Free Web NovelChapter 386: Chapter 85: The Morning Star Shines Anew, a New Chapter Begins
No!
It’s not Cecilia!
Terence shook his head forcefully, trying to dispel the momentary daze.
Cecilia had brilliant golden hair, the same as Aurora, the current mistress of the Monte Territory and former heir to the Duval Territory.
Duval Territory... Monte Territory...
Terence finally remembered. The Duval Territory was now the Monte Territory.
And Cecilia was his adopted daughter, once the second-in-line heir to the Duval Territory... who had disappeared at the age of twelve.
She’d had the same air about her as the young woman before him now.
A quality that made her seem to stand apart, transcendent, even in a crowd.
A deep sadness welled up in Terence’s heart.
’If Cecilia were still alive, she would have long been married with children, and her child would be about this young woman’s age by now.’
He raised a withered hand, pointing toward the black-gowned young woman in the center of the square, and rasped to his old servant Leon, "Push me over there."
Leon hesitated for a moment, but he knew his master’s stubbornness. He and another servant carefully began to push the wheelchair through the crowded throng, approaching the wooden stall.
Eleanor had already noticed their arrival.
On these bleak streets, the combination of a richly dressed old man in a wheelchair attended by servants was glaringly out of place.
She didn’t need to look closely to feel the gazes directed at her.
However, she had no intention of giving them any special attention or courtesy.
With her power and status, she had no need to bow and scrape before the nobility of any land.
Just as she was about to have her attendant ask these visitors—who were clearly not here for aid—to leave, the wheelchair stopped a few paces from the stall.
Terence’s clouded eyes struggled to focus on Eleanor’s face. He breathed heavily, his voice carrying the characteristic rasp of old age. "Excuse me... miss. I am Terence, once a Knight of this land... Seeing you from afar just now, I was suddenly reminded of someone."
Eleanor’s expression was impassive as she glanced at the Deacon, signaling him.
Terence seemed to pay no mind to her coldness or her gesture, lost in his own memories. "A... a little girl from a long time ago. She and you... have an indescribably similar air about you. She also liked... ah, like the former master of the Duval Territory—that is, the Monte Territory now—like that Sylvan, she liked to tinker with and study all sorts of newfangled little gadgets..."
’Sylvan?’
’My father’s old name?’
A thought stirred in her mind, and she stopped the Deacon.
She knew very little about her father Murphy’s past, about the years when he was known as Sylvan Duval.
Her father never brought it up, and the elders in their territory were mostly tight-lipped on the subject, because the Duval Territory was now the Monte Territory.
But this old Knight before her seemed to know something.
The cold look on Eleanor’s face softened slightly. She raised her eyes, her gaze truly landing on Terence’s face for the first time. "Sylvan? Are you referring to the former Baron of the Duval Territory?"
Seeing the young woman’s apparent interest, a flicker of light sparked in Terence’s dim, old eyes.
For the elderly, finding someone willing to listen to dusty old tales was a rare comfort.
"Yes, that’s the one," Terence’s tone grew complex, tinged with the emotion of reminiscing. "You might not believe it, miss, but in my memory, that Sylvan was a ruthless character."
Eleanor raised a slight eyebrow. She didn’t respond, but merely gestured for the busy Deacon at her side to wait, while she herself took half a step forward, closer to the wheelchair.
Seeing this, Terence’s floodgates opened. "The Duval Family’s whole mess wasn’t much of a secret in the Northern Territory back then. The Old Baron died under mysterious circumstances, Kelvin had his... incident, and in the end, it was Sylvan, who was ’recuperating’ far away in the South, who returned to inherit the title. Hmph, recuperating?"
His thin lips pulled into a meaningful smile. "Sometimes, you don’t have to be present to commit a murder."
"What about the Church Court?" Eleanor asked. "Wouldn’t his opponents have demanded the Church Court conduct a thorough investigation?"
"The Church Court?" Terence shook his head. "Back then, the previous Pope was still alive, and the Holy City itself was in turmoil. As for matters in these remote territories, unless they became a huge scandal, they were swept under the rug whenever possible. The Duval Family’s affair was reported as nothing more than ’a series of unfortunate family accidents.’ They sent a Bishop to ask a few symbolic questions, and that was the end of it. Who had the time to dig any deeper?"
He paused, a hint of confusion entering his voice. "That’s why I find it so strange... That Sylvan, who seized power through such ruthless means, seemed to become a completely different person after he became Baron."
"A different person?" Eleanor repeated.
"Yes, changed," Terence said with certainty, his gaze growing distant. "Not long after he inherited the title, I had a dispute with him over some old border issues... I suppose you could say I threatened him. I could feel his anger and indignation at the time, but he endured it. It was a kind of forbearance... like a viper lying in wait. But later, when I saw him again, that sinister ruthlessness was gone. In its place was a... strange... one could even call it a cowardly submissiveness. Yes, cowardly! He no longer forcefully defended the dignity a nobleman should have, and he reacted blandly to many provocations."
Terence’s tone was filled with disbelief. "The most incomprehensible thing was that he actually started cutting taxes for his subjects! He reduced their labor duties and repaired the roads! Miss, tell me, how is that something a noble Lord should do? Back then, so many people laughed at him behind his back, saying the fine weather in the South had addled his brain, or that his domineering mother had crushed all the fight out of him."
