Chapter 34: Clue (1)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
After filling up the barrels, Angele and his father returned to the carriage and persisted along their present route once again in a slow pace. Outside was still cloudy and darkness covered the interior of the carriage, too. Angele and the baron sat opposite to each other around the table.
“Angele, why do you care so much about those two girls? You can get anything you want when we arrive at Marua Harbor. There’s no point in disappointing Philip especially now,” the baron said with his eyebrows scrunched.
“I understand, Father. I know what’s more important, don’t worry,” Angele smiled and nodded.
“Remember, you’re the most important person to me. Don’t get yourself into dangerous situations easily,” the baron said, staring at his son for a brief period. Angele nodded in response. He knew that his father thought that arguing with the count over two girls wasn’t worth it. This kind of situation was fine if his family had its former strength. But now that their family had considerably weakened, they needed a wall to lean on. Namely, the count.
However, as a being that formerly lived on Earth, Angele disliked just handing over his girls to someone else. The thought of doing such things would hurt his pride. Angele sat in his seat continuously listening to his father’s ramblings. This conversation of their lasted for about half an hour.
“If you make up your mind to give up something, just make sure your sacrifice won’t be in vain. Don’t blow it,” the baron ended the conversation with this statement. He left the carriage to verify the route they needed to pass through. This was something he had been doing every day since their trip began.
“Philip isn’t going to give up easily. Also, I can’t do anything to him with these many people around. If anyone were to leak the information when we arrive at Marua Harbor, I’ll be in deep trouble,” Angele said with a solemn expression on his face. This time, he was alone in the carriage contemplating over a matter. Angele thought for a while, but he couldn’t figure out a plan. He once again took out the emerald ring and stared at its gem. The emerald retained its color, yet its brilliance was already lost and had cracks all over its surface. Looking at the ring somehow calmed him down.
“Ah!” Suddenly, someone screamed from one of the carriages at the back.
“It’s Maggie! That son of a bitch!” Angele jumped out of the carriages and got into the third carriage. He opened the door and saw Maggie’s hand that had gotten injured by one of the plants in front of her and Celia. It seemed that they were organizing different plants, and Maggie’s finger was punctured by a thorn.
“Young Master Angele?” Maggie became surprised at Angele’s abrupt appearance, which undoubtedly made people assume that something must’ve happened. Angele looked over the people inside the carriage. He felt relieved when he saw not a presence of Philip and his knights here.
“Well, I heard your scream, so I’m just checking if anything happened. Maggie seems fine, though. I’m returning to my carriage,” Angele said and went outside without waiting for a chance of them to talk. He closed the door and walked toward the leading carriage quickly.
The speed of the caravan wasn’t too fast, making it possible for Angele to easily outrun the carriages. While passing by Philip and his knights’ carriage, he witnessed Philip looking outside the window carelessly. He nodded his head when he saw Angele passing by, seemingly unconcerned about the two girls any longer. Angele saw his actions, thus he smiled at him in response.
“Wait a second, Young Master Angele,” someone with a deep voice said. Angele knew it was Philip, so he bowed to him after turning around.
“Count Philip, is there anything I can help you with?” Angele said as he slowed his walking pace to keep up with the carriage.
“The ring on your necklace caught my attention.” Philip stared at the ring on Angele’s neck.
“You know something about this ring?” Angele was in a hurry, so he forgot to place the ring underneath his clothes. Philip inadvertently saw it when Angele was passing by.
“It’s just a ring that my father had given me, like a special memento.” Angele quickly returned it underneath his clothes and said.
“Could you take a look for me if you know something about this? It could be something rare, I suppose,” Angele thought for a second before handing the ring over to Philip. Philip scrunched his eyebrows, but he saw Angele smiling at him. He then nodded and grabbed the ring. Philip looked at the words engraved on the ring, and in an instant, his facial expression changed.
