Flowers, Swords and France

a certain year, a certain day

Under the dusk sunset, a young man lay on the ground, panting and looking like he was exhausted from excessive exercise. \u003c.

He only wore a shirt on his upper body, and it looked wrinkled, as if he had been soaked in water. You can imagine how strenuous exercise he had just done and how much he had sweated.

And right next to the boy, stood a young lady. She was holding a thin sword with no edge on the side or top, looking down at the boy with a smile.

Her smile was full of sarcasm, but it also concealed some expectations and encouragement.

"Char, stand up like a man! Don't lie on the ground, do it again!"

"No, I won't get up! Why don't you hit me when I get up!" The boy's answer was full of anger and resistance.

"Do you think I won't hit you if you keep lying on the ground like this?"

"...Hateful...I will definitely take revenge one day!"

"Oh? Hahahahahaha, I've been waiting to see this day! However, looking at how weak you are, I'm afraid you won't be my opponent in another thirty years, right?" The lady laughed evilly, and then deliberately used her flat expression. The thin blade of the sword patted the boy's head, like a teacher using a pointer to teach ignorant children.

Perhaps this provocation was not a deliberate venting of bad emotions, but an attempt to stimulate the young man and make him work harder, right?

"Don't underestimate me! Just wait for me!" The young man was furious, and then he almost squeezed out the last remaining strength from his body and jumped up from the ground. Staring at her challengingly.

"Very good!" As if appreciating his courage, she smiled and nodded.

Then, there was no delay. The rapier in her hand swung again.

Then, not surprisingly, he received another beating.

This is, what a memory worth cherishing.

……………………

At the end of this long-lasting memory, Charles, who had been sleeping on the desk, finally woke up.

Although his forehead was still aching, he felt much better.

He took out his pocket watch and looked at it. He had probably rested for about three hours - that is to say. It's about noon now.

very good.

He put the pocket watch in his arms, stood up from the chair gracefully, and walked out.

It stands to reason that it is already lunch time. However, because he was not feeling well, the Marquis of Treville had been enjoying lunch in his room recently, so Charles walked straight up the stairs to his bedroom. Then he knocked gently on the door.

"Who?"

"It's me. Grandpa."

"Oh, Charles, what's the matter? Come in." Grandpa's voice was a little weak, but he was still in good spirits.

Ciel straightened up his appearance a little and then opened the door.

"Char, what happened?" Although Charles had tried hard to look calm, Marquis Treville was still keenly aware of the solemnity and uneasiness in his expression.

"Yes, something happened." Charles bowed slightly. "And it's something serious."

To be honest, he is a little angry now. Because it was obvious that the old Marquis had not told him all the truth before. However, even so, he still maintained due respect for his grandfather.

After hearing what Charles said, the old Marquis' expression immediately became serious, as if he had instantly turned into the general before the battle.

"So how serious is it? Tell me in detail, and we will solve it together." Grandpa spread his hands and motioned for Charles to sit down and talk.

However, Ciel did not obey his instructions, but still stood in front of the bed, looking directly at the other person.

"Just now, a visitor came to our home." He tried to look more natural. "This person... is technically a relative of ours."

"Who? Is it another relative who came to beat Qiu Feng? Then just deal with it casually."

"She is Agnes," Charles whispered.

"Agnes...?" The old man repeated it confusedly at first, and then suddenly opened his eyes wide, as if he suddenly understood.

Then, his face turned ugly. "It's her? What's she doing here?"

"She came to see her father." Charles answered briefly.

The old man's eyes suddenly widened, and a fiery gaze shot out from his eyes. He didn't know whether it was aimed at Agnes or his son. "Looking for that guy? Why are you looking for that guy? He has already disappeared without a trace. What's the use of looking for us here? If she wants to find it, she can find it herself!"

Judging from his grandfather's violent reaction, Charles understood that his father did not contact him again. But this is easy to understand.

He bit his lip gently.

"Actually...actually, dad has come back, and because of his injury, he fell under my control."

