The Duke in the Spire of Thorns

That's right, if counted by blood relationship, Eswell can barely be called Celeste's "brother".

It's just that the blood relationship between them has faded to almost nothing, and Celeste never called Elswell "brother" before.

He has a distinguished status, and among his peers, there is only one elder brother recognized by him, Noyce, and Eswell is really not ranked high.

Celeste is puzzled by Elsevier's loyalty.

Elsevier has no feelings for his family... oh, or rather he has no feelings for anything but Celeste.Once Neuss was very greedy for the outstanding Eswell, and hoped that Celeste could give him Eswell.Celeste had no objection, but Eswell himself refused.

"I really can't figure it out." His cousin said to Celeste with a confused face: "I said I would give him a title and a high salary, but he didn't even look at me. The eyes are cold and frightening."

Neuss is the king, and it is obviously more profitable to follow him, but Eswell refused without hesitation, only willing to stay by Celeste's side, which of course made Celeste very proud. Will was more trusting, too.

But why?

Celeste has never been able to find the reason. Until recently, Eswell's overly attentive care gave him a vague idea.

He wouldn't allow Elsevier to think of him like that, so he called that title on purpose.

Celeste looked into Eswell's eyes and said plainly:

You are my loyal servant, at most you can barely be regarded as my elder brother, we can only have such a relationship.

Eswell understood Celeste's meaning, but his expression remained flat without any change.

Celeste breathed a sigh of relief.

Maybe he was thinking too much.

But even so, Celeste gradually began to keep a distance from Eswell.

"Thank you very much, but I think I can do it myself."

Celeste said that he reached out to hold the escalator and walked up slowly, stopping to rest for a while every time he walked.

Eswell stood beside him and waited silently. He stared at his panting master, and pursed his lips tightly.

He closed his eyes and tried his best to suppress the anxiety in his heart.

It will be successful soon, he just needs a little time.

So be more patient.

Snow-white shards fall from the sky, winter is coming.

Winter means food shortage.Many minor nobles also had to eat rotten meat in winter. They couldn't buy a lot of spices to preserve their food. In order to survive, they could only hold their noses and swallow those disgusting rotten meat.

Unlike them, Celeste's status and his mother from the East gave him the capital to squander spices, but Celeste himself has no interest in that kind of meat that has been preserved for a long time.He liked to eat fresh meat, and even in winter, when game was scarce, Eswell could always find a way to get it for him.

"You are really spoiled by your knight commander."

His cousin Noyce often said that, but in fact, the jealousy in that guy's eyes couldn't escape Celeste's gaze.

As a king, he certainly has the right to eat fresh meat in winter, but unfortunately, his knight commander is not as good as Eswell.Celeste could choose from a bunch of prey provided by Eswell, while Noyce could only accept all the prey brought back by his knight commander-because there were not many.

Obviously, Eswell felt Celeste's estrangement. For this reason, he greatly shortened the time spent by Celeste's side, put on the silver-white knight commander armor, and began to perform his duties.

With the approach of winter, Celeste is even more difficult.The cold kept him from going out, and Marion's research hadn't made any effective progress. To comfort himself, Celeste allocated a sum of money to the local church.

Although, as it turns out, it didn't work at all.

The living room of the castle began to light the fireplace day and night, as did Celeste’s bedroom. The firewood soon became insufficient in this extravagant consumption. In order to prevent the master from catching the cold, Eswell did not hesitate. He took the knight out to chop wood for his lord the duke.

"I really don't understand why we would go out and do such a menial job in this weather."

Davari complained: "Isn't it enough to persuade Your Excellency the Duke to use less firewood?" He rubbed his hands and cursed Eswell in a low voice: "This guy must be busy."

Elsevier was in the lead, and the snow was so deep that it was impossible to ride a horse in such weather.They could only walk forward, and every time they took a step, their feet would sink deeply into the snow. The cold snowflakes fell on Eswell's cheeks, not only were they not melted, but instead slid down gently.

He is the least afraid of the cold in the group. Under the heavy and cold armor, he only wears a thin set of underwear.But even so, he was calmer than those knights in layers of clothes, as if he didn't feel the cold at all.

"Riding... Knight Commander..." The knight behind him called him cautiously: "We are about to freeze to death."

