Masked Knight

Miss Rulan had that impatient look on her face, she frowned, curled her lips and replied coldly, "Got it!"

Though the Royal Knights behaved in a respectful manner, they did not move a single step, standing there stiff as ramrods. Rulan froze for a moment and fumed. "Why are you still standing here! Are you trying to tell me that I should follow you back now?"

The Royal Knights dared not to reply, but their facial expression was clear that the answer was yes. Rulan raised her eyebrows, bursting with anger. "Go away! I will go back when it is time, so keep your noses out of my business!"

The Royal Knights exchanged glances and knelt down on their knees. Their leader spoke respectfully, "Your Highness, His Majesty has ordered us to bring you back immediately lest we be punished if we failed to do so. Please have mercy on us..."

"Exactly!" A smart-looking fellow standing next to him chipped in. "His Majesty said, although the Princess has a fiery temper, she certainly would not make things hard for her servants. After all, we are just following orders."

Rulan had an unpleasant look on her face as these knights were kneeling all around her blocking off her way. She was thinking of whipping her way through, but as more and more onlookers gathered, she decided that she did not want to embarrass herself in front of a crowd.

She cleared her throat and said haughtily, "That being the case, I shall go back with you lest you get scolded." Having said that, she glared at the leader of the Royal Knights. "Get my carriage ready!"

A few men immediately went to get her carriage. Rulan gave Rody and Mouse a hard stare, suddenly she raised her hand and called out to the lead officer of the Royal Knights. She whispered to him, "The horses they are riding belong to the Royal Knights Army, you should interrogate and investigate them properly! Arrest them and guard them well, report back to me when there’s an update."

She took another good look at Mouse without any attempt to conceal the admiration in her eyes. She then lowered her head and boarded the carriage.

Soon after Rulan’s carriage left, the Royal Knights surrounded Rody. Rody frowned and was about to speak when the leading officer barked at his men, "Idiots! How dare you treat this man with such disrespect! Disperse immediately!"

The officer split up his men and stood before Rody, his attitude was respectful as he spoke to him in a low voice. "My Lord, I apologize as these men do not recognize you. You may leave as you wish, we will definitely not stop you."

Rody and Mouse were stunned, he looked at the officer and asked. "You know who I am?"

The officer chuckled. "Of course I do, My Lord. I am the Deputy Regimental Commander of the Royal Knights Regiment. I was present during the peace treaty signing ceremony. However, the Princess was not aware of your identity, hence causing such a scene."

Rody ‘ah-ed’ and smiled. "Good to hear that." He did some quick thinking and asked again. "That lady just now, is she the King’s consort? The Senior Prime Minister’s daughter?"

The officer gave him a wry smile. "Yes, Her Highness has an unpredictable temper, please do not be offended. "

Rody nodded. "The Princess wants us arrested, but you are letting us go. What would you do if she finds fault with you?"

The officer’s lips curled into an odd smile. "You are a Special Envoy, we wouldn’t have the nerves to detain you. Even if the Princess gets mad, she would not put the blame on us. Just now I did not disclose your identity because I feared that the Princess would lose her temper, causing an awkward situation, hehe...Certain troubles should be avoided whenever possible...."

Rody stole a glance at this officer thinking to himself. What a smart man. He did not reveal my identity so as to avoid putting himself in a difficult situation!

The officer was indeed smart, he immediately knew what Rody was thinking from his facial expression. He smiled awkwardly and said. "Our Princess tends to forget things very quickly. One moment she will be thinking of a matter, but the next moment she would have totally forgotten about it. Furthermore...when we are on duty in the Imperial Palace, we would avoid Her Highness at all cost. It just happened that we are on duty today otherwise we don’t get to meet Her Highness that often, hardly once every half year. When she finally recalls this matter, it would have long past."

When he finished, he led Rody’s horse over with a smile on his face. "My Lord, please mount your horse. Would you like us to escort you back?"

Rody pondered for a moment before replying. "Never mind, we will go back on our own."

