V1C3

The story unfolds on a vast medieval Western magic continent. In this age of expansion and aggression, money rules everything and conspiracies loom over the entire continent like dark clouds. Magic th

When the early morning light shone into the deep alley of the nest, the old man got up early and opened the bedroom door into the study. Leaning against the study side of the sofa, the teenager was sleeping extremely sweetly. The old man did not want to alarm the teenager, he quietly opened the door to the room and walked down the stairs to Alan's door.

In the lair inside, any door is not locked, because here are experts in unlocking, those things are not at all useful here, but on the contrary, it is easy to attract those gold fingers itchy hands. Push open the door and walk into the room, and the teenager is completely different, Alan is a long-standing thief, any unusual movement inside the room will immediately cause him to be alerted.

Seeing the immediately awakened Alan, the old man felt quite satisfied, nodded and said, "Get up, you go and get Ted, we have to go see the chief."

"So early?" Alan was a little confused.

"Leave before everyone gets up, I don't want a mess like yesterday." The old man said.

"Got it." Said Alan jumped out of bed and ran out of the room as fast as he could. After a long time, Alan came back, in his hand still carrying a piece of clothing.

"The wagon is waiting outside, and Ted says the alley is too deep for his wagon to get in." Ellen said.

"Go wake the boy up." The old man commanded.

Alan agreed and walked upstairs. Waking up the teenager was not a rather difficult task. Alan handed the clothes to the teenager, then retreated to the window to look out the window, Alan is not interested in watching a boy change clothes. Looking down from the window, the old man was whispering something with Ted, who nodded his head repeatedly.

"I'm done changing." The teenager's voice came from behind him. Alan looked back, put on the new clothes of the teenager looked extraordinarily spirited, it seems that he has recovered from yesterday's storm to the spirit.

"Then, let's go!" After saying that, Alan led the way.

Outside the alley, the carriage was already ready. Followed by the old man and Alan, the teenager got into the carriage.

The carriage drove slowly and soon left the city gates. After leaving the city gates, the carriage did not drive on the spacious road, instead drove on those country roads. The tree branches on both sides of the road kept knocking on the carriage, the three people sitting inside the carriage, no one said anything.

The carriage traveled very slowly and there were several up and down ramps. The road is quite a lot of forks, the teenager felt that the carriage kept turning along the way. The teenager has lost his sense of direction, he prayed in his heart, the coachman must not lose the road, otherwise, even if you want to go back to the main road, it is also quite a difficult thing.

The teenager was wondering there why the proprietor had to live in such a remote and complicated road, in case he went out to do something in the future, it would be too much work, and it would probably take a few months just to get familiar with the road alone.

Just as the teenager was looking sadly out of the window, the carriage finally pulled onto a neatly tree-lined avenue.

In the distance are rows and rows of neat green fields, spring has come, the fields of crops green, growth, patches and patches of wheat fields with the wind blowing and swaying left and right, rippling a general wave. In addition to the wheat fields is rape, newborn rape as if a thick carpet of dark green on the field, wide rape leaves densely covered the field layer by layer, not showing a bit of soil color.

The sky could not see what birds were flying happily, looking for their first meal of the day. Along the boulevard, the carriage drove faster and faster, this is obviously a relatively isolated place, not to mention the carriage, even pedestrians can not be seen along the way. After a quarter of an hour or so, the carriage finally stopped in front of a spacious and luxurious villa garden.

Stepping off the carriage, the teenager's first impression was white. Everything was snow white. The ground was covered with white gravel and uncommon white pebbles, and the trees and plants in the garden were planted in flower beds built with white mud bricks.

Surrounding the garden of the high iron railing wall, the same is painted with white paint over again. As for the villa, not only the floor is snow-white marble, the nine arms just to hold the corridor pillars are also carved with white jade, the villa's walls are snow-white, I do not know whether it is lacquered, or the use of the bricks themselves are white.

The most conspicuous thing in the whole building is the big white dome. The building with a huge dome, the teenager has only seen the cathedral in Southport is this way. The dome is beautiful but difficult to build, so it is quite expensive to build. Those rich people in Southport are shrewd businessmen, and no one wants to spend their money on such a place.

Only those aristocrats who do not often appear in Southport are interested in domed buildings, and I heard that there are several such domed buildings inside Thurth Castle. The teenager speculated in his heart about the identity of the person who would soon become his boss living inside.

It is very likely that the new owner is a big man with noble status. The young man was a little uneasy, he again tugged at the corner of his coat, to tidy up his clothes.

The old man pulled a long bright yellow silk ribbon hanging in front of the door, and with a crisp bell, the door opened and a middle-aged man appeared in the doorway, neatly dressed with a waiter's bow tie and a stern face.

"Mr. Pym, the master has been waiting in the study for a long time. But I think you have not eaten breakfast yet, the master has instructed me to prepare it for you, wait until you have finished eating and then go to see the master." Saying that, that butler brought the crowd to the kitchen.

Along the way, the teenager looked around at this completely unfamiliar place. The place is luxuriously decorated yet elegant, the owner obviously does not want to show off his wealth, so there is no such thing as the ornate décor and finely carved furniture of most rich people's homes in Southport. But the whole building itself has been described as a masterpiece of unparalleled elegance.

To the young man's eyes, the whole building looked like those precious works of art from the other side of the distant sea, as Mr. Matilde said, those Eastern peoples really know art. They are able to paint wonderful and unforgettable art treasures with simple lines.

To the kitchen, the rich people's kitchens are all the same, in the kitchen a few cooks are busy, the air is a tempting food aroma, in the middle of the kitchen put a long table, the table put just cut meat, and good flour, has been picked clean vegetables.

The butler gave an order, the cooks cleared an empty space in the corner of the table. Around that corner, the old man, Alan and the teenager sat. The cooks took out the food one by one from the steamer that was still steaming.

"I didn't know when you would arrive, so I asked the cooks to make the food long ago and put it inside the steamer to heat it up. It may taste slightly inferior to the one made now, but I think it's worth the loss to keep the master from waiting impatiently." The butler said.

When Alan saw that the first dish brought up was a piece of tuna grilled to a golden brown and sprinkled with onions and peppers, he was no longer dissatisfied. Add to that exactly one portion of steamed quail with mushrooms per person, and his favorite ham and eggs, the meal was no less than the celebration feast on the day he was released from prison.

Alan was content to enjoy. The teenager is obviously too nervous, so even in the face of such a table he usually do not have the opportunity to eat delicious food, but he did not have much appetite. He sloppily ate two bites, and then the rest of that all left Alan to enjoy.

After breakfast, the butler took them to the entrance of the study. The study was on the second floor of the villa, and the second and first floors were connected by a spiral mahogany staircase. On both sides of the study entrance hung two huge portraits depicting the story of the Angel of Dawn fighting with the Night Demon. The one on the left depicts the night demon defeating the Angel of Light, and the demon king driving the chariot of the moon to expel the Angel of Light to the west. The painting on the right depicts the Angel of Dawn launching a counter-attack at dawn, and the Archangel of Light driving the Chariot of the Sun to tear the Night Demon's army to pieces.

When working in the store, what the teenager likes most is those artworks from the East, those exquisite paintings have fascinated the teenager countless times, and now facing these two paintings, the teenager has the same feeling.

As he was looking at the painting, the door to the study opened. The teenager followed the old man into the study.

The study is extremely spacious, to the teenager's surprise, in the study inside against the three walls filled with a variety of books, against the corner of the place resting on an escalator. The bookshelf is too tall, all the way to the roof, without that escalator there is no way to reach the top layer.

In addition to the tall bookshelves, the most conspicuous side of the study is the only side that does not have shelves. In order to be able to penetrate more light, that side was all opened and placed on a block of glass. Such a large piece of glass, the teenager has never seen, Frans does not produce glass, although there are one or two glass workshops, but absolutely can not make this kind of thing to.

Such a huge glass, only possible from the Italian Lei specially customized. However, glass is quite fragile things, transporting such a large piece of glass is even more difficult, the teenager simply can not imagine how much money to transport such a piece of glass, have to give to the transport merchant, but no doubt, far more expensive than the porcelain plate that he broke. Teenager heart more and more sure that this new owner is a prestigious nobleman.

"This is the consul general of the Italian Ray to Paro Cathedral to decorate the church of those tall windows, in order to prevent transit, the glass accidentally damaged, such a large glass made more than fifty pieces, quite fortunately, after the construction of the cathedral actually still have more than twenty pieces, I happen to want to build such a wall, so bought it." Just when the teenager was amazed by the window, an old voice came from behind the right diagonally above.

The crowd looked back, an old man with white hair and a thin face was holding another escalator slowly climbing down, with two thick books under his arm.

The young man carefully surveyed the old man, who he guessed was his new boss. Only to see this old man because of the passage of years, his face covered with wrinkles, white hair, the number of black hair is far from the number of white hair, a wide gold rimmed eyes will be high cheekbones covered up. The old man's hands are dry and thin, covered with thick calluses, if with this face and these hands, the teenager will certainly not think that this old man is a rich man.

In his impression, his old boss such rich people even if they are thin, it will not be like a dried up branch, as dry and thin to this point. Rich people more or less know how to maintain, then old and wrinkled will not be such a weathered aging look. However, the old man wore the clothes, proving that the old man is quite rich characters, with the room is exactly the same, the old man dressed in the texture of the absolute best, fine workmanship, decorative simple but quite tasteful, are good things shipped from the Italian Lei. The crocodile skin belt alone is worth a lot of money.

"Is this the child you found?" The old man said toward Pym.

"Yes, yes, I wonder if it's to your liking?" Pym asked with a bow and a smile.

"If it fits, you ask Draddy." The old man said.

"Isn't that Alan? How are you these days? In the three months you were away, I discussed with Pym, Pym said that you have been able to take charge, and he said he is also old, so from now on, you will gradually take charge of things, you have to work harder oh." The old man said a few words to Alan, turned to the butler and ordered, "Invite Draddy here."

The butler agreed and turned to leave. The old man sat himself down on the leather recliner and read a book. Pym and the three of them had to stand quietly to the side. The study was quiet, the teenagers did not dare to breathe a sigh, for fear of giving the old man a bad impression.

As for Alan, it can be much easier to hear the chief himself tell himself what the old man said yesterday, Alan felt more reassured, he really wanted to shout three times to celebrate.

Time passed a long time, when Alan gradually feel some standing up uncomfortable up, the study door opened. From the door into a middle-aged man with two neat and beautiful moustache to.

The middle-aged man also wore a gold-rimmed glasses, a black velvet soft undershirt with a snow-white silk shirt looked noble and elegant, and loose black tweed breeches with a pair of polished soft-soled riding boots, proving that he had just returned from walking his horse.

"I just went out for a spin, that just bought the pony is not quite tame, it seems to be used to learn riding is still a bit dangerous, I think if it is not possible or use the gray spotted mare forget, that mare is quite honest." The middle-aged man said.

"You're the expert on this, you decide. Pym has brought the person you want, this is the boy." The old man pointed to the teenager and said, "You'll have to teach him a lot of things inside the next six months."

The old man turned back to the teenager and said, "You will follow this Draddy in the future, you have a lot to learn, but only six months. I heard Pym say that you are very good at learning, work well to show me."

Said the old man waved his hand towards the middle-aged man, indicating that the middle-aged man should take the teenager out. The middle-aged man led the teenager out of the study and gently closed the door behind him. He brought the teenager inside a room in a remote corner of the west building.

The arrangement inside the room is far from the study and the hall, but it still reflects the owner's elegant taste. Because the room is located on the west side of the building, there are windows on three sides, and through the blinds, the sunlight spills onto the teak floor. Under the window on the north side, there is a big bed, the kind with four pillars, which only rich people can afford.

In the middle of the room is separated by a screen of pearwood, the same one the teenager had seen in the store, which was shipped from the West Bay and was worth a lot of money. This screen naturally divides the room into two.

Under the south window, rests a carved heather desk, and to the west is a floor-to-ceiling bay window, outside of which should be a balcony. To the right of the door is a row of bookshelves, although far less spectacular than the bookshelves inside the study, but much more exquisite. To the left of the room door directly above the bed hangs a fine portrait, that is a very beautiful full of mature charm of the noblewoman's portrait. This noblewoman can't be Draddy's wife, the teenager guessed.

"From now on, this is the room you'll be staying in." Draddy said.

"What? No way." The teenager exclaimed, obviously quite surprised by such an arrangement.

"For the next six months you will live here and learn many things, and one of the most important things is that from now on, your name will be Edouard Tatnis. Remember that name." Draddy commanded sternly.

"Why?" The teenager asked, puzzled.

"No questions about why, I will explain all your doubts when I think you have learned almost enough, but never now." There was absolutely no room for reprieve in Draddy's tone: "Eduard Tatnis, let us begin your first lesson."

Saying that, Draddy took down a thick book from the top of the shelf and put it on the desk, dragging a chair over with him. He pointed to the chair, indicating the teenager to sit down. The teenager, whose mind was full of questions, froze and yet obediently walked towards the desk. The class began.

......

In the study inside, the old man sitting in a recliner, holding a thick old book in his hand and flipping through it. Pym and Alan have long since left, the warm sunlight into the study, so that the old man some drowsy, he has long forgotten where he saw the book, the old man will close the book, leaning on the recliner to doze off.

