Stephanie thought highly of Roland. Very highly.
Normally, she wouldn't even spare a glance at such a banquet, but Roland said that he wanted to take a look and sit down. So, without asking why, she simply brought Roland here.
Even though she knew that such a party would have a dark time that would affect her reputation, she didn't ask Roland's reason or purpose.
In the party, Stephanie sat on the balcony on the second floor. She was wearing a low-cut dress. Her figure wasn't as good as Andonara's, but she was still a rare beauty.
More importantly, she had a noble vibe. Just by sitting there, her fair face and her white trench were enough to attract a lot of attention.
She was more gorgeous than all the women in the party.
Both young girls and noblewomen.
The men looked at her with passion, and the women stared at her with jealousy.
Roland, sitting on her opposite side, suffered the jealous gazes of many men too.
Few people who were close to the Association of Mages had heard of Roland.
They knew that he was close to the First Princess, so they knew his name when they saw him sitting on Stephanie's opposite side.
Those who didn't know him, on the other hand, asked in private who he was and why he was so close to the First Princess, the future queen.
Ignoring the prying, curious, and even lustful eyes around, Stephanie held her cup gracefully and asked with a charming smile, "Okay, I've stayed here with you. Now, can you tell me what you want to do?"
"It's not appropriate to say it out loud." Roland smiled.
Stephanie shook the expensive alchemical glass casually, and the red wine swirled inside. "Then I'll just wait and watch the show."
She didn't care who Roland wanted to deal with.
In the capital of Fareins, she didn't care about anybody except herself and her mother.
Also, she was quite curious about what Roland wanted to do in such a place.
As a matter of fact, Roland didn't know exactly what he wanted to do. He only knew that he had to cooperate with Grantham when the time was right.
At this moment, Young Martin, the host of the party and the owner of this manor, showed up.
Although he was called Martin Jr., he was actually a middle-aged man in his forties.
Although many people greeted him, he ignored them and walked straight to Stephanie, smiling. "Your Highness, it's the greatest honor of my life that you can come to my party."
He bowed courteously. Although he was already middle-aged, he had a refined temperament when he smiled.
He was clearly a Warrior who was close to becoming a Legendary Warrior, but he did not have the boorish aura of a Warrior. He was a complete aristocrat.
Stephanie didn't stand up. Neither in terms of her identity nor the forces behind her, she didn't need to stand on such an occasion.
Lazily putting down the cup in her hand, Stephanie said indifferently, "I'm here to broaden my horizons today. I heard that the dark hours here are very interesting?"
"This is a special activity of this manor." Martin's eyes quickly scanned the important parts on Stephanie's body, before he pretended to be casual and said, "But this activity is not suitable for you, First Princess."
"I thought you would encourage me to participate." Stephanie looked at him with a faint smile.
"I wouldn't dare." Martin shook his head. "I know what you can think and what you can't."
Stephanie nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. I'll leave before the dark hours. You can entertain other guests and ignore me."
"As you wish, Your Highness, but before I leave …" Martin turned around and looked at Roland, before he said in a mocking tone, "But before I leave, there's something I want to report to Your Highness."
"Is it important?" asked Stephanie. She followed Martin's gaze and looked at Roland on her opposite side.
"It's very important."
Martin bowed again. At this moment, many nobles at the party had gathered around them.
They all had keen political instincts. Perhaps they weren't very knowledgeable on average, but they were definitely talented when it came to watching a show.
"Fine, go ahead." Stephanie didn't care about the guy's rudeness.
She could tell that Martin seemed to be targeting Roland, and she wanted to see how the guy would target Roland.
"I'm told that the First Princess has been very close to this Mage in front of you recently." Martin pointed at Roland.
"That's true." As he expected! Stephanie looked at Roland with a vague smile.
Roland blinked his eyes, clearly worried.
Seeing Roland's expression, Martin put on a smug expression.
"But this man is a demon," Martin said confidently, pointing at Roland.
Hua!
The nobles at the side started to whisper noisily.
It was a serious accusation to accuse someone of being a demon.
This was not only the capital of Fareins but also the Holy Realm of Light.
Under normal circumstances, those who were identified as demons would be tied to crosses and burned.
Roland wasn't very good at acting. He couldn't pretend to be scared, so he could only try to frown.
But in Martin's eyes, he was pretending to be calm, which made him even more convinced of his judgment.
