Chapter 54: Door-to-Door Delivery

The carriage moved along the smooth road, making a slight noise. Caster raised his head, looking with confusion at the black carriage in front of them. Since making the agreement with Julian, those men had finally relaxed, resuming their roles as attendants while abandoning their poor merchant disguises, and began openly protecting their young master on the journey. Caster wasn’t a fool; he had seen through this and understood that he had really intercepted the wrong people this time. But what could he do now? He could only obediently follow along with them.

At this moment, the atmosphere inside the carriage was extremely tense.

“What do you mean, Mr. Julian?” The man gripped his long sword tightly, asking with dissatisfaction.

“I mean exactly what I said,” Julian sat on the soft, comfortable seat, raising his eyelids to look at the man before him.

“Before safely delivering you to your destination, I require you to obey all my orders without violation. Otherwise, I’ll tear up the agreement. How’s that? Am I not clear enough?”

“Why?!”

“Because you’re too incompetent.”

Julian quickly gave his answer within two seconds of the man’s question, and it was a decisive answer without any doubt.

“I think you should be clearer than me that this escort mission is a very important operation. But after hearing about your performance, I don’t believe you can complete this task.”

“We are the old patriarch’s trusted guards!” The man clenched his fists, shouting in a low voice. He felt insulted. He had loyally served as the old patriarch’s guard for so many years and had never been called incompetent before!

“So what?” Faced with the hostility emanating from the man, Julian remained unmoved. He knew that from the moment the carriage set out, the situation was already in his control, which was why he dared to make such a bold request. What could they do if they turned against him now? The young master they were protecting was sitting in the carriage behind, surrounded by Julian’s soldiers (at least flying Julian’s flag on the surface). Could they possibly turn against him and escape? But come to think of it, from before departure until now, these guys hadn’t even considered this issue, really living up to Julian’s “incompetent” evaluation.

“Let me guess, you’re the old patriarch’s personal guards? So you’ve always just done whatever the old patriarch said, right? Have you ever independently planned similar operations? Have you ever acted according to your own will? Do you know how to deal with other nobles?”

“The old patriarch’s will is our will,” the man clenched his fists and answered in a low voice.

“We’ve dedicated everything to the old patriarch. We only do what the old patriarch orders us to do! We only obey the old patriarch’s orders. As for other nobles, they don’t count as anything.”

Foolishly loyal idiots.

“So what? Now you’re fewer in number and in an unfavorable situation. Otherwise, how would you be forced to run here? Given your current circumstances, do you have the right to disregard those nobles?”

“This… but aren’t you…”

Hearing this, the man’s face reddened.

“Don’t forget, the reason I chose to help you is because we have a deal. As parties to the transaction, we both have an obligation to protect each other’s interests. I don’t want all our efforts to be in vain due to your recklessness. And from my current observation, you don’t possess the capability to make me feel at ease. So I require you to act according to my orders. If you’re unwilling, then we’ll have to part ways.”

This time, Julian didn’t use his most skilled and favored suggestion. The other party’s brain was almost all muscle. As the saying goes, speak human language to humans and ghost language to ghosts. Facing such idiots who barely use their brains, it’s more efficient to speak directly and clearly. If he were to be vague, they might use their extremely low-level intelligence to “interpret” something self-righteous, causing an unexpected failure, which would only make Ophariel laugh at him.

After hearing Julian’s blunt words, the man’s face alternated between red and pale, not knowing what to say. Finally, he hesitantly asked,

“Then, what do you want us to do?”

“You don’t need to do anything except protect that young master,” Julian waved his hand in response to the man’s question.

“You only have one task, which is to ensure the young master’s safety. Apart from this, I don’t need you to interfere in any other matters.”

This condition was undeniably harsh. Even someone without much of a brain could hear the firmness and issues within it. The man frowned, opened his mouth, clearly unwilling to accept this deal. After all, although they were somewhat slow-witted, they still remembered the old patriarch’s instructions to protect the young master and prevent him from being harmed by ill-intentioned people. Honestly, they had encountered quite a few “ill-intentioned people” along the way, but in their impression, those people kept their schemes hidden in their hearts, treating them quite well on the surface. But this young lord came right out with such bluntness, not sparing any face. Although his words were hurtful, to those who had eaten too many sugar-coated bullets along the way, they felt such a person was actually easier to trust. After all, if he really wanted to scheme against them, he shouldn’t be tearing off the mask like this, right?

“Alright, I understand.”

“Without my orders, you’re not allowed to go anywhere. Even in the inn, you’re not allowed to move around freely.”

“This…”

The man’s face showed difficulty again. They would be fine, but they were afraid the young master wouldn’t agree. However, thinking of the old patriarch’s commission, he still nodded.

“No problem.”

“You may go.”

Hearing this, Julian didn’t say anything more, just made a gesture, and then the man nodded helplessly before leaving Julian’s carriage. Given their status, they had no right to sit in the same carriage as a noble. If there wasn’t something to discuss privately, Julian wouldn’t have invited him up.