I do not know how long it took, the door to the study opened, waking the old man, with most of his life to learn the skills, will not be completely forgotten because life has become comfortable, the old man for himself is still as alert as when he was in the streets and feel happy. The old man took a look at the visitor, and it was indeed Draddy.

"Well? Feeling satisfied?" The old man asked with a smile.

"Very good, Pym picked well this time." Draddy replied with a nod.

"Are you sure you can complete the first step of the plan within six months?" The old man asked.

"As Pym told us, this newcomer is quite a good learner, and there should be no problem converting him in six months."

"Any news from Faith's place? His work there is just as important as yours." The old man asked again.

"Several important witnesses have been bought, especially the captain of the guard, he has a lot of leverage in the hands of Faith, which is not necessary to buy, or the money can not achieve the purpose, Faith is ready to find a reason to remove them one by one. This matter let the bribed butler to do it."

Hearing Draddy's reply, the old man nodded, and he shoved the book into Draddy's hand: "This kind of thing is better for you to read, hey, I never got into the habit of reading, as soon as I see the book, I want to doze off."

"Heraldry is indeed a rather dull and tedious study, and, in my opinion, not at all useful, and if it were not for this project, I would not be interested in studying this aspect." Drady took the book and said casually.

"What about the kid?"

"I got an exam paper for him to do, to see what he originally knew. It seems that, I underestimated him, and after seeing him answer a few questions, I could see that this exam paper was not a problem for him, and it seems that he was indeed able to learn a lot in Southport."

"It's not a good thing to know too much." The old man said.

"Can you ask Kellar to go to Southport once? The boy has an aunt named Betty, ask Kellar to take a token from this aunt. I think it will be easier to control this child."

"Kellar? Is it necessary for Kellar to appear?" The old man was a bit doubtful about this.

"I am extremely hopeful that Kellar will be able to participate in our plan, he will be quite helpful." Drady explained, "From some of the information I have gathered recently, I have discovered that the real Edouard Tatnis did not die of illness, more like poisoning, and that six months ago someone was always prying into the life and death of this Edouard. Fortunately, the butler was afraid of letting people know that his young master had died, afraid of making people suspect that he had not done his duty, and even more afraid that the judge would investigate the property in Edward's name and thus find that part of it had been embezzled by him, the butler, under various names, so that he would be wrongly sentenced to the gallows. Therefore, on the pretext that the young master was ill and needed medical treatment, the news that the real Edwards had died was blocked. Even more fortunately, the desperate man came to us and gave us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which would be the biggest plan we have ever carried out. However, it is clear that some people do not want Edward the man to exist in the world, or rather some people do not want to have a direct heir to Cherbourg, which has recently changed owners one after another, the old Earl of Medin was accidentally fallen off his horse while hunting and died, his two sons, one was killed by a chandelier on the day he inherited the title, and the other son died of a serious illness more than two months after taking office. It is said that before his death, he was about to sign an important document, which the lord claimed would enable Cherbourg to survive the most difficult times, no one ever heard of any crisis in Cherbourg, everything was running well in Cherbourg, and the lord did not have any debts that were difficult to pay, on the contrary, through the trade between Southport, the lord was able to have 20,000 gold francs a month, enough to equip This is enough to equip a squad of heavily armored cavalry, not counting the investment in Southport. Although there is no exact figure, the count's investment in Southport brings him at least 500,000 gold francs a year, and I can't imagine what financial problems Thurth Castle would encounter with such income. The count's death has made the whole thing even more confusing, and it seems that the inner workings of it are definitely not that simple. Therefore, I have great confidence that the real Mr. Edwardian's death is also due to that unknown reason, so I hope that Kellar will be able to bodyguard our little friend, at least until he acquires the heirship, Edwardian Tatnis must not die for such a reason as illness."

Drady reported in detail what he had found in the past few days.

"It is obvious, from the news of the death of the lord of Thurth Castle one after another, I guessed how it is a thing, you think that the butler really came to me on his own? He was instructed to come to me. I was even able to guess who the person who directed him was and why he was directed to us. Kailer has been helping you for a long time, only he is definitely not suitable to appear in public. Kellar only has the greatest power inside the shadows." The old man said.

"Yes, but do you think that the person who is pointing behind the scenes will betray us at the critical moment?" Draddy couldn't help but worry.

