Chapter 336 — The Reformer
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 3
The little girl stared at Gaoyang, a little dumbfounded, and asked curiously, "You know my name?"
Gaoyang smiled and gently stroked her hair. "And you seem to know me, too."
"You're Gaoyang, the great hero from long ago!" the girl said happily, though her voice carried a raspy edge, very different from the clear, sweet voice she had in the dream world. "Papa used to tell me your stories... The maids are all saying you've come to the castle..."
As she spoke, her breath began to fail her, and she stopped, panting. She seemed so excited that she had forgotten the state of her own body. Seeing this, Gaoyang said quickly, "Take your time. No rush. I'll be staying here a while."
"My goodness..." Amber's voice came from behind Gaoyang only then. The half-elf's face was full of distress, her tone thick with shock. "How did she end up like this..."
The maid standing behind the chair kept her head lowered, looking thoroughly frightened before Viscountess Ropenny. "I'm sorry, mistress, but Miss Patty, she..."
"I know," the viscountess said, looking at her daughter, her voice thick with helplessness. "Take the young miss back to her room to rest."
Patty at once strained to lift her head. "But Mama, I want to—"
"Be good. Go back to your room and rest," Viscountess Ropenny repeated, then glanced at Gaoyang with a hint of hesitation. Gaoyang waited for her to speak, then stepped forward of his own accord and said to the little girl, "Listen to your mother. Go back and rest first. I'll come to see you."
"You must come!" Patty gazed at Gaoyang with big, sparkling eyes. She had no idea that the man before her was the "Uncle Selsey" she had met so many times in the mental network; she was simply fascinated by a "protagonist" who had stepped out of a story.
Faced with the girl's expectation, Gaoyang merely smiled and nodded.
The maid led Patty away in that chair, which looked specially made, like some crude wheelchair. Gaoyang watched their figures vanish into the castle's deep corridors, then turned to look at Viscountess Ropenny. "How did she come to be like this?"
The viscountess clearly did not much care to bring up the subject, and her answer was vague. "When she was small, she was caught in a fire."
"A fire?" Gaoyang shook his head. "The accident that befell Viscount Roman Glan, you mean..."
Roman Glan was Ropenny Glan's husband, the previous lord of the Glan viscountcy—the young noble whom nobles and bards alike described as "mad, arrogant, and cursed."
Ropenny's expression stiffened slightly, and a cold detachment entered her eyes. She turned toward the door of the banquet hall and drew a breath. "Your Grace, we should not keep our guests waiting too long."
"A ball can last until dawn, and if the host slips away, the steward will see to everything," Gaoyang said calmly from behind Ropenny. "Perhaps we might talk about the 'Land Act' and the 'Free Civil Code.'"
Ropenny stopped and turned to stare into Gaoyang's eyes.
Gaoyang said mildly, "Let the people inside wait. Their time is not precious."
"I have no interest in the subjects you raise," the viscountess said. "They are the products of failure and error."
Gaoyang looked at her with a half-smile. "Aren't you curious why your husband failed back then?"
Ropenny fell silent for a moment, then waved over the steward who had just come out into the hall to observe the situation. After giving him some instructions, she looked at Gaoyang. "We can go to the study on the second floor. But I must stress again that I have no interest in the matters you wish to discuss."
Gaoyang and Amber followed the viscountess, and soon arrived at the study on the castle's second floor. There Gaoyang once more saw the portrait of Viscount Roman Glan—the smiling young man seated in his frame, as though still at work in this very study.