the Royal Palace.

He also has a dedicated palace in the royal palace.

Celeste is now the duke, but he can inherit his father's title of prince, so sometimes, some people who want to flatter him will deliberately call him "His Royal Highness".

It's just that Celeste never bought it.

After leaving Briarson for nearly half a year, Celeste was most worried about his parents. Therefore, he rejected Noyce's invitation: "I have to go home first, and I will go to the palace in a few days."

Noyce expressed his understanding, sent Celeste outside the castle and left.

The Bradleys had been waiting for Celeste at the door for a long time, and they saw Celeste riding on a horse from a distance, who looked extremely healthy, and they couldn't help holding each other's hand excitedly.

"Father, mother, I'm back."

Celeste was hugged tightly by his mother as soon as he got off the horse, and Mrs. Bradley said with tears and choked up, "My dear, you are recovering."

Prince Bradley is not good at words, nor is he good at expressing his love for his son. He just stood aside and looked at the two of them with a smile on his face.

After all, Mrs. Bradley was born in the East, so she couldn't help using her mother tongue when she was emotionally agitated. Fortunately, Celeste could understand, and he also replied in an Eastern language: "Yes, mother, I'm fine. How are you?" ?”

... Despite the mother's careful teaching, but without the influence of the language environment, Celeste's spoken English is really not very good.Mrs. Bradley was amused by his weird answer, and she nodded her eyes with her handkerchief, "Look at me, it's ridiculous to block you here, let's go in and talk."

Mrs. Bradley always speaks in a soft voice, making the listeners feel like a spring breeze. She brushed the broken hair on her forehead. Before turning to leave, she smiled at the silent Escrit who was standing by, "Knight Long, thank you for taking care of Hill all the way."

She is very aware of how self-willed her son is when facing Eswell, and always tries to make things difficult for this loyal subordinate, but with Eswell's current strength, it is not difficult to set up his own family, she is not willing Seeing that the other party left Celeste, so every time Celeste was wayward, she would give Eswell some compensation and say some words of comfort.

Escrit curled his lips and lowered his head slightly: "Dear Madam, this is what I should do."

Different from Mrs. Bradley's gentle attitude, Celeste, the real master, has completely forgotten about this loyal subordinate. When he heard what his mother said, he remembered that there is such a thing as Escrit. Alone, he tugged at his mother's sleeve in dissatisfaction: "Leave him alone, let's go in."

"You can't be so capricious."

Mrs. Bradley reprimanded Celeste softly, then smiled comfortingly at Escrit, and then led Celeste inside.

Escrito stood in place and watched their backs, and only after their backs completely disappeared from sight, he retracted his gaze.

He still has a lot of work to do.

The return of Celeste has attracted widespread attention from the nobles, and they have sent invitations one after another, wanting to meet this rose that belongs to Briarson.But Celeste did not accept any invitation. For the first time, he sent invitations to other people in his own name, asking them to come to the ball held in Bradley Castle.

The nobles who received the invitation were surprised and delighted. For a while, the high-end tailors in Briarson were in short supply, and the new accessories in the jewelry store were also swept away. On the day of the ball, all the nobles who came to participate They are all gorgeously dressed, especially those noble ladies who haven't made a marriage contract, they are even more gorgeous and eye-catching.

"Don't you think they look like Christmas trees?"

Celeste whispered to Noyce that the dance hadn't started yet, but the guests had all come early and were already there, but the time hadn't arrived, and Celeste didn't plan to start early.He and Noyce stood upstairs, looking down at the guests in the entire hall.

Numerous lit white candles illuminate the public area of ​​the castle as if it were daytime, so even the tiny patterns on the clothes of the guests can be seen clearly.

Celeste's eyes turned around on those noble ladies, as if watching some rare animals: "They look like they want to wear a whole jewelry store's jewelry on their bodies, aren't they tired?"

Noyce showed disdain and ridicule to his question: "My dear cousin, you are just a child, what do you know?"

Celeste: "Oh, my dear cousin, it turns out that you are proficient in the way of men and women since you were born. Why didn't I know you were so great before?"

The two of them were angry with each other, but neither of them was angry.

"Wait a minute, who are you going to dance the opening dance with?"

Noyce asked: "Nali is not here today, otherwise I wouldn't have to ask this question."

He blinked at Celeste, showing a look that "men can understand": "Anyway, you haven't gotten engaged yet, so it's not bad to choose a beautiful girl to date."

His eyes wandered among the noble ladies below, "I think that one is pretty good."

He pointed to the noble girl in a light green dress. She was petite and had a beautiful face. At this moment, she was shyly covering half of her face with a feather fan, looking very attractive.

"If Nali knows that you are encouraging me like this, then you will be in trouble."

Celeste said: "Don't you really want me to marry her? Why are you introducing me to other people?"

"You don't understand that."

Noyce put his arms around Celeste's shoulders affectionately: "A wife is a wife, and a lover is a lover. How can it be the same?"

"What's more, what can she do to me? I'm His Majesty the King now, and it's useless for her to sue."

Celeste: "...you really are exactly like your father."

Noyce said modestly: "Thank you for the compliment, actually I think so too."

Celeste didn't know the noble lady. He was about to say something when he heard footsteps behind him. Looking back, Escritter came over with a silver tray on which was a glass of quilt. Elaborately brewed black tea with curling white mist.

Celeste just planned to make Escrit quit. He doesn't want to drink tea now, but Escrit's expression looks a bit lonely. Celeste doesn't know what's wrong with him, but Escrit, who has always been strong and calm, Ritter's appearance still made him a little soft-hearted.

He said to Noyce: "You go down first, I will tidy up and come right away."

Noyce didn't notice anything wrong, stood up and left. Before leaving, he warned: "No matter what, you must dance the opening dance."

"understood."

Celeste responded and waved Noyce away.

Now, there are only him and Escrit left here. He turned around and leaned against the railing, and asked softly, "Eri, what's wrong with you?"

Escrito looked at him gravely:

"Can you not dance?"