Donning had been pandering to Lucas all along. Since Lucas was interested in all things violent and related to war, he said so. "Maybe." He gave an equivocal answer. "Grandpa doesn't like to talk about those painful war memories."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to." Lucas apologized for his abruptness. Deep in his heart, he had already accepted this young man with excellent skills.
But Mace didn't think so. The Ice Queen ignored Lucas's dissatisfaction. "Then why didn't you become a paladin?" Her words were full of suspicion, and her lofty interrogation seemed not to care at all whether the other party would be unhappy.
Rarely, Lucas got angry with his sister. "Mace, that's enough. He is my friend. You can't target him. If you think Mr. Donning has ulterior motives, please leave. He saved your brother's life."
A look of displeasure appeared on Donning's face on purpose. "Regrettably, I haven't inherited the excellent dragon - rider bloodline of my family and can't tame those evil dragons."
To become a dragon rider, one's bloodline needed to have the dragon blood familiar to evil dragons. Only then would the evil dragons be willing to become friendly partners with you. The rare bloodline restricted many young people who wanted to become dragon riders.
"Sorry, for my brother's safety, I had to do this. I hope you can understand." Finally, a smile returned to Mace's face. "There are too many people who want to get close to my brother, and most of them are ill - intentioned. If this has made you unhappy, I'm willing to apologize to you."
Lucas's expression finally looked better. "Look, Mace didn't mean it. Mr. Donning, you can understand. You're not a petty person."
Donning smiled back and handed the bow over with both hands. "Mr. Lucas, this is a gift for you. I hope you don't mind that the gift is too simple. I really couldn't think of what kind of gift to give you. A noble person like you surely doesn't lack those precious things."
Lucas took the longbow and was so excited that he could hardly breathe. "No, Mr. Donning. A longbow from the person who saved my life. There's no more meaningful gift than this. I will cherish it."
"Since you are safe now, I should leave too." Donning turned around and wanted to leave, thinking in his heart, "Lucas, issue an invitation and let our relationship go further."
"Wait a minute, Mr. Donning." Lucas caught up with Donning. "Even if you can't become a dragon rider, your skills still make me admire you. I would like to invite you to go hunting with me. There are a lot of prey in the winter wilderness."
"I'm honored. But I don't know when it will snow in Brot City." Donning looked at the blue sky through the window.
"There will always be a chance." Lucas tested the bow.
Entrusted with important tasks by Alkmaar, Fonte had to get into the swing of things as soon as possible. Sitting in the office, he rummaged through those secret materials sent to him. He wanted to find some clues, information that could make Alkmaar extremely worried, especially information about his secret collusion with the court.
His plan was not very complicated. Alkmaar was now a duke. To deal with such a big shot, the first step was to deprive him of his dukedom. Interfering with judicial justice was undoubtedly a good reason. At that time, the king would not risk losing the credibility of the judiciary to protect Alkmaar.
As long as Alkmaar was deprived of his dukedom, he was just a wealthy merchant, and it would be much easier to deal with him. For this reason, Fonte had already asked his father to communicate with the higher - level power echelons. After paying a huge amount of wealth, those in power stated that as long as they found strong evidence of Alkmaar interfering with judicial justice, they would prompt the king to make a decision to deprive Alkmaar of his dukedom.
He flipped through countless files but didn't find any flaws at all. Damn it, Alkmaar was still on guard against him. Fonte cursed angrily. He had lost the interest to continue flipping through these files. He threw a large number of files on the table. It was rare for him to be so exasperated.
To calm himself down and keep a clear head, Fonte walked to the window and admired the snowflakes beginning to fall outside the window. Winter was coming. It was the best hunting season. The figure of Donning appeared in his mind. That partner's plan had been quite successful. He saved Lucas at a dangerous moment, and Lucas would surely become familiar with him.
He didn't know whether Donning had used some means in that accident or it was just good luck that he happened to encounter that accident and saved Lucas. However, it didn't matter much. What mattered was that Donning had made great progress and might soon catch up with him.
In the snow - falling season, Lucas must have invited Donning to hunt together. And the really important figure, Mace Alkmaar, should have already met Donning and thanked him for saving her stupid brother's life.
