Chapter 508 - The Innocent Scapegoat
Chapter 508 The Innocent Scapegoat
They came to the Moonlight Stone Tavern again.
Schuck liked to meet people here mostly because their fruit wine tasted great.
The beverage tasted like blueberry-flavored coca cola and Kvass. It was rather nice. Sometimes, you only needed one simple reason to be a place’s regular customer. Schuck was so handsome that most women liked him.
However, different people had different aesthetics, some of which were normal, some of which were abnormal.
Sitting opposite Schuck, Stephanie felt goosebumps all over her arms as she looked at Schuck’s pretty face.
“I’ve long been told that the new Saint Samurai of the Church of Light is extremely charming. They didn’t lie.” Looking at Schuck’s face, Stephanie said calmly, “Is there something you want to ask me?”
Schuck was slightly surprised at Stephanie’s calmness. He didn’t expect to meet another woman who wasn’t charmed by him.
But of course, Schuck wasn’t one of the cold and condescending CEOs in romance novels who were only interested in girls who ignored them.
He wasn’t any of those idiots.
He preferred girls who were sincere to him, and who were pretty. Why would I suck up to someone who doesn’t like me?
That was Schuck’s simple view on love.
Therefore, he wasn’t surprised at all even though Stephanie wasn’t attracted to his handsomeness.
He had met such women before.
Schuck nodded and said, “I probably wouldn’t have dared to invite you here without Roland, First Princess. I would like to know why you killed your husband two years ago.” Stephanie looked quite upset, but then she put on a helpless smile and said, “Mr. Schuck, are you asking about that because the Church of Light instructed you to?”.
“No, it’s just my personal curiosity.” Schuck swallowed a mouthful of the fruit wine and smiled courteously. “It might be related to the cases I’m working on.”
Stephanie slightly closed her eyes and said, “Rumor has it that I killed him because he had other women outside…”
“That’s not very likely.” Schuck waved his hand. “Based on our investigation, your husband already had a lot of women before you married him. You had investigated him too. Besides, romantic affairs are not uncommon for nobles. You don’t look like someone who would kill your husband for such a trivial thing.”
Stephanie chuckled and sighed. “That’s right. In most people’s eyes, I only care about my interests and wouldn’t do anything that’s not rewarding. The answer to your question is not a great secret, but you need to pay a price for
it.”
“What do I need to pay?” asked Schuck.
“I know you have a red dragon. I would like five excellent scales from her.”
Schuck slightly narrowed his eyes. “Margret hasn’t reached her ecdysis phase yet.” “That’s your problem. I only need five red dragon scales. You can ask your dragon to fetch a few from her clan.” Schuck nodded. “You want to cook a bloodline drug?” “I knew you would understand it.” Stephanie nodded.
Schuck slightly frowned. “I didn’t know that until Margret told me.”
It was about a year ago, when Margret just became Schuck’s mount.
At that time, Schuck earned a dozen gold coins each month, but it was still not enough for him to buy special magic equipment.
Then, Margret told him that he could peel and sell her scales, particularly those on her neck. Each of the scales could be sold for five gold coins. When refined into drugs, such scales could grant whoever drank the drugs part of the dragons’ bloodline abilities.
It was up to the drinkers’ luck as to what abilities they would get and how powerful they would become.
But of course, Schuck cared about her too much to peel her scales.
Thinking for a moment, Schuck asked, “First Princess, are you going to make the drugs for yourself or someone else?”
“That’s a precious drug. I’m certainly making it for myself.”
Schuck glanced at Roland and Andonara who were seated not far away.
He asked again, “What’s your relation to Roland?”
“Not bad. We’re sort of friends.”
Schuck nodded. “Okay then. For Roland’s sake, I’ll send you five dragon scales after I come back.”
Stephanie’s eyes glittered. “Thank you. If you must know, I can tell you that I killed my late husband because he wanted to control me with black magic.”
Schuck nodded. “Then he deserved death.”
In black magic, there was a mental spell called Puppetry. Unlike Humanoid Control, Puppetry would wipe out all the memories and feelings of the controlled and turn them into a walking zombie that would only listen to the spellcaster. Humanoid Control, in comparison, would stun the enemy’s soul with mental power and force them to listen to the spellcaster’s command, but when it was over, the target would wake up, and their memories wouldn’t be influenced.
Puppetry was evidently much more vicious than Humanoid Control.
If it were Schuck, he would’ve killed any man who cast Puppetry on him too. That was a nefarious spell.
Schuck stood up. “Thank you for your information, First Princess. I’m going back. What you asked for will be delivered to your manor in a day or two.”
Stephanie stood up too and said excitedly, “Thank you very much, sir.”
“You’re too kind.” Schuck waved at Roland and left the Moonlight Stone Tavern.
Stephanie, on the other hand, sat down next to Andonara at a table nearby and said to Roland, “Thank you.” “Why are you thanking me?” Roland was slightly confused.
He didn’t eavesdrop on Schuck and Stephanie’s conversation. “Had it not been for you, Schuck wouldn’t have agreed to give me five dragon scales.” Stephanie managed a smile. “You said Schuck is your best friend. I believe you now.”
Stephanie felt rather frustrated.
She had thought that Schuck would show her some respect for her appearance, status, identity, and influence.
But if Roland weren’t here, Schuck wouldn’t have agreed to offer her five dragon scales at all.
Apart from her frustration, Stephanie was slightly angry too.
The Golden Sons were too hard to deal with.
Both Roland and Schuck seemed very confident, as if they didn’t consider the nobles or the royal family a big deal.
Neither carrots nor sticks worked on those people. After all, the Golden Sons all seemed very strong, not to mention that they were undying
Why did the Life Goddess throw these people into this world?
Stephanie couldn’t think of a reason.
They had some fruit wine and cakes at the Moonlight Stone Tavern. Then, Stephanie said that the food wasn’t as delicious as her own chef’s cooking and suggested that they go back.
So, the three of them returned to the manor in a carriage.
When the carriage entered the woods, Andonara, who had been holding Roland, suddenly sat straight.
She grabbed her longsword and her eyes widened. “There’s a strong scent of blood.”
Roland and Andonara both became wary. The carriage moved on for a few seconds and then stopped.
The driver spoke in a rather panicked voice, “First Princess, a lot of dead bodies are in our
way.”
Hearing that, Andonara instantly jumped out of the carriage, closely followed by Roland.
They saw dozens of bodies lying in the middle of the road.
Most of them were soldiers in black robes. At the very center of those soldiers was the body of a plump woman.
Roland had seen the woman before. She was the one who blocked the gate of the First Princess’s manor earlier.
Andonara hopped over and turned the woman’s body over with her sheath. She then examined the soldiers’ bodies and said, “They were all stabbed in the heart and died before they could sense the pain. The murderer is quite skilled. Also, he did not assassinate them. What he did was just stabbing.”
There were battles in this chaotic world every now and then, and most of the battles were group fights, so under most circumstances, the melee classes preferred to attack multiple enemies at the same time with heavy weapons.
The stabbing skill, on the other hand, was often used in duels.
After all, only one enemy would be hit no matter how a person stabbed.
“They were killed almost at the same time without putting up any resistance. Their murderer is probably a Legend. What a freak. How can one become a Legend with an expertise in stabbing? How did he practice it? By stabbing a puppet every day?”
Hearing about the stabbing skill and the Legend, Stephanie suddenly became pale.
Roland saw her complexion and was about to ask, when Andonara suddenly returned and said in a low voice, “We’re surrounded. The enemy is here.”
Hardly had Andonara finished her sentence when a group of soldiers who wore gray leather armor and helmets that carried eagle feathers in different colors came from the woods.
Their leader was a middle-aged man who was holding a long, thin sword. Seeing him, Stephanie said in a low voice, “Biden, why are you here?”“First Princess, I didn’t expect you to be so brutal.” The middle-aged was quite handsome with his hawk nose and his chiseled face. The only shortcoming was probably his partial baldness. “His Majesty was informed that Nesir came to you for trouble, so he ordered me to take her back. I didn’t expect that you would kill her as well as all her guards. Fortunately, I came in time and witnessed how you brutally killed Ms. Nesir after you killed her brother.”
Stephanie didn’t say anything, but her face became colder and colder.
Roland walked to her and said, “From what I can see, your father seems to be trying to take you down.”
Stephanie slightly nodded. “I don’t know why my father wants to kill me. I’m clearly the best candidate for the next sovereign of this country.”
While they whispered to each other, Biden said, “First Princess, please come to the royal pal with me and explain this to the king.”
Roland felt that Stephanie would be dead for sure if she went to the royal palace.
Stephanie stepped back. She didn’t want to go there. She could foresee what would happen to her.
At this moment, Andonara and Roland stepped before Stephanie to protect her almost at the same time.