The golden sunset gradually sank into the mountains, dyeing the surrounding clouds with a golden outline. The sky was like a layered cake, changing from blue to white, then from white to red, and finally turning into afterglow,灑 across the earth, making the dense grass also reddish.

At the end of the Greycastle's territory, there was a raised earthen slope. Standing on it, one could see the houses, farmland, and forests connecting the valley at the same time. Nightingale liked to ride on her father's shoulders to climb the low slope when she was a child, so that she could have a panoramic view of her entire home. Therefore, when the servants sent back the scarred remains of her parents and asked her where she wanted to bury them, she chose the earthen slope without hesitation.

At that time, although she was grief-stricken, she was still somewhat unwilling to believe that her parents had suddenly left. She only thought that if her parents could open their eyes again, no matter where she and her brother were in the house, they would be able to see them immediately.

Now, returning to her parents' tombstone, Nightingale had a completely different mood.

There was not much dust on the tombstone, obviously someone was still cleaning it. She bent down and neatly stacked a pile of white paper she was holding in front of the two tombstones.

It was the trial of Viscount Sommer.

Faced with irrefutable evidence, the viscount's defenses quickly collapsed. After Roland promised that the crime would not involve the underage children, he not only admitted the fact that he was selling dream water, but also confessed the whole story of annexing the Greycastle family.

It turned out that there really was a treasure hidden under the valley that separated the two families' territories, but it was not a gem mine, but a suspected gold mine.

The person who discovered it was a farmer from the Sommer family.

Due to the different terrain, the valley was considered a gully for the Greycastle family, but in the Sommer territory, it gradually leveled with the ground. Farmers would often go to the downstream to fetch water and take baths. Until one day, a lucky person found a gold sand from the flowing mountain spring. After summoning others to search and snatch it, it attracted the attention of Dort Sommer.

After that, he immediately blocked the news and sent people to search for the source of the gold sand along the valley.

However, the feedback from his subordinates disappointed him greatly.

The searchers did find more gold sand in the stream, and it seemed that the erosion of rainwater caused the valley walls to continue to collapse, allowing the free coarse gold to fall into the water. However, more and more evidence showed that the gold mine was likely located on the Greycastle family's side, which forced the exploration to be terminated.

Because of the special status of Silverlight City, the knights and retinues that nearby nobles were allowed to have were subject to certain restrictions. It was impossible to rob it outright, and Viscount Sommer was really unwilling to give up this huge treasure, so he set his sights on Earl Greycastle.

His breakthrough point was Old Greycastle—a distant relative of the Greycastle family.

The plan was simple, but cruel. He used Old Greycastle's weakness of having neither a title nor a fief to tempt the other party to cooperate with him, and promised that as long as he gave him a piece of land, the Greycastle family could change its master. The latter obviously couldn't resist the temptation to become a true noble in one fell swoop and agreed to his conspiracy.

So Dort bribed rats and took advantage of the refugee riots to kill the Greycastle couple, while Old Greycastle timely took in the underage Hyde and Nightingale and began to manage the territory on their behalf. As long as he waited for Hyde to come of age, forcing him to cede the fief and title would be easy—the unprotected heir was no different from a caged bird. Even if other nobles suspected it, they would only think that Old Greycastle was too greedy.

At this point, it could be said that the situation was settled. However, Nightingale's awakening caused a flaw in the plan—after she killed Old Greycastle on her coming-of-age day, she disappeared without a trace, and the latter didn't wait for the title he dreamed of until the moment he died.

Dort Sommer had to change his plan—he could win over Old Greycastle, but he couldn't make everyone in the Greycastle family turn to him. After all, there was only one title that could be used as a bargaining chip, and he had to use it wisely.

Ironically, he ended up looking for Hyde.

When Nightingale heard this, she found it extremely ridiculous—what originally belonged to Hyde was used as a bargaining chip, and the latter naively thought that the other party would help him, and agreed to the proposal of killing his relatives without much hesitation.

With the support of the viscount, Hyde stood out from a group of relatives fighting for power and finally retained the title, becoming the official heir of the Greycastle lineage. Then, according to the agreement, he merged into the Sommer family. It wasn't that he kept his promise, but the family's property after the internal strife was on the verge of collapse, and ** of the territory's people had been lost. Apart from joining, he had no other way to go.

After ten years of long planning, the viscount finally got what he wanted. He even saved up the huge capital needed for mining little by little through smuggling dream water. As long as he waited to find out the location of the ore vein, the Sommer family could obtain wealth that would last for hundreds of years.

However, Roland's appearance shattered his dream.

For a suspected gold mine, murdering nobles of the same rank, causing several families to break up... a vicious trick that resulted in the deaths of nearly twenty people was exchanged for a noose around his neck.

From beginning to end, he didn't get to see the gold mine.

Nightingale took out the fire flint and lit the trial.

She once heard Roland say that there was an ancient way of mourning, which was to make paper into the shape of the object you wanted to convey, and then burn it with fire, so that the deceased could receive the item. Because fire could communicate with the spirits, and fireworks with special wills had a certain chance of passing through the gate between life and death, especially at dusk when the two worlds were closest.

Nightingale hoped to use such a ritual to inform the souls of her parents of the news that the murderer had been brought to justice. Although Roland later added that he didn't really believe in the existence of the two worlds, she didn't care.

Because this move was more to comfort herself than to console her parents.

By the time she walked down the earthen slope, it was completely dark.

Roland was waiting for her not far away. Until she saw that familiar figure, her heart, which had nowhere to rely on, suddenly landed.

"Is this really okay? Letting that guy leave unscathed," Roland pursed his lips, "I've wanted to teach him a lesson for a long time."

"Oh? In what capacity?" Nightingale raised an eyebrow.

"Uh..." He coughed twice, "Of course, in the capacity of the king."

Nightingale smiled and shook her head, "His matter is over and has nothing to do with me anymore. If you really want to, you can send someone to find him and beat him up again."

"Since you've said so, then forget it," Roland spread his hands.

"Yeah, by the way..." Nightingale suddenly stopped and knelt down on one knee, saluting with her hand on her chest as she did when she first swore allegiance, "Your Majesty, will you allow me to stay by your side in the future and serve you?"

"Why are you suddenly bringing this up," Roland was stunned, "Didn't we already talk about it?"

"But I want to hear you say it again," Nightingale insisted.

Roland shrugged helplessly, turned around and walked to her side, touching her head and said, "Then listen carefully—um, okay, okay, okay, okay... a hundred answers are all okay, are you satisfied?"

The magic string did not tremble at all, as quiet and gentle as the earth plunged into the night.

It's so good to have met him.

Nightingale raised the corners of her mouth and smiled brightly, "As you wish, Your Majesty."