"What a formidable character. But this only stirs up my fighting spirit more. I won't lose to others, especially in intelligence." Fonte thought so. He calmed down. "I have to work harder. I can't lose to him. Impulse is the devil."
No matter how perfect a plan is, there will always be flaws. As long as one observes carefully, one will always find some useful information. Patience is an essential ability for a successful person.
Fonte returned to his seat and flipped through those files page by page. When the sky was turning white, his efforts finally paid off a little.
The file recorded like this: Alkmaar had some friction with a merchant in the fight for the red wine market. This matter made both sides go to court. At the beginning, Alkmaar's opponent had the upper hand. But the opponent's lawyer died mysteriously in court, and the trial was adjourned. When the court reopened, Alkmaar's opponent suddenly fell into a disadvantage and finally lost the case.
There are many coincidences in the world, but Fonte didn't think this matter was as simple as a coincidence. Maybe by digging deeper, some very useful information could be obtained. He wrote down the name of Alkmaar's opponent, closed the file, rubbed his frozen hands, and smiled smugly.
"Really useful information."
The first snow in Brot City was not small. It snowed heavily, and the world was a vast expanse of white. The trees that hadn't withered yet were covered with a thick layer of snow, and many branches were broken. The prey in the forest had no food, but they still had to survive, so they had to risk coming out to look for food.
The hunting party was very large. They were all good friends of Lucas, and their hunting skills were quite good, which was why they were favored by Lucas.
Riding on a horse, Lucas turned around and introduced the newcomer, his savior, to his companions. "Guys, a new member has joined our hunting party. He is the most skilled young man I've ever seen. Maybe the ultimate winner of this wild hunt will be this newcomer, Mr. Donning."
Donning nodded to the people around him. The horse made restless noises in the snow. "I hope I won't make Mr. Lucas's prediction an excuse for others to laugh at."
Those hunters who came together looked at this young new hunter, with disdain on their faces. Mature hunters all had their unique marks, rough skin and strong bodies. But this new hunter's skin was as smooth as a woman's, and his body was not strong either. Obviously, he was a novice. So they didn't believe Lucas's judgment. Everyone wanted to show off in front of Lucas to get closer to him, which might be of great help to their future business.
"Mr. Donning, I think at this moment you should be sitting in a coffee shop and enjoying the warmth of coffee with those weaklings." Someone made sarcastic remarks without any disguise.
Lucas didn't show any dissatisfaction. He looked at Donning and raised the bow in his hand. "We are used to speaking with achievements. If you want to convince them, you must show your strength. Everyone here does this. I believe you will surely make them shut up, right, Donning?"
Donning smiled back, and the one - day - and - one - night wild hunt began!
The horses neighed and rushed forward. The sounds of urging the horses rose one after another. The snow - covered ground became muddy. Everyone wanted to be the first, the first to rush into this vast forest after the snow and get the first prey, taking the lead.
The raised hooves splashed the muddy water, and the horsewhips were flying, making everyone's clothes muddy, but no one cared about these small details. Donning followed at the end of the team, watching those hunters rush in all directions and then disappear into the vast snow.
Unlike those people, Donning's speed was very slow. The horse's hooves stepped into the deep snow with a "clip - clop" sound and slowly entered the forest, the largest forest outside Brot City, Elven Forest.
Once there was a hunter named Elven. At that time, Brot City was just a small town. The people in the town relied on hunting to get prey. The meat of the prey was used to survive the winter, and the skin of the prey was used to keep out the cold. The great hunter had traveled every inch of this forest and conquered this forest.
Later, Elven finally encountered something strange. There was an elk that could always escape from Elven's arrows. Elven didn't allow such a thing to happen. He chased the trail of this prey. People expected him to return victorious with that elk. But after several months, people didn't get any news from Elven.
After the snow melted, the hunters in the town entered this dense forest to look for the proud hunter's trail. When they found Elven, he had become a corpse, not decomposed yet. There was prey beside him, and the prey was that elk. He had succeeded, but he also paid with his life because his cotton - padded jacket had many torn holes and couldn't keep out the cold, so he was frozen to death.
To commemorate this persistent hunter, people named this forest after him.
Walking through the bushes, Donning was so comfortable that he didn't seem to be here for hunting but more like enjoying the beautiful forest scenery in the heavy snow. He was not in a hurry because his prey was not those animals.