Chapter 54 - Three Letters and a Murder
Having finished the banquet and completed a humanitarian aid mission, Charlotte returned to her territory in a pleasant mood.
At the farewell, Elder Martin Kramer and the other elders respectfully saw Charlotte off. Just then, a citizen came to report that the granary in the city of Ambratu had been mostly burned down. This immediately made the elders frown, as the Sorkya Peninsula had no grain-producing areas, and grain there was not only difficult to buy but also very expensive.
Charlotte immediately stated that although the Viscount Territory of Lanwan also lacked food, she could spare some to help Ambratu in an emergency. The elders were profusely grateful. The atmosphere of parting was cheerful and harmonious.
Not long after returning to her territory, Cecilia arrived at Charlotte's boudoir carrying a stack of letters.
At this time, Charlotte was only wearing a plain nightgown, lying on her stomach on the bed, with Nina and Sophia, two young slave girls, beside her. Charlotte bent her right leg back and gently rubbed Nina's delicate face with her toes. The silk nightgown slipped down her smooth calf, revealing a hint of the spring scenery beneath.
Nina smiled sweetly and kissed the sole of Charlotte's foot.
Seeing this, Cecilia stood at the door, hesitating whether she should go out first.
"Come in, why are you standing at the door?" Charlotte noticed Cecilia and said strangely.
"Teacher," Nina and Sophia also said in unison.
Cecilia said with a slightly flushed face, "I, I still shouldn't disturb you doing..."
"What are we doing? I'm just getting a massage," Charlotte said.
Charlotte was telling the truth. She had ridden a horse back and forth for a day and a night, and had even specially worn armor to show her importance to the rescue effort. Being usually pampered, this one day of travel had left her entire body aching, so she had called Nina and Sophia to give her a rubdown.
Massage was also a compulsory course for chambermaids, as people in this world generally believed that massage could treat erectile dysfunction.
Cecilia's face was full of suspicion, clearly not quite believing that Charlotte was just getting a massage. However, she had important business to discuss and didn't want to waste too much time on Charlotte's private life.
"These are letters from Duke Green Plains, Earl Quake Forest, and Platinum City," Cecilia handed the two letters to Charlotte.
"Three letters?"
Charlotte was a little surprised. The replies from Duke Green Plains and Earl Quake Forest were within her expectations, but the letter from Platinum City was a bit of a surprise. Who in Platinum City would write to her?
So, Charlotte took the letters and first opened the one from Platinum City.
After a quick glance, Charlotte discovered that it was actually from her old classmate, Henry Holovin, the Emperor's nephew and the designated heir to the throne, Leopold Holovin. The fellow said in the letter that he would be marrying Anne Paste this year during the Feast of Holy Grace, and he invited Charlotte to attend his wedding without fail.
Charlotte felt speechless. She didn't understand what this guy was thinking. Why did he need her to attend his wedding?
Was he showing off?
You may not accept my pursuit, but naturally, other girls will marry me?
Charlotte didn't feel much enthusiasm for going to Platinum City to attend Henry Holovin's wedding. She could only send her blessings to the newlyweds across the mountains and rivers hoping that Anne Paste wasn't pregnant with her own brother Andre's child when she got married.
Throwing Henry Holovin's letter aside, Charlotte opened the second letter.
This one was from Earl Quake Forest, or more accurately, a letter written on behalf of Earl Quake Forest by her cousin Monica.
In the letter, Monica spent most of a page sharing her recent research into painting techniques before finally mentioning the main business at the end Earl Quake Forest agreed to lend thirty knights to Charlotte to help her territory get through the winter.
Black Wolf was very efficient. He had already sent back news that he had found some Fierce Wolf warriors willing to join the Viscount Territory of Lanwan. However, this did not prevent Charlotte from being happy that Earl Quake Forest was willing to lend her some knights.
Or rather, it was precisely because of those upcoming Fierce Wolf warriors that Charlotte more urgently wanted more Olan knights. The origins of the Fierce Wolf warriors destined that they would not be too law-abiding, at least not too fond of obeying the rules of the Olan Empire. Just as Cecilia worried, if there were too many such people, it would inevitably disrupt the order of the territory. Therefore, Charlotte had to ensure that there were more Olan knights than Fierce Wolf warriors in her territory.
Although the thirty knights borrowed from Earl Quake Forest were not many, they could be considered a temporary solution to Charlotte's urgent needs.
However, after opening the second letter, Charlotte frowned again. This letter, sealed with the private seal of Duke Green Plains, was also written by someone else. The handwriting in the letter did not belong to Jose Mellerfield. Charlotte could recognize at a glance that the writer was her stepmother, Rosie Mellerfield.