Then, under the sharp gaze projected by the old man, he told his grandfather everything about his father in the past two days.

Listening to Charles's narration, Grandpa's expression also changed violently, from the initial calm to gloomy, from gloomy to angry. Finally, when he heard Charles talking about the reason why his father ran away from home, The anger he had accumulated for a long time finally burst out like a volcano erupting.

"This bastard son! This bastard! I knew it a long time ago. He only thought about having fun and didn't care about other people at all!

I spent so much effort to raise him, but it was in vain! I gave him a comfortable life, I let him do whatever he wanted, and I helped him escape from a disaster, but in the face of responsibility, he ran away like a dog! Ran away! And he was still there feeling proud of himself!" The old marquis cursed and stroked his chest, and it was obvious that he almost died. "This guy only did one thing right in his life, that is, leaving the child and getting out!"

Fearing that something might happen to him, Charles hurried to him. Reached out and gently stroked his chest.

"It's a pity that he was not beaten to death by Agnes! This would have caused me less trouble!" The old man, who had already given up on his son, cursed indignantly, and then looked up at Charles. "Send him away quickly, I don't want to see him again!"

"That's what I thought, Grandpa." Charles nodded, "I plan to let him leave here after he recovers from his injuries."

"That's perfect, isn't he used to a dissolute life anyway?" The old man waved his hand angrily, as if he didn't want to talk about him anymore, "Did you send Agnes away?"

"No. I didn't send her away, I kept her." Charles answered calmly, "She seems to have known a lot of things. She also has some evidence, so she threatened me just now, asking me to hand over my father, otherwise she would make all the evidence public..."

"Then don't let her go!" The old man shuddered. Then he looked at Charles. "Go and stop her! These things can't see the light of day again, otherwise it will be a big trouble for you."

"That's right, it's a big trouble, so I've kept her." Charles shrugged his shoulders, "She is still in a coma and tied to the attic. If you want, you can go see her later."

The old man looked at Charles in astonishment.

After a moment of silence, he patted Charles's hand in approval. Congratulations on his success in doing another bad thing without hesitation.

"Well done, Charles, you are indeed my good grandson. Then, we have to think of a way to solve this problem next."

"Before that, I also want to ask you something."

"What else is more important than now?" The old man was a little surprised.

"It is indeed very important." Charles looked at the old man quietly, paying attention to all his changes in expression, "Agnes said that she had opened her mother's coffin in order to move her mother's remains... Then, she said she saw another remains... To be precise, it was the remains of a baby..."

The old man's hand shook violently.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

This reaction...seems to be correct. Charles sighed in his heart.

"Excuse me, is there anything you can tell me about this? In my personal opinion, she doesn't seem to be joking..." Because he was a little angry, Charles couldn't help but speak a little stiffly.

The old man's expression changed constantly, as if he was struggling with something. Finally, he lowered his eyes and sighed.

"Charles, I'm sorry."

"I think, in addition to apologizing, you should explain to me in detail what happened." Charles still looked at the old man, but his tone was still a little slower, "If you tell me more, maybe I won't make some wrong decisions... Fran was there at the time and heard what Agnes said, grandpa."

"What!" The old man was shocked and cursed, "Damn it!"

Then, his face suddenly twitched, as if he was hit hard by the bad news.

Seeing this, Charles didn't ask any more questions, just waited quietly.

"Well, I'll tell you everything now, but there's nothing more to say." After a long silence, the old marquis finally sighed again, "I've already told you the general process, there's nothing more to say, that bastard accidentally killed his wife, it was indeed an accident and not intentional, and Alice had been struggling violently and had a premature birth, so she couldn't even keep the child... Well..."

"What happened next?" Charles' heart tightened.

"After that, the bastard brought a child over and said that he would just let her replace Alice's daughter. I opposed it at first, but later I saw that he insisted, so I agreed..." The old man covered his head with his hands.

"Is it Fran? Then...what is Fran's origin?"