The officer replied with a smile. "My Lord, I suggest you return to the Summer Palace as soon as possible. We passed by that place on our way here, it seemed like there’s some chaos going on in there. Moreover, His Majesty will be holding a banquet in the Imperial Palace tonight. There is a high chance that you will be summoned to an audience. "

Rody nodded and bade goodbye to this smart officer. He then went back to the Summer Palace with Mouse.

Sure enough, the Royal Knights guarding the Summer Palace were already aware of the stolen horses and were conducting a strict search in the compound. Their task was to guard the Summer Palace, so when such an incident occurred, the first thing that came to their mind was to go check on the Special Envoy’s safety. When they could not find Rody, chaos broke out.

The higher-ranking officials were aware of the several attempted assassinations of the Special Envoy. Now, not only the horses were stolen but the Special Envoy too went missing. They immediately dispatched their men to search for the missing Special Envoy.

When Rody and Mouse returned, the leader of the knights was already bathed in sweat. Rody was apologetic for causing him such distress, so he lowered his voice and said to him, "I forgot to tell you and your men that I was going out for a walk early in the morning."

Ignoring the officer who shook his head sighing and giving thanks to God for his return, Rody and Mouse entered the Summer Palace. Old Mark and Seth were not worried at all about Rody’s disappearance, and when they saw both Rody and Mouse came in together, they gave the couple an ‘I-knew-it’ look.

Rody ignored them, but Mouse blushed and silently withdrew her hands from Rody’s grip.

Moments later, a royal servant of the Imperial Palace came forth to seek Rody as anticipated. He was here to inform that the Earl was invited by the King to participate in the Imperial Palace’s banquet tonight. In short, it was a farewell banquet for the ambassadors of the various kingdoms as they would be leaving for their home kingdoms soon.

Looking back at how he extorted hundreds of warships from these people on the day the truce pact was signed, Rody thought he should at least bid farewell to them. Hence, he agreed to attend the banquet.

As the Special Envoy of the Radiant Empire, Earl Rody’s attendance at the banquet was inevitable and ultimately ‘Miss Nicole’ would be attending the banquet too as his companion. Mouse cheered up and went on to torment Seth for the afternoon.

When the night came, Rody and the ‘glamorous Miss Nicole’ arrived side by side at the Sauron Kingdom’s Imperial Palace for the night banquet.

This time around, the night banquet was held in the Imperial Palace’s largest hall. A group of royal servants led the way to the hall, and as Rody and Seth entered, they came upon a boisterous crowd.

At a corner in the hall, a group of women in white gowns was gently playing harps as one of them sang softly. The hall echoed with her melodious singing but none of the guests were paying attention to it. As Rody walked through the door, he immediately caught everybody’s attention.

Rody’s eyes swept around the hall. Just a few steps away, nearest to him, were His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Aven and the Senior Prime Minister, whispering in low voices.

Other than that, the rest of the guests were ambassadors from the various kingdoms of the Roland Continent.

Aven’s eyes lit up when he saw Seth. He took a big step forward and laughed aloud. "Miss Nicole, Lord Rody, I’ve been waiting for your arrival for quite some time."

Rody glanced at the overzealous Crown Prince and thought to himself, "It is true that he was waiting for Seth but definitely not for me."

He happily left Seth to be with the Crown Prince. Rody caught sight of the Senior Prime Minister who was squinting and smiling at him. He nodded at him out of courtesy.

"My Lord, we were talking about you just now." The Senior Prime Minister’s lips curled slightly. "You definitely scared the hell out of the Royal Knights earlier today."

Rody gave him a weak smile. "I was fascinated by the scenery in the Imperial City of Sauron, so I went out for a walk."

The Senior Prime Minister kept his voice low as he asked. "I heard that you had a slight conflict with my daughter?"

Rody frowned but quickly put on a smile. "It was just a small misunderstanding, the horse I was riding accidentally collided with Her Highness’ carriage."

The Senior Prime Minister nodded his head and ended the conversation. Though he was smiling, he had a profound aura around him. Rody felt very uncomfortable being stared at by him, but he could not find a suitable topic to talk about.

