As they were scheduled to stay in Kant's Domain for a few days, after a sumptuous welcome banquet, Viscount Viktor Kant arranged a place for Gwen and his entourage to rest.
Gwen did not have a good feeling about the ancient castle.
Although the interior was full of light and warmth, and the magic crystal lamps, as well as the freshly cleaned doors, windows, tables, and chairs, dispelled the depressing feeling brought about by the night, Gwen still had an unpleasant feeling in his heart. He seemed to be able to see through the bright windows and whitewashed white walls into the depths of the castle. Behind the bright covers, there were dark, cold stones, slippery moss, crisscrossing cracks, and shadows and germs that were constantly breeding in the moist cracks.
After a brief conversation with Viktor Kant, Gwen returned to his room with the excuse that he needed to rest after the journey. This was a guest room specially set up for distinguished guests. It had the same gorgeous furnishings and warm fireplace as the master bedroom of the castle. On both sides of his room were the guest rooms for Amber and Knight Philip to rest. Opposite their rooms, there was a lounge for guests to play chess and have fun, as well as a place for tea and reading.
Outside the window, the rain was still falling, and there were signs that it was getting stronger with the wind. Gwen came to the window and looked through the expensive artificial crystal at the Kant's Castle in the rainy night. The meandering water formed a constantly changing trajectory on the window sash, which made the scene outside not only hazy but also distorted. In this hazy distorted vision, he could see several towers of the Kant's Castle standing in the opposite night.
There were a few lit windows at the base of the towers, which outlined the outline of the building, but the upper part of the towers was dark, almost blending into the darkness of the night.
Gwen frowned and carefully observed the towers. After he focused his attention, he suddenly saw an obvious crack in the middle of one of the towers.
The crack seemed to be wriggling and growing in the darkness, quickly spreading to the entire upper part of the tower. It widened little by little, and a blood-like light leaked from the crack. The tallest tower seemed to be fragmented in the bloody crack, and it collapsed little by little in a slow-motion manner, mixed with the screams and cries of many people.
Gawain quickly woke up. The sound of wind and rain entered the room through the window again. He saw that the tower opposite him had been restored to its original state. The cracks and screams from before had disappeared as if they were just a dream.
But Gwen would not really treat it as an illusion. He immediately frowned and wondered, "Is there some kind of large-scale illusion in the castle?"
A series of light footsteps suddenly came from outside the door, which seemed to be coming toward the room. Gwen quickly adjusted his expression, as if nothing had happened, and only opened the door when the door was knocked.
The door opened, and a lady in a white dress, who looked about 30 years old, stood outside the door with a lantern in her hand. The lady had long flaxen hair, and her face seemed to be particularly pale because of illness. She stood there cautiously, looking at Gwen with a somewhat restrained and nervous expression.
Gwen looked at her calmly, and then showed a curious look. "Madam?"
"Hello, are you Duke Gwen Cecil?" The lady at the door said in a very low voice, as if she would not be able to speak if she spoke louder.
Gwen nodded. "I am Gwen Cecil. Madam, may I know who you are?"
"Viktor Kant is my husband," the sickly lady, who looked about 30 years old, whispered. Although her voice was very low, her tone still had the elegance of a noble lady. "I am the mistress of this castle, and my name is Lilith Kant."
"Viscountess?" Gwen looked at her, quite surprised. He did not expect that the seemingly old Viscount Kant would have such a young and beautiful wife. But thinking of the "tradition" of the nobles, his surprise did not last long. He was just curious as to why he did not see her at the banquet before, nor did he hear the old viscount mention her. "You did not attend the banquet before?"
"I am weak, and my illness prevented me from eating with many people, and I could not come out to greet the guests during the day," Lilith Kant said apologetically. "I know you will visit the castle, but my husband insisted that I rest until the evening. Now that I am a little better, he asked me to come and greet the guests."
Then she hung the lantern on the hook next to the door and bowed slightly. "Welcome, the great Duke Gwen Cecil. Please forgive me for not being able to fulfill my responsibility as the mistress of this castle."
