Has The Lord’s Career Chart Been Filled Today? – Chapter 205
“Don’t joke around!”
Gad was taken aback, a flicker of humiliated anger crossing his face. The white glove he had been clutching in his right hand was now hastily discarded as if it were a hot potato. “Have you forgotten your dignity as a knight? To challenge me to a duel over two lowly commoners from the slums—so recklessly targeting a colleague of your own rank—aren’t you afraid of bringing shame upon your master?”
Having held the position of sheriff in Gregor City for so many years, Gad was far from an incompetent fool. Among knights, he was the most socially adept and skilled at reading his superiors’ intentions.
After Count McKenna was killed, his greatest regret was that the Duke had far too many followers—no matter how well he observed nuances or curried favor, he could never surpass the original inner circle.
But that didn’t mean he was willing to grovel easily before a high-ranking knight holding the deputy knight commander position, nor did it mean he would let this humiliation cloud his judgment to the point of forgetting the vast disparity in strength between them.
A duel?
Even before it began, the outcome was as obvious as lice on the finest velvet—how could he possibly be a match for his exceptionally robust and towering opponent?
Faced with Gad’s indignant words, Loyel did not take further action.
He stood quietly, turned around, and gazed coldly… no, perhaps scrutinized him.
It was a gaze that sent chills down Gad’s spine.
As if assessing his remaining value, or piercing through his facade, sharply dissecting his intentions.
“No. I—and Daining—are not lowly people!”
At that moment, Ticher, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke up.
Instantly, all eyes in the room fell upon them.
Unlike Daining, who flushed bright red and fumbled nervously, Ticher stubbornly straightened her back. In a voice trembling yet louder than ever before, she emphatically declared, “Daining and I are both children of free citizens! We’ve lived in this Gregor City since childhood, paying our taxes in full every year without missing a single copper coin—we have never offended any nobles, nor could we even resist insults from Rayper. But that doesn’t mean you can slander our status at will, much less defame such a noble knight who possesses a powerful soul willing to pity and protect the weak, and who upholds justice according to the law!
“Do you know what you’re saying to a highly respected knight? Damned, sharp-tongued, lowborn foolish girl!”
Witnessing his father being insulted first by Loyel and now by this whore, Rayper forgot his fear. Like a drowning man clutching at the last straw, he frantically attacked the easiest target with venomous words: “Don’t think that just because you’re wearing a decent woman’s dress, you can pretend you never casually spread your legs for passing men before! The dignity you shout about is only worth two copper coins—just two copper coins, and anyone can insult you as they please! And I’m just an unlucky buyer you tried to extort! Hear me? You wh—”
“What is going on here?”
A voice all too familiar to Loyel, yet tinged with some confusion, suddenly emerged, cutting through Rayper’s shrill curses and invectives.
Oliver had come here with only a few attendants because he had suddenly remembered some questions he wanted to ask Loyel and was also curious about the operations of the court of justice, which had been established for over a month.
He never expected it to be so lively.
The moment Oliver appeared, Loyel immediately looked ashamed and smoothly dropped to one knee, saying, “Good day, Your Grace. It is my failure in training that allowed the guards to let outsiders intrude, failing in my duty to guard the entrance.”
“What are you talking about, my dear Vice-Knight Commander?”
Oliver chuckled in disbelief. “You have just returned from nearly a month of arduous travel. Today, you should be resting properly in the castle, awaiting the evening banquet, not troubling yourself with these matters. In my plans, the responsibilities on your shoulders are already heavy enough. For now, leave all matters of the court of justice to Noah.”
Loyel pressed his lips together in shame but still nodded in acceptance of His Grace’s kindness. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
“As for here…” Oliver’s gaze swept over the various expressions in the room, and he smiled slightly. “If I’m not mistaken, is someone disputing the outcome of this trial?”
If possible, Gad would absolutely not want to leave such a terrible impression on the new lord he was fortunate to meet for the first time.
But at the moment, he had no other choice.
If he answered “not at all,” not only would his only heir face years of terrifying imprisonment—though it might be shortened by paying additional fines—but his act of forcibly breaking into the court of justice would also be severely punished.
Especially since he had just confronted the presiding judge so forcefully.
On second thought, Gad felt this might be a good opportunity.
Rayper was only sixteen and had just become a knight page. Unfortunately, his knight mentor, who was also his friend, had been captured for participating in the war against Albury and was now imprisoned in the castle dungeons, unseen by daylight.
Rayper was close in age to those two girls from the slums, and this new lord’s temperament, though in their eyes overly soft and compassionate toward those lowborn, was at least extremely kind and gentle.
As for the rumors about killing Count McKenna?
Of course, he didn’t believe them.
Although the spies he had planted in the castle were completely eliminated by the third day after the other party took residence.
But before that, he had heard some whispers—it wasn’t Duke Oliver who gave the order at all, but rather something related to Butler Spire.
Since this was such a merciful and soft-hearted lord, who couldn’t even bear to kill enemies who attacked him, he probably wouldn’t be too harsh on Rayper either.
