Chapter 23: Duke

Chapter 23: Duke

Backlund, West Borough, inside the Odra family’s villa.

Summoned there, Emlyn White removed his hat, took off his coat, and entered the sitting room to wait.

Inside the room, besides him, were several other Sanguine whom the great figure had named and asked to meet. Emlyn swept his gaze around, then chose a seat beside a man whose nose bridge was so high that it appeared somewhat deformed.

This man had brown hair and red eyes. His facial lines were deeply carved, and he held a picture album in his hands, flipping through it aimlessly.

He was none other than the Sanguine who had previously provided Emlyn with information regarding the abandoned castle at the center of Delaire Forest. His name was Ernest Boyar, and he was a viscount.

Emlyn had already planned to visit this viscount sometime in the next few days. He had not expected to run into him here. After thinking carefully for a while, he weighed his words and said,

“Your Excellency Viscount, I would very much like to know where you obtained the information about the abandoned castle in Delaire Forest.”

“What? Did your customer tell you there were no ancient wraiths there?” Ernest Boyar moved his gaze away from the picture album and glanced at Emlyn.

“No, that’s not it.” Emlyn offered no explanation and very persistently emphasized his earlier question. “I am merely curious about the source of that information. It does not sound so simple.”

Ernest Boyar closed the album and nodded slightly.

“This is not some secret. I learned of it from Lord Nibais. To be frank, I had never heard of anything in that regard before. It was difficult for me to imagine that such a castle existed in Delaire Forest.”

Lord Nibais… Emlyn instinctively formed a thought in his heart:

Another test…

But this test is far too dangerous, isn’t it? It even required troubling Mr. Fool to resolve… Emlyn frowned slightly. Recalling certain details he had previously considered, he probed,

“Your Excellency Viscount, then why did you not explore that castle yourself? I remember that you are an archaeologist, and you could have obtained Beyonder materials corresponding to ancient wraiths in the process.”

Ernest looked at Emlyn strangely.

“Lord Nibais told me that place is very dangerous. Unless one has reached the rank of count, it is best not to approach.”

“…” Emlyn’s mouth half opened, and his expression actually became somewhat blank.

Immediately after, he suppressed his anger, lowered his voice, and said,

“Why did you not remind me of that before?”

Ernest laughed.

“Isn’t that obvious?

“For Beyonder creatures whose precise location and circumstances are in the hands of us Sanguine, how could they still exist without some special reason?”

Seeing Emlyn appear somewhat dazed, he added,

“Normal intelligence should be like this: ancient wraiths might exist somewhere in Delaire Forest; someone once encountered them but was unable to find the root of their emergence.

“That would mean finding those ancient wraiths was a very difficult and troublesome matter, and that the time cost would most likely exceed their value. Only then would they have survived until now.

“I thought you would easily notice the problem with that intelligence, and that your customer would as well. If they chose to take action, they surely had the corresponding confidence.”

In the first instant, Emlyn felt that Viscount Ernest made a great deal of sense, to the point that there was no way to refute him. He believed that it was he and Miss Magician who had been too foolish and had stubbornly collided with danger, and that it had nothing to do with the other party.

In the second instant, Emlyn felt both ashamed and annoyed, filled with resentment toward himself.

In the third instant, Emlyn tasted another problem in the matter:

“Regardless of whether the intelligence itself revealed signs of danger, Ernest Boyar should have clearly told me about that point. Clarifying the degree, source, and…