Meal Service (1)

“Convey within the carriage. The lord has commanded it.”

There was a chill within the dew. The daybreak was pale blue as if the solar would by no means rise. A thick fog fell over the southern gates of Cadis on a dark morning.

The chains shrieked as they have been loosened to decrease the drawbridge. The bottom trembled because the bridge fell on the sting of the moat.

“The one individuals allowed by the lord to enter are the coachman and Shylock Isles. The remaining wait exterior the fort, or return the best way you got here.”

This time, the aide first checked out his grasp’s consideration. When he agreed with none techniques, the aide additionally resigned.

The carriage crossed the bridge slowly. The one loaded with treasured objects like a mountain was left in a pile exterior the moat, like livestock tied collectively.

Because the carriage entered Cadis, Shylock gently opened the window curtains together with his fingertips.

The looks of cavalry hooked up to the 4 corners of the carriage gave the impression to be escorting him. Those that didn’t know something thought that the lord had been courteous to his treasured visitors.

Nonetheless, Shylock, who noticed the intention, ridiculed it. It wasn’t even surveillance. It was a warning. It was a message that clearly confirmed whose territory he had set foot in.

Shylock was already defeated by this small advance.

What to do? If I get hit like this, there’s no selection however to be crushed.

He stopped as he was about to shut his curtains, clicking his tongue.

Shylock pulled up his curtains with the again of his hand. The surroundings of Cadis poured into the triangular house fashioned by the sliding of the curtains.

Town panorama was fairly totally different from what he knew.

“…I can’t consider it. Did nobody know that it was such a rich metropolis?”

The carriage didn’t rattle as soon as because it entered the middle. As for the massive boulevard, the land was even with no single stone break.

Additionally, it was early within the morning when darkness nonetheless remained within the depths of the mountain. The highway was as brilliant because the spring solar.

“Streetlights…”

An affordable resin candle was burning, however it was nonetheless a road lamp. It was a luxurious corresponding to the emperor’s personal “necessities”.

Residents crawled out one after the other with much less sleep and put a ladder on the road lamp in entrance of their home and turned off the sunshine. Shylock was surprised.

The outside of the home the place solely commoners or serfs would reside was surprisingly clear. Whether or not it was constructed or repaired on the identical time, the looks was comparable. Because of this, town as a complete appeared neat.

Shylock left the curtains open, deep in thought.

“On the very least, there might be individuals who come and go from the small space?”

Cadis was a really closed metropolis. For the reason that metropolis had not opened for a very long time, after all, data couldn’t attain the central a part of the continent.

Shylock turned very delicate.

He had no data. He was nothing greater than a frontline with out weapons. He didn’t even know the Duke’s face. He by no means knew he would present up in black armor till the day of his wedding ceremony.

There was no face hooked up to his daughter’s marriage companion. The pink eyes couldn’t show his id. He made certain he wasn’t an impersonator, in order that was sufficient.

“Vladislav de Winter. There’s loads of details about him I don’t know… ”

A thousand individuals within the crowd gave a thousand totally different rumors about him. He was extra of a veil, flooded with low cost data blended with fact.

What was sure was that the entire world knew.

With no title, not to mention a reputation, he was essentially the most well-known and disgusting of the illegitimate kids the emperor had sown all over the place.

He didn’t know the way he ignored and angered the Solar Emperor. In the long run, he set out and conquered half of the continent and obtained even the duke’s title together with his personal arms.

Though his beginning was totally different, he was a person from the bottom similar to himself. He knew very nicely simply how horrible the needs of such a vicious particular person have been.

Shylock couldn’t make an actual inference, however it was sure that he was a formidable particular person. He needed to take care of guesswork and improvisation, so he wanted to be ready to do every little thing he might.

As he rolled his head, the carriage stopped. The coachman hurriedly jumped down and lowered the pedestal at Shylock’s toes.

He climbed the steps that lined up the entrance door of Cadis, the place the troopers lined up left and proper.

As he entered the corridor with no information, a knight in black armor stopped him. He was a big and stiff-necked previous knight.

The robust knight with an eyepatch stood nonetheless, however the commander’s dignity was buried.

The very first thing that caught Shylock’s eyes was the acquainted black armor. Armor of the Knights of de Winter when the duke got here to marry his eldest daughter.

Shylock, who glanced on the knight for a second, narrowing his eyes, bowed his head politely. “Shylock Isles. Greetings to Depend Godwin Valks, Lord of Cadis.”

“Hmm.” Valks furrowed his thick eyebrows and made an uncomfortable sound. As a substitute of reacting additional, he circled. “Comply with me.”

After crossing the lengthy hallway for a very long time, they arrived in entrance of an enormous door. Valks pushed it open with each arms.

A deep wrinkle fashioned between Shylock’s brow. “This place…”

“Wait till the lord comes.”

A sublime candle lit the lengthy desk and greeted him. The room had no curtains and a darkish environment like at night time.

It was the eating room.

An extended, empty desk greeted him.

* * *