Tome of Blood

  Chapter 42-42-Let's get married

  Castel's current situation?

  Charlotte's heart skipped a beat.

  She raised her head and looked at the Duke of Bold standing in front of the map, thinking about what the other party meant by asking this question.

  The old prince did not wait for her to give an answer.

   It may also be that the short silence made him think that the girl was not clear about the current situation, so he took the initiative to express his judgment:

   "The County of Castel is located at the northernmost tip of the kingdom, separated from the hinterland of the duchy by three duchies and two counties."

"And among these three duchies, there are pretenders who always want to get Castel, who always want to defeat Bold's feud, and there are also loyal supporters of His Majesty the King, who support His Majesty to weaken the vassals and strengthen the authority, To expand the kingdom..."

   "It can be said that outside the principality... the situation is quite difficult, and everyone is eyeing the rich Castel!"

   Having said that, the old Duke took a deep breath, and his face became a little ugly:

   "The principality is not peaceful either."

   "Those families who are loyal to Boulder have their own plans!"

   As he spoke, he seemed to be thinking of something. A trace of anger flashed across the old prince's face, and his voice trembled:

   "I especially saw the marriage between Eleanor and the third prince!"

   "The third prince is ambitious, Eleanor is cowardly, and that **** Anthony is out of tune. He spends all his time on divination and astrology. He is idle and doesn't pay attention to the management of the principality!"

   "The dignified Boulder family, it turns out that all the mothers are trash! Shit!"

  The old duke scolded his family all over angrily, without realizing that he was also a member of the Bold family, and he was also a **** that couldn't produce a qualified heir.

  Charlotte lowered her head slightly, thinking about the information related to the Polder family.

  She has already studied the information of the Bold family, and knows that what annoys the Duke of Bold most is the marriage contract between his only daughter and the third prince.

Back then, the old duke planned to win over the New Moon royal family, and after concluding the marriage contract, he boasted about it everywhere, but he didn't expect that he would be shot by the enemy's pikemen on the battlefield later, so that he would not be able to give birth to an heir. The only daughter who instinctively recruited a husband into the family was taken in, and the whole person was completely dumbfounded.

  As for the Anthony mentioned by the duke, his full name is Anthony de Bold, and he is less than thirty years old.

  He is the half-brother of the old duke. He is currently the designated heir to the duchy. He is named the Earl of Tulip. The fief is also an enclave adjacent to Castel.

   This is also an old tradition of the Polder family.

  Although the Castel Territory is an enclave, the Duke's Mansion has always owned a small indirect direct-controlled territory next to the Castell Territory as the fiefdom of the next duke, in order to strengthen the control of the Castell family.

By the way, Earl Tulip is also the only heir of Charlotte's aunt, Lady Catherine. He is a cousin of a girl. Gentle and considerate, a gentleman who is very comfortable to get along with.

   It's just that, although he is the heir of the Principality of Boulder, Earl Tulip is not interested in inheriting and governing the territory, and his interest and skill points are completely skewed.

  He is obsessed with divination and astrology, his management ability is almost zero, he messed up the little tulip leader, and was even driven back by the rioting leaders.

  Now he has completely let himself go. He either stays in the Duke's mansion to study divination or goes to the Mage Association to discuss astrology magic. He doesn't want to care about anything, which makes the old Duke quite disappointed.

  The nobles of the Principality of Boulder know all these things.

Obviously, if the old Duke dies, Earl Tulip, who has no interest in the territory, will be unable to control the Principality at all. The entire Principality of Boulder will probably be cut off by the Crescent Royal Family, and the third prince who is Eleanor's husband will be the next Duke of Bold.

  At that time, the Duchy of Boulder changed its surname, and the prodigal Earl of Tulip Anthony might be very excited because he got rid of his duke status, because now he has more time to study astrology magic...

  Anyway, astrology magic is different from other magic, it doesn't need to burn more money, it only burns your own CPU.

  The old prince was still cursing, and the more he spoke, the angrier he became:

   "These greedy guys... all think that the main branch of my Boulder family is about to die out, and the principality may change its surname. They all want to take this opportunity to bite off a piece of our body! Cough cough cough..."

