Chapter 35: Late Night Disaster
Chapter 35
35.1
Prince Rochlan stared coldly at Zoe, who was crying bitterly, and was about to say something when the sound of hurried horse hooves suddenly came from the alley.
It was the Karagalang family that arrived.
Prince Rokolan came to Ravenmont City in person, and the news soon spread to Ravenmont Castle.
Duke Hugh Carragher hurriedly put on his ceremonial robes, Duchess Agnes wore a simple cloak, and Cecilia and Osborne followed behind them. Everyone looked very serious.
"Your Highness," Duke Caragaran dismounted and hurriedly saluted Prince Rokolan, "we don't know—"
"No need for excessive pleasantries," Prince Rochlan said bluntly, interrupting the Duke's greeting. "I don't care about anything else. I only care about this: Who is responsible for this fire?"
Everyone was stunned.
Hesong looked at the apprentice Zoe in panic, and then subconsciously looked at Olidesi, but Olidesi was not panicked.
The flames gradually became smaller, but the wandering flames were still burning with a "crackling" sound, and occasionally there was a "crack" sound of falling wood; the thick smoke from the burning fire was still floating in the air, hitting the nose, with an unpleasant burnt smell.
The billowing smoke covered Olidesi's face. She just looked at Prince Rokolan quietly without any movement, as if the fire in the carpentry shop had nothing to do with her. She was just a spectator of all this.
Hesong had no choice but to shut up.
Duke Hugh Caragaran paused for a moment, then looked at Prince Rochlan with a slightly inquiring look. "Your Highness, I wonder why this fire... has received so much attention from the royal family?"
Prince Rokolan did not answer immediately.
His eyes swept over the burned remains of the carpentry shop, stopped at the collapsed plaque of "Catherine Wood Woodcraft", and then turned to another spice shop next to the carpentry shop.
Prince Rochlan stared at the burnt spice shop and said coldly, "Inside the burned spice shop were stored the rose eucalyptus flowers I spent twelve ethereal years searching for for Queen Lucinda. If it weren't for the renowned spice makers of Ravenmont, I wouldn't have sent such a precious gift to Ravenmont."
Prince Rokolan said, his eyes becoming colder than the cold winter ice: "Xiu Karagaran, tell me, why am I paying so much attention to this fire?"
When Prince Rochlan mentioned Queen Lucinda's name, the crowd around him gasped: "They actually burned the gift presented to His Majesty..."
Duke Karagaran paused for a moment, but before he could speak, Osborne Karagaran suddenly said from behind him, "Everyone knows who is responsible for this fire!"
The prince narrowed his eyes, and Osborn said, pointing directly at Zoe who was sitting on the ground.
"This is all because of the mishandling of Catherine Wood's apprentice," Osborne said loudly. "I heard it, and everyone heard it too: she just admitted that she started the fire! She's the culprit behind all this!"
Following Osborne's actions, Duke Hugh Caragaran looked at Zoe:
Zoe was only thirteen years old, still a teenager; facing something as serious as a fire, her whole body was shaking.
The Duke glanced at Osborne, who was making a solemn vow, and his eyelids twitched slightly.
Prince Rochlan also looked at Zoe coldly, while Zoe sobbed, her shoulders shaking like leaves in the wind. The apprentice was clearly devastated by this incident, and could only repeat himself in confusion, "It's all my fault... It's not Master Catherine's fault. I was secretly practicing in the studio, and a spark from the wood started the fire... I don't know how that spark started it... I was clearly following the instructions!"
Hearing Zoe say this, not only did Prince Rokolan look cold, but the people around him who were affected were also a little angry.
A middle-aged businessman wrapped in a cloak suddenly rushed out from the crowd, his face still covered with black ash, but his eyes were full of anger.
"You?" He pointed at Zoe, his voice almost roaring, "You idiot, do you know how much damage your stupidity has caused us?"