“My lord, are these people very powerful?” Ophariel, who had been sitting silently beside Julian, suddenly asked as she watched the man’s figure disappear.

“Oh?” Hearing Ophariel’s question, Julian curiously turned his head to look at her. He clearly remembered that just a few days ago, this princess couldn’t even distinguish between low-rank, mid-rank, and high-rank knights. Had she now learned to read people?

“How do you know?”

“I guessed,” Faced with Julian’s doubt, Ophariel lowered her head, her face slightly red. After all, this wasn’t her familiar territory; she was just guessing. But feeling Julian’s probing gaze, the young woman lightly coughed and raised her head again, regaining her original calm and serious expression.

“Based on my observation, these people have no political acumen at all. But, leaving aside whether all people in the Zach family are like this, the Bird family would absolutely not miss such a good opportunity to suppress a rival family. Through Viscount Euwen Bird, we have some understanding of the Bird family’s power and intelligence. If the Bird family really wanted to use schemes and tricks to detain them, it wouldn’t be impossible. But these people still escaped, and given the Bird family’s style and these people’s… brains, it’s unlikely they would show any flaws before implementing their plan. So, there’s only one possibility: the Bird family had already implemented their plan and made full preparations, setting everything up before turning against them. But these people still managed to escape from their hands, which can only mean that these people possess considerable strength.”

In the face of absolute power, all schemes are meaningless. And in the face of absolute strategy, even the mightiest power is useless. This is an eternally unsolvable question because there is no absolute strength in this world, nor is there absolute strategy. Everything is relative.

“Not a bad guess,” After hearing Ophariel’s speculation, Julian nodded with a smile, then looked out the window, narrowing his eyes.

“That man is mid-level high-rank.”

“Mid-level high…”

Hearing this, Ophariel was still surprised and covered her mouth. Although she had guessed these people must be very powerful, the specific ranking was still quite difficult for Ophariel, who had never participated in battle. After Julian gave the answer, she immediately mobilized the information in her brain and quickly made a comparison.

“Isn’t that like Darlos…”

Although in the battle with Julian, Darlos didn’t display the formidable strength a high-rank swordsman should have – after all, the gap between knights and swordsmen is not small – it still brought great pressure to Ophariel. She was, after all, a princess who grew up in peaceful times and hadn’t seen any real battles. Although Darlos didn’t do much, his aura left a deep impression on Ophariel. Now Julian was saying there was a high-rank swordsman here, no wonder she was surprised. But the next moment, Ophariel immediately had a question.

“If he has such high strength, why was he willing to be locked in our dungeon? With his power, escaping from here shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Indeed, although those guard soldiers weren’t weak, compared to a high-rank swordsman, they were worlds apart. When they intercepted these people’s carriage, if that high-rank swordsman had lifted a finger, couldn’t he have sent them packing? Why would he let them have their way?

“The soul power on his body isn’t obvious and is somewhat weak. He must have suffered a hidden loss at the Bird family. Given his current strength, he’s about upper mid-rank at best. Moreover, his current condition is most unsuitable for fighting. If he forcibly uses soul power, it’s very likely to cause soul damage. At that time, at best it would weaken his strength, dropping him back to mid-rank; at worst, he could become an idiot… Although I feel there isn’t much difference between him and an idiot now.”

Julian quickly explained to Ophariel. As early as when they met, Julian had sensed abnormal fluctuations in the soul power on the other’s body. Now that he knew the other’s background, he naturally guessed the ins and outs of the whole matter.

“Moreover, with such a little burden in their hands, they can’t run too far even if they want to. We have plenty of opportunities.”

Hearing this, Ophariel finally put her mind at ease completely. She had been puzzled in her heart about how someone with no brains to speak of could be taken as a personal guard by a family patriarch. After all, someone who could sit in the position of patriarch should have decent abilities; wouldn’t it be too abnormal to find such a fellow as a personal guard? Now after hearing Julian’s explanation, Ophariel felt reassured. It seems this man is just a powerful enforcer. After all, it’s not easy to find someone so loyal, honest (or you could say stupid), and with such powerful strength. If he were just an ordinary swordsman, given his performance, it would be impossible for him to reach such a position.

However…

“My lord, you must be careful not to be dragged down by them, okay?”

If the patriarch they serve knew what his “loyal, honest, and reliable” guards had done, he would probably be angered to the point of vomiting blood and fainting. Perhaps he would seriously reconsider his decision-making errors. But now, there’s no medicine for regret. It’s not only cunning and treacherous people who can cause threats; sometimes, those who appear honest and simple can have the same effect.

“Don’t worry about that. I know my limits.”

Saying this, the two looked at each other and couldn’t help but smile.

However, what Julian didn’t expect was that before those Zach family guards could cause any trouble for him, it was the princess before him who brought him a not-so-small problem.