The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier, and the patter of raindrops was accompanied by the long and mellow bells of the church, converging into a hypnotic serenade.
Jian Qiao was sitting on a rocking chair on the balcony, resting his forehead on one hand, lightly tapping the rhythm of the bells with the other. His eyelids slightly opened, then slightly closed, as if he were about to fall asleep. He liked rainy nights, he even liked the bells that rang frequently and without warning late at night.
He needed some noise before he dared to fall asleep, because the sound of the outside world could guide him to wake from the terrible dream.
His servants knew his habits. While making the bed they chattered on and on about the secrets they’d learned from the coachman.
“Lord Rege is so infatuated. Did you know? In order to get engaged to Lady Mia, he even renounced his claim to inherit Grande. Although he’s the second oldest son, the knights of Grande worship him and are more willing to follow him. He also has the support of Queen Moen, so he can actually compete with Hall Grande.”
“The old Duke doesn’t like Lady Mia, so he forbade them to marry and threatened to drive them out of the house. But they got engaged anyway. What a steadfast love!”
“However, Lord Rege also has quite a few lovers outside. They say he has a book called 【Chronicles of the Pursuit of Fragrance】, which records the secrets of the most beautiful women in Tortus. Every one of those women without exception have been his mistresses.”
“He’s so handsome, hearty, strong, and well born, no wonder all women are smitten with him. It’s just a pity, once the old Duke passes away he certainly won’t have a good outcome. His former enemies will join hands to tear him apart, and the first person to kill him will certainly be Hall.”
“Hall’s in love with Lady Mia, even a fool can see it in his eyes. He’s so obsessed with that beauty, to get her he’ll definitely make Lord Rege disappear forever. How terrible! I already foresee a tragedy! Lord Rege should have never gotten engaged to Lady Mia, much less given up his inheritance.”
The manservant said worriedly, “He’s taken so many missteps, and now he’s falling into the abyss.”
The other servant sighed. “No one can save him, including Queen Moen. Both of them, brother and sister, are almost finished.”
While listening to the gossip Jian Qiao pushed his toes against the floor, making the rocking chair sway back and forth.
To give up everything for a beauty, that didn’t seem at all like something Rege would do. Although they’d only spoken once, Jian Qiao had seen the burning flame in the man’s eyes. That flame could be called ambition, but another name for it was protection.
Rege used every means possible to amass wealth and power, then used that wealth and power to realize his unfulfilled ambition to guard those he wanted to protect.
Compared to Hall’s muddy eyes filled with greed and cruelty, Jian Qiao preferred Rege’s eyes, pure and blue. All his feelings were written in his eyes, he was a simple man.
As he thought, those blue eyes appeared in Jian Qiao’s mind. He shut his eyelids, imagined looking into those vivid irises, and before he knew it he fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Rege was standing in front of the faceless portrait of the 【Water Nymph】. He gazed at it for a long time.
Mia said teasingly, “When will your true love finally have a face? I hope you give her a present soon.”
The fog in Rege’s eyes slowly dispersed, and the strange idea he couldn’t quite grasp disappeared with it.
He rubbed between his eyebrows, his tone full of confusion, “Just now, for a moment, I thought her hair should be black. The goddess born from the coldest spring of the deep forest ought to have black hair.”
“Ah, I see your point, dark hair is quite mysterious.” Mia covered her mouth, yawned, and said lazily, “It’s time for me to go to bed, tomorrow is the decisive moment.”
Thinking of his plans, Rege walked towards the bedroom, rubbing his forehead as he walked. He kept feeling there’d been a flash of something in his mind, a thin figure with black hair, with a sense of familiarity it was difficult to ignore.
—
The next day, Jian Qiao arrived at the Duke’s residence in a carriage with a beautifully wrapped gift box.
The doorman pointed arrogantly to the stone lion at one side, indicating he should stand in the corner and not block the way.
“Wait here for Lord Hall’s summons, he’s not available now.” After a few moments, the doorman came out of the castle and related the message.
Jian Qiao knew the discourtesy was intentional. These great nobles liked to use the “closed door” treatment to put low status guests in their place.
He retreated to a corner of the doorway, holding the gift box in both hands, and waited patiently for the summons. However, the word “summons” was itself ridiculous. Hall, who had no title and wasn’t of noble birth, had no qualifications to treat an earl in this way.
Jian Qiao waited for over twenty minutes. During this time, he maintained his patience and suppressed the anger inside.
Outwardly, at least, he was elegant and calm from beginning to end.
The doorman seemed to feel sorry for him, and was preparing to pass on another message on his behalf, when he saw Hall running out of the castle as fast as he could, shouting as he ran. “Open the door, open the door!”
He wasn’t wearing any clothes. Aside from five or six lipstick marks there was only a tablecloth around his waist, and his face was full of terror and panic. Lady Mia followed him, equally disheveled, screaming shrilly for help.
Jian Qiao froze with astonishment.
The doorman also froze. Shocked, he forgot to follow Hall’s instructions to open the gate.
So Hall’s way was blocked. He cursed furiously as he frantically shook the iron gate. “Damn fool, open the door, open the door! What are you, a pig? Don’t you understand human speech?”
Jian Qiao quickly grasped what was happening, because Rege came striding out with a long sword, his handsome face distorted with hatred, his bright eyes churning with shadows of humiliation and flames of rage.
It was the face of a man who’d been betrayed.
Mia wept, begging for mercy, “No, Rege, please don’t!”
Hall rattled the iron gate.
