Being a knight is not easy

Chapter 172 Moon Tide Festival
Robin wiped the blood from the hilt of his sword and listened to the rumbling of a carriage in the distance.

Lady Aisha's gilded carriage turned the corner of the street, and half of her crimson veil appeared from the gap in the window. Three days ago, she had executed three incompetent servants, but now she was still able to attend the dinner wearing the pearl necklace given by the Duke.

"What are you thinking about, Your Excellency the Legendary Knight?" A hoarse voice broke through the twilight. The old butler had appeared behind him, leaning on a silver-headed cane. The candlelight cast a cold light on the glasses. "Are you thinking about the Duke of Hawke's thunderous methods? Or are you wondering about the origins of the South Sea pearl around your wife's neck?"

The Shadow Count is really lingering. He found Robin so quickly and even knew his fake identity.

In fact, Robin was tempted to say, this is who I really am.

"What good news do you have?" Robin asked coldly.

Three days ago, he witnessed with his own eyes the Duke's guards hanging three male favorites at the city gate. The twitching of the young men's necks when they were broken strangely overlapped with the smell of rose water wafting from the carriage.

"The laws of the nobility are like a blade pickled in honey." He deliberately knocked the scabbard of his sword against the stone steps, and sparks flew onto the butler's polished leather shoes. "When it strikes an ant, it cuts the throat with blood, but when it strikes a venomous snake, it dares not even scrape off the scales."

The old butler chuckled and pulled out a roll of parchment from his sleeve.

The iris emblem on the wax seal still had warm wax on it, which was the family emblem of Lady Aisha.

"You should see this." He unfolded the paper, revealing a dense web of wax seals. "Last month's smuggling list for the northern iron ore. The signature column bears the Duchess's. And the young man hanged three days ago was nothing more than an accountant handling dirty money for a certain lord."

Robin's pupils suddenly contracted.

He suddenly remembered the rumors he heard in the tavern last week: Lady Aisha's fleet had just brought back thirty boxes of amber from the East, and Duke Hawke's private army was recruiting mercenaries who could adapt to mountain warfare.

The fingertips of those "male favorites" who were hanged had calluses from years of holding pens. Could it be that Lady Eshar was so powerful that Duke Hawke had to be wary of her?

"The Earl gave instructions this morning!" The butler stuffed the parchment into the scabbard at Robin's waist. "There will be a festival tomorrow. It is said that the Duke and Lady Eshar will be in attendance."

As the old man turned, his cloak swept across the moss at the base of the wall. His voice suddenly became as light as a feather. "Sir Robin, you should understand that some knives should be cut in the dark so as not to dirty the gloves of the nobles who are admiring the flowers."

The night wind lifted Robin's tattered cloak. He touched the concave and convex patterns on the wax print and suddenly remembered that three years ago on the battlefield, when he pierced the enemy general's throat with a broken sword, there was a similar light in the man's eyes.

It was not fear, but the despair of sudden enlightenment.

He looked up at the star-studded night sky. Lady Aisha's carriage had disappeared behind the rose wall, leaving only a faint scent of sandalwood.

Robin gripped the parchment tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

Perhaps, as the old butler said, if he, the "legend" of a wandering knight, wanted to integrate into their group, he had to act stupid enough to be accepted by them.

"It's time to sharpen the sword." He whispered into the void, and the parchment in the scabbard made a slight rustling sound, which sounded like the sound of something growing in the dark.

A sudden tinkling of distant church bells startled a flock of night crows that flew over the spire of the Duke's Palace. In the shadows of their fluttering wings, Robin seemed to see countless faces, bruised and bruised by nooses, rising from the nobles' wine glasses, silently mocking the direction of the Moon Tide Festival. The Moon Tide Festival at Lake Belon in the Western Territory began on the night of the Autumnal Equinox.

The surface of the lake was dyed a flowing golden red by tens of millions of glazed lanterns. Twelve carved pavilions supported an altar built with birch and cornflowers. When the last petal of sunset sank into the center of the lake, seventy-two girls in silver-scale gauze skirts stepped on lotus leaves like floating ice and cast their pearl-studded fishing nets onto the sparkling lake.

This is the most sacred "fishing ceremony" of the festival. Legend has it that the moon god will transform stars into silver fish and drop them into the net tonight, foreshadowing a good harvest in the coming year.

The nobles' carriages stopped one after another along the plank road around the lake, and the wheels crushed the marigold petals scattered all over the ground.

Robin held the gilded invitation given by Lady Eshar. He deliberately changed into a half-worn chain mail, but pinned a bluebell picked from the wild on the inside of his cloak.

Three days ago in his wife's rose garden, he saw his personal maid Feng Ling staring at this flower.

The main tent of the ceremony was decorated with curtains made of snow silk and amethyst, and the ambergris burning in the central brazier was mixed with the aroma of roasted venison.

Robin caught a glimpse of Feng Ling in the crowd: she had taken off her plain long dress today and put on a dark green satin long dress with a night-dew grass emblem embroidered on the cuffs, a pattern that only noble ladies dared to wear. The silver butterfly hairpin in her hair trembled with her steps, making her look even more breathtakingly beautiful than when she was polishing silverware in the kitchen on weekdays.

This shows how high Feng Ling's status is next to Lady Aisha.

"What are you looking at, Mr. Knight?" The sound of wind chimes, mixed with the harp music from the lake, suddenly drifted from behind. She knelt on a piece of crispy roasted venison, the oil stains gleaming amber in the moonlight. "Or, is the crystal chandelier on the waterside pavilion enough to exchange for your broken sword?"

Robin raised an eyebrow, noticing a marigold petal stuck behind her ear. "I was wondering," he said, deliberately moving closer to the silver butterfly in her hair, sniffing a faint scent of cornflower.

It was the most expensive oriental fragrance in the lady's perfume cabinet.

"What on earth has happened in the past few days? Why can I smell the blood even from two blocks away? What on earth has happened in the Duke's Mansion?"

Feng Ling's fingertips suddenly tightened, and the venison crumbs fell on the satin. She turned and walked towards the lake, her skirt sweeping across the candle wax on the ground.

Robin followed her onto the floating bridge. The wooden planks beneath their feet swayed gently in the waves. In the distance, the girls on the altar were walking around with wooden basins filled with silver fish. The moonlight shone through the fish gills, weaving tiny bright spots on her face.

"Look at that fishing net," she suddenly pointed at the gleaming silver net in the center of the lake, her voice soft as if afraid to awaken the moon goddess beneath. "It looks like it can catch stars, but actually, every mesh is lined with barbs. Last year at the festival, a fisherman's daughter tried to steal pearls from the edge of the net, but she cut her hand on a barb. Blood dripped onto the lake, and that month's catch has become stained with the smell of rust."

"What do you want to say?" Robin looked at her puzzledly.

"Some things are beyond the reach of people of our level, so don't ask. Three legendary knights died that night." Feng Ling said this with an expression of lingering fear.

Robin looked down and saw a faint, almost invisible scar on the base of her ring finger. He suddenly grabbed her hand and said affectionately, "The Duke's Mansion is too dangerous. Why don't you come with me and escape from the West!"

(End of this chapter)