Chapter 17: A Banquet Worth More Than Its Price (Laughs)
After “seeing clearly” the person’s face, Shelley gave up chasing Buck and rushed to Congreve. Shaking his shoulders, he shouted anxiously:
“Congreve! How are you? Wake up!”
Holding Congreve, who was covered in pastries, Shelley turned his head angrily and looked at Rupert, who was shocked and confused, demanding:
“Earl Rupert! What on earth is going on? Why is he suffering such treatment here!”
“Are you provoking the dignity of Duke Bell!?”
Rupert replied in panic:
“You’re talking nonsense! I don’t know! You are slandering me!”
Lady Audrey beside him, even in such a situation, remained cheerful.
Outwardly anxious, Shelley felt absolutely nothing inside; he even wanted to laugh.
“He’s been stripped naked now, so that item must have been taken away!”
“What’s needed now is to find a way to pour water on him!”
“How can I do it without appearing too artificial? Feed him water and spill it?”
“That’s a bit too theatrical…”
“My Lord! How are you, my Lord!”
Buck’s screeching wail interrupted Shelley’s inner monologue. He knelt beside Congreve, shouting incessantly in his ear, and…
His crotch was already a mess, out of control!
“One step too late!” Sighing regretfully, Shelley quietly moved a distance away from Buck.
Feeling Shelley’s gaze and hearing his almost inaudible sigh, Buck thought Shelley was going to kill him!
“As long as my Lord wakes up, he can save me! And with my Lord’s status…”
He scrambled to find a way to wake his master up.
In desperation, he picked up a half-full bottle of red wine from the ground and poured it onto Congreve’s head.
“My Lord! Help, my Lord! Please wake up!”
Shelley saw this unexpected situation as an opportunity and pretended to reach out to stop him.
“Buck! What are you doing? Are you insulting my brother too?”
Reaching out to snatch the broken wine bottle, Shelley pushed the frantic Buck aside.
But it was too late; splashing red wine had already spilled onto the three of them.
Deliberately not dodging, Shelley let the red wine spill onto his own head as well.
“Lord Shelley!” Lydia wanted to rush over but tripped on her high heels and almost fell to the ground.
“I’m fine, Lydia. Don’t come over.”
Don’t come over! A brother is leaking here!
The hall fell into silence, not knowing how to evaluate this farce.
Suddenly, a puzzled mutter broke the silence in the venue:
“…His hair?”
Some sharp-eyed nobles looked at Shelley, whose hair was wet with red wine. His slightly disheveled appearance didn’t ruin his demeanor at this moment.
A few drops of red wine dripped from the tips of his silver-gray hair. Coupled with his determined gaze and bloodstained cheeks, many noblewomen fell for him all over again!
Feeling everyone’s gaze, Shelley squatted beside Congreve, subtly directing their attention there.
Automatically ignoring Buck, whose clothes and trousers were soaked, someone exclaimed upon seeing the unconscious Congreve:
“Red hair!?”
At this moment, Congreve’s meticulously maintained hair was covered in cream and red wine, looking messy, but that wasn’t the point!
The point was that the hair soaked in red wine had turned fiery red!
The mottled red compared to the remaining silver-gray looked as if it had returned to its original color!
“Impossible! Was it dyed red by the wine?”
“But look at Shelley’s hair…”
“…”
“…Royal family?”
The venue fell into dead silence again. Shelley’s expression also became incredibly serious as he looked at his unconscious brother.
“…What exactly is going on?”
“Can someone explain this to me!?”
He was like a child whose worldview had been impacted, helplessly guarding his unconscious brother, looking around in confusion for help.
“Hahaha! My Lord! Flowing in my Lord’s veins is noble blood! Not something a bastard like you can compare to!”
The frantic Buck crawled over from the side, hugging Congreve and laughing wildly at the “confused” Shelley:
“My Lord’s bloodline is…”
Earl Rupert suddenly shouted anxiously at this moment:
“Shut up!”
“Cough, cough, cough!!!”
Congreve suddenly sat up like a corpse coming back to life. He gasped painfully but didn’t wake up.
With his eyes tightly closed, he lay back on the carpet but let out a miserable cry.
“Ah!”
Struggling to turn over, he revealed a back full of scars.
“Ah!”
“Blood!”
“It’s whipping!”
The noblewomen present felt that coming today was truly worth it!
It was supposed to be just a normal banquet, but it turned out to contain a conspiracy by the Duke’s family against an illegitimate son!
Although the Paladin’s process of judging evil was a bit bloody, his figure striving to destroy evil was also full of a unique charm.
Then, the Duke’s eldest son, who should have been the protagonist of the conspiracy, appeared unconscious at the Earl’s banquet wearing only his underwear!
Even more surprising was that there seemed to be a problem with the Duke’s eldest son’s bloodline…
And now, there were bloody whip marks on his back!
“I really feel sorry for those who didn’t attend the banquet today! They don’t know how much they missed!”
“Right! It’s truly shocking!”
“Say, if Lord Congreve is a masochist, would Shelley, who shares the same bloodline… hehe.”
“Look at this situation, do you still think they share the same bloodline?”
“Sigh! That’s a pity! I’ve wanted to see his crying expression for a long time!”
“You really have bad taste! However, I want to see it too!”
“Mm! Hope we can see it!”
“…”
Nadia, who had watched Shelley judge the enemies with a calm face, wasn’t scared by the slightly bloody scene. She wasn’t some soft-hearted young girl.
However, she was frightened by those noblewomen with smiles on their faces and lust in their eyes!
Her right hand paused, almost dropping the wine glass she held. She quietly walked to the other side.
“Is… is this what nobles are like…”
“How on earth did you survive here before?”
Lydia held onto the table, looking at Shelley in the center of the venue, thinking somewhat heartbreakingly:
“Lord Shelley looks very sad. Their relationship must be very good!”
“…That pattern, have I seen it somewhere?”
…
The person involved, Shelley, wasn’t in pain, panic, or anger as others thought…
His mind was now full of big question marks!
“?????”
“Congreve, I couldn’t tell!”
“You brat, your body is already like this, yet you play so wildly?”
“What a tough man!”
To desperately hide the fact that he was about to laugh, Shelley lowered his head, pretending to examine the injuries. At this moment, his brows furrowed slightly.
“No, this isn’t ordinary whipping!”
“The arrangement of these scars follows a pattern!”
“…Hiss, is this the holy symbol of some deity?”
Sucking in a breath of cold air as if having a toothache, Shelley felt his forehead instantly covered in cold sweat!
“There’s only one being I can think of who would depict a holy symbol in this way…”
“…The Maiden of Pain, Loviatar!”
