The Mute Female Knight Disguised As a Man

005 Kept in the Dark

"Awake?" Orville's lips lifted and he pulled another silk handkerchief from his sleeve, wiping her face with an almost gentle gesture, "Who gave you the audacity to sleep so soundly in front of this duke after your mistake?"

Chad was stunned to see that she had just been on his way back, but now she opened his eyes and saw Orville.

She looked at the carved beams above her head and realised she was in the main hall of the castle, and all around her stood her colleagues, all with faces as frosty and silent as ice. Chad got up from the ground and made the sign language gesture and was about to speak when Enoch, who was standing respectfully, suddenly spoke up, "Your Highness, Chad was knocked unconscious by me in a struggle."

Lionel, who was standing next to him, immediately gave him an evil look to shut up and said, "His Highness is asking Chad, why do you need to interrupt?"

And Orville didn't even look up, just threw the handkerchief he had just wiped Chad's face with on the floor.

"Ten lashes," Orville gave Enoch a faint look, "a small punishment."

"Ordered." Enoch and Chad exchanged a brief glance before being pulled out of the main hall by the other two knights.

Chad bowed her head and knelt with an erect posture, not quite understanding what crime she had committed that even Enoch, who had spoken for her, should be relentlessly angry. Orville sat back in his armchair at the main hall table and stared at her for a long moment before suddenly raising his hand and throwing all the letters on the table and a few short notes tied up in twine in front of Chad.

Chad could not read or write, but she recognised several letters that the Duke and the officials with whom he was usually on good terms had sent to and from each other, all of which she had been personally responsible for collecting and collating, so she was familiar with them. However, most of those letters did not have the Lancaster family's personal seal on them, so it was likely that someone had forged them.

This man must have entered the Duke's study, seen the real letters, and stolen them, and left forged letters to cover his tracks.

Who could it be?

These are no more than everyday letters and therefore not so important that they must be destroyed immediately after being read; they are normally stored in Orville's study and destroyed on a quarterly basis.

However, although they were not confidential, if someone with ulterior motives stole them and made a fuss about them in front of the Pope or the Crown, the Duke would then be at a loss for words.

"Do you know from whom these items were recovered?"

Chad was stunned as an answer gradually emerged in her mind, but she dared not answer or think more about it.

"Oh, I forgot you can't read," the Duke called out to someone, "Ray, read these short notes to him."

Ray picked up the short notes on the floor, each one contained only one or two sentences, but the words were like swords, poking at Chad's heart without hiding.

"Went to the northwest post in the park yesterday looking for the new nobleman who came to the territory the year before."

"The intercourse between the Duke of Orville and the Duke of Collins was not a nodding acquaintance as it appears, as evidenced by the handwritten letter."

"Recently succeeded in getting close to a knight, to be tried with a handkerchief tomorrow."............

There were 10 or 20 such short notes, and it turned out that His Highness had been aware of Gill's identity as a spy since last June, but he had kept quiet and allowed Chad to get closer and closer to Gill.

He was probably testing himself to see if he would defect.

It turns out that the reason Gill approached him was to use him. It turns out that the rapport and friendship Chad thought he had with Gill was just self-serving.....It turns out that ... ...

Ten years and more than 3,000 days and nights later, the Duke still doesn't trust himself.