The butler kept chattering on. Although he repeatedly claimed how despicable and shameless the master was, judging from the look on his face and the way he was talking about all this with great relish, it seemed that it wasn't exactly the case.
Apparently, he took great pleasure in this topic.
The butler was talking with great enthusiasm on his own, while Ivan beside him had already lost interest in listening.
"Alright, you can stop for a moment. I want to ask you, what was the deal with that young master Ivan?" Mr. Juan interrupted the butler's enthusiasm.
"Ah, young master Ivan. Right, I was just about to mention young master Ivan. Our master was such a scoundrel. Young master Ivan witnessed all this since he was a child. How could he not learn bad things? You don't know. Our master was very strict with us servants.
When he was tormenting the mistress in the bedroom, servants were not allowed to enter the bedroom, and even the entire third floor where the bedroom was located was off-limits. This rule was applicable not only to male servants but also to female servants. However, young master was the only exception."
"You can't imagine that when young master Ivan was not fully sensible yet, he often watched the master and the mistress doing that. As time passed, young master also became a scoundrel. And, and it's also said that the master even let young master touch the mistress. Of course, this is just our speculation. However, these speculations are not completely unfounded. You don't know.
Our master liked painting, and he painted very well. The master painted women, all kinds of women. The mistress was the one he painted the most. Although these paintings didn't involve that kind of thing between men and women, I always felt that these paintings were even more despicable, much more despicable. Among them, there were several paintings of the mistress and young master together."
Hearing everything the butler said, Ivan felt a bit queasy in his stomach.
"Mr. Juan, I've brought all those paintings too. It was really close. Fortunately, the thugs didn't check these paintings. The ones with the real Ivan Est were placed at the bottom," Audrey said.
"Are you sure no one has touched them?" Mr. Juan asked. He also hadn't expected that such a huge danger had been hidden there all along and hadn't been discovered. It could only be said that their luck was really good.
"I'm sure. There was a thick layer of dust on the frames. This dust can prove that those paintings haven't been moved. Fortunately, only the top dozen or so paintings were touched. Those killers obviously also wanted to find something valuable from the paintings. But, like us, when the killers saw that they were all that kind of stuff, they gave up further searching," Audrey said.
"Bring the paintings here and let me have a look," Mr. Juan said.
Ivan took a look at Mr. Juan and saw that he had been frowning all the time. So he knew that Mr. Juan wasn't really interested in those lewd paintings. Mr. Juan might have other intentions.
Audrey agreed and left her seat and walked out of the room again.
This time, after a long wait, Audrey returned to the hall. She was dragging a small flatbed cart piled high with painting frames of various sizes. After unloading the oil paintings from the small flatbed cart, Audrey dragged the empty cart out of the room again.
After going back and forth four times in total, the hall was already filled with oil paintings.
Everyone stood up from the sofa and walked to the pile of oil paintings.
Mr. Juan looked through the paintings one by one. The butler stood behind Mr. Juan and explained a few words from time to time.
This butler had a pretty good memory. Among these paintings, the earliest ones were painted by that scoundrel when he was young. The butler could still tell which noble lady the model in the painting was.
Audrey had obviously already looked at them once, so she didn't have any reaction at all.
Herbert had never been interested in this kind of thing.
Only Ivan blushed and felt his blood boiling as he watched.
It had to be admitted that Mr. Est indeed had extraordinary painting talent. The beautiful women in the paintings were not only vivid as if they were real, but also extremely lifelike and expressive.
Each beautiful woman seemed like a real person with flesh and blood, jumping out on the canvas. Even the temperament and disposition of each person could be vividly shown.
Each of these paintings unabashedly demonstrated Mr. Est's painting talent to the fullest, and also completely revealed the dissipated and decadent side of this playboy.
These paintings were full of blatant sensuality and provocation. The gorgeous and exquisite silk, the pure white and delicate wool blankets, the fluffy and soft camel hair, and the bright and charming bouquets. The painter skillfully and successfully used the techniques of hiding and revealing to arouse people's desire to see more clearly.
Although it was unknown what effect this provocation had on Audrey and Mr. Juan, Ivan clearly felt that this temptation was irresistible for him.
