The Magic Thief - v1c3p4
The boy was quite curious: could Eckert be a successful merchant, or even a descendant of a minor aristocrat? Eckert had some aristocratic bearing, which Mr. Madild didn't have.
Besides, Eckert's riding and fencing skills were extremely brilliant; ordinary merchants would never pay too much attention to these two things.
Merchants preferred to travel in carriages, rather than on the backs of horses.
As for fencing, it was for duel. Merchants would rather use money than use swords to resolve any issues.
For that reason, the boy was more certain that Eckert was a descendant of a declining aristocracy.
According to the manager, these people, as private secretaries of noble families, enjoyed special respect.
Firstly, it was because of their noble blood, and secondly, these people were also private political advisers of the noble families.
They had brilliant political tactics, which a merchant would never have.
Obviously, Eckert wanted the boy to become a kid raised by an aristocratic family. Otherwise, it would be had to explain why he gave the boy lectures of history and politics, which were extremely complicated and comprehensive.
Seeing Eckert's satisfaction with his studies, the boy finally found the courage to ask Eckert for his purposes.
Surprisingly, Eckert didn't beat the boy with his pointer.
"Do you really want to know? " Eckert asked; he continued without waiting for the boy's response: "Alright, Fabian, the young man who brought you here from South Port, didn't tell you the truth. Mr. Hyde isn't a 'philanthropist'; he controls all thief unions in the sixteen southern provinces of Franco. Everyone calls him 'the boss'.
"I'm the head of crooks, everyone calls me 'the actor'; Pym is the head of thieves, and Fabian is a foreman.
"We have a new plan now, but this plan needs a new face that no one has ever seen. Fabian found you and you didn't disappoint us, at least by now. "
The boy felt chilly. He had never thought that he would fall into the hands of a group of thieves and robbers. Although he had once suspected the identities of Fabian and his fellows at the Old Nest, the books in Pym's room immediately cleared all his doubts, for a thief would never have so many books. He didn't expect to fall in such a sophisticated trap.
When he thought of all of this, the boy couldn't help but feel dazed. Fortunately, this month's training allowed him to deeply remember most of the things in his mind. Every action and every movement of his was as natural as a habit, thus making no mistakes.
When the boy was alone in his bed at night, he became more and more frightened. What if he didn't know this was a den of thieves, that would be all right. But now that he understood everything, he always felt that someone was watching him from inside the door, or someone with a dagger was standing in the window, waiting him to sleep.
"I can't stay here anymore, and I have to find a way to escape." The boy thought to himself.
He got up quietly, put on his clothes and opened the balcony window, which was on the second floor, and not very high from the ground.
The boy clung to the balcony's fence and carefully rolled down from the balcony. As neared the ground, the boy jumped lightly and dropped to the ground with the smallest possible sound.
When he got onto the ground, the boy thought that he should go to the stable and bring out the horse that he had ridden, so that it could be easier to get out of here.
But then he realized that he had learned a lot from Eckert in this month, who taught him to ride, and if he stole his horse, it would be too much. The boy turned his head toward the back of the house, where there was a small door that had been locked from inside, so he didn't have to climb over the iron fence gate.
As he turned around, he saw Eckert and another middle-aged man standing impassively behind him.
The two men were equally well dressed, apparently being waiting for a long time.
"You have a good patience, but we've been waiting for you." Eckert said, in a mocking tone.
The door creaked open, and the steward came out of the door in a dressing gown.
"Your disciple didn't learn much. He actually made such a big noise. What did he think of this place? A nursing home? I think most of the people have been woken up by him. " The steward smiled.
Of course, the boy had guessed that the steward wasn't a real steward, and the servants here weren't real servants.
The boy followed the steward into the house, with his head bowed.
When he returned to the room, the middle-aged man walked to the bed. He knocked on the four pillars on the bed and the solid wood pillars emitted a dull sound.
The middle aged man turned slowly back to his desk and took out three quills from the pen holder on his desk. Suddenly, he turned around and three quills were shot out like lightning toward one of the pillars.
He heard the crisp sound of "tong tong tong" and the quills were neatly pinned into the solid wood.
That were the three quills the boy used to wrote all day. Of course, he knew that these pens' tips was not very sharp, instead, they were rather soft, and easy to write. At the same time, the bed was made from jujube wood and very solid.
