Blood Holy Scripture: True Ancestor Charlotte de Castel
Chapter 41: -38- Sebastian’s Decision

Chapter 41: -38- Sebastian’s Decision

In the following days, Charlotte’s life became much calmer.

Every day, she would wake up naturally and then devoutly attend worship with the priests from the Church, followed by "spiritual healing" from the priests of the Church Hospital.

Her enthusiastic attitude, proactive actions, and fanatic devotion earned endless praise from the priests who came to make some extra money.

Indeed, Charlotte was very devout.

As she watched the charge bar for Blood Summon rapidly climb again, she sent sincere blessings and heartfelt thanks to the great Divine Lord Haral every day in her heart...

The only regret was probably not being able to see Miss Lotti.

The beautiful female priest was not only a sight for the eyes but also fragrant and soft, bringing Charlotte a natural closeness.

She was the first person to treat Charlotte well after her crossing.

During those days in the hospital, Lotti’s meticulous care allowed Charlotte to truly feel the sincere concern and tenderness from the other person.

Charlotte had been looking forward to the other’s visit, but the priests who came were all male.

They were certainly enthusiastic, but they were just not easy on the eyes.

Later, after acting cute and making careful inquiries, Charlotte learned from chatting with a priest that Lotti had gone to the Grand Cathedral for advanced studies in recent days.

What a pity.

Morning "Holy Scripture Charging" came to an end, and then it was time for lunch.

The newly appointed maid respectfully served the meal and poured milk for the young girl, returning Charlotte to the sinful life of having everything handed to her on a silver platter.

Lunch was as lavish as ever.

Casimodo ultimately succeeded in dissuading Charlotte from drastically cutting the meal costs, eventually reducing the cost to one-fifth of the original.

According to him, he had picked the least valuable porcelain to exchange at the pawnshop run by the Yuka people for eighty thousand gold tanas, which should be enough to cover the expenditures for the next while.

And similar collectibles were displayed in several rooms throughout the Manor...

Charlotte was truly astonished by her family’s heritage.

She felt it was a miracle that the Manor had not been targeted by thieves during this time.

"They wouldn’t dare, because there have been people from the Duke Mansion helping to keep watch for the past few days, with the team even led by a tier-entering man, and now... You have hired Demon Hunting Knights to patrol the surroundings," Casimodo explained.

"Where is our own tier-entering man? Don’t tell me the great Castel family doesn’t have a single tier-entering Transcendent."

Charlotte voiced the question she had been wanting to ask.

Casimodo sighed:

"The family indeed has tier-entering members, even two Viscounts of the Silver Moon Second Tier who, in the past, would always serve by the Seigneur’s side. However, in recent years, all the tier-entering men have been sent back to the Count Territory by the previous one under various pretexts..."

Charlotte instantly understood.

It wasn’t that the Castels lacked Transcendents.

It was that the old witch feared revealing herself, so she sent them all back to their lands.

This resulted in Castel Manor in Bold City becoming utterly defenseless!

"Outrageous, she’s not even afraid of being attacked," the young girl muttered.

"With the Church present and the Holy Code, who would dare to cause trouble in the Capital Mansion?" Casimodo shook his head.

"What about now? With such a big incident at the Manor, why haven’t the tier-entering men rushed back from the Territory?" Charlotte asked again.

Casimodo fell silent.

Clearly, he couldn’t answer this question.

Perhaps he had guessed something but did not dare to answer.

Charlotte quickly got the gist of it.

"Ah, it’s not easy being a Feudal Lord..." She sighed helplessly.

Tier-entering men who are loyal to the Great Nobles, of course, are also Nobles.

If they are Nobles, they almost all have their own domains.

Even without a domain, getting a rural manor is quite easy.

And with a domain, comes self-interest...

Clearly, the Castel family managed by the old Countess for a decade must be in disarray internally.

The succession of the Castel title has not been settled, and everyone is waiting to see how things will unfold.

Of course, that’s not Charlotte’s concern for now.

She would have to worry about that only if she succeeded in formally taking over the Territory in the future.

Without officially taking over the Territory, she couldn’t even command those Lower Nobles...

After lunch and a habitual glass of milk, she would take a lovely nap, and the afternoon would be spent training the servants.

The Majesty Skill was indeed a wonderful thing.

It could both intimidate and charm.

Add to that Charlotte’s own understanding of noble etiquette from her memories, and it didn’t take long for her to train the newcomers into shape; they both respected and feared her.

Charlotte figured that given a couple of months, she could shape everyone from top to bottom into her image.

If she wanted them to move east, just a glance would be enough for them all to perk up their backsides and head east.

And as the days of training went by, the proficiency in the Low-Tier Majesty Skill rose almost rocket-like.

On the third day, it broke through the 100 barrier, advancing from beginner to adept, and the progress bar changed to 0/300.

The power didn’t increase much, but using it became much easier, and at least it lasted a significantly longer time.

Previously, using it once would last only fifteen minutes.

Now, it could last almost an hour.

Charlotte estimated that in another week, she should be able to progress to the next level.

In the evening, she had more free time and would often choose to read and charge up, absorbing as much knowledge about this world as possible.

Especially regarding Nobility, as well as her own family’s information.

And as she learned more, she began to understand why the reaction from her own Territory always seemed so sluggish.

Simply because the Count Castle Domain was originally an exclave of Bold Duchy.

The Bold Duchy was located on the southwest coast of the New Moon Kingdom.

Yet the Count Castle Domain was situated on the northern coast, a frontier in the north of the Kingdom, which the first generation Count Castel personally conquered from the hands of the Beastman Tribes.

The area wasn’t small; it occupied one-third of the total territory of Bold Duchy.