In fact, on several occasions, Ivan was so impulsive that he wanted to pick up an oil painting and hold it in front of his eyes to carefully examine the tantalizingly hidden parts that were always hazy.
Besides these, there were other things that made Ivan feel even more itchy and restless.
Most of those beautiful women were wearing strange ornaments that he had never seen before.
A very sparse pearl necklace or an exquisite and delicate chain hung down along the slender legs.
A long golden needle as sharp as a wasp's stinger was exposed between the buttocks.
This was a common ornament that often appeared in those oil paintings.
Looking at these ornaments, Ivan felt inexplicably hot all over.
His face flushed bright red, and his cheeks were burning hot.
"Are these the ones?" Mr. Juan asked, pointing to nine oil paintings stacked together.
"Yes, yes," the butler nodded and bowed repeatedly in agreement.
Ivan peeked. He could only see the first oil painting, and the ones below were covered by it and couldn't be seen.
Unlike all the other nude paintings of beautiful women, in this painting, besides Miss Bertha Madin, there was also a child about eight or nine years old beside her.
Miss Bertha had wavy blonde hair that cascaded down her back, set against the green grass, like the fragmented sunlight on the rippling lake. Her pointed chin was slightly raised, revealing her snow-white and slender neck. Her big, bright and lively eyes paired with her straight and delicate nose were truly a perfect masterpiece of the gods.
Beside Miss Bertha, a child about eight or nine years old was kneeling on one knee. He also had flowing, slightly curly hair, just a different color. Judging from the combination of the child's eyebrows, eyes and nose, he really looked like Miss Bertha. This should be the real Ivan Est, the heir to the lord who had died in the plague seven years ago.
In the painting, the child had one hand tightly wrapped around Miss Bertha's raised long leg, and the other hand was holding a long, sparse pearl necklace, the other end of which disappeared between Miss Bertha's crossed legs.
Seeing this painting, Ivan felt his heart suddenly beat a lot faster. His chest felt so stuffy that it seemed like it was going to explode at any moment. His throat was burning as if he had accidentally swallowed a piece of red-hot charcoal. What made Ivan feel even more uncomfortable was the severe pain in his lower abdomen.
Suddenly, Ivan noticed that there was an obvious bulge in the front of his pants. His face became even redder. Ivan quickly turned his head away, not daring to look anymore. Perhaps, this was just too stimulating for him.
"This was the birthday gift that the master gave to young master Ivan on his eighth birthday," the butler explained beside him.
"Such a gift is really unheard of. The real gift was probably not this painting," Mr. Juan said.
"Mr. Juan, do you think I can completely dispose of these extremely dangerous paintings?" Audrey asked.
Mr. Juan pondered for a while, then turned to the butler beside him and asked, "Did your master ever show these paintings to anyone?"
"Yes, yes. Viscount Belfry and Viscount Nathan were both good friends of the master," the butler replied. "However, whether these paintings have ever been shown or not, that's beyond my knowledge."
"What's the background of these two viscounts?" Mr. Juan asked.
"I'm not quite sure. I only know that they are quite influential in the capital, Francois," the butler said.
"Did they ever meet the real Ivan Est?" Mr. Juan asked further.
"No. Although the mistress was quite obedient to the master, she had always been reluctant to meet outsiders. In fact, she didn't even want anyone to know her real identity. Actually, we servants didn't even know that the mistress was the daughter of the lord.
The master was always very considerate of the mistress in these aspects. And young master was always by the mistress's side. In my memory, he had never left her side. When the master had guests visiting, young master would hide in the room with the mistress and not come out," the butler said.
"Audrey, please ask Ted to go back to Southport again and bring Corby here," Mr. Juan ordered.
"Corby? Are you planning to make use of these paintings?" Audrey certainly knew very well what Mr. Juan meant by asking her to bring Corby here.
Corby was the art swindler in their group who was specialized in making forgeries of stolen famous paintings and precious antiques and secretly selling them to cheat huge amounts of money.
Many of the forgeries made by Corby had escaped the eyes of the shrewdest art appraisers and had been solemnly treasured in the private collections of noble families, kings or bishops.