His eyes were red, and he choked up as he spoke: "I was in the parchment business... Everything I had was ruined. I have nothing left!"
Several nearby affected shop owners chimed in, "Yeah! My herb shop is gone too!"
"Not to mention the spice shop—even the gift the prince intended to present to His Majesty the King was destroyed!"
Grief and suppressed sobs began to spread among the crowd. Apprentice Zoe fell to the ground, weeping bitterly: "I really don't know how that spark ignited... Everything was fine before. This has never happened before..."
Osborne Karagaran sneered, "Humph, clumsy apprentice! Your stupidity destroyed Prince Rokolan's treasures and ruined the wealth of countless people. Do you still want to make excuses for yourself?"
Zoe cried and shook her head. Hesong and Master Catherine looked at each other, and saw heavy emotions in each other's eyes:
This is a complete conspiracy against the carpentry shop.
Master Catherine took a half step forward, her face pale, but her voice firm: "Do we think our royal family and nobles are going to embarrass a thirteen-year-old child?"
Osborne snorted coldly. Master Catherine's voice was still hoarse, but she said loudly: "I am the one who runs the carpentry shop. If there are any safety issues, I should be responsible. It has nothing to do with this child!"
Master Catherine said this, and Hesong also walked forward silently.
"Your Excellency... Your Highness," He Song said softly, "Zoe is just a child. She doesn't understand anything. Master Catherine has been running a fever every day for the past three months and has been recuperating in bed."
He lowered his head as he spoke. "I've been running this shop for the past three Sundays. If anyone must be held responsible for this fire, it should be me."
Zoe looked at Master Catherine and He Song with tears in her eyes and cried even harder: "It's all my fault... It has nothing to do with them... If you want to punish me, punish me..."
Prince Rochlan looked down at all this from a high position. Just as he was about to speak, a sarcastic voice suddenly pierced him like a knife:
"That's enough."
Olidisi patted the burnt dust off the hem of her skirt and walked out slowly.
"That's enough," she said, her eyes sweeping over the angry and grieving neighbors. "Look at these three people—Katherine, Hesong, and Zoe—don't say you don't know what kind of people they are. How can it make you feel good to see good people become like this?"
The angriest merchant, the parchment scroll shop owner, was rendered speechless by Euridsi's words. He looked at the grave faces of Catherine and Hesong, and the trembling little Zoe—her thin body huddled in a ball, shaking uncontrollably under the crowd's fury.
The businessman's shoulders slumped.
Everyone ran a business in the same alley, and having been neighbors for so many years, they knew each other's personalities. As the neighbors looked at the devastating scene at the carpentry shop, the angry voices in the crowd gradually turned into low sobs: "It's all over... What should we do?"
Olidesi didn't talk much to the crowd. Her eyes passed through the crowd and landed precisely on Osborne Karagaran's face.
"You're jumping around like a wild monkey without any intelligence," she said.
Osborn was stunned: "You——"
"Yes, I'm talking about you, Osborne Karagaran." Olidesi laughed sarcastically. "Prince Rokolan didn't say anything, Duke Karagaran didn't say anything, so why did you jump out? How foolish! Are you afraid that others don't know that this fire is related to you?"
Osborne Karagaran subconsciously glanced at his father. Duke Hugh Karagaran's eyes were deep, and a hint of reluctance flashed across Osborne's smile.
However, facing Euridice, Osborne still spoke sternly and forcefully, "Are you going to argue for this carpenter's apprentice, Euridice Arquitas? She herself admitted that it was her actions that caused the fire!"
Zoe's shoulders shook, and Oulidsi suddenly sighed.
"Is it because I called you stupid?" she said, "Is it because I said, 'You are too simple-minded to plan anything serious,' and you deliberately created this scheme to prove it to me?"
Without waiting for Osborne to answer, Oulidsi clapped his hands in appreciation: "To be honest, Osborne Karagarang, this plan is really good."
