90 The graveyard (1/2)
”Cough Cough! That's it for today! I need to rest now!” An old man with a tired expression slowly pushed the desk away from his bed. The desk had small wheels attached to its legs and easily rolled a few centimeters when it was pushed.
”Alright! It has been hard for you! Please take a rest, I will ask the servants to bring a hot meal!”
”Thank you Sherman! I know I can rely on you!” said the old man. He slowly pushed his long white hair and took a more comfortable position. ”Cough cough!”
Sherman bowed before quickly leaving the room. He quickly signaled the servants outside to go to the kitchen and bring back a hot meal.
The 2 servants promptly nodded before disappearing into the corridor. Sherman wanted to close the door immediately but he was interrupted by the 2 young men standing near the door.
”Sherman! How is our father? Is his health improving?” asked a tall man with brown hair.
”Young master! The Earl is resting! He has just finished his daily work, would you like to come in?” respectfully said Sherman. Although his tone and attitude were respectful, his eyes were full of disdain towards the 2 young men in front of him.
”There is no need! Since my father is resting, we should not disturb him. After all, his health is fragile!” answered the other man with nonchalance.
'What a pity! The Earl has 2 sons but none of them even cares about his health! All they think of is their father's title' said Sherman in his heart. He naturally could not voice out his thoughts, although he was the personal butler of the earl, he was in the end just a servant of the household. Instead, he simply bowed, ”In that case, please excuse me! I will return to the Earl's side.”
Sherman slowly closed the door and returned to the old man's side.
”Was it Mans and Adam?” asked the old man.
Sherman looked at the earl with regret and pity, ”Yes! It was the two young masters.”
...
Outside the room, the 2 young men looked at each other before silently walking back to their own quarters. They walked down the corridor together but at that moment, the 2 servants were coming back; one of them was pushing a trolley containing food while the other was holding a tray on which a letter was placed.
”Wait a minute! What is this letter?” asked Mans.
”Young master! This is a message from the capital, it just arrived a few minutes ago, the manager asked us to bring it to the earl.”
The 2 young men's eyes shone, ”The capital? Give me this letter!”
Without waiting, Adam stepped forward and grabbed the letter. His movement was quite fast and he inadvertently pushed the young servant. Although it was not intentional, the servant had a frail body and could not maintain her balance.
”Young masters, we need to deliver the letter to the Earl,” respectfully said the other servant.
”Silence! One of us is going to be the next Earl anyway! Go bring the food to my father! Don't waste time, his health is already declining and you want to make him starve!” angrily shouted Mans.
The 2 servants were scared by his actions. They both clearly knew how violent the 2 young masters were; although they appeared flawless in public, in private, both of them revealed their true character. But due to their status and to the influence of their father, only those working for the household knew about their real nature and these people were all being generously rewarded to maintain the secret.
”And don't say anything about the letter! We will deal with it!” declared Adam as he stared at the 2 young servants like a wolf looking at his preys.
The 2 servants hurriedly pushed the trolley and rushed to the Earl's room. They both hated being in presence of the Earl's sons, if they were not seriously in debt and needed the money to help their family, they would have long left this place. They knew it was their duty to get back the letter but they could simply tell Sherman about this incident.
The threats of the Earl's sons did not have much weight but if they stayed there, they might lose their chastity. Things like that happened in the past and the servants were well aware of that.
With the 2 servants gone, Mans and Adam opened the letter and read the content. Their eyes shone as they finally arrived at the signature at the bottom.
”The 6th prince and the 7th princess are coming!?”
...
Graveyard of Verdan Town
Li Wei was walking next to the graveyard keeper, Oleg.
”I will just make a quick round and then I will show you my house. I spend most of the night there but I go out to make patrols occasionally. I don't have any specific pattern since I am trying to catch the grave robbers off guard! But despite all my attempts, I never saw them!” said Oleg.
Li Wei nodded, he found that Oleg's character really did not match his appearance but sometimes, appearance might be deceiving. The 2 men walked around the graveyard, the landscape was quite monotonous and gloomy.
Gravestones of different sizes could be seen everywhere, it was quite intimidating to see the different names and writings. Some were clearly better maintained than others and a few even had some flowers.
Quickly, they turned into another alley where larger tombs could be found. There, 5 to 6 corpses could be buried together; these were mostly used by families to bury all their members together. These tombs were also the targets of the grave robbers. In most cases, it was the tombs that were ransacked.
The graveyard keeper Oleg pointed at some tombs and explained that they had recently been looted. He had to come there the next day to repair the damage and clean up the place.
At that moment, Li Wei recalled that there was a possibility that Oleg was the one behind all these graverobbing.
He silently followed Oleg as he went through the graveyard. Fortunately, the graveyard was not very large, it only took 10 minutes to cover the perimeter of the graveyard. They then went to the center of the graveyard which was clearly of much better quality.
This was the place where rich families were buried. Strangely, none of the tombs there had been the target of looting.