Castle of Black Iron

According to Zhang Tie’s suggestion, Gitta just parked the car and put out the lamplights. Zhang Tie stayed to protect Olina while Gitta walked towards the castle alone.

Gitta soon arrived at the suspension bridge in front of the gate.

The suspension bridge had been raised. A 20-m wide moat surrounded that castle. It was the last warning to the invaders. In the defense system of the castle, guards on the walls had the right to attack any people crossing the moat without prior consent as they had trespassed the private territory.

After arriving at the riverside of the moat, Gitta raised his head and looked at the steam ballistae on the high walls as he was slightly chocked inside. Although it was already late at night, from the lamplights on the walls, Gitta could still see clearly the shiny mouths of the steam ballistae and the mouth of a honeybomb-fashioned ballista, whose cover had been moved away after lying there for a long time, slightly hanging down towards the place in front of the gate.

From Gitta’s memory, the mouths of those steam ballistae should have all been positioned horizontally. Thankfully, due to Zhang Tie’s warning, he’d carefully observed these details and sensed a looming killing intent from the wall of the castle.

”I’m Gitta, the chief guard of Ms. Olina, lower the suspension bridge!” After a deep breath, Gitta stood on the riverside of the moat and shouted loudly towards the castle with his full strength. Normally, the moment those guards on the wall caught sight of the arrival of Ms. Olina’s fleet of cars, they would’ve loweredthe suspension bridge.

But not today. Gitta shouted loudly twice. At the beginning, no sound was heard from above the walls; after over 10 seconds, an arrogant and lazy voice sounded on a tower.

”Who’s screaming down there. This is Bluesea Castle. If you don’t belong to this place, piss off right now; otherwise, I will teach you a thing or two!”

Gitta was not familiar with that voice. Even as the chief guard of Ms. Olina, Gitta could still not be familiar with every guard’s voice. The moment he heard this strange voice, Gitta realized something wrong. Many people up there should have heard his loud voice. The one who responded to him should be a chief guard on duty there. He was very familiar with the other chief guards’ voices and they were familiar with his voice. How come such a small figure came out to drive him away?

”Periv, Crie, Alexander, Ji Gang and Adeline. Which one of you is up there? Answer me!” Gitta shouted out of fury below, ”You b*stards, who’s up there? Come out, don’t you recognize my voice?”

”Piss off, if you keep screaming there, we will shoot you!”

The same strange voice was heard again. But this time, it sounded much more furious than the last time but mixed with a bit of timidness.

”I’m Gitta, the chief guard of Ms. Olina. Many brothers in the castle know me. If anyone dares shoot me, when Ms. Olina comes back, she will peel off your skin! Periv, Crie, Alexander, Ji Gang, and Adeline, which one is upside there? Come out to talk with me!”

Gitta continued to shout loudly below the castle while some noises could be heard from the top of the walls and the tower.

Finally, a familiar voice was heard.

”Who’s down there?”

”Crie, I’m Gitta, lower the suspension bridge!”

”Gitta, are you with Ms. Olina? Why are you alone? Where’s she?”

”Ms Olina is in a safe place. Someone wants to kill her. She let me come back first and want you to pick her up with the guards in the castle!”

Hearing Gitta’s words, the face of the 40-odd man with a nice handlebar moustache changed slightly while his trusted followers exchanged glances at each other before looked at him, not knowing what to do.

The current situation was completely out of the expectations of everybody and made their plan void instantly.

The 40-odd man then gritted his teeth and shouted, ”According to the regulation of Bluesea Castle, without the order of Ms. Olina, nobody can open the gate in the evening. Only Ms. Olina has the right to dispatch forces from the castle. Gitta, what you told us was not trustworthy. Before I see Ms. Olina, I will not violate the regulations of the castle even though we are familiar with each other. Unless Ms. Olina arrives, I will not open the gate for you; nor will I allow you to dispatch forces from the castle!”

”Periv, you b*stard. If you don’t come out soon, you’ll have to pay off the 200-odd gold coins that you owe me tomorrow. Alexander, Ms. Olina needs help now, yet, motherf*cker, you are still sleeping! Ji Gang, you b*stard, besides molesting women, what else can you do? Adeline, if you don’t come out right now, after I die, you will become a widow!”

Gitta’s voice grew louder. Without considering Crie’s feelings, he just called each chief guard’s name and swore at them from the other side of the moat.

Hearing this, the people in the tower looked worse.

A guard beside Crie moved closer to him and murmured, ”Head, why not make him shut up? We only need to trigger a ballista...”

”Shut up, do you want me to die together with him?” Crie swore in a low voice as he felt very agonising. He didn’t know the situation of Ms. Olina. If he killed Gitta at this moment, as long as that woman was not dead, he would be killed at dawn. Additionally, Gitta was safe, that meant that woman might really have been moved to a safe place. If so, it would be meaningless for him to insist on his plan. However, if he just allowed Gitta to shout loudly downside there and dispatch guards from the castle to support her, their plans would really be ruined, which he didn’t wish to see. If so, those people’s promise to him would not be fulfilled.

While Crie was still thinking about it, the other chief guards had already arrived at the wall of the castle. They had already heard Gitta’s shout.

”Crie, what’s happening?” Periv, with dense brown hair and beard and a robust frame, rushed into the tower first. ”Why is Gitta shouting outside? Why not let him in?”

Crie forced a smile, ”According to the regulation in the castle, without Ms. Olina’s order, nobody is allowed to access to Bluesea Castle for free. Therefore...”

Periv just ignored Crie; instead, he roared, ”Gitta, you b*stard, where’s Ms. Olina? Why you are alone?”

Hearing this familiar voice, Gitta immediately realized that his shouting had worked. Peter was right, they truly could not bribe every person in the castle.

”Periv, Ms. Olina encountered an assassination attempt on the way back tonight. Someone wants to murder her. Ms. Olina told me to dispatch guards from the castle to pick her up!” Gitta shouted in a louder voice.

Not only had Periv heard Gitta’s words, even Alexander, Ji Gang, and Adeline, who had just arrived at the tower, also heard them.

Alexander was over 50 years old. He was the eldest one among the chief guards. With a fat frame and bald head, he looked more like a cunning businessman. Ji Gang was a young man of over 20 years old. He had blonde and oily hair and a handsome play-boy look; a long sword was hung at his waist. Adeline was a woman, whose left eye and eyebrow had weird flame-like tattoos. Additionally, she had fiery red hair. Carrying a javelin container, she had a barbarian clan’s bloodline.

Only after a few seconds, the other chief guards had already found out what had happened. Crie was explaining to them why he didn’t allow people to lower the suspension bridge and let Gitta in.

Alexander looked at Crie while slightly narrowing his eyes, ”Crie is reasonable, but Ms. Olina truly has told us that if she was not in the castle, the five of us can make the decision to deal with emergencies. What’s happening tonight is an emergency, let’s vote then!”

”I agree to dispatch guards to pick up Ms. Olina!” Periv said loudly.

”I agree too!” