Chapter 400: Meeting Two Girls By Chance
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Black Emperor, what do you mean by accompanying you to school?” Amon asked carefully as if he did not understand Watson’s words.
“I mean it literally. In two days, I will go to the Royal Academy to study. It will be very troublesome to come out. Furthermore, if I don’t have anyone to talk to, it will be very troublesome too.”
Watson smiled at Amon. “None of the above is the reason I asked you to accompany me to school.”
‘If it’s not the real reason, then why did you say it? Is it to tease us? ”
Amon complained in his heart, but he did not say it out loud. Instead, he waited for Watson to continue. After a few seconds, Watson said, “The real reason I asked you to accompany me to school is to let you get in touch with the noblemen in the kingdom and see if there are any talents that we can recruit, even if they are the children of less significant noblemen.”
.
His goal was to overthrow King Landhar III. Therefore, he had to grasp the future of the kingdom—the younger generation. If most of the noblemen were rotten, the kingdom would have a different scene. Those things were what Watson wanted to do. Since he had subordinates, he could relax a little because he still had a lot of things to do.
“Sure, I understand. Your views are not something that people like us can guess easily. Please allow me to make some preparations. I will go to school with you in two days,” Amon said respectfully. Basher, who was not far from him, looked envious. Amon’s job was not only easy, but he would get to get close to Watson. It was simply the best job. He also wanted to go, but it was a pity that his age was not suitable. It was unlikely for him to enter the Royal Academy.
After giving all the Severed Fingers Gang members a plan for the future and making detailed arrangements, Watson ordered everyone to leave in batches. He was the last to leave. When he left the courtyard, he saw a familiar figure.
“Nightingale, why are you here?”
The person who appeared in front of him was none other than Nightingale, the maid he had brought from Mount Creation to the royal city. At the moment, Nightingale was wearing a black dress, white silk gloves on her arms, and a top hat with flowers pinned on it. When she saw him, the Nightingale appeared a little shy and reached out to lower the brim of her hat.
Watson had assigned Nightingale to Denise when they reached the royal city. Since Denise had a mansion there, it was just right for her and Nightingale to live in it. Watson had wanted to live in the Temple of the Stars with Antonio, but since he had been learning sword techniques with Reid, he decided to live in the Sword Saint’s courtyard.
He had not seen Nightingale for a long time, so he did not expect her to appear there suddenly.
“Watson, I came here today because Denise said that there are many things that are not available at the border, so she wanted to take me out for a walk. I’m not here because I haven’t seen you for a few days or because I miss you.”
‘So she’s here for me.’
When he heard Nightingale’s words, Watson found it funny and decided to tease her. “Since you did not come to look for me, I have something else to do, so I’ll leave first.”
“Wait a minute, I—” Nightingale hurriedly reached out with her hand, not knowing what to say.
“It’s okay, Nightingale. I won’t tease you anymore. Anyway, I have nothing else to do later, so I’ll accompany you to walk around here.” Watson looked around as he spoke. “By the way, you said that Denise accompanied you here. Where is Denise?”
“I don’t know either. When we arrived here, she said that she had a stomach ache and then disappeared. She must have gone to the toilet somewhere! Oh, right. Before she left, she told me that I should leave with you if she did not come out after half an hour. There’s no need to wait for her.”
“Then, let’s go.”
Watson nodded after listening to Nightingale’s words. The two of them walked side by side and left Count Gray’s manor.
Not long after the two of them left, at a street corner not far from the manor, Denise came out from the shadows and looked at the backs of the two people in the distance. “Miss Nightingale, I really don’t want to be a third wheel. I’ll let you and Young Master Watson enjoy the day together. You don’t have to thank me.”
“Watson, I haven’t seen you in the past few days. What have you been doing?”
Nightingale gradually relaxed as they walked on the street and looked at the people passing by. She was a killer trained by the border count. She might look cold, but she was a kind person. She only acted tough in front of everyone else, and she would be herself with Watson.
“Nothing much. I’m just learning some sword techniques from Master Reid. When I have nothing to do, I’ll go out for a walk,” Watson replied casually. He decided not to tell Nightingale about the Severed Fingers Gang for the time being because it was very dangerous to form an underground force to fight against the King, and the Severed Fingers Gang was still developing. There was no need to involve Nightingale in it.
“Is that all?” Nightingale asked doubtfully, but her eyes were full of disbelief. “I saw you walking on the street with the Sword Saint’s daughter during the day. I saw a similar scene a week ago. I even heard that you had a conflict with the Campbell family because of the Sword Saint and got into trouble.”
“Ahem…”
Watson was speechless. He had no idea Nightingale had been paying attention to him, even though he had not seen her in a while.
“I had dinner with Tina because she wanted to ask me questions, and the conflict between the Campbell family and me was not because of her, but because a guy named Augustus from the Campbell family took the initiative to find trouble with me.”