"Betraying us will not do him any good, on the contrary, he will do himself far more harm than we do, the man only wants to maintain the present situation in peace and stability, once Thurth Castle has lost the legitimate heir, someone else can justly seek the seat, any change is not good for the man, the plan can succeed or not, the man is more concerned than we are ." The old man smiled and continued: "Drady, the only thing you lack now is a grasp of the actual situation, you see too few things, although you have far more things hidden inside your head than I do, but you do not know which is the most important at the moment, which is currently the most useful. You need to learn more about human nature, you have more than enough knowledge."

"But I prefer to stay inside the study." Draddy said.

"I hope you can take over my class, this plan may be the last action I develop, I am old and want a more peaceful way of life, maybe go to be a wealthy man like Pym, maybe live in Southport in the future." Speaking of which, the old man waved his hand, signaling that Draddy could leave.

Before leaving, the old man seemed to think of something and said, "The little thing you want Kellar to do, I will instruct him to do it."

Walking out of the study, Draddy thought about what the chief had just said, the last few years, the chief told himself more and more of the original secret he knew nothing about, he had guessed that the chief intended to retire, but he was not much interested in it. If the chief will give him that study, without any conditions attached, so he is more than happy.

After clearing his mind, Draddy returned to the "classroom". His student was sitting upright at his desk, doing the exam paper. Draddy went over and took a look at the paper, which was quite well answered, so the student hadn't wasted any time in Southport.

"Well, Edwardian, you stop for a moment." Draddy said.

The teenager looked at this teacher of his in confusion.

"What do you know, I already have a general understanding, I have arranged a well thought out study plan for you." Said Draddy pulled out a circled piece of paper from his coat pocket, he spread the note in front of the teenager, "Every morning at six o'clock sharp, breakfast at six thirty, while learning the etiquette and manners expected of high society at the dinner table, learning equestrianism or swordsmanship starting at seven thirty, and morning tea at nine. You must learn this refined art, but also this is your language lesson, do you speak Sibai, Yirei, and Derry?"

"A little bit, to be able to count, or simply to say hello." The teenager replied.

"That's not going to work, you need to be able to speak fluent Xibai, Yirei and Derry to can be a little sloppy, then I'll add another language lesson time for you at night before you go to bed." Said Draddy picked up a pen from the desk and added another hour of language lessons at the end of the note: "That's about it, from ten to eleven is entertainment time, but not for you to play, you have to learn everything that is popular in high society and the etiquette that fits your new status. At eleven o'clock is culture class, I will see what you lack and give you additional knowledge in this area, at twelve o'clock is lunch time, after lunch you can rest for half an hour, at one o'clock starts religion class, I see that you lack general knowledge in this area, at two o'clock is painting class, from three to four o'clock is politics class, from four to five o'clock is history class. You have no understanding of these two areas at all. Dinner is served at five o'clock, which is also a test to accept the results of your day's study. At seven o'clock in the evening, the mechanics class begins, teaching you the principles of mechanics, how to assemble it or how to destroy it, at eight o'clock is the physical fitness class, so that you can digest the food for dinner, from nine to ten o'clock is the second language class added just now, after ten o'clock you can go to bed, but before that, there is a punishment class, for your daily studies, I have strict rules, if you can not finish, before going to bed, you You have to be whipped, understand?" Draddy said while pointing.

The teenager nodded repeatedly, especially when Draddy took out a thumb-thick cane-woven whip from the top of the bookshelf, the teenager's head nodded even more vigorously.

"Good, it's almost nine o'clock now, I'll have the servants prepare the morning tea." Said Draddy pulling a long yellow silk ribbon inside the room with a specific rhythm.

"But I just ate breakfast not long ago and I'm not hungry inside ......" the teenager explained.

Before he could finish, the whip that Draddy was carrying in his hand landed on top of his left buttock. A crunching sound, the teenager felt a hot pain, he covered his buttocks and jumped away a step with a shriek.

"Punishment doesn't just come before you go to bed, it comes anytime you make a mistake so you can be reminded of it. Is that clear?" Draddy asked with an expressionless face.

The teenager nodded repeatedly with awe as he kept stroking the wounded area, not wanting the whip to fall on him again.

At this time, there was a knock at the door, Draddy opened the door to the room, the butler pushed a small cart filled with all kinds of delicate snacks, right in the center was a silver tea set and a pot of unknown drinks.

Drady with extremely elegant movements picked up a stack of snacks placed in the hands of the teenager said: "morning tea and afternoon tea is one of the most important components of the upper-class social circle, someone invited you to drink morning tea, indicating that they have accepted you into that circle of theirs, as for the invitation to afternoon tea, it means that others have taken you as one of their own, or there are quite important things to ask you to help. Therefore, the tea party will be the first test of your formal entry into the social circle, and you need to fully grasp the essentials of it, now take the point in your hand ...... don't be so rude, learn after me, look at me clearly and pay attention to my movements."

