Chapter 329: “Release That Child.”
The Georgi family’s residence is located in the central area of Jiltry.
That area is a high grade residential district, equivalent to the Capital’s noble district. However Jiltry doesn’t have nearly as many nobles as the Capital does, so the ones living here weren’t just nobles, but also some wealthy merchants and whatnot.
Shien’s group flew on Yulin all the way here, so there’s no way that the people of the Georgi family wouldn’t have noticed.
Thus, when Yulin descended from the sky toward the direction of the Georgi family home, Terrance was already waiting for them with a group of knights and servants.
“Welcome, Lord Bayztrot. I didn’t expect you to come looking for me.”
Although Terrance greeted Shien and the others, who jumped down from Yulin’s back, with a smile, he was actually swearing up a storm on the inside.
It can’t be helped. From the start, he was praying with all his heart that Shien could leave Jiltry as soon as possible and let Jiltry calm back down without anything major that he can’t control happening. Yet, who could have expected Shien to come by on his dragon the very next day. It really did make Terrance nervous.
After all, the scene of Yulin shattering Jiltry’s barrier with a single breath yesterday was still fresh in his mind.
Terrance for one wasn’t deluded to think that his own home was even tougher than the city’s barrier after all.
Therefore, he really is a bit scared that he might have accidentally offended Shien, and that Shien is now coming by with his dragon to seek revenge.
If that really was the case, hen the Georgi family will definitely all die by dragon breath.
Shien on the other hand didn’t consider any of that. He just brought Airi and Lasha, who is holding Beatrice, along, turned his back on Yulin, who was hovering in midair, and stepped forward to meet Terrance.
“I’m really sorry about coming by without notice.”
Shien gave Terrance an apologetic grin.
“Not at all, I would only be overjoyed to have you visit.” Terrance hurriedly shook his head and did his best to put a happy smile on before asking, “Since you did come, how about coming in for a bit?”
“Come in, huh?”
Shien glanced at the residence behind Terrance.
The residence isn’t particularly large, but it is pretty decent when compared to that of an average viscount.
Likely, it’s all due to the fact that while Terrance is a viscount, he’s also the governor of Jiltry and the Captain of the Second Knight Order, right?
Of course, there’s no way that this residence could compare to Shien’s home.
Shien thought about it for a moment before nodding.
“Alright, I’ll be intruding for a bit then.”
No matter what, he’s here to ask the other side for a bit of help here, so Shien doesn’t want to act too standoffish either, so he might as well accept the invitation.
“Well then, please.”
Terrance waved his hand the knights and servants immediately neatly stepped aside to open up a path. The servants even laid out a red carpet over this path, which just goes to show how important Terrance considered Shien.
Shien was also a bit moved by all this, but he didn’t hesitate to bring along the disinterested Airi and the emotionless Lasha into the Georgi home.
Beatrice was still obediently letting Lasha lead her along, and she was still looking everywhere while not making any fuss. She really was quite a strange child.
As for Yulin, after she watched Shien and the others enter the Georgi home, she noticed the knights and servants down on the ground looking up at her nervously like they’re afraid of her. Thus, she pouted, flapped her wings, and flew right up into the clouds.
Generally, when there’s no place for her to wait at, Yulin would generally do just like she did now and directly fly up above the clouds to await Shien’s summons. This was the result of Shien’s traning.
Just like that Shien’s group entered the Georgi family home all together and were led to a magnificent parlor.
This seems to be a room specifically intended for welcoming important guests. It was cleaned up to be utterly spotless, but from the somewhat dreary atmosphere, it likely had very little use.
Shien didn’t know it, but this is a place generally used by Terrance to welcome nobles with statuses and ranks higher than himself.
The fact that Shien was led here despite being a viscount just like Terrance is basically a first.
When everyone arrived to the parlor and have all sat down, two relatively well dressed maids immediately came up to serve up expensive, steaming tea.
However, those two maids were instead quietly appraising the emotionless Lasha, and they even had hints of blushes on their faces like they were in front of their crush. It really did make Shien mutter some more in his mind.
(Are all first meetings with maids going to end up like this?)
That’s seriously mysterious.
That Lasha wouldn’t happen to have some kind of unique skill that maxes out the affection level of all maids and servants right away, right?
What kind of skill would that be? Onee-sama Aura? Or is it the Perfect Maid Aura?
Seriously…
Just as Shien was thinking about that, Terrance begun his questioning.
“So then, for what reason might Lord Bayztrot have come by to visit?”
It seems that Terrance really minded this question huh?
“There’s no need for Captain Terrance to be so nervous.” Shien first attempted to calm this seemingly overly nervous knight captain and rubbed at his nose while answering, “I just came by because I wanted to ask if you know of this girl here?”
As Shien said that, Lasha led Beatrice over and presented her before Terrance.
Terrance actually had noticed this little girl some time ago, and he had also started secretly observing her himself.