Mr. Juan called Corby here, surely to ask him to forge these paintings. Of course, the main characters in the paintings would definitely be replaced by the current Ivan.
"Understood. I'll take care of it right away," Audrey replied.
Mr. Juan casually flipped through the stack of oil paintings. Although Ivan also wanted to peek at them secretly, he was a bit afraid. As for what exactly he was afraid of, he wasn't quite sure himself.
"Were these paintings all completed in one go?" Mr. Juan asked.
"No. The master would paint one for young master only every few months," the butler said.
"Why are the backgrounds mostly in the wild?" Mr. Juan asked.
"Well, I didn't pay much attention. It's really like that," the butler scratched his head and said. "The master had a small cottage outside Southport. It was a very simple cottage. I think these paintings were all painted near there."
"Do you know where that cottage is?" Mr. Juan asked.
"Yes, I've been there several times."
"Audrey, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to make a trip. In case there's something hidden there, it'll be troublesome," Mr. Juan ordered.
"Oh, I just remembered something. But I don't know if it's useful or not," the butler suddenly slapped his own head and said.
"What is it?" Mr. Juan asked.
"Usually, when the master and the mistress were doing that kind of thing, they would always close the doors and windows tightly and never allow anyone to approach the bedroom. However, there were always one or two days in a month when the mistress's bedroom would be completely different from usual.
Not only were all the curtains drawn open, but the door was also wide open. However, we servants had already developed the habit that without the master's order, we would never approach the mistress's bedroom," the butler said.
"I understand," Mr. Juan nodded. "Butler, you should also go back to Southport with Audrey. Besides that cottage in the mountains, were there any other places where your master had stayed for a while?"
"There was a boat, a small boat. Besides that, there seemed to be nothing else. Since getting to know the mistress, the master had settled down in Southport. In my memory, the master never went to other places after that. That small boat was used by the master for fishing.
The mistress was never interested in fishing," the butler said. "Just to be on the safe side, it's better to check it out thoroughly. You may leave now," Mr. Juan said. The butler replied with an "Yes" and then backed out of the room respectfully. "Audrey, call Suzanne here," Mr. Juan ordered. "I'm afraid it's a bit difficult. Suzanne said she was dirty and tired from the journey and wanted to take a bath to relax first.
I'm afraid she's still soaking in the bathtub now. You know what her temper is like," Audrey replied helplessly. "Then call Pam here first. I have something to tell him," Mr. Juan said. Audrey nodded and walked out of the door. After a while, she led Pam back into the hall. "Suzanne has already got out of the bathtub and is putting on her makeup. It might take another half an hour," Audrey told Mr. Juan. "Boss, as you asked, I've brought the men and spies you need.
There are a total of one hundred and fourteen Gold Fingers and two hundred and thirty-eight spies. I've temporarily arranged them outside the city. I've already told them not to do any business during these days," Pam reported. "Who's their leader?" Mr. Juan asked. "Each group has its own leader.
Baz is in charge of the overall dispatch," Pam replied. "Very good. You ask the local guys to take one or two out-of-town companions each and get familiar with the geography of Luxembourg in the next few days. By the way, let them inquire about something. Just now, I sent Hess to pick up Ivan, but it wasn't Hess himself who arrived at Ivan's place.
On the way back, Ivan was almost ambushed. Fortunately, he was smart enough to escape with his life. However, Hess is probably in great danger. I want you to find out who arranged all this and whether Hess is dead or alive," Mr. Juan ordered. "Yes, I'll do it right away," Pam agreed. "Boss, how do you plan to deal with this matter?" Audrey asked. "A game has its rules. Since someone has set the rules for us, let's play by these rules too," Mr. Juan said with a gloomy face. "Since others can kill our people, we can also cut off their wings completely, right, Boss?" Audrey asked. "You're right.
What's more, I'm worried that if we let them go on like this, those guys will think they have everything under control. I'm afraid their courage and appetite will grow even bigger," Mr. Juan said. "Boss, what's my job?" Herbert, who had been standing aside and hadn't said a word all this time, asked. "You still need to protect Ivan secretly for the time being.