The commotion made by the two soon attracted the knights who lived in the castle. At the same time, carriages and passers-by outside the ducal palace stopped to stare.
More and more people gathered, watching the farce with rapt attention. They didn’t have to ask to understand what was going on, the unclothed Hall and Mia were unmistakable evidence.
Finally the doorman returned to his senses and hurriedly went to open the gate. However, in order to display the majesty of the ducal residence, the two iron doors could only be opened by the combined efforts of four people.
The doorman worked in vain for a long time.
Hall, anxious, embarrassed, and afraid, could only try to hide in the flowerbeds, but he was pricked by the needles of the pine and cypress trees.
Rege stalked forward, pointed his sword, and said coldly, “Let’s duel.”
Dueling was the speediest way to settle a dispute under the law, and the only way to defend one’s honor. For a knight, the assassination of his master or the defilement of his wife were the two most intolerable events he could encounter.
If either of those things occurred, then even if it cost his life, he was compelled to seek justice for himself.
And chivalry was the foundation that propped up this era, it was the cornerstone of the entire continent. People living in Tortus, whether nobles or commoners, all considered themselves knights.
Therefore, it was reasonable for Rege to demand a duel. No one felt it was unusual or out of line. He ought to duel Hall, otherwise he was a coward who would be despised for the rest of his life.
Hall quickly responded, “Fine, let’s duel!” Then he turned his head and looked at the knight commander standing to one side.
A duel between two nobles could be fought by knights on their behalf, to prevent their honorable bodies from being wounded. Hall was deeply coddled by his father, so he believed the head knight of the dukedom wouldn’t dare to disobey.
The knight commander pursed his thin lips, looking reluctant, but still bowed with his hand over his chest. He agreed to Hall’s request.
Rege sneered and said, “I’ll fight on my own behalf, I have no need for a knight.”
When Hall heard these words, the smug expression on his face vanished.
There was another provision in the law that if two nobles of equal status engaged in a duel and one of them decided to take the field personally, the other noble must do the same.
The final outcome was now obvious. Rege had grown up in the army from childhood and participated in dozens of military expeditions. In this country, and even this continent, there were few who could rival him. Hall, who’d been hollowed out by women and wine, was not his opponent.
“No, no way! I decline your challenge!” Hall shook his head again and again to refuse, and his body shivered in the cold wind.
His cowardly and ugly manner provoked the contempt of all.
Rege pointed at him with the tip of his sword and taunted, “It’s hard for me to imagine where you’ll lead the great duchy of Grande. A coward who can’t even step into the dueling ring, how can you command an army in the future? You’ll ruin the centuries old reputation of the Grande family; you’ll erase the glory of the Iron-Blooded Master; you’ll make the two lions at the gate voiceless before the enemy. Because of you, Grande will be forever disgraced!”
Rege sneered and shook his head, then lowered the point of his sword and turned to go.
Lady Mia hurriedly grabbed Hall’s arm and pulled him to the ground beside her.
Seeing the boneless appearance of these two, the onlooking nobles sighed in their hearts. “This will be the end of Grande’s glory.”
Every single passerby on the street was thinking with glee, “The son of a prostitute really is the son of a prostitute, there’s not the least bit of virtue.”
The knights of the ducal palace stood at attention with their heads bowed, thinking sadly, “What a great misfortune and shame to be commanded by such a man.”
The foundation of the dukedom had been built up war after war, and the glory of the dukedom was stained with blood and tempered in the fires of war to a fearsome majesty. The person who inherited the dukedom must be warlike, brave, and resolute.
This was the Grande family’s centuries-old precept.
And at this moment, Hall’s cowardice, depravity, indecency, and shamelessness had destroyed the intangible wealth accumulated by Grande’s ancestors over hundreds of years.
When Grande’s spirit collapsed, its edifice would also tumble.
Standing not far away, the old Duke studied the humiliation in the eyes of each of the knights, the contempt in the face of each passerby, and the gloating look of other nobles. At this moment, he had to admit he’d made a mistake.
He’d so blinded himself with love that he almost ruined the whole of Grande. It wasn’t that he doubted Rege was the best heir, but he’d thought he still had time to train his eldest son into a good man.
Now, however, people all over the empire would soon learn what a despicable rake his hand-picked successor was.
“Get on your feet!” The old Duke pointed at Hall and his tone was stern as never before. “Put on your clothes, grab your longsword, and take up the challenge! When you dare to act, you dare to accept the consequences, this is the commandment everyone in the Grande family must uphold!”
Hall was stunned.
Rege, who was striding forward, stopped in place but did not look back.
Mia covered her face with her hands and let out sobs of utter shame. She knew the duel would lead to someone’s death, and she was the cause of this disaster.
How could she face all this?
At this stage, the doorman finally pushed the heavy iron door open a crack.
Mia rushed to her feet, squeezed through the gap, and stumbled away.
Seeing this, Jian Qiao lowered his head. He lightly tapped the corner of his long, narrow eye with his fingertip, and his pupils glittered with interest. He finally understood why Rege had created such an infatuated persona, it turned out that all the foreshadowing had set up this moment of the endgame.
It wasn’t only Grande’s inheritance that Rege wanted, it was also Hall’s life. He really admired such an open and straightforward way of plundering.
This was not a petulant child, but a bloodthirsty lion.
TL Notes:
铁血 – iron blood, iron-blooded – unyielding spirit, a strong will and a spirit of sacrifice, mostly used in a military context
敢做敢当 – dare to act and dare to bear responsibility; have the courage to accept the consequence of one’s actions