Captain – Chapter 248 – Reunion

Looking at the carriage gradually receding into the desolate wilderness through his crystal lens, Caine lowered the telescope in his hand and nodded to the raven on his shoulder: “Go.”

Receiving the young man’s signal, the raven flapped its wings and flew off in the direction the carriage had departed.

Seeing this, the young dragon that had been lingering around the First Mate’s legs also started flapping its wings, wanting to follow Alfie. However, before it could take to the sky, the young man reached out and pulled it back.

“You’re too conspicuous. You’ll cause trouble.”

Hearing this, the dragon turned its head and looked at him with pitiful eyes, even letting out a coaxing low growl. But this tactic, which had worked so well before, lost its effectiveness in the current situation.

Seeing that the First Mate had no intention of changing his mind, the dragon drooped its little head dejectedly. It broke free from the young man’s arms, flew over the bow, and with a sharp sound cutting through the air, plunged into the cool river water.

Caine was long accustomed to this. During this period of boredom, diving for fish had become one of the little creature’s few pastimes.

With this, the task of tracking the captain’s whereabouts was temporarily complete, and no accidents were likely to happen in the short term. But who knew… what challenges his father might encounter.

Lost in thought, Caine turned his gaze and looked ahead along the Loyce Canal with its sparse ship shadows. His azure eyes wavered slightly, revealing some hidden concerns.

Rеаd oո KаtRеaԁіnɡСаfe

After replenishing enough food and water, the carriage escorted by “Colonel Berney” continued westward. After that, everything seemed to unfold according to that man’s plan, with no more unexpected changes occurring.

Ten days passed in a flash.

The carriage Roy was riding in continued to travel smoothly across the wilderness. The time remaining to reach both the ostensible destination and the point where she planned to leave the group was neither long nor short.

But another carriage, carrying a figure whose influence on this storm was equally significant, reached its destination at sunset on the tenth day, just as night was falling.

The Garcia family estate.

The estate’s structure was very similar to the Garcia family estate on Frans Island. Passing through the estate gates, on both sides were rice fields stretching as far as the eye could see. However, the golden color symbolizing harvest was now completely obscured by the deep night, leaving only darkness filled with unknowns and dangers.

No one knew if fully armed firing squads or ghostlike imperial assassins were hidden in that darkness.

The carriage slowly passed through the quiet rice fields, through the exquisitely arranged courtyard, and finally stopped in front of a palace-style hall built in imperial court fashion. Even before the guests arrived, the hall’s gates were already wide open, with bright light spilling down the steps and projecting onto the black carriage.

The young butler who had been waiting at the steps for a long time quickly approached the carriage, politely opened the door, and then stepped aside with his head lowered.

Rеαd оn KаtRеaⅾіոɡСafе

Joe was the first to step down from the carriage. From across the steps, he bowed slightly to the old man at the hall entrance. After receiving his nod of acknowledgment, Joe turned and left the courtyard to arrange his subordinates outside the estate and set up defensive lines. He had to ensure that the safety of the two gentlemen would not be threatened during this turbulent time.

As Joe left, Governor Naren also bent down and exited the carriage. Though his face showed little fatigue, it was still tinged with the dust of travel.

Striding up the steps, passing the servants lined up on the side, Naren approached the smiling old man. After exchanging a few quiet words, they entered the hall, and the heavy doors closed behind them, shutting everyone else outside.

“Are you living here alone now?”

The two walked through the empty yet desolate main hall, slowly advancing along a corridor lit with candles.

Hearing his friend’s concerned inquiry, Federo nodded lightly and said, “I’m not like that young Darren after all. I don’t like crowds, and I won’t feel lonely even without company, so I let the younger generations move back to Saint Caloie.”

Hearing that familiar name, as if flashing before his eyes with the warm smile of that duke, Naren sighed lightly. Yet he didn’t offer any consoling words like “my condolences,” but instead asked with a bitter smile: “So now you’ve become the head of the Garcia family again?”

“Yes, when someone lets go, I have to take it back.”

Reαԁ οո КatRеαԁіոgСаfе

Understanding the Governor’s meaning, the old man also sighed and said: “Isn’t it laughable? I severed ties with the family and decided not to marry or have children, all to put His Majesty at ease, to give my countless enemies no leverage, and to avoid complicating the family’s succession issues.”

“But in the end, my brother, who was always known for his philandering, didn’t leave any offspring either, and even lost his life over that mess, dumping this whole disaster back on me. It’s as if he deliberately wanted to make me miserable.”

After venting his complaints, Federo lightly tapped the ground twice with his cane and continued: “Since things have turned out this way, what else can I do? I can only look among the nephews for a suitable candidate. But unsurprisingly, those fellows have all been led by Darren to only seek pleasure. Expecting them to take over the family affairs is simply a pipe dream.”

“However, fortunately, although they themselves spend their days in leisure, they are still quite strict in disciplining their children. So among their next generation, there are still some promising seeds.”

“I also plan to bring those children here after this matter is settled, to carefully nurture and select them, to choose the future new head of the Garcia family. I hope to see shades of that boy Caine in them. Of course, the premise is…”

Walking through the corridor and stopping in front of a wooden door, the old man turned to look at Naren, his emerald-green eyes churning with the indifference and coldness from when he once controlled the Empire’s dark forces.

“That we can survive this storm.”

Pushing open the wooden door revealed a somewhat narrow study. Apart from a wooden desk and enough space for people to pass through and for two to sit, the rest was filled with bookshelves packed with file folders.

Those folders of varying shades contained intelligence gathered by imperial spies from around the world over the past few decades. Sitting among this intelligence was like holding most of the world’s secrets.

Rеαⅾ oո ΚаtRеaⅾіոgСαfе

The wooden door closed, and the two men sat down on opposite sides of the desk.

As Naren’s gaze swept across the shelves beyond the steady candlelight, the old man softly reminded: “The old spot.”

Hearing this, the Governor’s eyebrows raised slightly. He rose and approached the bookshelf on the right, removed some file folders in front, reached into the gap behind, and after feeling around for a moment, actually touched several cold bottles.

Taking out a bottle of wine and returning the file folders to their place, Naren sat back at the table and asked curiously: “Did you specially modify this after returning here?”

Taking the red wine handed by the Governor, Federo methodically uncorked it, poured some crimson liquid into two crystal glasses already prepared by the servants, and said with a smile: “This trick of hiding wine in the study wasn’t actually my idea, but something Darren came up with to evade my watchful eyes in the past. But in the end, I still discovered it.”

“Later, seeing that you had the same predicament as him, I shared this trick with you.”

Placing the bottle aside, the old man picked up his wine glass and clinked it lightly with the Governor’s: “So before we start discussing those vexing matters, let’s have a drink first, to celebrate…”

“The reunion of the Imperial Lion and the Viper.”