Chapter 37
Chapter 37: A piece of proof.
As soon as Alice touched her waist, her dagger was gone.
It must have been the guy named Jill who had pretended to seduce her before. She patronized her annoyed, but didn’t realize that his real intention was to steal the dagger. Probably this is retribution. She deliberately seduced Duke Rachel in order to find the bead crown. Now this kid pretended to lure her to steal her dagger.
Alice immediately got on her horse and was going to chase her over, but her horse was still tantrums at the moment, and she would definitely refuse to leave. Alice kicked it a few times, and it would rather die than move. Alice had no choice but to get off the horse.
Think about it carefully, now she doesn’t have a weapon in her hand, even if she can really catch up with him… it’s difficult to do it. Besides, she still has a mission, so she really shouldn’t stay here dangerously.
Although she felt very sorry for Lena who gave her the dagger, Alice decided to return to the royal capital first.
She fed some carrots to the angry pony, and finally coaxed it to take her to the village where she could stay at night. This is the only way from the royal capital to the north, and many travelers spend the night here. Although there is no hotel, as long as one or two silver coins are given to nearby farmers, they will serve delicious farm meals, put neat sheets on the guest rooms, and take good care of the guests.
Although the day was very exhausting, Alice still prayed to Circillian before going to bed as usual. I don’t know when, He has come lightly and pressed a kiss on her forehead:
“Good night.”
With His blessing, Alice slept peacefully, and went to the village blacksmith early the next morning to buy weapons. Blacksmiths in small villages like this usually just build farm tools, and don’t have any real weapons for sale. Alice bought a knife. This thing is not so much a weapon as it is a tool for the shepherd to carry with him. It really doesn’t play much role in actual combat, but in any case, something is better than nothing.
Fortunately, the second half of her journey was much smoother, and she was no longer disturbed by other bandits or strange people, and there was no platform for this knife to play. She returned to the royal capital in peace and took the giant sword from Master Roma.
The moment she carried the great sword on her back, Alice sighed very comfortably, and even her muscles relaxed.
She hadn’t brought a weapon before, and she was a little frightened along the way. The weight on her back at this moment was heavy, and she felt very safe.
While sighing in her heart, Alice made up her mind that no matter what happens in the future, she will never be separated from her great sword again. This also means that she decided to never hide her identity from now on. She may encounter difficulties in making such a decision, but it is more in line with her temper.
It has been almost two months since Alice left for the Northland. Ordinarily, nothing will change in the royal capital. But when she came back, it seemed that a long time had passed, as if she had not just returned from the north, but had returned from another time and space, and everything she saw before her eyes seemed to be changed in a subtle way.
Considering the story she experienced during this trip… Maybe this feeling can’t be counted wrong.
As usual, Alice lives in Master Roma’s farm, and now it is the slack season, and several helpers have gone home. He would rather allow Alice to stay with him for a while, but Alice can’t stay for long. The beaded crown should be delivered to Duchess Felix as soon as possible. At this time, the Duchess had returned to West Felix, and Alice must leave immediately.
Before going to West Felix, Alice went to the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild in the capital.
Everyone in the Mercenary Guild recognized her, and before she could speak, they handed her a piece of paper.
It was a certification letter issued by Earl Rachel, which stated that the Great Sword Alice was no longer a mercenary contracted with the Mercenary Guild. Since then, it has no affiliation with the Mercenary Guild, and cannot accept tasks as a special-level mercenary in the Guild, and the Mercenary Guild no longer has the power to restrict it. This certificate is printed with an unchangeable magic seal, which can be used to prove its authenticity.
With this piece of paper, Alice is free, but at the same time it is equivalent to losing the means of earning a living. If the Duchess Felix breaks the contract, she will be in a very troublesome situation. But the matter is over, Alice can’t go back.
She has been a mercenary for more than three years. She has been promoted from an ordinary second-level mercenary to a special-level mercenary. Her fame and efforts as a mercenary were wiped out, only in exchange for this piece of paper.
Despite her complicated mood, Alice carefully put the certificate into her pocket.
The things to be done were done, and Alice took a rest in the capital, and immediately rode to West Felix.
Before leaving, Alice fed the horse a lot of carrots, and finally made it a little behaved. She finally gave the horse a name and called it “awkward”. It doesn’t look like a horse’s name, but it suits it very well. When Alice called it by this name, the tsundere pony raised its head and shaved its hoof very uncomfortably.
Well, it looks like it really likes this name, and it will call it that way in the future.