I'll tell you when I need you to take action. By the way, Firth has already got the Madman out. You should go and see him," Mr. Juan said. Speaking of this, Mr. Juan suddenly thought of something and asked Herbert, "How are the other killers? Have you contacted them?" "They haven't responded yet, but there should be news in a week. Boss, actually you don't need to call those people at all.
With the Madman's help, I can take down any target," Herbert said. "No, there are some things that are not suitable for you to do. Your methods are too clean. What I need now is bloodshed, even bloodier means than those of others. Only in this way can we intimidate those people," Mr. Juan explained. Just as Mr. Juan was thinking about who would be more suitable to handle this matter, there was a knock on the door. "Is it Suzanne? Come in," Mr. Juan called out.
The door was gently pushed open, and a stunningly beautiful woman walked in from outside. Seeing this woman walk in, Ivan's heart suddenly started beating wildly for no reason. Ivan wasn't someone who had never seen beautiful women before. Miss Fanny, who was deeply in love with him, was a beauty. Miss Betty, who was amiable and beside Miss Madin, was also a beauty.
And Miss Bertha Madin, his "mother", whom he had only seen in paintings and never in person, was equally gorgeous. In terms of beauty, it was hard to say which of the four was better as they each had their own charming aspects. However, Miss Suzanne gave him a completely different feeling. Ivan always felt that there was a kind of temptation, a strong temptation, in her every move, look, expression and even the sound of her voice.
This temptation obviously had no effect on old men like Mr. Juan and Pam. As for Herbert, he didn't react at all. Even Audrey seemed unmoved. But for Ivan, it was completely different. This temptation was extremely deadly. Ivan quickly turned his face away. He didn't dare to stare at Miss Suzanne anymore. And his face had already turned as red as a ripe apple. Ivan's reaction was quite normal in Miss Suzanne's eyes. She was already used to it.
She had put in a lot of hard work to make every movement perfect and make every smile and frown captivating. Just to have a flawless body, she didn't know how much pain and suffering she had endured. Tasty food had become a pleasure she could never enjoy. She had to take a bath with ice water even in the cold winter just to make her skin more delicate and smooth. Who knew that her snow-white and tender skin was obtained through the great pain brought by hot towels and cold towels? And what she finally got was the envy of others.
In fact, one thing that Suzanne was most proud of was that she didn't need to expose her body or use flirtatious words to make men obediently follow her orders. Of course, there were always exceptions. The people in front of her were definitely not the ones who would be easily tempted. Originally, Suzanne didn't plan to waste her efforts on them.
However, years of habit made her every move still have a great impact on ordinary people even when she wasn't deliberately trying to tempt others. What's more, standing in front of her was a young man who was just in the prime of his youth, full of energy and had just begun to have feelings for the opposite sex. Moreover, before this, those paintings had deeply stimulated his mind, emotions and every nerve.
This young man had already accumulated a lot of pent-up passion with nowhere to release it. How could he resist her deadly temptation? This young man really intrigued her and was so cute. With Suzanne's rich experience, she could tell at a glance that Ivan was still an innocent young boy. Although, according to the boss's order, after her teaching, this young man would surely become the kind of little lecher who took pleasure in tormenting women.
But for now, at least he was still a young boy who didn't understand anything. Suzanne walked up to Ivan and gently stroked his cheek with her delicate and slender hands. Her long, slender and jade-like fingers teased Ivan's slightly curly hair at the temples and the skin beside his ears.
The tickling sensation, combined with the extremely skillful teasing of her fingers and the faint, intoxicating fragrance on Miss Suzanne's body after just taking a bath, was really too much for Ivan, who had been repeatedly stimulated today. "Boss, is this the student you asked me to teach? He's just a child," Suzanne giggled. Her sharp and slender fingernails gently scraped Ivan's chin. Due to his previous life being rather poor, lacking enough food, let alone proper nutrition, Ivan's growth wasn't good.
Like most children from poor families, he was short and slender, and there wasn't even a trace of a mustache on his chin yet. Miss Suzanne's words were also shocking news to Ivan. Ivan had never thought that when Mr. Juan said he would find a new teacher for him, the teacher would be such a beautiful woman. Ivan wasn't stupid. Of course, he could guess what Miss Suzanne could teach him.