Eswell lifted a strand of wet hair on his forehead, and gave him a cold look, "You can go back after completing the task."

Their task today is to cut down thirty trees and return them. Of course, this task was not ordered by Celeste. The proud Duke never cared about these mundane matters.Anyway, Eswell and the butler will take care of it themselves.

Logically speaking, the knight commander has no right to mobilize knights without the order of the master, but Eswell is special, and Celeste has delegated a lot of rights to him.

This is one of the reasons Davari hates Eswell so much.

The snow fell harder and harder, and the strong wind rolled up the white snowflakes in the air, slapping people's bodies heavily, no matter how many clothes they wore, they couldn't resist the cold.Celeste was sitting by the fireplace, next to the window, through the window, he could clearly see Eswell leading a group of knights slowly returning.

There were two knights in a group, and each group carried a thick trunk, except for Eswell, whose trunk was the thickest one, but he easily lifted the trunk with only one hand. Dragging away, it was a stark contrast to the other panting knights.

Celeste looked at him with admiration, as expected of Eswell, probably only he could do it.

Eswell raised his head suddenly, and Celeste's eyes caught off guard and met his gaze, Eswell curled his lips and smiled at Celeste.

Celeste nodded slightly at him.

In order to prevent the cold on his body from reaching Celeste, Eswell took off his armor and stayed in the kitchen for a while. He waited for the flames to warm his clothes before walking to Celeste.

"It must be fun to go hunting in winter."

Celeste stared out the window, the vast snow covered the ground, and what he saw was a silvery white silence.

Eswell smiled, "In a short while, you will be able to go hunting in the snow."

"Oh?"

Celeste hooked his lips, and was amused by Eswell's words: "You mean, in the near future, our great Lord will suddenly take pity on me and help me drive away the pain in my body? "

Eswell once made it clear that he didn't want Celeste to use Marion's so-called "life force" potion, so if that's the case, the only way left is the blessing of the gods.

Eswell shook his head, Celeste looked at him curiously, Eswell seemed to be in a very happy mood, and he said, "I have a hunch that your body will get better soon."

Celeste laughed, and picked up the book on the table again.

Thanks to Eswell, Celeste's dinner was still sumptuous, and he ate two hasty bites as usual before announcing that the dinner was over.Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the castle door.

Eswell went out to check the situation, and a knight told him that in the snow outside, a man in black was lying on the ground, and his life and death were unknown.

"Get him up."

Celeste said that he guessed that it was an unlucky traveler, and it was okay to take him in for a while.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier, the wind was howling, and there was a sound of "whoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo".

The servants immediately got busy, all the wooden baffles outside the glass windows were raised, and all the doors were tightly shut.

Luckily for that guy.

Celeste thought, if the other party was discovered later, he must have died.

He didn't intend to see the other party, but unfortunately the other party didn't think so.Just as Celeste was about to go upstairs, Eswell walked up to him and said softly, "Your Excellency, that person wants to see you."

Celeste was surprised.

What surprised him was of course not the fact that the other party wanted to see him. What really shocked him was that the other party was able to persuade Elswell to inform him, which was very interesting.

You know, Eswell has always cared about nothing. I remember that once Noyce wanted to see him, but Eswell stopped him on the grounds that he was sleeping and could not be disturbed.

Therefore, after discovering that the other party had moved Eswell, Celeste immediately became interested in that person, "Really? Since you said so, then I will meet him."

The rescued man was dressed in black, with a long hood covering his entire face. Celeste had seen this kind of dress on Marion before, and couldn't help but suspect that he was also an alchemist.

"Your Excellency."

The other party spoke, and the voice was somewhat familiar, but Celeste couldn't figure out where it was familiar.

"Thank you very much for your help, this is my thank you."

The man in black took out a small pendant from his sleeve. The pendant was in the shape of a hexagon, with a very strange pattern engraved on it with silver thread.

Celeste didn't reach out to pick it up. After this period of understanding, he more or less understood some of the alchemist's methods. Before he figured out the other party's intentions, he would never reach out to pick up an alchemist handed over to him. his stuff.

"You don't have to be so defensive."

The man in black smiled softly, "I won't harm you."

"Perhaps your mother mentioned to you that there was an uninvited visitor on the day you were born?"