Meanwhile, the manager of Lucian's shop sighed in exhaustion at the sigh of an unwelcome guest.
"Inform your Lord that the House of Varrin paid a visit, requesting his presence in their estate, regarding the inheritance of the late Caerth Arclight's wealth. Tell him to return everything he stole, and they will overlook his crime and not report it to the authorities," the person in the front spoke up to Lucian's manager.
"We will deliver the message to our Lord. You may leave now," the manager answered.
"It's been two weeks of repeated attempts to contact him," the man said, "and he hasn't responded to any of our letters, nor has he visited our estate. We want answers, and if he doesn't provide them, we'll take matters into our hands."
"Please send your request to the authorities then. Our Lord is a busy man, and his schedule is full. If you can't wait, then I'm afraid we can't help you. Have a nice day," the manager said, and moved his attention to another guest who came to do business.
Lucian checked his watch, 'It's almost lunchtime...' he should hurry back to the Rochefort estate.
"I heard Lord Arclight had been residing in the mansion of the Rochefort family," another visitor said.
Lucian's ears twitched, 'This persistency must be running in our blood,' he thought, reminiscing about the people who didn't know when to give up.
The messenger bowed his head before leaving the shop.
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Lucian entered a carriage, accompanied by Sir Claude.
"That carriage has been following you for a while now," Sir Claude said, and Lucian looked at him, "It looks like someone is either keeping an eye on you, or waiting for a chance to attack."
"It's a family dispute," Lucian said, looking through the papers, "They want to claim my inheritance from my late uncle. They are not happy with the fact that I got my hands on it before them. But the law is on my side, so they have no legal ground to stand on. I don't think that they'll try anything stupid."
"Are you sure about that?" Sir Claude asked, and Lucian nodded, "Well, this doesn't seem like a good situation to me," he said when they reached a more remote route, where there were no other carriages. "Your repetitive schedule is making you an easy target, My Lord."
"..." Lucian didn't answer, but his hand moved to his cane that was placed against the carriage's wall.
The carriage stopped suddenly, and the two of them were forced to hold onto something to not get thrown off their seats. Shouts were heard from outside, and Lucian's hand gripped the cane's handle tighter.
A moment later, there was a loud crash, the window shattering into pieces. Someone broke in. Two intruders dressed in black, wearing masks and hoods, attacked Lucian and Sir Claude.
Lucian blocked the strike of the sword with the cane while Sir Claude drew his sword, engaging the other one in combat.
"They have swords, must be knights from the noble houses," Lucian said to Sir Claude, and the latter nodded. He pulled out his dagger, making them think it was his only lethal weapon.
They didn't have much space to move, so the fight was mostly limited to a few parries and strikes. Lucian took a step backwards, avoiding the blade that was aimed at his neck.
The attacker swung his sword towards him while he blocked the strike and stabbed the attacker's shoulder, but it wasn't deep enough to cause a serious injury. The attacker retreated, and Lucian used this opportunity to jump out of the carriage, onto the ground.
Sir Claude also jumped down, and the two of them were facing four attackers. Lucian's coachman was down, lying in a pool of blood, and the horse that was pulling the carriage was gone. So much for not trying anything stupid, huh?
'These people are getting more and more desperate.'
'Debt? Maybe?' Lucian had no idea.
"Do you want me alive or dead?" Lucian asked as the four men circled them.
One of them was the one whom Lucian had stabbed, "Get here, you son of a bitch. Your head is worth a lot of gold, and I'm gonna collect it."
His lunch... his lunch would grow cold. He would have to eat a cold lunch, and his precious free time would be wasted. All because of these thugs.
"I would appreciate if you didn't try to kill me. I'm not in the mood today. And if you're not here to negotiate, then I have no reason to keep any of you alive," he said.
Sir Claude gave him a strange look.
Lucian was more of a 'let's negotiate and come to a peaceful agreement' type of guy than a 'let's kill each other and get this over with' type of guy. The same thing happened every time he returned to his homeland. People from his past would pop out and demand money from him, or try to kill him, or kidnap him and hold him hostage. Just because he looked what? Harmless? Gullible?
The man who spoke earlier was the first to charge at Lucian, and Lucian stepped forward. He ducked, stabbing the man in the neck with the spiky end of his cane, injecting him with the poison that was coated in the needle. The man choked and fell on the ground, convulsing and coughing blood. The rest of his group members were taken aback by the sudden death of their companion. They hesitated for a second before charging at Lucian again, this time more carefully.
Lucian didn't give them a chance to attack and charged at the nearest one. He pierced the man's hand with his cane and injected another dose of poison into him. The man screamed in pain and fell to the ground, foam coming out of his mouth.
"..." Sir Claude took care of the last two. His sword was covered in blood, and the men were lying on the ground, their throats slit open. "Are you okay?" he asked Lucian.
Lucian shook his head, "I need to get rid of the evidence before someone finds out about this," he said, borrowing the weapon from Sir Claude's hands, he stabbed it through the man's chest, making it look like he was killed by his sword, and not the cane, "File a report for me, and tell them that we were attacked by a group of thugs."
Lucian took one of the horses of the attackers, leaving the rest to Sir Claude while he rode back to the Rochefort estate.
He heard another horse ahead of him, prompting him to focus his gaze on her face. The raven on her shoulders flew in his direction, and he raised his arm for it to land. "My Lady?"
She stared at the blood on his suit, bringing her horse closer.