"That's Fran...but he didn't tell me anything else, and he didn't mention it when I asked. I thought it was a girl, so it wouldn't affect you, and I really wanted a granddaughter, so I agreed." As if he remembered what happened in the past, the old man sighed again, "No matter before or after marriage, he has always had affairs with many women. Maybe she is someone's illegitimate daughter...or maybe she was really adopted from someone else's family. Anyway, he has done some weird things in his life. Who knows him!"

As the old man narrated, Charles' mood fell all the way.

"But you never told me these things. If you had told me earlier, how could I have done such a stupid thing?" Finally, he lowered his head and sighed, "I personally don't care. Anyway, I will always treat her as my sister, but now... how much of a blow must she have suffered now?! She has been in such a bad mood recently, and she still has to... suffer such a blow..."

"Charles, I know you are angry, but... but please understand grandpa." The old marquis shook his head dejectedly, "I thought at the beginning that there is nothing to mention about this matter now. Fran is already my granddaughter, and she is so cute. How can I bear to... bear to tell her these things? Also, I am afraid... afraid that you siblings will have a conflict."

Feeling his grandfather's eyes, Charles was speechless for a while. This kind of explanation with a slightly pleading look was something Charles had never encountered before.

Maybe he had some doubts about Fran at first. But in the years of getting along. The old man had already abandoned other concerns and wholeheartedly regarded Fran as his granddaughter. It was precisely because of this that he was worried that Charles would have other ideas and let his granddaughter suffer, so he concealed it from him.

"But, you underestimated me. How could I harm her? Now. Even if there is no blood relationship, I will never abandon her. Don't worry." Charles smiled bitterly, and then squeezed his grandfather's dry hand again, "Okay, okay, forget it, it's meaningless to say these words now. Let's turn away from these unpleasant things... Now it is crucial for us to solve Agnes's problems, isn't it?"

"You're right, Charles, let's not talk about this anymore." The two of them quickly reached a tacit understanding and escaped from this slightly scary topic.

The situation is indeed urgent-Agnes has a bomb that is enough to make them not say the end, but at least humiliated. They must immediately think of a way to make this bomb disappear as soon as possible.

"Although I haven't seen Agnes a few times, I can tell that she is not a stupid girl." Marquis Treville pondered slightly, "Since she dared to come here alone, she must have something to rely on. She would never say that everything would be fine as long as we subdue her."

She is no longer a little girl... Charles smiled bitterly in his heart, but there is no dispute about this issue.

"Yes, I think so too." Charles nodded.

"Then, she must have hidden the evidence in a safe place, a place where at least we don't have to worry about being forcibly solved."

"And the people in this place will dare and have the ability to take the risk of offending us and shake out all these things and expose them in broad daylight." Charles also added a sentence.

Then, the grandfather and grandson looked at each other and seemed to have thought of the same thing.

"Nodelion family?" They both said it at the same time.

"Yes, that should be the case." The old marquis nodded immediately and said everything he thought of. "Before, it should be the Nordelen family that collected the evidence, and then Agnes would know all this, and then...she would go abroad to hunt down that bastard."

"That must be the case!" Charles clenched his hands.

Then we have to find a way to solve it.

Apart from his mother, he has had very little contact with his mother's family for many years. It was only because of some news circulating in the social scene that he learned that his grandfather had died, and now his uncle inherited his dukedom - although he had forgotten his name, it was still very simple to find out, just flipping through the aristocratic yearbooks.

And since they didn't say it for more than ten years before, they might not say it later - as long as they find a way to negotiate.

Suddenly, he remembered another rumor he had heard about his grandfather's family before - since the revolution, the House of Lords of the July Dynasty was abolished, and their family's seats in parliament disappeared, and the family's status also plummeted.

If that's the case, there's room for negotiation...

"I'll go visit their house later." After making up his mind, he whispered.

Then, a warm smile appeared on his face.

"But... before that, I'd better go see Agnes. She should be hungry, right? I'll bring her some food." (To be continued...)

!!