After all, Shien didn’t have this girl with him when he arrived yesterday, and yet he now brought this little girl with him in his visit today.
Terrance had paid attention to Beatrice for that reason, but he also didn’t dare to do so too obviously. Thus, he only started truly focusing on her now.
With this focus of attention, Terrance discovered that this little girl really did have something unusual about her.
Even though she’s so young, she had no fear of strangers at all. She even stared right back at him. This behavior really was different from that of normal children.
The other thing unusual was her appearance.
Although this little girl did look very cute, to the point where it’s obvious that she’ll be a beauty in the future, what actually caught Terrance’s attention was her eyes.
“Blond hair… Violet eyes…”
Terrance started muttering that before his expressions suddenly changed.
“What is it?” Shien had noticed the change that came over Terrance so he immediately asked, “Does Captain Terrance know of this child’s origins?”
Terrance however turned mute in the face of that question though.
Terrance’s expressions continuously shifted, and his gaze at Beatrice was slowly turning fearful. It was only after some time that he finally let out a bitter chuckle.
“I’m sorry Lord Bayztrot, but I may have to disappoint you here.” Terrance spoke with a dry and scratchy voice, “I don’t actually know of her origins. All I can do is advise you to release that child as soon as possible, so as to avoid disaster.”
“Disaster?” Shien frowned as he looked right at Terrance, “What do you mean by that?”
“That…” Terrance hesitated for a moment before speaking out in a low tone, “This matter relates to a certain urban legend within the Stalim dukedom. Anyways, you really should just follow my advise without bothering about anything else.”
As he said that, Terrance was still continuously peeking over in Beatrice’s direction. He looked as if he feared her existence.
When he saw that, Shien narrowed his eyes as he he started thinking.
At this moment, Lasha suddenly spoke up.
“Mister Shien, We seem to still be missing some preparations and supplies. Since we will certainly be leaving Jiltry after this, shall I prepare them now if you don’t mind?”
Lasha’s sudden words made everyone there pause for a moment.
Only Shien started reminiscing over the maid’s omnipotence in his mind while he nodded.
“Go ahead then. Take Beatrice along with you.”
Shien agreed to Lasha’s proposal.
“Well then, pardon me.”
Lasha gave everyone there an impeccable curtsy before she took Beatrice with her in leaving the scene.
“I’ll go along with her.”
Airi also calmly stated, and without waiting for anyone’s permission, she followed along after Lasha and Beatrice and left on her own accord.
That girl had been acting like she’s been very bored from the start, so she likely had no interest in the conversation between Shien and Terrance at all, right?
(The women at my side really do all have quite the character.)
Shien could only resign himself to that as he then turned back toward Terrance.
“Now can you properly explain? Captain Terrance?”
Shien’s tone turned slightly pressuring.
Terrance understood the implication that Shien was planing to question this matter to the very end.
However, Terrance personally still didn’t really want to talk about the subject.
It wasn’t that he refused to show Shien any face, nor was it because he was scared, but rather that this really is something of a taboo within the Stalim dukedom.
The Stalim family even ended up making a decree forbidding people from casually talking about this matter.
The Georgi family is a vassal of the Stalim, and Terrance himself is the captain of the Second Knight Order, so he naturally wouldn’t want to violate that decree.
However, it’s not like Terrance can afford to offend Shien either.
It was quite a headache for him.
Thus, Terrance let out a sigh.
“How about this then, lord Bayztrot.” Terrance so spoke, “I have an old book at home. If you’re interested, how about taking a look at it yourself?”
Terrance decided to use a roundabout way like that.
He had faith that Shien would understand what he wanted to say after reading that book.
And since he technically didn’t say anything, that also gives him enough deniability on his lord’s side.
Shien immediately understood what Terrance was getting at, so while he grumbled over how troublesome it is in his mind, he still nodded on the surface.
“Well then, I’ll be troubling you then, Captain Terrance.”
Shien gave his thanks.
“Not at all. This is merely an insignificant reminder.”
Terrance shook his head and acted like he really won’t be discussing this matter anymore.
In this situation, the two started chatting about nothing as they waited for the return of the messenger that Terrance sent to retrieve the book.
Yet, at that moment, the door of the parlor was forcefully flung open.
“Father!”
A young man came in with an angry look.
“Tyler?”
Terrance was first surprised before his face sank.
“What is it?”
Shien didn’t anticipate that someone would suddenly intrude on them, so he was quite confused.
However, the next second, Shien noticed that the person called Tyler was looking at him with a stubborn and unbending look in his eyes.
“Are you Shien Bayztrot?”
The young man called Tyler spoke in an unkindly tone and loudly declared while also pointing impolitely at Shien.
“I challenge you to a dual!”
Those words made Shien raise an eyebrow.
He only had one thought in his mind in response to those words.
“Really, I finally bumped into yet another one of those tired cliches.”
A dual, huh?
He really didn’t think that he’d actually run into one.