After a simple explanation, Watson thought she would not be troubled anymore, so he did not expect Nightingale to raise her eyebrows and become even angrier after hearing that. “Watson, you even address Lady Swordmistress as Tina now. When did you become so familiar with her?”
Cough!
“Did you choose to live in the Sword Saint’s courtyard because of Lady Swordmistress? No wonder you did not leave that place. And when you did, you were with her. You weren’t happy when you were in the City of Steel, but now you’re so nice. Watson, do you have masochistic tendencies? The more trouble someone causes you, the more you like—” Nightingale’s words became more fluent.
Cough, cough, cough!
One should never defend a woman when she was angry. Having deeply understood that principle, Watson could only cover it up with a cough and choose to change the topic. “Nightingale, didn’t you come out to visit the royal city and buy some things? Let’s not talk about that. Let’s see what you want to buy. I’ll buy it for you later, as an apology for not seeing you for the past few days.”
“I’m a maid. How can I let you spend money on me?”
Even though she said that she was embarrassed, Nightingale smiled again. She led Watson to the shops on the street and looked at the stalls one by one. Sometimes, she picked up a magic necklace with enchantment; sometimes, she picked up the enchanted earrings and gestured at the ears. It seemed that she had already regarded Watson as the person who would pay for them.
“Don’t miss out on this place. There’s good food here—winter bamboo shoots and clam soup. The winter bamboo shoots are the freshest at this time of the year. It’s a rare delicacy when paired with soup.”
“The blacksmith is having a sale. All weapons are sold at the lowest price. There are also top-notch gold-tier weapons. One for 100 gold coins.”
“This is the only wine in the capital that can increase one’s strength. That wine is brewed from sun and moon gems that grow in the Forest of Eternity in the south. Those two kinds of fruit can only mature after thousands of years. If you consume this wine regularly, even if you don’t cultivate for a year, you can still advance from iron to silver-tier. It can even prolong your life! For children who have good talent at home or older people who are close to the end of their lives, drinking this wine is a good choice, even if it’s not for its efficacy. Just the taste of the wine is enough to make people unable to stop drinking it.”
When Nightingale was choosing jewelry, there were shouts from all around Watson. Many of the items sold by those people were products from the Severed Fingers Gang. Watson could not help but smile. It seemed that the goods were indeed selling very well. Those members were not exaggerating.
Under his plan, the entire capital and even the kingdom would gradually be under his control. The process might be a little long, but he could afford to wait.
“Watson, how do you feel about this accessory?”
Nightingale stood up from the jewelry stall. She held an ornament that looked like a hairpin in her hand and gestured at her hair. The hairpin was lovely. Behind the spiral-shaped tip was a bird-shaped sculpture. It made her look a little playful when it was inserted into her hair.
The hairpin’s craftsmanship was very ordinary. There was only a defense spell added to it that could block bronze-tier attacks. Other than that, there was nothing else. Only the carving’s craftsmanship was worthy of praise. Watson could easily fuse countless more powerful ornaments like that. However, Watson knew that Nightingale did not value that ornament. She was just enjoying the process of shopping.
“Miss, you have good taste. That accessory is a rare gold-tier accessory in our shop. The magic engraved on it can resist the attack of a silver-tier elite! You can have it for 100 gold coins. Perhaps the young man next to you would pay for it?”
Seeing Nightingale pick up the hairpin, the shop owner kept bragging about how good the hairpin was. Watson rolled his eyes. A bronze-tier accessory was worth only one gold coin, but the shop owner wanted 100 gold coins for it. It was a hundred times more expensive.
Since Nightingale seemed to like the hairpin very much and 100 gold coins were not much anyway, Watson decided to pay for the accessory. At that moment, two women in luxurious clothes walked out from behind the stall owner angrily and threw a broken bracelet at the stall.
“Boss, didn’t you say that the bracelet you sold me is gold-tier equipment mined from ancient ruins? What caused it to crack after only a few uses? The quality is too poor. Can you fix it for me?”
Watson looked up and saw that the two women were only 13 or 14 years old. They were about the same age as him and looked vaguely familiar. As for the bracelet in their hands, Watson knew it was only an ordinary bronze-tier bracelet. It was mixed with some ores mined from the relics, which emitted an ancient aura because the craftsmanship was not bad. Ordinary people who did not know much about casting would not be able to tell the difference.
“Ladies, once goods are sold, they are not returnable. I am only a merchant and not a master forger. How would I know how to repair a product from the ancient relics? Since that bracelet is a product of an ancient ruin, it might have been corroded, which was why it was damaged. Or perhaps, you misused the bracelet and caused it to be damaged. You can’t blame me for that.”
“You liar! I am a dignified student at the Royal Academy. How would I misuse a magic tool? I only introduced gold-tier magical energy into the bracelet, and it cracked on its own. I see that your bracelet is fake. You liar! Since you can’t fix the bracelet for me, then give me back my money.”
