Chapter 51: An Unexpected Gain 

In the end, these people were still taken to the dungeon of Twilight Castle and settled in obediently. After investigation, it was found that those warriors who were injured in the confrontation with the guard squad members were indeed just ordinary mercenaries, belonging to a mercenary group called “Red Tiger”. This time they had merely accepted a commission from these “self-proclaimed merchants” in the carriage to escort them to their destination. As for what these merchants were selling and who they were, they were completely unaware. So after questioning them a few times and confirming that they indeed weren’t hiding anything, Julian gave them some compensation and sent these mercenaries away. But for the remaining merchants, Julian didn’t view them the same way.

In fact, after bringing them back to the castle, Julian was surprised to find that among these people, there was actually a little boy?

Which merchant group would bring a child under ten years old on a journey?

The abnormal signs weren’t just these. Julian and Ophariel both noticed that in the earlier confrontation with the guard squad, those few merchants didn’t have the habits that should belong to merchants. Logically speaking, merchants should be amiable to make money, avoiding trouble if possible, and even if there were disputes, they would only resolve them privately. Who would use such stiff wording to declare their innocence like these people? And from their straight posture and expressions, there was no trace of merchants at all. In Julian’s opinion, they looked more like soldiers.

“Well then, I’ll have to trouble you to stay here for a while,” After locking these “merchants” in the dungeon, Julian said to them with a smile.

“We’ll make a decision after we’ve investigated your backgrounds clearly.”

“Respected sir, we really aren’t carrying any contraband,” The one speaking now was still that “merchant” from before. He stood in front of the iron bars of the dungeon, looking at Julian anxiously and somewhat uneasily.

“We can guarantee you this point. If you don’t believe us, we can… we can…”

At this point, the man’s face turned red. Obviously, he wasn’t skilled in this kind of negotiation. This also made Julian inwardly shake his head and smile bitterly. Come on, gentlemen, if you’re pretending to be merchants, at least put on some merchant airs. Even saying some pleasantries makes you blush. Isn’t this equivalent to having “I’m very suspicious” written in big letters on your face?

“…If you want money, we can give it to you!”

Finally, the poor man hesitated for a long time and still stammered it out. Hearing these words, Julian didn’t have much reaction, but Ophariel behind him couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. In all her life, she had seen plenty of cunning merchants and politicians, but this was the first time she had seen someone so “simple”. To directly say they want to give money in front of the other party, and so straightforwardly and unambiguously, this was too…

“We’ll discuss this issue later,” Julian didn’t laugh out loud, but he had already determined that these people indeed had problems. So after saying this, he made a gesture, and soon, Charlotte walked to his side, quietly waiting for Julian’s orders.

“I’ll leave them to you. If there’s any problem, report to me immediately.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Originally, the few people in the cell had lowered their heads in resignation, seeing no hope of release. But after hearing the voice of this wraith maid, they suddenly raised their heads. After seeing the appearance of this wraith maid before them, these so-called “merchants” all widened their eyes in surprise. The man in the lead even rushed to the iron bars, tightly grasping the bars and shouting.

“Young miss!”

His shout made Julian and Ophariel, who were about to turn and leave, pause in surprise. They turned their heads, looking at the few men with excited expressions in the dungeon, then at Charlotte standing before them, unable to figure out what had happened. Those men seemed to have completely forgotten about the two of them, just gripping the bars tightly, staring intently at the wraith maid before them.

“Young miss, how are you here?! Where’s Kuris? How is our family? Please speak, young miss!! What exactly happened?!”

Faced with their questions, Charlotte also looked confused. She raised her head, looking uneasily at Julian beside her. This action immediately aroused the man’s suspicion. He immediately turned his head, his eyes red, staring fixedly at Julian.

“Who are you! Tell me! Why is the young miss here! What did you do to her!! You bastard!”

“I think you’ve mistaken her for someone else,” Faced with the other’s angry shouts, Julian’s expression didn’t change at all.

“She is my subordinate, Charlotte… not the young miss you’re talking about.”

