Blade of Dawn - Chapter 179 — A Good Dream - 清風書屋

At last only Gao Yang, Amber, and Viscount Kant remained in the study, with Sir Philip standing guard at the door. For a moment the room seemed especially quiet.

Viscount Kant let out his breath slowly, feeling his strength gradually returning, and gave a bitter smile. "What a nightmare."

"Yes, a nightmare," Gao Yang said, glancing down at the old viscount. "I imagine you have no idea why your steward would suddenly change character like that—do you?"

"As I said, I truly have no clue," Viscount Kant seemed to blank out for an instant, then shook his head bitterly. "He has looked after me for decades, serving House Kant with unwavering loyalty—but just now he was like a different person..."

"Have you heard of the Dreamless?" Gao Yang abruptly cut him off, fixing his eyes on the old man and asking point-blank.

Beside him, Amber quietly slipped her hand toward the dagger at her waist and shrank back a little into Gao Song's shadow.

"The Dreamless?" Viscount Kant frowned, then slowly nodded. "Yes, I have heard of them. They are fallen worshippers of the God of Dreams, said to slip into a victim's mind while he suffers a nightmare and seize control—even replace—his will. Are you saying Carter was taken over by the Dreamless?"

At this reaction Gao Yang's face showed no expression, betraying not the slightest fluctuation of feeling, and then he shook his head. "However that may be, what you need most now is rest—a good sleep, to recover your strength. And I suggest you have several servants stay with you. You are advanced in years, and you have lost a great deal of vitality this time; someone must be at hand to watch over you to be safe."

Viscount Kant bowed his head in all sincerity. "Thank you for your concern."

Gao Yang and Amber left the study, and Sir Philip, who had been waiting at the door, stepped forward at once. "My lord, how goes it inside?"

"Viscount Kant is recovered, save for some weakness," Gao Yang said in a low voice as he strode quickly onward. "For now, every clue points to that old steward—at least on the surface."

Sir Philip blinked. "On the surface? Do you have doubts beyond that, my lord?"

"The timing of Steward Carter's 'change of character' is too perfect," Gao Yang said, brows knit. "If he were a follower of the Long Slumber or a transcendent beguiled by the Dreamless, he would have prepared every contingency before we reached the castle. And if he could not prepare, he should simply have done nothing at all—because every slave-taking scheme bears Viscount Kant's signature, and the viscountess's 'resurrection' would point suspicion straight at Victor Kant. Had Steward Carter done nothing, he would have stayed clean of suspicion by his own inaction—the suspicion was already fixed on Viscount Kant."

Amber blinked, and slowly the sense of it came to her too. "I remember—it was just as we were discussing Viscount Kant's guilt that Steward Carter suddenly struck... So he was deliberately drawing the suspicion onto himself? Then that steward's true purpose was to protect his own master?"

Then her face cleared. "No wonder! No wonder that dagger avoided the vital points!"

"If that is so, then we can be all the more certain that Viscount Kant is the mastermind behind it all!" A trace of eagerness showed on Philip's face, and a sense of justice began to pound in the young knight's breast. "My lord, the time has come to smash the heretics' scheme!"

Gao Yang's expression was grave; he still felt that he had overlooked something, but in the end he had to nod. "We truly cannot delay. But before we alarm Viscount Kant, we must first find the core that sustains the 'illusory space,' terminate this ritual magic, and isolate Viscount Kant from that core. If my judgment is right, the thing sustaining this magic should be a lantern."