The journey to West Felix was much shorter and more comfortable than going to the North. Compared with the war-torn southern region and the bitter cold north, the West Felix collar looks extremely wealthy. There is an extremely vast pasture here, and farmers mostly use sheep herding as their career. Under the reign of the Duchess, there was something like a paradise. There are several particularly good hotels along the way, all of which are the places where the Duchess of West Felix stays every year when she goes to and from the capital. Each store has a deluxe room specially prepared for the Duchess. When the Duchess is not in use, it will be provided to other noble travelers. The general travelers cannot afford to live even if they want to live, and can only pay to visit it at most.
As usual, Alice only chose the second-class room in the hotel, but to satisfy her curiosity, she also paid a little money, accompanied by the shopkeeper, to visit the room used by the duchess. The room was about twice the size of a normal hotel suite, with thick carpets on the floor and tapestries hanging from the walls to isolate the noise in the hotel. The furniture in the room is also very particular, very gorgeous and comfortable. According to the hotel owner, this room was arranged by the duchess herself, so all the income generated by this room should be divided among the duchess.
Alice’s original destination was Faerun, the capital of West Felix, but she found out when she actually arrived in Faerun. In fact, for most of the year, the Duchess of Felix lived in the cloud. Haul Castle.
Yunqi Castle is about one day away from the city of Faerun. Alice departs from Faerun in the morning and arrives in the evening. Finally, before the castle closed, Mrs. Meredith gave her the scroll that was given to her through the guild mission as a token and handed it to the castle guard. The guard showed her the way and suggested that she live in a tavern and inn in a nearby village.
The tavern in the village has only one shabby guest room, and Alice has long been accustomed to all kinds of weird guest rooms, so she doesn’t particularly mind it. What really bothered her was what clothes she should wear when she went to see the Duchess.
When Alice met the Duchess for the first time, she wore a dress provided by the Duchess; this time she also carried a set of dresses in her parcel, which was brought by Olivia’s maid when she was in the underground temple. She wore it. Generally speaking, as a woman, it might look more decent to wear this dress when she sees the duchess, but Alice is not a lady, she seems to be a little weird if she really wants to wear a dress.
“I suggest you wear ordinary clothes.” Cecilian said to her. “The duchess needs a knight, not a lady in a lady’s dress.”
Cecilian’s suggestion was very practical, and Alice had to brush off the dust on her travel clothes overnight, trying her best to make her shabby dress look decent. The next day, the guards in the castle came to the tavern to find her, took her into the castle of Yunqi, and let her see the duchess for the second time.
In the land of West Felix, the Duchess’ clothes and hair styles were changed in accordance with the tradition of West Felix. It looked very different from before, almost like another person. Alice almost recognized her by her eyes that were very similar to Olivia.
Alice presented the box with the beaded crown, and the duchess had a nostalgic expression on her face:
“This was made by my carpenter Hoyle for me. In order to protect the bead crown, he took a lot of ingenuity.”
As the duke said, she flipped the mechanism on the box to open it, and took the bead crown out of it. The brilliance of the pearl crown brightened up the entire living room. But the face of the Duchess suddenly changed.
This made Alice, who had been paying attention to the Duchess, felt tight, and hurriedly stepped forward and asked:
“What? Is there something wrong?”
The Duchess shook her head:
“No, your task is well done…there is no problem with this bead crown. It’s just…when the bead crown was completed, I once asked a magician with superb methods to use the natural magic power of the gemstone on the bead crown, An enchantment was added to it that can only help the owner withstand an attack. Now the luster of the beaded crown is slightly dim, and it is obvious that the enchantment has disappeared… Maybe my idea is not wrong, Olivia was indeed killed. ”
Alice pursed her lips and dared not speak out, for fear that she could not help telling the Duchess about Olivia. When she was in the Northland, no one had mentioned to her that there was an enchantment on the bead crown, maybe even Olivia didn’t know about it. Was the enchantment on this beaded crown used up during her conflict with the earl? Or did the potion she drank broke the magic on the pearl crown? Perhaps no one can answer this question.
Fortunately, the Duchess did not entangle this issue much. She looked at the bead crown up and down, in and out, and confirmed that it was still exactly the same as the original. Then he retracted it into the box, turned his head and asked Alice:
“How did you get it?”
Since Alice agreed to Olivia, she couldn’t tell the truth, she hesitated:
“The process is indeed a bit complicated, but the matter is very involved, and it’s not just about me and Earl Rachel. I promised relevant people not to tell the story, so…”
The Duchess waved her hand impatiently:
“Did you meet Rachel?”
“I did meet Count Rachel, and the count wants me to say hello to you.”
The Duchess curled her lips unabashedly and snorted. Obviously he was quite dissatisfied with her ex-brother-in-law. She didn’t continue to question the process of getting the bead crown, which made Alice breathe a sigh of relief. Just listen to her again:
“I asked someone to find you a place to live in the castle. You can prepare and familiarize yourself with the environment and the situation of the West Felix collar. After half a month, I will seal you up as a knight in front of the castle.”