Chapter 335 — Patty Glan
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
When he heard what the attendant reported, and saw the change in Lopenny Glan's expression, Gaoshao guessed at once what had happened.
Just as he had known, and as he had surmised, Patty Glan was the daughter of the lord of Glan Territory—and the little girl's present condition could not possibly be good. The fact that she had connected to the Eversleeper's psychic network was, in all likelihood, bound up with her physical state as well.
Gaoyang concealed the turmoil within him, and let only simple curiosity show on his face. "Lady Glan, what has happened?"
"Please do not concern yourself. If you would but wait here a little while," said Viscountess Lopenny, mastering the worry on her face. She bowed slightly to Gaoyi in apology, and spoke in a low, rapid tone. "I must step away for a moment. I will return very soon."
Gaoyang thought briefly, then nodded. "...Please, do as you like. Go and attend to your business; pay us no mind. But if there is anything I can help with, I am ready to be of service at any time."
Viscountess Lopenny thanked him quickly, then hurried from the reception hall after the attendant.
Gaoyang watched her figure vanish behind the door, but to the very last he held back the impulse to ask further questions, and did not voice any wish to meet her daughter—because that would have been far too abrupt.
Patty Glan ought to be a child of about ten; he, Gaoyang, was a frontier duke who had been resurrected not long ago and was presently opening up wasteland in the far south. Under such utterly unrelated circumstances, to suddenly ask to meet the other's daughter would be thoroughly suspicious. He could hardly take a single mother aside and open with, "Fellow countryman, I hear you have a daughter at home?" If he truly did that, his lifelong reputation would be done for...
To keep Lopenny from growing wary and hostile, he would have to make his words and manner natural. So Gaoyang merely watched the viscountess leave the room in silence; he knew he would always find a chance to meet this "Patty Glan" once.
After waving the clamorous harps and lyres into silence, Gaoyang began to wander with considerable interest about the reception room, observing the collected works and creations of the former Viscount Glan. As he looked at those objects so full of personal character, he recalled in his mind the various records and rumors concerning the former viscount—things that dated back as little as a few years, or at most a dozen or so. Yet already, under this age's chaotic habits of record-keeping and certain interested distortions, they had grown absurd beyond measure, like dark tales handed down from several centuries ago.
In those stories of every version, the former Viscount Glan was a madman afflicted by evil spirits or hereditary disease, a man who combined surpassing wisdom with lunatic frenzy. With cunning and intelligence he amassed wealth, yet squandered it recklessly, corrupting the traditions and good name of his house and throwing the order of his territory into chaos. He had once been the finest of the younger generation of southern nobles, the ideal lover in the hearts of countless noble ladies—yet in the end he sank into an insatiable craving for forbidden knowledge, and finally met his death in his own magical laboratory...
Gaoyang kept piecing together those true-and-false tales in his mind; more than half of them were the fruit of investigations Amber had set in motion. When he had sorted through them once more, he turned and nodded to the half-elf, who was licking a plate. "Had enough to eat?"
"All full, all full!" Amber patted her belly with great shamelessness. "Looking at your expression and hearing that tone... you're definitely going to make me work, aren't you?"
"It's not much trouble," Gaoyang said with a smile. "Go to the castle's main gate and take a look at that door..."
...