In the letter, Rosie Mellerfield used rather harsh words to reprimand Charlotte for causing trouble at will in the territory, undertaking large-scale construction in unnecessary places, and wasting money and food. It seemed that even while constantly eating, drinking, and having fun in Ambratu, Harvey Sherwin occasionally wrote letters to Rosie Mellerfield to report Charlotte's movements over a period of time.
After the reprimand, Rosie Mellerfield went on to say that the pressure on the border of the duchy to defend against the tribesmen this year was very high, and there were no extra personnel to lend to Charlotte. In short not a single knight would be lent. If Charlotte felt that the Viscount Territory was unsafe, she could return to the Green Plains Duchy earlier, as Riverside Castle was safe enough.
This was pure nonsense. According to the news brought out of the Campei Mountains by the mountain people, since the beginning of winter this year, the tribesmen had not even approached the outer edges of the Campei Mountains, let alone come down to plunder.
However, Charlotte didn't care about Rosie Mellerfield's lies. What she cared about was why was Rosie Mellerfield writing the letter on his behalf?
In Charlotte's memories of more than ten years, Jose Mellerfield had never had the habit of having someone else write his letters. On the contrary, the Duke of Green Plains valued his letters and seals very much. Even when Charlotte was a child, she could only secretly sneak into the study and get her father's seal when Jose Mellerfield was not at home.
Why could Rosie Mellerfield so openly write letters on behalf of Jose Mellerfield? Moreover, Charlotte could be sure that her father had absolutely not seen this letter.
What had happened to her father?
Charlotte fell into thought.
"Your Excellency, do you want to write a reply?" Cecilia stood aside and waited for a while before asking again.
"Hmm," Charlotte came back to her senses and nodded. "I'll write two reply letters to Earl Quake Forest."
Charlotte decided to write separate letters to her cousin Monica and Earl Quake Forest to express her gratitude. Her small viscount territory had received too much help from the Earl of Quake Forest's family to get off to a smooth start.
"Only reply to Earl Quake Forest?" Cecilia asked doubtfully. "Don't you need to reply to the other two?"
"The other two..." Charlotte first pulled out the inexplicable letter from that kid Henry Holovin, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it on the ground. "This one can be thrown away as trash."
Then, Charlotte picked up Rosie's letter again: "This one probably needs a reply, but..."
Charlotte's lips curled into a mocking smile: "However, I think I'll send a gift along with the letter to my dear mother, to remind Madam Mother that she can't use such an unkind tone when writing to her daughter."
Ambratu.
At some point, a piece of gossip spread through the war-torn city of Ambratu at an unbelievable speed Harvey Sherwin slammed the table at a banquet and said, "If it weren't for me, the people of Ambratu wouldn't be able to survive at all!"
The name Harvey Sherwin had become quite well-known in Ambratu recently. He was the Viscount of Lanwan's cousin, a guest of honor among the democratic elders, and had led several tariff negotiations... Most citizens of Ambratu had heard of him.
But to say that Ambratu depended on him to survive was something the citizens of Ambratu naturally disliked hearing. For a time, Harvey Sherwin didn't dare to go out on the streets, because as soon as he walked on the street, he would inevitably face countless angry gazes.
In fact, Harvey Sherwin didn't even know if he had said that sentence. He had drunk quite a bit that night and couldn't remember anything after waking up the next day.
However, he asked his good friend Robin Mancini, who had been present at the time, and Robin Mancini firmly said that he had indeed said it.
Harvey Sherwin also indirectly asked Martin Kramer, with whom he had a good relationship, and Martin Kramer also reassured him that he had indeed said some inappropriate things at the time, but it was nothing, and no one cared about such a small matter.
So, Harvey Sherwin had no choice but to acknowledge that the sentence, "If it weren't for me, the people of Ambratu wouldn't be able to survive at all!" was indeed said by him.
Harvey Sherwin once regretted it very much, wondering how he had lost his mind after drinking and said such arrogant words.
Until the news of Antanas's defeat and death, and the annihilation of the entire Ambratu citizen army, arrived...
A cloud of grief and despair shrouded the city of Ambratu, a grief and despair that could not be compared to when Ambratu was ambushed before.
At that time, the people of Ambratu could still comfort themselves that the Little Sassinian people only knew how to play tricks like ambushes. As long as Antanas and the powerful Ambratu citizen army could destroy the Little Sassinian city-state on the main battlefield, then the ultimate victory would still belong to Ambratu.