As she spoke, she looked at Prince Rochlan, whose expression was icy. "Osborne, you know full well that the prince secretly sent the rose eucalyptus flowers to Ravenmont City, intending to give Her Majesty the Queen a surprise. All personnel entering and leaving Ravenmont City will be reported to the Karagalan family. The Karagalan family knows about this, and of course you know it too."
When Oulidsi said this, Prince Rokolan's eyes were like a drawn knife, sharpening across Osborne Karagaran's face.
Osborn blushed. "I didn't—"
Olidesi sighed. "Not only did you want to burn down the carpentry shop where Hesong and I were working, but you also wanted us to offend Prince Rokolan and have him personally witness the carpentry shop's sins and punish us. You even dare to use the prince. How audacious, Osborne Karagaran."
"You're talking nonsense!" Osborn said sternly, "Knight Commander, take this nonsense witch away!"
Prince Rokolan said coldly: "Shut up."
Osborne choked. Prince Rochlan narrowed his eyes and looked at Euridsi sharply: "Are you Euridsi Aquitas?"
Euridice was not afraid. She smiled calmly at Prince Rochlan.
"Yes," she said, "I am Euridice Arquitas."
Prince Rochlan looked at her. "I heard that there is a personal grudge between you and Osborne Karagaran."
"Indeed," said Oulidesi. "Your Highness, you probably remember that not long ago, at His Majesty's birthday banquet, Osborne Karagaran's right wrist was crippled because he was wearing a pair of black earrings."
Prince Rochlan certainly remembered this. Ollidoisi curled her lips, "I think the royal knights later investigated and found out that it was my earring. Osborne was so rude as to knock it off with a blunt sword and put it on himself."
Prince Rokolan said nothing, neither saying yes nor no. Euridsi spread his hands and said, "In short, Oscar Caragaran holds a grudge against me for this: he thinks I was the one who punished him. This is a personal feud between us."
Olidesi said this, looking at Osborne, who was gritting his teeth, with a half-smile: "So, in order to get revenge on me, Osborne Karagaran planned this fire in the carpentry shop. He not only wanted to destroy the shop where my husband worked, but also wanted to use this opportunity to make Your Highness impose irreversible punishment on us as well. To this end, he even burned down six innocent shops - well."
She shrugged as she spoke. "Making the carpentry shop a source of public outrage and responsible for compensating everyone's losses was probably one of Osborne Karagaran's goals. He was killing three birds with one stone: not only did the carpentry shop burn down, but it also offended Prince Rokolan and was punished, and had to compensate other shops—everyone in the carpentry shop was finished."
When Oulidsi said this, the people around him were stunned. Someone couldn't help but murmur, "This revenge plan is too amazing..."
Oledsi chuckled softly.
"No," she said, "that's not even the best part of this plan."
She looked at Zoe and said, "The most powerful part of this plan is Osborne Karagaran's psychological manipulation of Zoe—"
Zoe's sobbing stopped slightly, and she looked up in surprise.
"Psychological manipulation?"
"Yes," Oulidsi smiled at her. "Zoe, what Osborne Carragaran wants to do is to make you believe without a doubt that this fire was caused by you while practicing sawing wood."
As Oulidisi spoke, he looked at the dazed and miserably bullied little Zoe, and a sense of violence slowly rose in his heart.
She stopped laughing.
"He planned all this carefully, hoping that you would firmly believe that you were the culprit behind all this." Olidesi said, his gaze returning to Osborne Karagaran's face.
Her gaze seemed to have substance, as cold as a butcher's knife, scraping across Osborne Caragaran's eyes.
Being stared at like that sent a chill down Osborne's spine. Yet, he steeled himself and shouted, "That's complete nonsense! The apprentice herself has admitted it was her actions that started the fire!"
Zoe couldn't help sobbing. "I don't know how that spark ignited..."
Ouli Desi suddenly sighed softly.
“Of course you didn’t know, Zoe,” she says gently. “Because someone put something else on the piece of wood you were practicing on.”
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