Tonight’s banquet was very grand indeed. Groups of royal servants brought out an array of exquisite food, and the tableware too was extravagant. Rody reached for the silver wineglass and noticed the liquid inside it glittered like gold with a rich scent.

The Crown Prince sitting next to him smiled and explained. "I specially brought this wine here today, it’s very precious and you don’t normally get to drink this anywhere else. His Majesty got hold of the news that I acquired some stocks yesterday and ordered me to send some over for the banquet. Please try it, Lord Rody. If you like it, I’ll have my men send some over to you later."

Rody smiled and took a sip. His face immediately had a weird look on it. At the same time, a seductive voice came from behind, asking. "My Lord, how was the wine?"

Upon hearing this familiar voice, Rody’s face twitched. He turned around and saw that coquettish Nedis standing behind him, looking at him with a wide grin.

This seductive woman was acting unusual today by being clothed conservatively—though one could not help but notice the gown was a bit too tight, and the thin fabric could not conceal her curves. Even though not an inch of her skin was exposed, it still managed to arouse desire by just one glance.

Rody’s eyes were wide in shock. "Miss Nedis...why are you here?"

In fact, Nedis came together with The Crown Prince tonight, and she was surprised too when she saw Rody come in. How could she not know Rody! She especially could not forget that day when Rody lifted up her skirt and spanked her backside. Every single time she recalled that event, she still bore a grudge and would fume in rage, but deep inside there was also this weird fantasy creeping...

Later, Rody came to the rescue of Nedis and Darke when they were in danger, and since then her feelings for this strange young man deepened. However, Rody then left the Westwood Province and went back to the Imperial City not long after that, so she had no idea of him being appointed as Envoy to the Roland Continent.

It was an unforeseen surprise to meet her enemy here today, but when she saw Seth, the surprise on her face vanished and was replaced with a strange look.

The Crown Prince was surprised too. "Miss Nedis, do you know each other?"

Nedis blushed and clenched her teeth, snarling. "Of course I do! He had left a very deep impression on me!"

Rody naturally knew what she meant. He knew he was being rude that time, but he just wanted to give her a small punishment, he swore nothing erotic came across his mind back then. He could not help but felt awkward when he saw her acting shy, her face turning red as she looked at him.

The Crown Prince laughed in relief. "Since you already know each other, there is no need for me to introduce you then."

Nedis was her normal self again. She slowly walked up to Rody and smiled. "I did not expect Mr. Rody to actually come to the Roland Continent. You must be that Special Envoy His Royal Highness the Crown Prince keeps talking about. Congratulations to Mr. Rody for having been bestowed the title of Earl!"

Seeing the smile on Rody’s face, Nedis could not help but ask on purpose, "Why, this must be Miss Nicole? Aren’t you...."

Immediately when Nedis’ wandering gaze came up to Seth, Rody had a bad feeling in his stomach. Nobody else in here had seen the real Nicole, except for Nedis. Although Seth resembled Nicole after makeup, there were still some differences between the two.

Rody promptly cleared his throat to stop Nedis from going on further. He said in a loud voice. "This is Her Excellency, the Duke of the Tulip family’s elder sister, Miss Nicole! Miss Nedis, I’m sure you’ve heard of her." When he was done, he winked his eyes at Nedis.

Nedis had a slight smile as she tried to keep a straight face and nodded at Seth. "Oh, so you are the eldest daughter of the Tulip family! I have businesses on the Tulip family’s lands in the empire’s Westwood Province. I’ve heard a lot about you."

Seth looked at Nedis and something flickered in his gaze. He came over and held Nedis’ hands in his, chuckling as he asked, "Really? Miss Nedis, how did you get to know Rody?"

All of a sudden, Rody’s face changed.

Rody could sense danger in the way Seth looked at Nedis.

This guy, Seth, was a well-known playboy, one lustful pervert!

What Seth did next almost caused Rody to pass out.

Seth gently lifted Nedis’ chin with a finger and smiled, ‘tenderly’ saying, "Miss Nedis, your gown is so beautiful!"