Chapter 174 — The Visit of Lilith Kant

And Gao Yang's answer to Amber was a knock on the skull. "Get to the point!"

"We never heard of any such 'viscountess' existing," Philip said gravely. "Nor did Viscount Victor Kant mention her—which is highly abnormal. Even if the viscountess is too frail to receive guests, surely the viscount himself would not refrain from even mentioning her? And there are so many manservants and maids in the castle, yet not one of them spoke privately of there being a mistress here... It is far too strange."

"If you put it that way—I was chatting with the people in the castle earlier," said Amber, rubbing the skull Gao Yang had knocked and joining the serious discussion. "They didn't mention the castle having a mistress, but they did say the old viscount had a son named Belm, who left the castle when he was very young, saying he was going to travel the central regions—and it seems he hasn't come back for decades..."

Gao Yang stroked his chin. "Decades without coming back? Was that traveling, or was he sold off?"

Amber rolled her eyes. "Maybe he was sent off to be a hostage in some great noble house in the central regions with an exchange of interests? Isn't that all the rage among you nobles?"

"Don't talk nonsense. That was not the fashion in our day," Gao Yang said sternly. "In those times, covenants were kept by conscience, not by some petty trick of exchanging hostages."

Philip's face at once filled with admiration. "That is what upright and honest men ought to do."

"No—mainly it was that the founding old fellows were generally short-tempered. Back then, anyone who broke his word would be beaten by the nobles of the whole realm—sometimes, when the king had the time, the king himself would come and beat him. Because travel was inconvenient, people arrived one after another; the founding old fellows coming to pound on your door would sometimes keep it up for a whole year without letup. Truly, no one dared violate a covenant..."

Philip: "..."

"Good heavens, how did those straight-shooting, honest founding nobles of yours all turn into what they are today?" Amber, however, felt a longing for the age Gao Yang described, and thinking of present-day customs, shook her head with considerable regret. "Anyway, that Kant heir named Belm really did go off traveling, because letters from him arrive from time to time. Barring anything unforeseen, after that old Viscount Kant dies, Belm Kant will end his travels and come back to inherit the estate."