Chapter 129: I Can Ride a Horse Pretty Well

Chapter 129: I Can Ride a Horse Pretty Well

“Ahem, thanks to you. It’s been alright.” Stuart, who had just been holding his head high, quickly bowed and said cautiously—he knew his master would explain the situation to Yingling these past couple of days. It seemed the matter was settled when they went out today.

Yingling took a light puff from her smoking pipe and said, “Tell me about it.”

Stuart’s expression suddenly turned strange. The cunning old fellow suddenly felt something was off.

“Well… you should go ask Her Highness Princess Ocris,” Stuart said with a smile.

Yingling nodded and didn’t say more.

‘Ah, so the master Stuart mentioned is Ocris.’

[By the Dream-Eating Serpent, old me nearly got tricked by that sly little girl.]

On the other side, Louis had already dialed Crowley’s number.

After chatting for a while, Louis learned that Crowley was busy today with the Warhammer of the God of War matter—it seemed to involve a mysterious incident in a small kingdom.

That place was called ‘Silent Harbor,’ involving a legend about an Evil God. The affair wasn’t any smaller than Earl Crowley’s situation here.

Crowley knew that Louis seemed to plan on joining the fun at the upcoming celebration recently, and also helping the Stoggs with some things on the side, so he didn’t bring this matter up to Louis, afraid it would distract him.

His main reason for calling today was something else.

“By the way, Louis,” Crowley said over the phone, “The day after tomorrow is His Majesty the King’s birthday celebration, but Archie told me today that your passport and other information haven’t been processed yet. Ahem, you’re basically… undocumented. I’ve helped you with some things, but your resume and records are a bit special, so tomorrow we need to go to St. Anthony’s Cathedral in the ‘Dunling District’.”

Hearing this, Louis understood what Crowley meant. An undocumented person attending the celebration might be a bit awkward. Especially during this period, it could easily give others a reason to pick on him. And being undocumented didn’t sound good, so Crowley planned to get Louis a nice-sounding title. It might not have real power, but it would be very face-giving.

Louis didn’t seem to care much about real power; he cared about influence, so Crowley thought this was a good idea.

“That’s roughly the situation, Louis. I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

“Okay, Earl Crowley,” Louis said.

“Just call me Crowley, my friend Louis. Don’t be so formal.” Brother Crowley on the other end of the phone sounded a bit unhappy.

“Ahem.” Louis looked slightly embarrassed. “Okay, Brother Crowley.”

That made the Earl quite happy.

“One more thing, Louis. I heard some special news today—the Prince of a certain mysterious kingdom will attend the King’s birthday banquet the day after tomorrow. I suspect this might be arranged by that witch-queen. She has probably already persuaded His Majesty, planning to set up a matchmaking session for the Princess.”

“I don’t know the specifics of that envoy group yet; it seems to have been deliberately kept secret. But I can confirm they will arrive at the port tomorrow.”

According to Crowley, when he visited the King this afternoon, the King’s attitude about summoning Louis suddenly changed—he didn’t seem in a hurry anymore.

This gave Crowley a slightly bad feeling.

Crowley said a lot on the phone. After analyzing it, Louis felt a sense of realization.

He guessed that the Prince of that mysterious kingdom was most likely from the Black Dragon Clan—the Storybook had mentioned a Black Dragon lady before, so it was highly probable it was them.

Moreover, they might have some secret dealings with Delphinia, something Frankischko probably didn’t know about now.

The impact of him piloting the Gundam today, which was shown to the King, made Delphinia afraid he would ruin things. So she planned to stir up some minor trouble. It was possible that on the day of the competition, a Dragon would appear.

Once a Dragon stepped forward to participate in the duel, it would mean a certain Dragon clan—most likely the Black Dragons—was siding with the Muggles. The significance of that was just too great.

So as long as a Dragon took the field, even if Frankischko felt somewhat displeased, she would eventually tacitly allow her daughter’s little scheme.

‘Isn’t this stealing my spotlight?’

‘What’s the meaning? Want me to waste my driving practice? And want me not to attend the banquet?’

‘In your dreams.’

Louis felt somewhat annoyed.

At the end of the phone call, Crowley told Louis he would pick him up tomorrow morning.

“We’ll arrange a decent identity and title for you. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning, and we’ll go to the Sanctuary to handle the cloud-… ahem, to handle the visitation record. Hmm… that Prince from the mysterious kingdom might also go to the Sanctuary tomorrow to process his entry formalities. I’ll make sure to schedule a different time—don’t mention this to anyone for now.”

“Understood, Mr. Crowley.”

Putting down the phone, Louis’s expression became strange.

