The Mute Female Knight Disguised As a Man

003 The Duke's Hunt

On the way back.

Chad always felt that something was wrong around her, and although she had been raised mute, her hearing and vision were sharper than normal.

She could sense the presence of another person among the trees, the sound of another footstep muffled in the darkness and the sound of falling snow, and the soft thud of clothing accidentally brushing against a branch irritated her nerves from her years as a knight.

And that voice kept following her.

Who was it?

As she wondered, a grey figure suddenly emerged from the snowy forest, and at the same time a long, glowing sword came straight at her.

Chad immediately dodged the blow by turning her head to the side.

By the light of the moon, Chad could see that the sword he was holding was black, with the Ackerman family crest engraved on it.

The Ackermans had been at odds with the Lancasters for centuries, and now that she was on the Duke's side, the Ackermans were bound to want to get rid of her.

But hadn't they sent several mercenaries to capture her just a few years ago, and now only this one?

Chad thought as he drew his sword from his belt and faced the man.

The man was wearing a mask of armour and could not be seen, but Chad felt that he looked familiar, as if he had seen him before.

After a few rounds, Chad knew that this man was no match for him. The stances used by the man in grey were haphazard, as if he was deliberately concealing his past habits with a sword, but on reflection Chad could see a certain familiarity in his stances.

This is clearly a sword technique taught by his master.　.

Chad kicked the man into the snow and when the man in grey got up, Chad was behind him.

With that, she slashed at the iron cover of the grey man's helmet, and the faceguard slipped off.

The man hastily covered his face with his hands.

Unfortunately, he was not as quick as Chad, and with that one glance, Chad had caught the outline of the face, and she could hardly believe it.

The face under the mask was Enoch.

The Enoch she saw as her brother and the best colleague she had ever had.

"Chad ......"

Chad heard him sigh.

Enoch couldn't have come to kill her for no reason, so there was only one possibility, the person who wanted she dead was Orville.

"The Duke ......," Chad looked at Enoch in astonishment, and then signalled, "has abandoned me?"

Enoch did not answer immediately, but after a long pause said, "I have never been as good a swordsman as you, and the Duke knows that, He must have sent me here with the intention of letting you live, all you have to do is wound me and then flee south and find a remote village to hide ......"

Without waiting for him to finish, Chad shook his head.

Orville, of course, knew of their strength, but he didn't send Enoch to give Chad a chance to live, he just wanted to test Enoch's loyalty because he saw that Chad and Enoch were usually on good terms.

Chad understood the truth of it, she knew best the character of Orville, for she had served him for ten years, and if she had not understood the mind of the Duke she would have been a rotting skeleton in the ground.

If Enoch didn't bring her body back, it would be Enoch who died.

Enoch had been so good to her over the years that he couldn't have gone along with Orville's words and killed Chad, but Chad would never have killed a brother who was good to her just to survive.

"If the Duke hadn't bought me back for a few pieces of silver, I wouldn't be living as well as I am today,"Chad gestured in sign language as he threw his longsword into the snow, "and now the Duke wants my life just to reclaim what is his..."

Before she could finish her gesture, Enoch, who was only half an arm's length away from her, suddenly struck her across the back of the neck with one hand.

Enoch wrapped his other arm around her to keep her from falling into the snow.

In fact, he had planned everything for Chad in his mind before he left the castle. He had hidden some butt-heads in the countryside and had just sent a secret message.

In an hour's time, someone would smuggle Chad into the harbour and send her south down the canal with a cargo of goods, So that when she wakes up, I'm sure she will open her eyes surrounded by a vast river.

When Enoch first heard of this, his heart leapt, but he never thought the Duke had any intention of killing her, only that Chad would be punished.

The Duke was so unpredictable, but in the ten years Chad had served him, he had rarely done anything wrong.

Only this time, Chad's life is about to be taken away from him simply because he is unsuspectingly approached by amaid with malice in mind who turns out to be a spy ambushed on the estate, and how innocent his poor brother Chad is! His young boy's innocence has been let down, and now his life is about to be taken away too!

While he was frozen in thought, a few owl calls came from a short distance away, short calls that seemed to be urging Enoch on.

Enoch looked deeper into the jungle and saw several figures hiding in the forest, waiting for Enoch to give the word and they would come and take Chad away.

But at the same time there was a slight shaking of the leaves in the jungle and Enoch heard the sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground and then he saw another figure coming on a horse.

The horse was followed by another, and then both horses stopped sharply in front of him, and the man on the horse said, "His Highness has orders for you to take Chad back to the territory. ......"

"What happened to him?"

"I knocked him out," Enoch paused, turning sideways to hide Chad behind him, and then asked, "Is the Duke's order ...... to see the living or the dead? "