“Wise Grace, everything is exactly as you said.”
Gad stepped forward, knelt on one knee before Oliver, and saluted. “I have ample reason to suspect that this is a conspiracy against my heir, an extremely unjust trial. Rayper is my only son, my most important heir. Suddenly learning that he was trapped in a conspiracy and about to face imprisonment drove me to lose my senses and inadvertently commit acts that offended you and your important knight. I beg your benevolent and magnanimous self forgiveness.”
“Let’s set that aside for now.”
Oliver signaled the official in charge of documentation to bring over the trial records from earlier. While rapidly flipping through them, he had everyone return to their seats in the court.
After meeting Rayper’s terrified eyes, Gad resolutely decided to stand with his son.
“Your affection for Rayper is fully understood by me,” Oliver said with a slight smile after quickly reviewing the records. “But I am also certain that Vice Knight Captain Loyel followed every step of the trial procedure according to the new regulations I recently established. There is no trace of favoritism or excessive severity in the sentencing.”
“That cannot be!”
Gad blurted out involuntarily.
His voice wasn’t loud, nor was his expression fierce.
Yet those words denying Oliver instantly made Fosse and Loyel, who had been restraining themselves, suddenly dangerous in their gaze.
Fosse expressionlessly ran his fingers along his sword hilt, his deep green eyes fixed coldly on Gad like a lurking venomous snake.
He coldly reminded: “—Mind your words, Gad.”
Gad realized his impropriety. After swallowing his pride and apologizing, he protested as tactfully as possible: “Your… Your Grace, please take another look. This is completely false accusations against Rayper!”
“Your Grace, I never laid a finger on either of those girls, especially not that dirty, cunning little whore!”
The most frightened one here was clearly Rayper, who was about to be convicted by the Duke himself and sent to prison.
After surviving last night—the most terrifying night of his life—his greatest wish was to leave this damned place!
Tears and anger mixed on his face as he glared venomously at Ticher while pointing at the two girls: “This must be these two whores trying to become my lovers, using this as leverage to blackmail me—”
“Silence,” Fosse said coldly.
The moment he noticed the young lord’s slight frown, he decided not to stand by idly.
The gentle smile that Oliver always wore—familiar to all his subjects—had vanished without trace at some point.
He looked calmly at Rayper: “You might not realize that you are in the court of justice, as a freeman, insulting another freeman.”
“Absolutely not, Your Grace!” Rayper desperately explained. “What you don’t know is, these two girls really were prostitutes, they were lowborn—”
“In Gregor, across all my territories, subjects are only classified as nobles, freemen, and slaves,” Oliver stated calmly. “Not by profession. I believe you, who have had knight instructors and studied at the divine temple, should know this quite well.”
Rayper was rendered speechless.
Gad’s heart sank to the depths.
—He seemed to hear the implied meaning in the Duke’s words.
Sure enough, he soon heard Oliver continue: “Ticher and Daining are both freemen, and you are also a freeman, not nobility, Rayper.”
“However……”
Gad’s voice became extremely strained, his hands secretly clenched into fists, as he whispered: “Rayper is a knight page, the son of nobility.”
“A knight page is not nobility, as you should well know. Before he is formally knighted, this is merely a dispute between commoners,” Oliver said calmly. “Unfortunately, he failed to recognize this. He even insulted his social equal with terms like ‘lowborn’ in front of nobility—the punishment should be more severe.”
Gad was straining to contain himself.
How could he possibly agree with such words?
His son… his son’s importance could never be compared to that of two lowborn scum from the slums!
“Well, not necessarily.”
Just as Rayper was losing all strength and thought he had hit rock bottom, he heard the duke’s slightly lifted tone, as if noticing something.
Could it be—
His eyes lit up, his spirit instantly revived, thinking hope was descending upon him.
Yet Oliver only frowned seriously. After closing the documents, he didn’t spare another glance at him or his father, instead fixing his gaze on the other knights nearby. “Take him into custody first, but this may not be the final sentence. This likely isn’t his first offense—find the other victims first. Any crimes committed after the new laws were enacted must be punished according to them.”
Hearing this, Ticher and Daining froze.
Rayper could no longer hold on and fainted on the spot.
Gad clenched his son’s arm tightly, refusing to let go.
The guards paid no mind to his resistance. Since he wouldn’t release his grip, they simply dragged harder, careful not to touch him directly to avoid giving cause for accusations of ‘assaulting nobility.’
Now the dilemma fell to Gad: unless he could bear to watch his son be dragged awake in agony, he had to let go.
Gad watched as his unconscious son was hauled away, while the perpetrators stood impeccably dressed on this ridiculous judgment seat.
His jaw clenched with restraint, his eyes fixed fiercely on the lord who had made this utterly absurd decision, brewing with towering rage—
“Now we begin the next trial.”
But Oliver did not step down from the judgment seat. Instead, his gaze fell upon him:
” — Gad, you attacked the guards and disrupted the court. The evidence is sufficiently conclusive, isn’t it?”
