Being a knight is not easy

Chapter 173 Assassination
Feng Ling turned around suddenly, her cheeks flushed, not knowing how to face it. But when she thought of the horror of Madam Aisha, her momentary excitement was immediately wiped out.

Suddenly, cheers broke out in the distance. The fishing prayer ceremony was over. In the wooden basin held up on the altar, there were indeed twelve silver fish with star spots all over their bodies lying.

The crowd began to surge towards the main tent. Amid the clinking of glasses, Robin heard her say in a voice only the two of them could hear: "What on earth do you want?"

Robin was speechless for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "I want to find a noble who can support me in my training."

The moon on the lake was suddenly obscured by clouds, and the lights of the festival flickered in the twilight.

Feng Ling couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Robin, do you know that besides the Bow Knight, you have a new title?"

Robin shook his head in confusion.

"They call you 'The Lord Eater Knight.'"

Amid the cheers of the leaping silver fish on the lake, she handed over the yellowed wanted poster with a red stamp that read "Conspiring with the Corrupted Wizard to Murder the Former Lord."

As Robin's lips twitched, Feng Ling's smile was like a poison needle dipped in honey. His eyes flickered to the group of nobles in the distance holding poisoned wine. "The whole Western Territory is saying you're a demonic deity with its own calamity, yet Madam insists on using you against the wind."

"Use me?"

Feng Ling suddenly moved closer, her warm breath wrapped in the scent of cornflowers rushing towards her: "Pledge of allegiance."

The three words were as light as the moonlight on the lake, but they made him feel a chill on the back of his neck.

Her fingertips quickly traced the rusted badge on his collarbone: "Viscount Brian."

The name made Robin's pupils shrink suddenly. The Duke of Hawke's military advisor had just proposed to cut the wages of the border knights in the parliament hall last week. At this moment, he was holding a gilded wine cup and clinking glasses with Lady Aisha's mortal enemy.

"Unbeknownst to anyone." Feng Ling's fingertips touched the wanted poster on his palm. "He is going to the pavilion in the middle of the lake to meet his lover tonight. When the moon tide is at its deepest, the wooden plank road will be flooded three feet by the lake water." She suddenly stopped talking and stared at the bulging bottle on his waist. The red powder inside glowed eerily in the moonlight.

Robin suddenly remembered the "hidden knife" theory mentioned by the old butler.

The soles of Viscount Brian's boots were always stained with red soil from the East, and on the map in Lady Eshar's study, twenty-seven iron ore points were marked with powder of the same color.

These were the curses shouted by the "male concubine" who was hanged three days ago before his death.

"Regardless of whether you did it or not." Feng Ling took two steps back. "As long as he dies in the Moon Tide Festival, the Duke's purge will end early, and the lady's fleet will be able to take over the East Territory trade route before dawn."

Suddenly, the crisp sound of broken strings came from the lake.

Robin looked at the Viscount's back as he walked towards the pavilion in the middle of the lake. The duke's emblem on his cloak shone like a golden spot under the glass lamp.

He touched the new Tang sword, and it turned out that the token of loyalty was never blood, but rather the position of "evil god" to crush the chess pieces that blocked the nobles' way.

"The moon tide will last for another quarter of an hour." As Feng Ling turned around, a bluebell flower fell from his hair and floated into the puddle beside his boots. "Mr. Knight, have you heard the legend of Lake Belon? Those cursed by the moon god will turn into silver fish after death, trapped in the barbs of fishing nets forever."

Before her voice was drowned out by the toast song, Robin heard a sneer in his heart.

The so-called "disaster" of the legendary knight is nothing more than a noose held in the hands of the nobles, and this time, he wants to put the noose around the neck full of conspiracy.

As the candlelight in the pavilion in the middle of the lake lit up, Robin touched the new Tang sword at his waist.

This newly forged Tang sword has never seen blood, but since the person he killed was Duke Hawke's man, he didn't have any psychological problems at all.

Robin crouched on the roof of the pavilion in the middle of the lake, the moonlight forging his shadow into a thin blade. Viscount Brian's laughter drifted up with the aroma of wine. He was slicing foie gras with a jeweled dagger, and the duke's coat of arms on his ring clattered against the edge of the silver plate.

When the moon tide came over the seventh stake of the plank road, Robin loosened the pebbles from his fingers.

The dull thud of the stone falling into the lake just covered up the sound of his leap. The moment his boot soles scraped against the tiles, he had already pulled out the new Tang sword hidden in his cloak.

The Viscount's lover suddenly pointed at the roof and exclaimed, Robin's new Tang sword was already against the back of her neck.

"Close your eyes." His voice was like a bowstring tempered with ice.

The woman closed her eyes tremblingly, her eyelashes still stained with the gold powder that had just fallen. Just as Viscount Brian's hand touched the hilt of the sword at his waist, Robin stepped on his wrist with the tip of his boot.

"Look carefully, this is the clean way to kill." Robin pressed his knees on the Viscount's fat back and heard the other's spine make a slight sound as he could not bear the weight.

The new Tang sword pierced diagonally from below the mandible, with the handle sunk to an inch. Warm blood splattered on the glazed floor tiles, brighter than the marigolds at the festival.

The Viscount's legs twitched twice, and then he collapsed like a sack of wheat. His eyes were still wide open in horror, but he could not utter a single scream.

Robin pulled off the dead man's scarf to wipe the knife and glanced at the parchment map spread out on the desk.

The markings for the Eastern Mine had "Operation Night Dew Grass" written in code next to them, and the red crayon used to mark the iron ore was identical to the one in Lady Eshar's study.

He rolled the map into a tube and stuffed it into his arms, then hung the Viscount's sword by the window.

The Duke's emblem on the scabbard shone coldly in the moonlight, which was the best "clue" left for the patrol guards.

The lover still kept her eyes closed, her eyelashes trembling as they swept away the gold powder.

Robin took a silver coin from his purse and stuffed it into her clenched palm: "Open your eyes after three breaths and scream."

The woman whimpered in her throat, but the moment he jumped out of the window, she burst into a cry that pierced the night sky.

Robin ran wildly in the shadow of the floating bridge, and the blood on the soles of his boots left dark patterns on the wooden boards.

He heard the shouts of patrol guards and the clashing of armor behind him. He touched the new Tang sword at his waist. The blade still had body temperature, but it was as cold as ice.

When he mixed into the toasting crowd in the main tent, Lady Aisha was holding a gilded wine glass and looking towards the pavilion in the middle of the lake. The corner of her lips raised in the curve, just like the expression she had when she watched the hanging three days ago.

When the moon tide receded, Robin stood on the dock of Lake Belon and looked at the Viscount's body floating on the water.

A faint chuckle could be heard from the distance. She hadn't noticed when she was standing behind him, the bluebells in her hair wet with dew. "The Lord-Eater Knight's sword is much faster than rumored."

"A clean and direct way of killing." Feng Ling's smile deepened, and she threw the broken tiles into the lake. The rising sun was reflected in the ripples, dyeing the entire lake water a rusty red.

Meanwhile, from the direction of the pavilion in the center of the lake, the nobles' exclamations were heard one after another.

Robin touched the map in his arms and suddenly understood the true meaning of the so-called "pledge of allegiance".

Not to make him a murderer, but to make him a blade sharper and more silent than poison on the chessboard of the nobles.

Viscount Brian was assassinated, and in public, which instantly caused panic among the nobles.

(End of this chapter)