Watson did not want to pay attention to the quarrel between the two girls and the shop owner. He simply took a purse filled with gold coins from his pocket, took a hundred pieces from it, and handed them to the shop owner. “Boss, I’ll buy the gold-tier hairpin. Here are a hundred gold coins.”
“No, you can’t buy the things here. These things are all shoddy. If you buy them, you’ll be fooled.”
The two girls grabbed the collar of the shop owner. “Miss, no, my lords, This is only a small business. Don’t interfere with my business.” However, they did not let him go. The other girl looked at Watson. She tried to persuade him out of kindness, but when she saw him, she froze.
“Watson, why are you here?”
“Watson, who are these two?” Nightingale put down the hairpin in her hand and walked over when she heard the woman calling Watson. She frowned slightly. “Do you know other women besides Miss Swordsman?”
Nightingale had thought that her competitor was Christina, but it seemed like she had more than one competitor.
“I don’t know either. I don’t know those two people.” Watson felt aggrieved and asked the two girls, “Who are you, and how do you know me?”
During the process of questioning, Watson carefully looked at the faces of the two girls in front of him. One of the girls was in a fiery red dress. Her hair was also red and tied into a ponytail. There was a trace of heroic spirit in the corners of her eyes and eyebrows. The other girl was holding a parasol. Her face was as delicate as a doll, and she was wearing a white pleated dress. Under her two smooth calves, her pale feet were in a pair of sandals tied with crystal ribbons. It made people want to bend down and play with them.
“Watson, I can’t believe that you don’t know us. We participated in the Royal Academy’s assessment on the same day. I thought you would remember us when you saw us.” The girl with the red ponytail pouted in dissatisfaction. She grabbed the collar of the shop owner and said, “My name is Lily Campbell, a member of the Campbell family. I’m currently a student at the Royal Academy’s Mage Department. Watson, I’ve heard a lot about you. Not only did you get a full mark in the assessment, you even went to the Campbell family to make a scene a few days ago. At that time, I wasn’t there, so I did not know about it. My family didn’t tell me what had happened. Can you tell me?”
“I’ll tell you when I have the chance,” Watson replied as he looked at the other girl. The other girl with a parasol bowed slightly and revealed a sweet smile. “My name is Charlotte Saint Laurent Gehry.”
Saint Laurent?
He remembered that that was his father’s family name. Watson took another look at the girl and realized that she looked like his father. Both of them had brown hair and blue eyes.
“Watson, don’t stare at a woman all the time. That is very rude behavior! We have already introduced ourselves. Shouldn’t you introduce your companion to us?”
“Ah, sorry.” Watson snapped back to his senses and shifted his gaze. He pointed at Nightingale and said, “This is the Nightingale. She is my friend.”
“She must be extraordinary to be able to be friends with a genius like you. Is she also a student at the Royal Academy?”
“No, I’m not.”
Nightingale said, “And I’m not Young Master Watson’s friend. I’m just his maid.”
A maid?
Lily, the red-haired girl who was holding the shop owner, raised her eyebrows. “But you don’t look like a maid. Instead, you look like siblings or a couple. This is the first time I’ve seen a young master buy jewelry for a maid.”
Charlotte’s expression was a little strange. “Miss Nightingale, no matter what your relationship with Watson is, I advise you not to buy jewelry from this shop. They are swindlers. Lily and I were tricked because we bought the things from that shop! School is about to start, so Lily and I wanted to buy some useful items. If I had known earlier, I would have let thick-skinned Lily ask her family for them.”
“Charlotte, who are you calling thick-skinned? And do you think I don’t want to ask my family for them? They’ve been studying something in front of a huge puppet recently. They don’t even make other magical items anymore. If I go to them, they’ll chase me away impatiently, let alone let me ask for some items. Even my mom is the same.”
As the youngest child of the head of the Campbell family, Lily was Freya’s daughter. As she spoke, she shook the shop owner. “I almost forgot about you. Hurry up and return our money. Otherwise, I won’t be polite to you.”
“Miss, can you please put me down? I feel like I’m going to faint from your shaking! I really can’t give you any money. Perhaps you can pick another bracelet from my shop.”
“What’s the use of picking a bracelet randomly? It’s just a bunch of junk anyway. It’s just a change from one junk to another. Either you give me money, or I’ll destroy your shop.”
After arguing with the shop owner for a long time, Lily had also attracted the attention of other onlookers nearby. Many people were pointing at them, which made Watson frown. He had wanted to buy something for Nightingale and leave, but seeing Lily’s unrelenting attitude, it would be very difficult for him to buy the hairpin.
After he thought about it, he said, “Miss Lily, don’t act so rashly. I can help you restore the bracelet. Why don’t you let the shop owner go?”