The democratic elders were also in a gloomy mood. They certainly did not want Antanas to destroy Little Sassinian, but the outcome of the complete annihilation of the citizen army was not what they wanted to see either. This was undoubtedly the weakest time in Ambratu's history. If the Little Sassinian people were to attack, the city would not even be able to organize a force capable of defending the city walls on its own.
However, it was in this bleak atmosphere that someone's mood was unusually cheerful. That person was Harvey Sherwin.
Didn't the current situation just prove how correct his words were?
"The current Ambratu needs the Viscount of Lanwan's relief for food, and the protection of the Viscount of Lanwan's cavalry for safety! Am I wrong? The Little Sassinian people were driven out of the city by the Viscount of Lanwan..."
Harvey Sherwin stood on the street, deliberately raising his voice to speak loudly to the handsome young man beside him, his face full of smugness. These words were certainly not meant for his own male lover, but for the citizens of Ambratu who had previously glared at him.
The surrounding citizens of Ambratu were angry but dared not speak out, because what Harvey Sherwin said was true. Ambratu did indeed need the Viscount of Lanwan's food and military deterrence now. The Viscount of Lanwan had not only sent troops and food but had also repeatedly reduced the so-called tariff compensation. The citizens all felt that her generosity towards Ambratu was due to her "cousin" Harvey Sherwin.
The citizens of Ambratu frustratingly discovered that they could not refute the sentence, "If it weren't for me, the people of Ambratu wouldn't be able to survive at all!"
At a street corner, two Ambratu citizens whose houses had been burned down were sitting by the roadside eating dinner. One was Pand, a young man who had once firmly opposed the tariff agreement, and the other was Pand's neighbor, Logan, a one-eyed old citizen.
"Look at his fat pig face," Logan nodded towards Harvey Sherwin, who was already getting carried away, and said, "Now anyone can bully our Ambratu."
"He's just talking nonsense!" Pand gritted his teeth, his eyes red. His mother had her leg broken and was burned by the remaining fire when the house collapsed, and it looked like she wouldn't live much longer. "The Little Sassinian people clearly retreated on their own! How dare he say that the Viscount of Lanwan drove them away? The Viscount of Lanwan's cavalry didn't even fight the Little Sassinian people, I saw it with my own eyes!"
"What if you saw it with your own eyes?" Logan sneered. "Pand, let me tell you, in this world, whoever is strong speaks the truth, and whoever is weak can only be bullied. Our Ambratu is weak now, and there will be many more such things in the future. You will understand this truth I'm telling you."
"No, it won't..." Pand shook his head, clenching his fists. "As long as we people of Ambratu have courage, no one can humiliate us."
"How can it not?" Logan pointed at Harvey Sherwin and said, "Isn't he humiliating us? Look, who here has the courage to do anything to him?"
Pand looked around and indeed found many Ambratu citizens who didn't even have the courage to say a word to the arrogant Harvey Sherwin. Harvey Sherwin was humiliating them in front of their faces, and they were even avoiding eye contact with him.
Suddenly, a surge of anger almost exploded from Pand's chest. He stood up abruptly and grabbed the dining knife in front of him.
For some reason, the borrowed dining knife in front of Pand today had been sharpened exceptionally sharp, and it had a cold touch when he held it, not at all like a dining knife.
"What are you going to do?" Logan quickly went to pull Pand, seemingly wanting to stop this impulsive young man.
Pand shook off Logan's hand.
Harvey Sherwin was speaking happily when he suddenly felt someone pat him on the shoulder from behind. He turned his head in confusion and saw a young man who looked somewhat familiar. What was his name again?
Suddenly, a sharp pain interrupted Harvey Sherwin's thoughts. He slowly lowered his head and saw that the young man was holding a dining knife that had been stabbed into his stomach.
Before Harvey Sherwin could react, the young man pulled out the dining knife and stabbed him again.
"Ah... ah... ah..."
Harvey Sherwin let out a mournful cry and fell to the ground in pain.
Pand took the opportunity to straddle Harvey Sherwin and stabbed him again and again...
Bright red blood gradually stained the bluestone-paved street.
"Murder!"
The silent street finally erupted in a cry of alarm. Suddenly, there was chaos. Some people went up to pull Pand away, while others went to rescue Harvey Sherwin.
At this moment, at the unnoticed street corner where one-eyed Logan was, Robin Mancini, dressed in simple linen clothes, walked out.
"Well done," Robin Mancini looked in the direction of the chaos and whispered as if to himself.
"Thank you for your appreciation," Logan's single eye was full of sinister intent.
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