"How can my man be a demon?" Stephanie sniffed.
Roland smiled at her after hearing that.
It was just a normal, if not commercial, smile that Roland simply responded to Stephanie's words.
But under special circumstances and in the eyes of special people, it could be interpreted as something else.
Martin felt more and more that Roland was scared.
He waved his hand, and the butler came up with a roll of paper.
Martin unfolded the roll of paper, straightened it, and slowly waved it from side to side, showing it to everybody.
It was a portrait of a man who looked 80% similar to Roland.
Since there weren't many people in this world who could draw an exact replica of a person, according to common sense, the person in the portrait should be Roland.
However, Roland and Stephanie knew that the man in the portrait wasn't him.
After showing the portrait for nearly a minute, Martin threw it to Roland.
Roland caught it and looked at it for a while.
Similar!
It really looked like him.
"So what do you mean by showing me a portrait?" asked Stephanie.
"Your Highness, the man in the portrait is named Rod Jonier, a local noble in Coldspring County. He's also a Mage."
The nobles around were all whispering.
Why did this man named Rod Jonier look so much like Roland, the man opposite the princess?
Stephanie was quite surprised. If she didn't know that Roland was a Golden Son, she would've thought that Roland was this Rod Jonier.
"Then what?" Stephanie pretended to be unhappy and said, "What does it matter if he's called Roland or Jonny or something? What does it matter to you? "
"What if this Viscount Jonier is a homicidal demon?"
Everybody looked at him curiously, and Stephanie covered her mouth and exclaimed, "Really? How can Roland be a homicidal demon? "
"It's true." Martin looked at Roland and said rather angrily, "This man killed his parents, raped the girl who grew up with him, and burned his neighbor's family to death. Then, he disappeared from Coldspring County. We didn't expect that he had changed his name and come to the capital."
Stephanie happened to pour herself another glass of wine. She had just taken a sip and almost spat it out when she heard that. Thankfully, her years of noble etiquette made her swallow the wine back.
"Are you so brutal?" the First Princess asked Roland in surprise.
Roland hummed in response. He didn't know what was going on or what expression to make. After all, he wasn't an actor.
But in many people's eyes, he looked guilty.
Martin laughed and said, "Your Highness, he's exactly such a brutal demon. He must be up to something if he's following you. So … "
He stepped in front of Stephanie and said, "Your Highness, please back off. The Guild of Warriors will take care of this demon."
Roland didn't even know what to say.
He had basically understood Grantham's scheme.
It was actually very simple. He wanted Martin to make a fool of himself in front of the future queen, which would further lower Martin's prestige.
No matter how powerful Martin was, the elements of the Guild of Warriors would find a way to make Martin step down, considering the guild's image in front of the queen.
But what Roland was curious about was that Martin couldn't be stupid even though he wasn't very smart. Why did he believe the intelligence so easily?
Was it possible that the person who gave him the intelligence was someone he trusted?
As he thought about it, Roland felt that his head was dizzy too.
Grantham claimed that his side didn't have many advantages, but he had already gained the upper hand since he had instigated Martin's trusted subordinates to defect to his side.
Now, he was just making use of this opportunity to once again suppress the prestige of Martin's faction.
Even without his help, Grantham's team would've soon surpassed Martin with their abilities.
He had indeed been used as a pawn.
However, when he thought about the Meteorite Minerals that he was about to get, Roland felt that it wasn't a bad idea to be a pawn.
He heaved a sigh and stood up. He looked at Martin and said, "You're really smart."
"Of course!" Martin thought that Roland admitted it after hearing that. He was delighted. "The Guild of Warriors has the best intelligence system. It's very easy for us to investigate your crimes."
After saying that, he turned his head to look at Stephanie, obviously trying to take credit for it.
Stephanie smiled, like a star that had just appeared.
Amazed by her smile, Martin didn't move his eyes away until a long time later. He shouted, "Guards, come here and help me capture this man. Send him to the Inquisition in the Holy Realm. Demons should be purged by light."
Roland heaved a sigh. "Martin, there's something I'd like to ask you. Who gave you the intelligence?"
"My most trusted deputy chairman, Grantham, of course. He's a Legendary Warrior," said Martin rather proudly.
Holy shit!
Roland felt that he had underestimated Grantham's abilities.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