He didn’t have an identity among the Muggles here yet, so was Crowley planning to arrange an identity for him as the son of a Duke, or perhaps a Prince of some kingdom?

But wasn’t he afraid of being exposed?

Was Crowley planning to stage a team scam in front of the King?

Shaking his head, Louis went to Ocris’s place.

When Stuart opened the door and Louis entered, he found the suite’s living room was very lively.

Over a dozen Mages were there talking animatedly. Helen, Lilith, and their sisters were there drinking tea and discussing the works of the great painter Barlow.

As for Ocris, she was sitting there with a poker face the whole time, acting all princess-like—there were outsiders present. She had probably been putting on this act all day.

She seemed a bit excited about today’s salon and charity auction. Ocris was sitting there with a straight face, ‘casually’ talking about how she was in the spotlight today. When she saw Louis come over, she even purposely raised her chin a little and spoke a tiny bit louder.

Clearly, she still didn’t know her two mothers were planning to ‘sell her off.’

Otherwise, her little face would definitely be pale with fright.

Louis secretly laughed to himself.

Before Ocris could say much more about her moment in the spotlight, the dozen or so Mages on the other side, seeing Louis arrive, all respectfully hurried over, shook his hand, and introduced themselves. Their respectful, admiring, and nervous demeanor was exactly the same as when many nobles shook hands with them today.

Louis also showed great respect to these Mages with legendary stories, chatting warmly with them like friends.

Ocris, sitting nearby, pouted, feeling a tiny bit jealous.

Why don’t you all recognize quality!

I’m his teacher, you know!

Why are you all just flattering my student, but act all high and mighty in front of me!

Just because he’s a bit stronger than me…

“By the way, Mr. Louis,” Bach said, “Tomorrow, Her Highness the Princess plans to attend… (looking at his companions, he asked) what was that Duke’s name again? Never mind, an autumn hunt hosted by a certain Duke. We’ll also be attending…”

The Mages started talking about the hunting matter.

The ladies seemed to have already discussed hunting for a while earlier. When the Mages mentioned it now, Yingling looked disgusted.

However, Lilith was interested and chimed in, ‘I’m really talented at horse riding, I learn quickly,’ and then secretly nudged Louis with her foot, meaning she wanted to practice tonight.

Yingling chuckled to herself—Silly girl, you’ll find out tomorrow what the hunt is for.

In autumn, nobles loved to hunt foxes!

“Louis, are you going?” Helen asked, sounding somewhat expectant. She had never been hunting before.

Louis glanced at Ocris, who was already prepared to go out and have fun again tomorrow, and found it somewhat amusing.

This Ocris somewhat acted like a child running away from home, sulking with her parents.

But after you came back, you didn’t even go to the palace to pay your respects. Whether from the perspective of parents or from the King and Queen, the daughter/Princess was at fault.

And then, not only did you come back secretly, but you also flamboyantly attended various banquets and privately tried to win over nobles.

If news got out, nobles would certainly think there was discord within the royal family—that wouldn’t sound good.

Presumably, Ocris had her own bit of helplessness, afraid that if she went home directly, she wouldn’t be able to leave again.

But, this being your first day back, not greeting your parents was one thing. Going out to play again tomorrow would give people something to talk about—for all you know, the King might be waiting for you at the hunting banquet.

Louis guessed that tomorrow, the King might bring the Queen to attend this banquet to dispel the rumor of discord within the royal family and save face for the monarchy. And then incidentally bring his mischievous daughter—Ocris—back to the Royal Court.

However, Louis thought this was a good thing.

First, Ocris’s high-profile appearances these past two days would let the ministers know the Princess was back. The King wouldn’t be able to secretly send the Princess off to the Black Dragon side.

Second, if the King attended tomorrow, he would be, to some extent, backing Ocris up, telling the ministers and nobles that in my, Ign (Frankischko)’s heart, I still love my daughter very much.

In the eyes of the ministers and nobles, this meant the Princess had status, which would help boost Ocris’s prestige—now, most nobles thought the King didn’t treat his daughter like a daughter, which wasn’t good.

Of course, the main reason was that Louis really wanted to see what Ocris would look like getting spanked after being tricked back to the palace by her mom.

‘Being kept at home is fine, it’s been so long since you’ve been home, you should stay at home for a few days. The poor child, she always thought her mother was dead. Frankischko probably misses you terribly.’

‘Hmm, your little stepmother probably misses you too.’

‘Do they usually show affection in front of others?’ Louis couldn’t help but wonder. ‘I’ll call and ask Ocris tomorrow night. Heh heh heh.’