Chapter 69: The Forgotten Strife

"The Stuart family rose in the Glorious War, but in more detail, it was the handover of illegitimate children. ”

Yahweh opened the heavy book, an anonymous book of the history of the Stuart family, yellowed and in different handwriting, seemingly written by different narrators from different eras.

"The Gallic Nalo attacked the south and besieged the castle of Stuart, which was guarded by Michel Stuart. ”

The legend of the Stuart family began at that moment.

"The old earl was very old, and died in the castle after many battles, but before his death he handed over the title to his son, Narvis Stuart...... The rest of the story is as everyone knows, the Stuart family has been triumphant all the way, defeating one strong enemy after another. ”

As if it was dust pouring out of history, Yawei coughed a few times and continued to tell the dusty story in this somewhat silent atmosphere.

The cold wind outside the window, the fire in the fireplace burned quietly, and the light of the fire brightened the audience, which was a perfect atmosphere for storytelling.

"But like many stories, it never goes so easy, and in fact, after Navis succeeded to Earl Stuart, the Stuart family faced an enemy. ”

"Baskerville?"

Lorenzo leaned back on the couch, and he suddenly remembered that this family was also a nobleman from the south, but it was lost in the history of the glorious war, and only appeared in the history books.

What other feuds exist between the Baskervilles and the Stuart?

"Yes, it's a very distant story, and even the books in the library don't tell about it, and of course I hope you don't reveal anything to the outside world. ”

Yawei said with some warning, usually the history of the big family is inconsistent with the outside world, if you turn out their books, you will find a lot of unspeakable secrets and scandals.

"It all started with the Count Michel, whose family was not prosperous, and who was the only Stuart in his generation, and who had never married and had no offspring, and who, according to the Law of Succession, passed on most of his assets to his only nephew, Madel Baskerville, after his death. ”

"I guess the distant nephew must have treated the old earl like his own father. ”

Lorenzo laughed as if to mock the hypocritical aristocracy, marriage is the best way to form an alliance, so the nobles of Inervig are more or less related, and once the old count dies, the Stuart family will be lost in history, and he will be the biggest beneficiary.

"Indeed, he was by the old count's side during his lifetime, but there was some accident, and it is recorded that during the siege of the castle in Gaulnalo, he led the knights to flee, abandoning the people of the realm and the old count. ”

The words of history reflected in Awei's cloudy pupils, scolding Madel's actions.

He thought that when the old earl died, he would have everything, but the old earl inherited the title to his son, Navis, before he died. ”

"Wait, didn't he never marry?"

Lorenzo interrupted, "In this case, who is this heir who suddenly popped up?"

"Can you please be patient?"

Yawei was upset that Lorenzo had interrupted him.

"This is indeed a doubt, but the Count of Navis has a letter of succession and a will signed by the old Earl, his name is on the family tree, and many other proofs, and even the old Earl has written a letter about the origin of Navis. ”

It was a casual and serious letter.

The letter said that Navis Stuart was the child of him and his maid. ”

"It's an illegitimate child, isn't it?"

Lorenzo remembered that illegitimate children had no right to inheritance.

"No, at the end of his life, he married the maid and made her name...... Although their marriage lasted less than a day. ”

Yawei doesn't think that the old earl is a ruthless person every time he sees this, not the kind of ruthlessness that calculates everything, but the kind of ruthlessness that doesn't care about anything, and doesn't care about the wind after his death.

So Count Navis became the rightful heir, and kicked away the heir to the original property, Madel. ”

"He wouldn't give up so well, and when he learned why, Madel said that Donas was a fake, that he was not at all the old earl's child, not even an illegitimate child. ”

Yahweh spoke of the long strife.

He said he had seen Navis in the territory, that he was just a ridiculous squire, and that his father was an ordinary farmer. ”

"It was a fraud, a ridiculous commoner usurping the nobles' share. ”

Turning another page, the old books recounted the past through the mouth of Yahweh, and both Lorenzo and Seleuc remained silent and listened quietly.

"This incident caused a great impact, and if it was true, Navis would have been hanged, but the people who came out of the realm said that he was the earl's child, and even the priest came forward to testify, saying that he was the one who presided over the hasty wedding. ”

It was an unsolvable puzzle, as Mader was no longer in the castle at the time, and only those who had been granted knew exactly what was going on, but apparently they would not have any kindness to Mader who had escaped.

"So who's lying?"

Seleuc suddenly said that as the heir of Stuart, she had heard this story many times, and she knew that it was full of suspicions.

"Who knows? That was more than 100 years ago. ”

Yawei shook his head, the parties were all dead and couldn't die anymore, and some couldn't even find the cemetery.

"In short, in those civilians...... To be precise, the nobles, all of whom were promoted by the Count of Donas, and with their testimony, the matter was settled. ”

But Madel did not give up so easily, and the two fought for a long time, after all, once the war was over and the territory was recovered, it was quite a considerable wealth, and at that time, the Count of Navis had nothing but the false name of the earl and the armor left by the old earl, and the only territory was also in the occupied area, not to mention wealth. ”

In the face of the Baskervilles' forces, he was powerless to resist, so he cleverly joined the army, rushed to the southern theater of operations, and then accumulated strength little by little in the war. ”

It was a difficult time, and you could perceive the smell of gunsmoke just by hearing it.

At that time, Navis's promotion of so many commoners in one fell swoop also caused a lot of controversy, although it was only the lowest noble, but it was also a class leap, but in order to boost morale, the queen acquiesced to all this, and then revised the law. ”

"Nobody cares about those people, they, like Navis, have nothing but the false name of the nobility. ”

Yawei couldn't help but glance at Seleuc, the girl didn't look at him, just stared quietly at the fire in the fireplace, the light of the fire reflected in the pupils of her eyes, beautiful and magnificent.