   At the end, it seemed that an old injury was involved, he coughed violently, and an abnormal blush appeared on his face...

   "Your Excellency..."

  Charlotte got up quickly, but the old Duke raised his hand to signal:

   "Ahem...the old problem, I'm fine."

   Taking a deep breath, the old prince calmed down a lot, but his majestic voice still suppressed his anger, like a volcano that could erupt at any time:

   "Hijacking, assassination, spreading rumors..."

"Humph!"

   "Look, look at what they have been doing during this time!"

   As he spoke, he took out a hand crossbow from under the table and threw it on the table angrily:

   "These greedy **** dare to pour dirty water on me, Bold, do you really think that I can't cure them when I'm old?!"

   Looking at the hand crossbow on the table, Charlotte's eyelids twitched.

  She recognized it, it was another hand crossbow carried by the free mercenaries who hijacked her that night.

  Before she left that night, she asked Niss to look for it, but Niss couldn't find it after searching for a long time.

  Combined with Leno who left in a hurry at that time, she has recalled it now.

  I'm afraid that Leonor had already recognized that this was from the Duke's Mansion, so he hurried back to report with the crossbow.

  Maybe... At that time, he might still think that it was his own doing, which is why he left in such a hurry.

   "It seems that you recognized it. This is the hand crossbow used by the free mercenaries who hijacked you that night!"

   "Even now, they still don't forget to provoke the relationship between Castel and Polder!"

   "If I hadn't called them over one by one these days and beat them hard, this city of Boulder would have been turned upside down by them!"

   said the old prince angrily.

   It seemed that he was tired, he sat down on the seat again, and after a long sigh, he rubbed his temples.

   After a while, the Duke continued:

   "Castel and Bold are in the same spirit, like brothers and sisters. Although they are the main family and the branch family, the lord and the vassal, but as a lord, I have never regarded Castel as an outsider."

"During the second Star-Moon War, it was me and your grandfather who repelled the Fallen Star Kingdom Army that tried to invade the Castel Territory, and it was also your father and I that together defeated the Grand Duchy of the Northern Territory's attempt to overthrow the Castel Territory. plot..."

   "At the same time, it is also the strong support of the Castel family for the dukes of the past, which makes these nobles, large and small, in the principality keep their own place and dare not be presumptuous!"

   "And now, the tough times are coming again, and it's time for us to stand together again."

   Having said that, the old prince turned around slowly, with a majestic and serious expression:

   "Without Bold, Castel will be annexed by other lords sooner or later."

   "Without Castel, Bold's strength will be greatly reduced, unable to withstand the pressure from the royal family and other nobles..."

   "We are originally a family."

  Hearing the implicit hint in Duke Bold's words, Charlotte's heart skipped a beat.

  She raised her head slowly, and what she saw was a pair of blue-gray eyes full of firm will.

   "Lord Charlotte."

  Duke Bold's voice became serious.

  After a series of foreshadowing, he finally expressed his thoughts:

   "Our two families... let's get married."

   "Castel will eventually choose a marriage partner to consolidate his rule, but I think you also know that those worms in the principality will only eat up the declining Castel..."

   "Only the Bold family has always been Castel's solid backing."

   "Only by uniting can we overcome the difficulties in front of us!"

  Charlotte was silent.

   What should come will eventually come. Although she knew that the Duke might want to marry her, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart when she found that the other party's will to marry was so firm and so inevitable.

  She knew that after this banquet, the Castel family might break with the Bold family.

  At the same time, she will also completely lose the asylum from the Duke's Mansion, and face the malice of other nobles...

   "Is it Lord Leno?"

   Charlotte asked.

   There was a hint of surprise in the Duke's eyes, as if he was a little surprised by the girl's calmness.

  He nodded:

   "Exactly."

   "Although Leno is an illegitimate child and has a bad background, he has already become a Silver Moon Knight at a young age."

   "He didn't even use the Seed of Source Power, but was self-awakening like most nobles!"

   "I can assure you that his potential on the extraordinary path exceeds that of an old man like me!"