To be able to use such a soft tip to stab into this solid wood, that a tough saber was not able to cut into, it could only be said that this middle-aged man in front of him was a very dangerous man.
Just when the boy was trembling, he looked at the two expressionless middle-aged men in front of him and silently guessed what he might have ended up. At South Port, it was said that the thieves would tie a big rock to the feet of the traitors and then drown them in the river. As long as thinking of he might feed the little fish as well, the boy's body trembled a lot.
Eckert didn't speak a word. Instead, the middle aged man took a necklace from his pocket. It was a cheap necklace that could have been bought everywhere in South Port.
"Do you recognize it?" asked the middle-aged man.
The boy took two steps back and nodded.
"This is what I took from your Aunt Betty's neck in the trip of South Port. This kind of thing is easy for me, and I can take something else from your Aunt Betty's neck, not this necklace, you understand?"
Seeing the boy's eyes widen in fear and nodding up and down, his face pale, his nose twitching, Eckert said, "Well, I think you know what to do, you can go back to rest, but I'm going to give you another final lesson before you go to rest."
When he heard what Eckert said, the boy knew, that final lesson was to be punished, but anyway, he got relieved, at least he survived from it.
The boy crouched obediently on the bed, but he never thought the punishment would be so painful. Every one of them made him cry out in a hoarse scream. He tried to scramble up, but he was firmly trampled on his back by Eckert so he couldn't move any more. He had to endure the pain of the whip until he passed out, losing all of his consciousness.
When the boy woke up, it was already noon on the third day. He had been unconscious for two days, but his injuries still weakened him greatly. Eckert exempted the horsemanship, swordsmanship, and other courses that required more exercise, as well as the last lesson of punishment, which was a rare blessing for the boy.
A great deal of time was spent in the study of book knowledge, especially in language learning. Eckert talked to him in different languages all day.
Since the boy had already known that this was a thief's den, Eckert no longer concealed anything. The so-called mechanics class had naturally changed into how to unlock and how to use the thief's special tools.
Moreover, from that day on, the boy had a new course - heraldology. For the boy, this course was simply a lecture on the family tree. There were over three hundred ancient noble families in Franco, more than half of them dating back to the days of the Emperor Redukian, which was three hundred years before the founding of the Kingdom of Franco.
In the past one thousand years, these families had been married to each other. Some of the best families had created a batch of clansmen. One or two short-lived families could make contributions to reduce this huge system, and most of the families were well established and vigorously developing.
If it hadn't been for the wise Franco V, the genealogies of these noble families would have been more complicated. Franco V announced that the title of nobility had to be passed to his direct descendant, and that it could not be divided or combined.
In the days when he was reciting the family line, the boy had gradually come to agree with his new identity. He was Raboy Benedit, a direct descendant of some noble family. But from the name of Benedit, it seemed to be a descendant of the ancient aristocracy of Siba, and no wonder Eckert had asked him to learn Sibanian.
瑞博心中暗想，幸好他只需要了解佛朗士的贵族谱系而不是西拜的。
Fortunately, Raboy thought, he needed only to know about the aristocratic lineage of Franco, not of Siba.
Anyway, on this continent, Franco was a new country. In the venerable kingdoms like Siba, many families had been active since the days of the Glorita Empire. After fifteen hundred years, these families' genealogies became as entangled as the silk in a bald cocoon.
After a month of recuperation, Raboy got recovered. But after that disastrous day, he never saw the strange middle-aged man again, who had never been at the table before. He guessed that he was not living in this place, like Pym.
It might be better for him not to meet the extremely dangerous stranger.
But that's impossible.
Raboy had to get the necklace from him.
Because the necklace was the only thing his parents had left him.
When his father died of the plague, the sheriffs lit the house and burned it down. There was no property in the house, and all the worthy things that couldn't be burned were taken away by the sheriffs, only the worthless necklace was left.
But the necklace meant a lot to herself, and he gave it to Aunt Betty, who was closest to him, to show his gratitude to Aunt Betty, who knew his intentions and never removed the inconspicuous necklace from her neck.
Although this necklace was not worth much, it represented the love his parents and Aunt Betty had to him.
It was the most important, the most valuable, the most meaningful thing in his life.
He must get the necklace back, even if it was in the hands of a killer more dangerous than the Devil, and more horrific than Azrael.