He said in a ghostly way.

"But sometimes...... People need a kind of recognition, even if it's a false name. ”

People are eager to be recognized by others.

Seeking the affirmation of others to counteract self-doubt, greedily seeking this thing, affirming one's own existence through others, and convincing oneself through others, so that those impossible things become possible, and then even a farmer can be a red knight galloping on the battlefield, and a wandering beggar can also be the duchess of Stuart.

No matter what it is, as long as there is another person who recognizes your existence, it may be a great motivation, like a light in the night, making you stretch out an indomitable hand.

It's just recognition.

"What follows is what everyone often says, a group of nobles who have nothing got everything they wanted in the war, because of the reason granted by the war, they were closely linked, and the scale even attracted the attention of the queen, in order to consolidate the rule, the queen broke up the group and sent it to different battlefields, and as everyone knows, this made the Stuart group get a viral expansion, covering all territories and industries throughout Invig. ”

The people who had not been cared about came to the center of the stage, Yawei's voice was soft, but the blood of the people who spoke was boiling.

"Expansion brings with it a conflict of interests, such as the Baskervilles, because they are both located in the south, and because of old grudges, the dispute between the two has always existed, until it finally turned into irreconcilable hatred, and all this ended with the rise of Stuart and the complete defeat of Baskerville. ”

"So they died, and we survived, and we continue to this day. ”

The book turned to a new page, and Yahweh's voice grew heavy.

"Then there was the curse, which was first spoken by some remnants of the Baskervilles, who cursed everyone in the Stuart community that the hounds would never stop hunting them down. ”

"So are the so-called hounds really here?"

Finally getting to the point, Lorenzo asked.

"I don't know, but the only thing I do know is that the Stuart family has always been sparsely populated, and in recent years the members of the group have been dying, and one family after another has died...... In fact, this is still quite normal, after all, no one can last long until these letters arrive. ”

Yawei said as he looked at the letter on the low table.

"First one person saw the strange hound, then someone dreamed about it, and then many more people had the same reaction. ”

"Everyone remembered the old curse and asked us for help. ”

Lorenzo picked up the letter in silence, it was from different families, the only thing they had in common was that they all came from Stuart's territory and were part of a group.

"Hound......

According to the contents of the letter, all the descriptions of hounds were strikingly consistent, exuding ominous hounds, hidden in the darkness, and only the low roar of thirst for blood could be heard.

They wander in the shadows, they can't get rid of them, they follow them like shadows.

"Did any of them actually come into contact with them?"

Lorenzo judged that this was not an illusion, that there was no absolutely consistent hallucination, let alone that it was applied in different places at the same time.

"Not yet, the only clear example is when he patrolled the garden at night and saw huge footprints. ”

Yawei replied.

"Does that mean that there is no real confronting this hound?"

"No, but it is not ruled out that it will not happen next. ”

Yawei said.

Originally, everyone didn't care about this, thinking it was just an illusion, but in the follow-up, the frequency of hunting dogs became more and more frequent. ”

Lorenzo was handed another letter, detailing the strange feeling.

He didn't see the hound directly, but he said he could feel it, and when he was alone, he had the feeling of being stared at by a beast, as if some kind of beast was hiding in the darkness and biting his neck the moment he turned around. ”

It was a report from one of the members, and Lorenzo frowned, without the slightest clue.

"Honestly, I'm not a good detective, I'm just a cunning liar. ”

Lorenzo shook his head.

"Deception can't deceive the illusion ......"

"Are you going to give up?"

Seleuc said suddenly, and it was clear that the detective didn't know how to proceed.

"I just don't know where to start, this kind of ethereal thing ......"

Lorenzo felt a little tricky.

"How many members are there?"

He asked.

Yawei turned the book again and found the answer on the first few pages.

"According to records, Navis was promoted by more than 200 people at that time. ”

"Two hundred, so much?"

Lorenzo was stunned, and he began to understand why the matter was controversial at the time.

"Actually, there were no these, and many of them died in the battles of the time, and some died in the subsequent glorious wars, and when the Stuart family was officially calculated, only six were left alive, and now only thirty-two of these continuing families remain. ”

"Although there are only these thirty-two left, after a hundred years of accumulation, they also have a lot of power. ”

Listening to Yawei's description, Lorenzo had a new understanding of the Stuart group.

This is the emblem of Stuart, sixty-one swords intertwined into round shields, some of which have been broken, but thirty-two blades still exist, fulfilling the oath of a hundred years ago.

"I'm going to check each of the thirty-two? ”

Lorenzo directly reversed his own idea, these people were scattered all over the land of Invig, and it would take him months just to walk around one by one, let alone investigate the case.

"Actually, you don't have to think about that, there's a subject to be investigated here. ”

Seleuc said suddenly, and she looked at Lorenzo and pointed at herself.

"As the owner of Stuart, I am the main target of the curse, but so far, I have not seen the so-called 'hounds'. ”

"If the alleged curse is true, then it must appear, right? ”

Seleuc asked.

There is no need to go anywhere, Seleuc is the best target, and the hound will come if it exists.

Listening to Seleuc's analysis, Lorenzo nodded approvingly, now his suspicion tendency is demons, in his opinion, everything that is beyond common sense, it is not wrong to put the pot on the head of the demon first.

"So please stay here a few more days, Mr. Lorenzo Holmes. ”

While Lorenzo was still muttering, Seleu suddenly said.

"Hmm...... Wait, what?"

Lorenzo was at a loss for a moment.

"Aren't you a witcher, and if the hound does come to me, I'll trouble you to kill it. ”

Seleuc looked at Lorenzo and threw out a bunch of keys.

"You can do it, right...