Roy felt both surprised and bewildered when he heard Damien's words.
As far as he knows, the Duke of Snow and Silence, aka the Northern Heavenly Duke, was above ten thousand and only below one. Everyone in the northern region was his subject and needed to answer to him, while he only needed to answer to the emperor.
Thus, it quite confused Roy that someone of his status attended his mother's funeral.
His mother, Lady Florence, might have married a count and thus become a noblewoman, but she came from humble beginnings, and her profession was also looked down upon by the people. According to the rumors, she was a dancer in a famous troupe, and Badulf was enticed by her. He took an interest in her and eventually married her.
The Northern Heavenly Duke could refuse to go even if the emperor had demanded him to attend her funeral. Someone like the Northern Heavenly Duke definitely had no reason to attend her funeral unless she or her family meant something to him.
"Why would someone so high up in the hierarchy of the empire attend the funeral of the wife of one of his subjects? Do we have a special relationship with him?"
Roy asked in a voice loud enough to not be deafened by the roaring cold winter gales as he looked at Damien in hopes of getting answers from him.
"You might not like what you are about to hear." Damien said and then asked, "Do you still want to?"
"Yes, I do." Roy immediately responded.
"It's like this..."
Damien gave him a lengthy answer.
Although lady Florence wasn't accepted by the Count, she was still his wife on paper, and her funeral was carried out properly. Not to mention, Badulf hid his real affairs from them and fooled the masses into believing that they were a match made in heaven.
No one knew that she was actually hated by Badulf's wives, and Badulf treated her with indifference.
For him, she was just thin air. While he was still getting over the fact that the demonic soul had betrayed him and was treating her as non-existence, she died.
Nobles and commoners from across the north came to send her off as Badulf, her husband, was the Fierce Sword Count, a hero and rich noble of the empire.
The Northern Heavenly Duke was the friend of Roy's and Damien's fathers. But people took them as mere rumors. To confirm those rumors, he attended the Count's wife's funeral. Once the people saw him at her funeral, they realized that the rumors were really true and that he was really their close friend.
"So that's what happened." Roy said, "It does leave a bitter taste in one's mouth."
Disgust flashed in his eyes. His mother's funeral was used to confirm a rumor by some people. He didn't like it at all.
The glints in his eyes disappeared as fast as they appeared, but they failed to escape Damien's notice. He looked at Roy and calmly said, "I told you so."
That day, Damien had lost some of his respect for the adults.
"What killed her?" Roy asked. His eyes narrowed. Everyone knew that she had died. But as for what killed her, that was still unknown. He also didn't know how she died or what killed her. Badulf never commented on it.
"That hadn't been divulged to me," Damien answered.
A thoughtful look appeared on his face. He made a mental note of this situation.
A: The condition under which his mother died was too suspicious. She definitely died of an unnatural cause.
B: Badulf wasn't related to her death. When she died, Roy was just a baby. If he were the one that killed her, Roy would also not be alive today.
C: She might be targeted by Badulf's first and second wives. Who knows?
Roy was also deep in thought.
'First of all, I was not even one year old when I met the first heavenly knight. He came to Baldwin county to attend my mother's funeral. That's when we met.' Roy thought, 'Secondly, the First Heavenly Knight is a suspicious character.'
He killed Aydin's and Maya's parents and annihilated their clan. On top of that, in the book, he never went up against Chaos and was considered to be dead like the other two by the readers. But some created conspiracy theories, saying that he deserted the empire. And some even thought that he had joined hands with "Chaos." But the author, Sunset_Never_Blooms, never confirmed what happened to him. So the conspiracy theories were never confirmed and just ate dust until Roy Fisher embraced death.
"It's confidential. Don't share it with others." Suddenly, Damien warned Roy with a serious look in his eyes. "If you get prosecuted, I won't help you."
Roy felt like he had been played, hearing what he said. First, Arlo told him a secret that he couldn't share with others if he still wanted his dear life. And now his son told him a secret that he couldn't tell anyone if he didn't o be punished. What a joke!
"Like father, like son," Roy muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?" Damien raised his eyebrow at him.
Roy laughed out a lie, seeing him like that. "I said, I understand."
'Curiosity killed the cat. Being curious is good. But being too curious might be the end of me.' Roy thought, 'I should stop trying to get to the bottom of every case without adequate strength.'
"That day, why were you so scared about me getting kidnapped?" Roy asked after a few moments.
"It's because of the Crimson Mages and Dark Knights," Damien answered.
"Who are they?" Roy asked in a low voice.
"They are the citizen of Alis. It's a kingdom located between the inner and outer boundaries of uncharted lands. It's a kingdom full of criminals wanted by the Empire." Damien said.
'Something like that exists, and I didn't know. Even the author never talked about it.' Roy thought after hearing Damien's words.
Currently, he only knew a few things about Alis, such that it was founded by Voss.