Faced with Julian’s explanation, the man before him obviously didn’t want to believe this point. He shook his head desperately, gritting his teeth as he looked at the wraith maid beside Julian.

“No, no, no! I know, I know she must be the young miss!”

Saying this, the man suddenly pulled the young boy from his companion’s arms and pushed him to the iron bars.

“Young miss, do you remember? This is young master Ruige, your brother! Young miss, we’ve come back!!”

“I’m very sorry, everyone,” But faced with the man’s words, Charlotte just lowered her head, bowing slightly to them.

“I don’t know any of you. I am Lord Julian’s maid, Charlotte, and I’m not the young miss you’re talking about. I think you must have mistaken me for someone else.”

“No! You are the young miss!”

The man spoke so excitedly that he even reached out directly, trying to grab Charlotte’s wrist. However, these wraith maids were no ordinary characters. As soon as the man moved, Charlotte had already quickly retreated, withdrawing to an area beyond his reach.

“Young miss! Please tell me, how is the family! How is the old patriarch? Why, why are you working as a maid in such a godforsaken place!”

“Let’s go,” Seeing that the situation was somewhat beyond his expectations, Julian decisively chose to withdraw.

“Charlotte, you go too. I’ll find someone else to replace your work.”

“Understood, master.”

I really didn’t expect to run into such a troublesome matter.

After leaving the dungeon, Julian let out a long sigh. He had vaguely guessed the background of these people. When he bought the corpses of these young women, the Gery brothers had specifically introduced to him that among them was the corpse of a certain noble’s daughter, and there were two maids buried with her. It was just right that these three died at an opportune time, filling the last vacancy. Otherwise, finding ten young women’s corpses within three days wouldn’t have been an easy task. At the time of taking over, Julian had indeed been a bit worried internally. Unlike those commoners without reputation and background, nobles were very troublesome. If the other party had some identity background, it would be difficult to handle if investigated. However, Julian also believed that Twilight Forest would need a long time to develop, and it might take half a year or even longer to completely change. By that time, even if there were any troubles, they should have been mostly forgotten. And after all, it was just a maid, shouldn’t be noticed by anyone.

But he didn’t expect it to cause problems here.

From the expressions of those men, they must know the owner of Charlotte’s body. And he had bought the corpse from another territory near Twilight Forest. From these people’s itinerary, they should have originally planned to go to that place through the Twilight Forest route. So, the possibility of a connection between the two was very high.

“My lord, regarding this matter…” Ophariel looked at Charlotte beside her with confusion. She had been a bit puzzled about how Julian could find so many girls meeting the conditions in such a short time. But this didn’t mean Ophariel believed those people’s words. She had also carefully observed these maids. In Ophariel’s view, these maids were all very skilled in serving work, and there were no problems in their manners. If it were true as they said, that Charlotte was a young lady from some noble family, she absolutely couldn’t have done so much serving work in such a short time.

“I found Charlotte in the forest,” Faced with Ophariel’s question, Julian sighed helplessly and answered.

“When I found her, she was lying unconscious in the forest, so I rescued her. But after she woke up, this girl had lost all memories about herself. She didn’t know who she was or where she came from. So, I gave her the name Charlotte and brought her to my side.”

The saying “lies come out as soon as you open your mouth” refers to Julian’s current situation.

“Although I had thought that this girl must have some background, I really didn’t expect her to be a young lady.”

“I see…” Hearing this, Ophariel’s gaze towards Charlotte had a few more traces of sympathy. Charlotte looked back at her and smiled slightly.

“Thank you for your concern, Miss Ophariel. Although I indeed don’t have my previous memories, I feel I’m living very well now and don’t have any unease… In my view, being able to work here and serve you two is my greatest happiness.”

This master and servant pair are quite in sync.

“But these guys are a trouble for us,” Thinking of this, Julian really rubbed his forehead. Originally, he was just curious about these guys and wanted to find out their intentions. Of course, Julian wouldn’t mind making some profit along the way, taking the opportunity to give Caster and his guard soldiers a warning. But now, with these people making such a fuss, it has instead made things much more complicated.

This time, he was truly interested in their identities.