The real Ivan Est was a little scoundrel. As a fake, he certainly couldn't act as noble as a pious monk. Miss Suzanne was probably the teacher who came to teach him those lewd things. In the past, Ivan definitely couldn't have accepted all this. When he was in Southport with Aunt Jenny, life was poor, but he thought his heart was pure.
Like most poor people in Southport, Ivan firmly believed that with his own efforts, noble character and pious belief, life would be better and better for him. In fact, when the old employer took a liking to him, Ivan attributed it all to the idea that good deeds would be rewarded. It was his flawless character that brought him all this.
However, since staying with Mr. Juan and the others, Ivan vaguely felt that being too noble wouldn't lead to success. Moreover, after learning deception from Audrey, Ivan suddenly realized that appearing noble was sometimes more useful than actually being noble. And in many cases, the means used to do a noble thing were not noble at all. Just like this time, Mr. Juan had almost bet everything on his plan.
The purpose of the plan he was carrying out was undoubtedly noble, but the means used were nothing but deception and assassination. And Audrey, Herbert, and even himself, who were fully assisting him, could they be considered noble? Ivan couldn't find the right answer at all. Plus, after hearing everything from the conversation between the butler and Mr. Juan.
There was actually such a way of life in this world. This way of life was definitely not noble and was even completely incomprehensible to Ivan. Perhaps those who enjoyed this decadent and lustful life during their lifetime would have to endure the painful torment at the bottom of hell after death. However, this way of life didn't seem to harm others.
In fact, according to the information Ivan knew, the Est couple were regarded as noble, kind-hearted and sympathetic good people in the eyes of ordinary people. In Southport, the Est family had always been extremely generous in charity.
Were such people noble or evil? Moreover, Mr. Est was regarded as an absolutely faithful husband to his wife by outsiders. Although he had the reputation of a playboy, since marrying Miss Bertha Madin, he had stayed away from brothels. If it hadn't been for the things mentioned by Miss Madin, Mr. Juan wouldn't have known those secrets at all. Was this playboy really indulging in lascivious desires or was he truly a deeply affectionate and devoted lover? Perhaps no one would ever know the answer.
Because of this, Ivan began to be confused about everything he had believed in before. He didn't know what was truly right and what was wrong. What was nobility? Did true nobility exist? Besides, Ivan was a sixteen-year-old boy after all.
His age was exactly the most wonderful time in life, full of vigorous energy. Ivan was originally a young man full of strong curiosity about everything. It was just that he had been bound by what he thought was noble before. Now, without that restraint and only confusion left, how could he resist this deadly temptation? In fact, when he was looking at those lewd oil paintings just now, deep in his heart, he deeply envied the real Ivan Est.
That was really a wonderful and exciting life. Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad thing to try this decadent and lustful life. Perhaps it would be quite nice to really become the young master Ivan who was called a little scoundrel. "Suzanne, you'd better talk to that butler first and find out the real Ivan Est's preferences. If I'm not mistaken, his preferences are quite special.
You're an expert in this regard. That butler is about to set off back to Southport. You don't have much time. By the way, the butler has some things to give you. They are the treasures that Mr. Est liked most before," Mr. Juan said. "Those things, Audrey already gave them to me on the way. Don't worry.
I have plenty of such things, and they are definitely much more colorful. After all, Mr. Est was just an amateur," Suzanne said. "I just need you to teach Ivan everything you know as soon as possible," Mr. Juan said. "What a boring job. Isn't this equivalent to making me torture myself?" Miss Suzanne was clearly reluctant. "Then I'll have to trouble you," Mr. Juan said calmly. He knew that Suzanne was just saying so.
If she didn't want to take this job, she wouldn't have come to Luxembourg at all. Sure enough, Miss Suzanne gently hugged Ivan, and her charming lips slowly moved close to Ivan's ear and said, "My lovely student, remember, everything I teach you can bring great pleasure to women, but it can also make them suffer a lot. I hope you can bring me pleasure." After saying that, her soft and delicate lips kissed Ivan on the cheek, leaving a perfect bright red lip print.