"Ah, don't mind," Gwen had all kinds of guesses and doubts in his mind, but the expression on his face was still very indifferent. "You can only come out at night? Oh, I know some knowledge about potions, maybe it can help your health. "
Lilith Kant showed a pale smile. "My husband invited the best pharmacist for me, but my weakness is not only because of the illness, but also because of my natural constitution, which can not be cured with potions. But thank you for your concern, Your Excellency. "
Gawain had no intention of inviting the viscountess into the house. She was visiting alone, and such an invitation was impolite, even if this was the castle of the Kant family. He just stood at the door and exchanged a few pleasantries with the viscountess. After that, the viscountess left.
It was only after the other party left that Gawain's gaze turned sharp.
The lantern in the viscountess' hand!
It was the magic lantern that Gwen saw in the dream, at the bottom of the castle of the Kant family as the ceremonial center. It was the very same lantern that Gwen Cecil gave as a gift to the Bishop of the Dream, Selena Geer 700 years ago!
But Gwen did not point it out on the spot, nor did he take any action, because he did not feel any magic wave from the lantern, which meant that the lantern was "fake". Either it was a fake, or the lantern had been transformed by magic power, and the real power core was still sleeping somewhere in the castle. Under such circumstances, acting rashly was likely to be bad.
At this time, a voice from the side interrupted Gwen's thoughts. "Eh? Old … Gwen, why are you standing at the door? "
The door next door was pushed open, and half of Amber's head poked out from the door frame, looking at him curiously.
And she did not wait for Gwen to answer, and then she excitedly stretched out her hand, holding a deck of cards in her hand. "I found a set of 'King's Deck' in the room! Call the poker face next door over, and the three of us can play cards! "
"I planned to call you over, but not to play cards." Gwen looked at the half-elf helplessly, and then went to knock on Philip's door.
After everyone gathered in his room, Gwen mentioned the lady who had just visited. "I just saw Viktor Kant's wife, Lilith Kant, and she looked very strange …"
After listening to Gwen's description, Amber's pointed ears immediately twitched. "Such an old man married a wife who is almost as old as his granddaughter? Eh — you bunch of nobles are really shameless. "
Then, her thoughts began to wander. "It's still better to have elven blood like me. If I don't tell people, they won't dare to guess my age. Even if you, a 700-year-old man, marry me, you can go out and tell people that we're actually the same age …"
Knight Philip, who had always been solemn and serious, suddenly looked at Amber in horror. The half-elf girl's way of talking once again made this pitiful and upright knight feel dizzy.
And Gwen's answer to Amber was to knock her on the head. "Get to the point!"
"We have never heard of such a 'viscount's wife'," Knight Philip said seriously. "Viscount Viktor Kant did not mention it either. This is very unusual. Even if the viscount's wife can't come out to meet guests because of illness, the viscount himself should have at least mentioned it, right? And there are so many servants in the castle, and no one has privately talked about the mistress of the castle … This is too strange. "
"If that's the case, I've been chatting with the people in the castle." Amber rubbed her head that was knocked by Gwen and joined in the serious discussion. "Although they didn't mention the mistress of the castle, they did mention that the old viscount has a son called Belm, but he left the castle when he was very young and went to the central region to travel. He hasn't been back for decades …"
Gwen rubbed his chin. "Hasn't been back for decades? Did he go to travel or was he sold off? "
Amber rolled her eyes. "Maybe he went to the central region to be a hostage of a great noble family who has interests in exchange? Don't you nobles like this? "
"Don't talk nonsense. We didn't like this back then." Gwen immediately said seriously. "We relied on self-awareness when we made the covenant, not some little trick of exchanging hostages."
Knight Philip's face was full of admiration. "That's what an honest person should do."
"No, it's mainly because the founding pigeons were generally grumpy. At that time, whoever didn't keep their word would be beaten up by the nobles. Sometimes, when the king was free, the Captive would personally beat them up. Because of the inconvenience of transportation, the founding pigeons would come to beat people up for a year. They really didn't dare to violate the covenant …"
Philip was speechless.
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