......

"When pouring coffee, be slow, do not bend your back, you are not a servant ...... eyes flat, do not pay too much attention to the cup, only with the corner of the eye to see ...... invite people to drink coffee, speak in a sincere and strong tone, spitting words To clear ...... you are not the original clerk now, look not that respectful, look at my eyes ...... eyes do not rush to my chest, which if you meet a lady, is quite rude behavior ...... get up, the action should be light, can not hold the chair, that is quite unreasonable, that is the privilege of the elderly only ......"

......

He had never been so tired, not even in the store, where the hunchback arranged for himself to do all kinds of heavy work. He felt as if his body was about to fall apart.

The whole day is in a state of extreme tension, the brain is stuffed with all kinds of knowledge never heard of, and a wrong whip will be struck down, which makes itself more nervous, more no way to relax.

Lying in bed the teenager stroked the injury on his hip and could still feel a burning pain. He wondered if tomorrow's session would be even tougher.

But despite learning so hard, despite having to watch out for the falling whip, despite living in an overwhelmingly tense atmosphere all day, the teenager felt extremely fulfilled because, never before, had he been so immersed in the ocean of knowledge as now.

It is clear that Draddy is an extremely knowledgeable man, compared to him, Mr. Madiard is a little inferior.

There are many things that Mr. Matilde can only say a general, but for Drady, as if that is simply common sense general simple.

The teenager thought to himself, wondering when he would be able to be as knowledgeable as Draddy.

However, he understood that the most important thing for him at the moment was to learn those lessons that Draddy had prepared.

For the teenager, it would have been nice if Draddy had been as amiable as Mr. Matilde. The whip and the pain it caused his a*s was the only thing the teenager regretted.

The next day's lesson was not as difficult as the teenager had imagined, rather because he had gradually adapted to this highly intense learning life, the second day's lesson became less difficult than the first day. The only whip he received this day was because he didn't control the horse well during the horse training, but the boy was screaming in his heart that he had never ridden a horse before in his life, and the first time he was able to have such good results was quite good.

As he had imagined, riding became easier and easier for him over the next few days, and the lessons became easier and easier. He even had the energy to take extra time to learn and read about something he loved.

The teenager had grown accustomed to his new identity, and when people called Edouard Tatnis by his name, he would naturally take it as a term of endearment for himself.

However, the teenager was always full of doubts about his studies, because they did not look like they were used to serve others, but rather like being served by others in general.

Is it of any use to the East to train him as such a person? The teenager was full of doubts about this.

This doubt accumulates more and more heavily as time goes by, sword and horse lessons have basically ended, while the teenager's performance at the morning tea and afternoon tea, any of the banquet has made his strict teacher also can not pick any fault. As for the talk, under Draddy's training plus the boy originally saw all kinds of strange affairs in Southport, so in this regard, is the most satisfied Draddy. Even if the student is placed in the most noble noble group of the Franks Kingdom, with this talk the young man is definitely outstanding.

In the teenager's opinion, Draddy was simply a governess or a personal secretary or something like that employed by those gentry and noble families. When in Southport, it was common to see the nobles of Thurth Castle taking their servants to the stores to buy things, and they always had with them a peculiarly identified person who was obviously different from the ordinary attendants, but certainly not the master.

These people all seem to look the same, the same old-fashioned, the same serious and meticulous. And these people have the same characteristics, are some extensive knowledge, knowledgeable scholars. They are not so much the entourage of those nobles, but also more appropriate to say that they are wise men or advisers.

In the store, whenever those nobles look at a fine commodity, they will let these wise men, advisers to carefully identify some, until these people to make a positive answer, those nobles are willing to obediently pay out of their pockets.

In the teenager's impression, these people are absolutely not to receive bribes, he once saw the boss secretly to those personal maids or housekeeper's hand stuffed with money, but never seen to these far higher than the maids, housekeeper status of the noble wise men stuffed with money.

The teenager had asked the shopkeeper.

The owner told him that these people were real scholars, and many of them even owned their own businesses, like the young proprietor, Mr. Matilde, who had been the personal secretary of a prominent nobleman in Cherbourg, and the old proprietor as well, and that this was how many merchants in Southport had established contacts with the nobility. In fact, this is the quickest and most direct way for merchants to gain access to the upper echelons of society. If they can satisfy the nobles and become close friends, then they will have made deep connections in the upper social circles of Frans.