Two swathes of ducal territory, one to the south and the other to the north, were separated by several duchies and earldoms, making strong control a difficult feat.

In fact, for generations, the Castel family had actually lived a quiet life on their own lands, making the journey to pay homage to their lord once a year.

It wasn’t until the previous generation’s earl became the leader of the duchy’s Mage Group that they took up longer residence in Bold City.

As for the family’s substantial source of income... the explanation was simple and to put it bluntly, the Castel family owned a mine.

More precisely, a silver mine with mithril veins.

Moreover, as territory that lay across the sea from both Falling Star Kingdom and Moon God Island, and as a neighbor of the Northern Territory Grand Duchy on the land route to Eastern Yonette—to the evil lands, and even to Coria Kingdom far east... in recent years, Count Territory’s commerce has flourished.

Charlotte finally understood why the nobles coveted her family’s lands so much.

Hundreds of years ago, it was indeed a barren wasteland, but now it had become a land of hope with high potential for future development.

Aside from researching her family’s records, the young girl hadn’t forgotten to find a disguise in the bloodline records.

After some selection, Charlotte found that the effects of her Majesty Skill were similar to the bloodline abilities of an ancient, declining noble family from Coria Kingdom in the east.

This bloodline had a rather grand name—Heavenly Chosen.

Its effect was an all-around enhancement of physical condition and increased the likelihood of becoming a knight or a mage, along with the capacity for actively releasing an aura similar to Majesty Skill.

The bloodline ability was good, practically a panacea for disguising oneself, and she directly adopted it.

Charlotte was unsure whether she, now a Bloodline, could truly awaken the noble bloodline power.

To this day, Charlotte remained preoccupied with the "Half-Elf" within her lineage, but neither Casimodo nor scouring through documents could provide a clear explanation.

It could only be speculated that an ancestor of the Castel family may have intermarried with an elf.

In the days that followed, the manor remained relatively peaceful.

Yet, Bold City was becoming peculiar.

In the days of Charlotte’s seclusion, rumors in the city about the Castel family’s collusion with Blood Demons grew increasingly rife...

Even the priests who earned their daily bread in the manor were interpreted by the public as the Castel family’s guilty attempt at covering up the truth.

Some rumors were even more malicious, casting Charlotte as a reborn Blood Demon, a heart-ensnaring Enchanting Demon...

Hearing the news that the old servant relayed with righteous indignation made Charlotte feel somewhat guilty.

Because, in a certain sense, that last piece of gossip was somewhat accurate.

Clearly, someone was still fanning the flames from behind the scenes.

There was definitely a connection to the vassal nobles of the duchy, even possibly covert encouragement from the duke.

However, there were no further assassination attempts.

It seemed the adversary held considerable dread for the Demon Hunting Knights; even if most patrolling were only Apprentice Knights, they had backed off.

In the blink of an eye, a week had flown by...

The duke’s birthday celebration was tomorrow.

And at the same time,

In a luxurious estate in Outer City District,

Sebastian, the Rose Association chairman, was reclining leisurely on a divan, enjoying fruit peeled by a Sub-human maid while holding an elegant glass filled with red wine, and finally got to see the information gathered after days of searching by his underlings.

"Hmm? So the God Suppressing Bell of the Church rang not long ago?"

"Heh, the Great Priest did a good job sealing the news."

"Thorns... Roses... So that’s what it meant."

As he looked at the scroll on the table, Sebastian stroked his chin with interest.

On top of a parchment at the forefront, someone had clearly traced the pattern of the Sacrificial Array from the Castel Manor’s basement that very night!

Sebastian lifted the parchment and sipped the red wine elegantly, deep in thought:

"Countess Castel had cursed pages; she wanted to sacrifice her granddaughter to communicate with the Blood Demon Duke, but ended up the sacrifice of some mysterious entity..."

"I acquired the cursed pages from her, and shortly thereafter was summoned by the Dark Night Lady into the Dream..."

"The Blood Demon Duke is one of the five Your Majesty’s of the Bloodline, the leader of the Dark Clan ’Shedite’."

"The Dark Night Lady is very likely to be that returning one from the Bloodline..."

"Coincidence?"

"Or is there... some deeper connection between the two?"

Sebastian’s gaze grew profound.

He set aside the parchment and lifted a portrait from the pile below.

Upon the portrait was a beautiful golden-haired girl.

In a pristine white dress, she knelt before the Divine Statue of Haral, praying with eyes closed.

The Holy Light cast upon her made her appear most sacred, like an Angel descending.

"Charlotte de Castel, no doubt..."

As Sebastian caressed the painting, his clear eyes were filled with appreciation for beauty:

"Truly worthy as the heir of the Castel family, so captivating, even the Pure White Witch pales in comparison."

"Yet, surviving such a Sacrifice... is not something an ordinary person could do."

"Perhaps she’s experienced something, knows something..."

With this thought, Sebastian fell into contemplation.

He continued to browse, coming upon the latest collection of reports from Bold City.

"Hmm? Such rumors too?"

He was slightly stunned.

After casually scanning through, Sebastian let out a scoff:

"Heh, these greedy human nobles really have no shame! Bullying a child without blushing!"

When Sebastian arrived at the last page, his eyebrows rose:

"The duke’s birthday banquet?"

After pondering for a moment, an idea stirred in his heart:

"Interesting... Perhaps this is a good opportunity to investigate firsthand!"

As he put down the reports, he drained his glass of red wine, then gracefully stood and commanded the attending Sub-human maid:

"Prepare for me an elegant suit and some appropriate gifts."

"Tomorrow I shall attend the Duke Mansion’s birthday celebration."

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