“Did you discover something?” Angele was looking at him, feeling elated that Philip probably knew something about it.
“Give me a price, I want this ring,” Philip said with a light tone.
“Well, if you find it charming, just consider it my gift to you. Can you just introduce my family to the governor after we arrive at Marua Harbor?” Angele said with his smile retained. For some reason, Philip found Angele’s smile ice-cold. But he didn’t let his suspicion show on his face, still nodding in response.
“No problem at all. Thanks, Young Master Angele. You guys saved me. I’ll make sure you live a better life there. Now if you’ll excuse me…” Philip closed the window and lowered the curtain.
Angele stopped walking and looked at Philip’s carriage. A plan was formulated.
***************
It was night. The caravan decided to camp under a hill, and so made an encirclement out of their carriages. Philip sat inside his own carriage, carefully looking at the ring.
“An enchanted ring! Yet, that dumbass just gave it away. Even one without energy could be traded for a hundred soldiers’ equipment!” One of the knights beside him spoke in a tone brimming with excitement.
“It’s a ring the Ramsoda College has. If you want to get into this college, you’ll need a special recommendation from the Andes Alliance School… If I were to show this ring to the school, I’ll get admitted right away.” Philip excitedly nodded. He was looking at the ring as though it was a priceless treasure.
“If you can get admitted into the Alliance school, the marquis will treat you much better,” another knight said, his happiness for him apparent.
The oil lamp brought light over the emerald on the ring. Green light reflected into the eyes of the three.
“Rings like this were trophies the school gave out before. I heard I could use it to get in without taking the exam. If this is one of those, the value will be extremely high!” Philip said with a light tone. He wasn’t laughing, but the knights knew he was elated.
“That young guy is unlucky, knowing none of it. He treated it like an ordinary ring. Ha.” One of the knights laughed.
“Well, he’s just a low-class noble from the countryside and has no way to obtain such information. He probably doesn’t even know of the Andes Alliance School, and you expect him to know about those trophies? And take it to the school?” Philip said after shaking his head.
HUA!
The door of the carriage was opened by someone.
“Andes Alliance School? Trophies?” Angele spoke in a gentle tone as he walked into the carriage with a smiling face. His black hunting suit blended into the shadows of the dark night; his brown hair rustled in the wind.
“You were spying on us?” The three became surprised, and Philip became furious.
“I’m not, ha. My hearing is just too keen, so your voices just lingered onto me. I didn’t expect something so interesting though,” Angele said as he continued to smile. The two knights looked at each other for a second and unsheathed the swords by their side at the same time.
BANG! BANG!
Angele drew his sword in but a second and moved around in the carriage as though he was dancing. His sword had blood smeared on it when he returned to his original position. The two knights started screaming as their hands were dismembered. They fell down to the ground after Angele managed to exploit the gaps in their armor.
“What are you doing?!” Philip yelled. He was trying to maintain a calm demeanor, however, his eyes betrayed such expectations as fear shone upon it.
“I am the son of Marquis Syrias, how dare you! I’m going to kill your whole family unless you kill everyone that’ll know of this!” he continued.
“Angele! What are you doing!” The baron rushed into the carriage with a disappointed look. He saw the two knights screaming on the ground. Angele was about to explain, however, Philip threw his teapot that contained hot water inside toward them. Philip jumped out of the window, fleeing with a speed at the knight level.
“Huh!” Angele dodged the teapot and jumped off the carriage right away. He saw Philip mounting on a horse, clearly attempting to flee.
‘Analyzing the distance, modifying the range…’ Blue-colored information showed up in front of Angele. A red dot was marked on Philip’s body.
‘Analyzing necessary strength, modifying…’
‘Completed.’ Zero did a series of analysis and reported it to Angele.
Angele smiled and aimed his sword at the red dot. He threw it toward Philip at full strength, and the silver crossguard sword struck the right side of Philip’s waist after spinning for a while. Philip screamed and fell off the horse.