The teenager was quite curious, could Drady also be a successful businessman, or a little more noble, descended from a minor noble family? There was something aristocratic about Draddy that Mr. Madilde did not have. And Drady's horsemanship and swordsmanship is extremely high, the average merchant will never spend too much attention on these two things.

Merchants prefer to travel in carriages, riding horses is not their hobby. As for swordplay, that is for dueling, once something happens, merchants prefer to use money to settle everything, and swords are definitely something they try to avoid.

Because of this, the teenager is increasingly sure that Draddy is a descendant of a fallen nobleman. Listen to the shopkeeper said that these people enjoy special respect as private secretaries of the nobility. This is firstly because of their noble blood, and secondly, these people are often also the personal political advisors of the nobles. The high level of guidance in political strategy is something that businessmen will never have.

And Draddy obviously wants to raise himself to be a son of the same nobility, just look at it, the difficulty and breadth of those history courses and politics courses, if not that, then it's really impossible to explain past that.

Seeing that Draddy was quite satisfied with his studies, the teenager finally got up the courage to ask Draddy about his purpose. To the boy's surprise, the whip in Draddy's hand did not fall on his buttocks as a result, which was quite a surprise to the boy.

"Do you really want to know?" Drady asked: "Well, anyway, sooner or later I have to tell you know, Alan, that is, the one who recruited you did not tell you the truth, our proprietor is not a 'philanthropist', Mr. Hyde is the general head of the thieves' union in the sixteen southern provinces of Frans, people call him The 'chief'. I'm the conductor of the crooks, and people call me 'the playboy', Pym is the head thief who has special jurisdiction over the thieves in the city, and Alan is the boss of the thieves. We now have a new plan, but this plan requires a new face that no one has ever seen before, and Alan so approached you. And you haven't let us down, at least not yet."

Hearing Draddy and the inside story of the matter, the teenager felt chills, he never thought he would fall into the hands of a group of thieves, although in Alan and their place of residence, he once suspected Alan and their identity, but the many books inside Pym's room immediately dispelled his doubts, which thief would have so many books? Did not think that eventually they fell into such a well-organized network.

Thinking about all this, the teenager could not help but feel in a trance, but fortunately this month's training made him most of the things deeply into the mind inside, every move has become a natural habit, so there is no big mistake.

At night when the teenager lay alone in bed, he felt more and more afraid, he did not know that this is a den of thieves okay, now understand everything, he always felt from the door inside someone watching him, or a person with a dagger in hand is standing at the window quietly waiting for him to fall asleep.

"I can't stay here anymore, I have to find a way to escape." The teenager thought to himself.

He quietly climbed up and put on his clothes and opened the window of the balcony, which was on the second floor and not too high from the ground.

The teenager climbed the balcony fence and carefully tumbled down the balcony, when close to the ground, the teenager jumped gently and landed on the ground with the least possible sound. When you step on the ground, the teenager wondered if he should first go to the stables to bring out the horse he had ridden, maybe it would be easier to escape.

But on second thought, this month, he learned a lot from Draddy, riding skills are also taught by him, if he left then steal his horses, it would be too telling. Thinking of this, the teenager turned his head towards the back of the house, where a small door was inserted from the inside, so there was no need to go through the iron fence door.

Just as he turned his body around, he suddenly saw Draddy and another middle-aged man standing expressionlessly behind him. Both men were also quite well dressed, and they had obviously been waiting here for a long time.

"You have good patience, but we have been waiting here for a long time." Draddy said in a teasing tone. The door creaked open and the butler came out from inside the door wearing a robe.

"Your apprentice didn't learn well, he actually made such a loud noise, what does he take this place for? A nursing home? I see most people have woken up for him." The butler said with a smile.

The teenager certainly guessed that the butler would never be a real butler, and the servants here would never be real servants. The teenager hung his head and followed the housekeeper into the house.

Back in the room, the middle-aged man went to the bed, he knocked on the four pillars at the head of the bed with his hand, and the sturdy solid wooden pillars made a dull sound. The middle-aged man slowly turned back to the desk, he pulled out three quills from inside the pencil holder on the desk, suddenly a turn, three quills lightning shot to a pillar of the bed.

As only heard, "off off off" three crisp sound, the quill neatly and deeply nailed the hard wood among.

The teenager used those three quills all day to write, of course, know that the nibs of these quills are not how sharp, but also quite soft, extremely comfortable to use, while that big bed is all made of sour date wood, hard and incomparable.

