Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1284: Chapter 11: The Most Vicious and Evil Knight in History

By the bed, Lale was carefully tucking in the blanket for Oga, who had already fallen asleep.

When the knock on the door gently sounded, the maid entered with some clothes, placing them down.

Lale glanced over, opening his mouth.

This woman… changed outfits again, just how many times does she need to change in one night?

However, after putting down the clothes, the maid nodded with a smile, turned around, and left without saying a word… Lale hesitated for a moment, then quickly followed out.

“Wait a moment…”

Outside the door, Lale gently closed the door, lowering his voice.

“Is there something, Ms. Lale?” You Ye asked calmly.

“That… um…” Lale stammered for a while, then spoke softly: “That… thank you for letting us stay for the night…”

“If you want to express thanks, wouldn’t it be better to do so in person?”

Lale opened his mouth, meeting the maid’s vaguely smiling expression.

…

Inside the room, by the floor-to-ceiling window, Luo Qiu had a thin blanket over his legs, with only a reading lamp on nearby.

The book he was reading was an anthology of Great Britain’s folklore, self-equipped in the suite’s study.

When You Ye brought Lale inside, Boss Luo happened to be reading the story of Mordred’s rebellion.

“Is there something, Ms. Lale?” Luo Qiu closed the book, stood up, and casually placed the blanket back.

“Ms. Lale said she wanted to thank you personally, Master.” You Ye softly said, approaching Luo Qiu’s side.

He looked toward the beastman girl, noticing the beast ears on her head twitch slightly, appearing quite uneasy, so he said, “Do you like tea, Ms. Lale?”

“Huh?”

Luo Qiu smiled and said, “The tea made by our maid is very good… You Ye.”

With that, Luo Qiu snapped his fingers, and a set of tea utensils quietly appeared on the small round table in the corner of the study… Lale was slightly startled, and even more surprised as the tea set was familiar—it was commonly used in the country she was born in.

“Fruit tea or black tea?” The maid asked with a smile, looking at Lale, “There are quite a few fresh fruits in the kitchen, along with some freshly picked cherries.”

“I… black tea will do!” Lale hurriedly waved her hand, “It’s not necessary, really!”

“Please have a seat, Ms. Lale.” Luo Qiu walked to the table, first pulling out a chair, then gestured invitingly.

Lale’s steps suddenly became a bit stiff… She had never experienced such hospitality. Or rather, on the farm where she grew up, the people who took care of her and Oga were easygoing and straightforward.

They would sing and dance around the campfire, and drink heartily during the harvest season, the scent of hops always mingling with the fragrance of tulips in the evening breeze.

“Are you… thinking of your family?”

Lale wasn’t quite sure how she sat down, or how she suddenly fell into recalling… But such a question pulled her back to reality from beautiful memories.

“I have no family.” Lale said instinctively, then bit her lip lightly, “Except for Oga, I have no family.”

As she said this, she didn’t forget to watch the beautiful woman who claimed to be a maid making tea… it was indeed the method from her homeland.

“How many spoons of sugar?”

“Four…”

The maid clearly received the request, gently lifting the lace on her sleeve with her left hand while her right hand started to take sugar… She suddenly felt like she was the ugly duckling from the stories in front of these two people.

“Have you decided how to leave?”

Luo Qiu’s question temporarily interrupted Lale’s wild thoughts, and she quickly said, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll take Oga and leave, we won’t trouble you anymore…”

“I already told you, regarding the reward for finding your brother, I’ve already taken it.” Luo Qiu, always patient, said tirelessly, “Remember the contract you signed? It’s already returned to me. And your life span has decreased by a month… Of course, since you’re young, you probably don’t feel it. I heard beastmen have longer lifespans than ordinary people, so you probably feel it even less.”

Lale instinctively said, “I’m a mixed-blood, my lifespan is about the same as ordinary people…”

Right after saying that, she regretted… Would the other party get curious and then ask about her background? How should she respond then?

“If you plan to leave, it might be a bit troublesome for Ms. Lale.” Luo Qiu didn’t pursue it but thoughtfully said, “You were captured by beastman traffickers, and you don’t have any identification. Ordinary means of transportation might not work.”

Lale immediately breathed a sigh of relief, quickly saying, “It’s okay, we can sneak into the cargo carriage of a train, that way we can avoid all those troublesome checks, we’ve done it before… um.”

She quickly shut her mouth, lowering her head.

Luo Qiu pondered for a moment, opened his palm, and a document along with a mobile phone appeared—he pushed them in front of Lale, “Here’s a schedule for tomorrow’s underwater tunnel train. Also, this phone has a translation app, hopefully, it will assist you on your way home, Ms. Lale.”

Lale had long suffered the pain of language barriers—she was aware of modern technological methods and had thought about mobile translation, however, being penniless in this foreign country, the only way she could acquire these was through illegal or forceful means.

The document and phone undoubtedly helped her immensely… She was becoming accustomed to the mysterious magician’s method of conjuring things from thin air—after all, since childhood, the tales she heard about magicians included them having all sorts of magical powers.

“Why…”

Luo Qiu said, “Think of it as… a small bit of self-satisfaction.”

…

She didn’t remember how she left the study, only recalling the magician’s warm smile and the maid’s fragrant, sweet black tea.

Inside the room, Oga was still asleep.

Lale sat by the bedside, although extremely exhausted, she mustered her spirit and began planning how to leave the next day with the document and phone at hand.

…

In the study, Luo Qiu returned to his original seat for reading, the maid sitting by his leg on the carpet, like a cat, lying on his lap.

Her skirt spread out, rounded, like a rose.

“Master, are you just letting them leave like that?” The maid looked up.

Luo Qiu looked down, lightly touching her face with his fingers, “Before leaving, I left myself a note… I wondered if, in the short term, as long as it’s not irresistible, I should try to do some… potentially unprofitable things, get through this phase.”

While saying this, he raised his left hand… a string of agarwood Buddha beads was on his wrist.

“A kind of charity?”

Luo Qiu chuckled, lifting the maid’s chin gently, “Enterprises also do philanthropy, don’t they?”

“Self-satisfaction?” The maid’s gaze was filled with emotion.

“Self-realization.” Luo Qiu lowered his head. He began to enjoy the feeling of touching those lips.

After a long while, as they parted, Luo Qiu whispered softly, “When I’m ready… I’ll go retrieve the body you left in heaven for you.”

“Hmm…”

…

…

On the island, an armed helicopter slowly descended.

The wind blew against the personnel directing the landing, causing their clothes to flutter… Finally, the helicopter came to a complete stop, and the cabin door opened. A seductive woman in a purple dress stepped down, lifting her skirt.

She was alone… the Mind Witch, Jillian.

Simultaneously, dozens of men with guns surrounded her—the muzzles of these guns, without exception, were all pointed at this Mind Witch.

“I’m just here for a prison visit. Can I not be treated with some courtesy?” Jillian sighed softly.

At this moment, from behind the armed men, a man in a white suit with brown hair, wearing sunglasses, walked slowly, “Facing the fifth-ranked Mind Witch on the Magician’s Association’s wanted list, I believe we’ve been polite enough… Ms. Jillian.”

“Can I say that this ranking is so high only because I’ve been falsely accused?” The witch covered her mouth and chuckled softly.

The man in white replied calmly, “Ms. Jillian, according to Sir Pukins’ instructions, you have only twenty minutes for your visit… After twenty minutes, whether you come out or not, we will close the prison’s entrance, so please keep track of your time.”

The witch smiled softly, “Being regarded as the strongest Great Knight below the Twelve Knights, and being naturally blind, you can fundamentally counteract me… Am I so unwelcome by Sir Lino?”

“Please.” The man in white… Lino stepped aside.

The armed men also parted into two rows, allowing the lady to pass through… She looked up at the ancient stone castle on the hillock of the island.

Jillian walked gracefully, like a Persian cat, with a scent of violet perfume wafting in the wind. She headed towards the castle on the hill, reciting softly.

—The spacious gates stand tall,

—The stone columns pierce the sky;

—Both heavenly and human power are insignificant,

—How can one see the great mansion as a crumbling nest?

—The iron fortress is majestic.

“What are you saying?” One of the armed men seemed extremely nervous and shouted, his finger pressing on the trigger.

However, Sir Lino pressed it down—though naturally blind, his other senses were far superior to ordinary people.

“This is an excerpt from ‘Edinburgh Prison,’ recited by the character Butler when his visit was denied.” Lino said calmly, “It’s not a spell.”

“Hmm… Sir Lino is quite a sentimental person.”

The witch turned back with a smile, and in that smile, the man who had shouted suddenly screamed in terror and even dropped his weapon in panic, exclaiming, “Snake!! Snake!!”

Not only was he shocked, but it also seemed like he saw something terrifying, losing control completely.

Sir Lino, the Great Knight, frowned slightly and delivered a chop to the neck of the uncontrolled man, knocking him out, then addressed the witch in a lukewarm tone, “Ms. Jillian, I don’t mind including your travel time in the visiting hours… if you prefer to linger here.”

“I’d like to take back my compliment about you.”

The witch turned and set off again, her pace slightly quicker this time.

From the helipad to the castle on the hill took just over half an hour of walking. They had already reached the castle.

At this point, Sir Lino took a key strung on a necklace from around his neck and walked to the castle’s main door, inserting the key into the keyhole in the door’s center.

The ancient door slowly descended… The entrance was pitch black.

“Remember, you have only twenty minutes. That person, barring unexpected circumstances, should be in the eastern tower now… Go.”

“I strongly request that the twenty minutes start from when we meet, not from when I step in here.” Ms. Jillian’s voice suddenly became calm.

Sir Lino seemed not to hear and waved his hand, prompting a subordinate to take out an electronic timer, which was started with Sir Lino’s command of ‘begin.’

“What a dull and heartless man.” The witch cast a sorrowful glance, lifting her skirt as she walked into the castle.

Sir Lino once again closed the castle’s main door and stood before it.

He took a deep breath, holding his hands as if gripping a sword, and stood there with a solemn expression on his face.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen Sir Lino so serious…”

The subordinates whispered amongst themselves.

“It’s unavoidable, given that inside is someone who, a hundred years ago, almost single-handedly brought Great Britain’s entire Round Table Organization to its knees and even killed five of the Twelve Knights—a Knight of legendary fury and evil…”

“Can someone really live that long?”

“I would say, cursed…”

…

On the spiral staircase, Ms. Jillian held an oil lamp, ascending step by step… This spiral staircase had no end in sight, nor could she see behind her; there was only darkness, illuminated by the lamp.

Finally, after more than ten minutes, the witch reached the top of the tower… The door ahead was ajar, not locked.

She pushed it open.

Inside the room, only the orange glow of candles… The shadows swayed with the flickering candlelight, projecting a silhouette onto the blue-gray stone walls.

Jillian took a deep breath, looking at the shadow on the wall, hesitating for a moment before turning her gaze to the source of the shadow.

The window of the tower room.

There sat a black-haired man on the windowsill. His hair was black and long, almost reaching the ground, with shackles on both his hands and feet.

He held a small book, obviously reading by lamplight before the witch arrived, immersed in the world within the book.

He noticed the noise and raised his head to look.

In the mingling light of the candles and moon, a face, gaunt and pallid as that of a terminal anorexic patient, emerged before the witch.

She parted her lips slightly, softly calling out, “Mordred.”