   "Although Leno lacks some etiquette, he is a righteous man, and he is a true holy knight in his heart..."

   "With him, you will have no worries. I believe he will give you happiness; and with Castel's support, Polder will continue to be great!"

   "It's a win-win."

  The old prince looked sincere.

  He is really sincere, at least from Boulder's point of view, because he has already told all the family's difficulties, which is indeed a very sincere approach in the negotiation.

   But Charlotte is about to curse.

  Ghost win-win! Ghostly happiness!

  An ordinary little girl may believe the other party's nonsense, but she doesn't believe it!

   It sounds good, but in the final analysis, isn’t it because the Bold family feels that they can’t restrain the nobles below, so they want to use the rich Castel to strengthen their own strength? !

  Yes, the situation in Castel's territory is relatively delicate, but the plight of the Duke's family is not a secret.

   Not only that, the Duke's Mansion is not Castel's only choice, let alone the best choice.

   And she, even if she dies immediately, she will never let a man ride on her body!

  Her destiny can only be controlled by herself!

   Taking a deep breath, Charlotte raised her head, intending to decline with the reasons she had prepared.

  It’s just that the old Duke suddenly waved his hand to stop him:

   "You don't need to tell me your answer in such a hurry, you can go back and think about it first."

   "I know you have concerns, especially with Leno's status, an illegitimate child is a stain after all... This is indeed difficult for the Castel family to accept."

   "However, don't worry, at today's banquet, I will let you see the sincerity of the Duke's Mansion first..."

  …

  Charlotte was unable to say a word of refusal on the spot.

  The old prince seemed to have a hunch about her choice, and directly blocked her back.

   This made Charlotte have some guesses about the "sincerity" the other party said...

  However, the girl didn't care.

  No matter what the duke's so-called sincerity is, her answer will not change.

   Coming to this banquet, her biggest purpose is to cut off the thoughts of these greedy nobles.

   However, the in-depth communication with the Duke also let the girl know how bad the situation of the Castel family is.

   It can be said that she is completely dancing on a tightrope now, with eyes staring at the abyss on both sides.

  Back to the main venue of the banquet, the banquet has not yet started, the nobles gathered in twos and threes, chatting in low voices.

  The girl picked up the goblet filled with milk from the waiter's tray, and sat alone in a corner to rest.

   During the journey from getting off the carriage to entering the Duke's Mansion, she was inevitably exposed to the sun, and she felt somewhat unwell.

   Chatting with the Duke further drained her energy, and now the girl just wants to rest.

  The band from Luna Bay played wonderful music, soothing and beautiful.

   But Charlotte only felt noisy.

Especially when they saw her enter the arena, those young nobles who seemed to be in heat became excited again, and surrounded her before she could react, showing themselves like roosters who had taken stimulants elegant demeanor.

   Smelling the heavy perfume that was intertwined on their bodies, Charlotte felt like she was about to suffocate.

  She is not in the mood to talk to these peacocks right now.

Looking at the handsome faces that she would immediately get excited just by looking at them, the girl narrowed her eyes slightly, thinking about how to find something to do for these energetic guys, to cheat them well, and at the same time Have some fun for yourself and relax.

  But at this moment, an elegant and gentle voice abruptly interrupted the courteous flattery of the young nobles:

   "Gentlemen, it is not a gentleman's behavior to disturb a lady's rest by surrounding her all the time."

   "Don't you see the fatigue between the lady's eyebrows?"

  Hearing this voice, Charlotte's heart skipped a beat, because she felt that the tone and voice of this flirt was somewhat familiar.

  The girl raised her head, looked towards the source of the voice, and then froze for a moment.

  Behind the young nobleman stood a tall, handsome red-haired man in a black tuxedo.

  He was wearing a monocle, with a faint smile in his scarlet pupils, and he was holding a goblet full of red wine in a hand wearing neat white gloves.

   Not someone else.

   It was the extraordinary person she saw in the dream world of Call of Blood—Sebastian!

   4000-word chapter! There shouldn't be many books in the new issue, right? No one voted yet!

  (end of this chapter)