To be able to use such a soft nib to pierce into the sour date wood that even a hard knife may not be able to cut into, this can only mean that the strange middle-aged man in front of you is an extremely dangerous character.

Just as the teenager warily looked at the two expressionless middle-aged men in front of him, his heart silently speculated about his possible fate. When I was in Southport, I heard people say that the thieves would tie a large stone to the feet of those betrayers and throw them into the river to drown alive, so maybe I will soon have to feed those small fish and shrimp. When he thought of this, the teenager was shivering.

Draddy never spoke, instead the middle-aged man pulled out a necklace from his pocket, it was a very cheap one, bought everywhere in Southport.

"Recognize it?" The middle-aged man asked. The teenager took two steps back in fear and nodded.

"I took a walk to Southport and took it off the neck of that Aunt Betty of yours, which was extremely easy for me to do, and I could just as easily have taken anything else off the neck of your Aunt Betty than this necklace, you understand?"

Seeing the teenager's eyes widen in fear, nodding up and down, a face miserably white, nose and wings twitching, Drady was quite satisfied and said, "Well, I think you know what to do, you can continue to rest, but before resting, I have to reteach you one last lesson."

Hearing what Draddy said, of course, the teenager understood in his heart, the so-called last lesson is to have to accept punishment for this matter, but this way he was relieved, at least the small life wrapped up.

The teenager obediently lay on his back, but he definitely did not expect this punishment to be as painful as it was, and each blow caused him to let out a hoarse scream. He tried to struggle to get up, but his back was firmly stepped on by Draddy and he could not move at all, and he had to endure the unbearably painful whipping until he passed out without any consciousness.

When the teenager came to his senses, it was already noon on the third day. He had been unconscious for two days, but his injuries still left him extremely weak. Draddy was extraordinarily kind to waive the horsemanship and fencing lessons, which require a lot of exercise, as well as the last punishment lesson, which was a rare blessing for the teenager.

A lot of time was spent on learning from books, especially the language, and throughout the day inside, Drady always talked to him in different languages. Since the teenager already knows that this place is a den of thieves, Drady will no longer hide anything, the so-called mechanical lessons will logically become a course on how to pick locks and how to use special tools for thieves.

And, from that day on, the teenager had a new course - heraldry. For the teenager, this course was simply memorizing the family tree. Frans has more than three hundred ancient noble families, more than half of which can be traced back to the time of Reduco the Great, which was three hundred years before the founding of the Kingdom of Frans.

In these nearly thousand years, these families intermarried with each other, and some of the best of them created a number of branch families, rare one or two short-lived families can contribute to reduce this huge system, most of the families are quite deep-rooted. If the wise Frans V had not issued a decree declaring that titles from his time could only be passed down by direct descent and not split or merged, the genealogy of these noble families would not have known how complex it was.

In the days of reciting the family tree, the teenager has gradually identified himself with his new identity, he is Edwardian Tatnis, a direct descendant of an unknown noble lineage family, but from the surname Tatnis seems to be a descendant of an ancient noble lineage from the West Bay, no wonder Draddy must learn the West Bay language himself.

Edouard thought to himself that it was fortunate that he only needed to know the genealogy of the nobility of Frans and not that of Sibai.

You know, in this continent, Frans is still considered an emerging country, like the West Bay such a long history of the country, many families in the ancient Loretta Empire period has been quite active, a full 1500 years of history, so that the genealogy of these families as complex as a bundle of silk in a cocoon.

After a month of recuperation, Edwards finally recovered, but after that disastrous day for him, he never saw the strange middle-aged man again, the man never appeared at the table, and Edwards guessed that he, like Pym, did not live in this place.

For that extremely dangerous stranger it might have been better if we could have not met him. But that can't be done.

Edouard had to get the necklace back from him. Because that necklace was the only thing left to him by his parents.

When my father died of the plague, the house was set on fire by the magistrates, the family originally had little property, those things that could not be burned a little valuable to those magistrates searched away, leaving only this worthless necklace.

However, this necklace means a lot to himself, Edward gave the necklace to his closest Aunt Betty, used to express his gratitude to Aunt Betty, Aunt Betty also knew his intentions, so never took off the inconspicuous necklace.

The necklace was not worth much, but it represented the care that his parents and Aunt Betty had given to him. This is the most important, valuable and meaningful thing in his life. He must retrieve this necklace, even if it fell into the hands of a killer who was more dangerous than the devil and more terrifying than death.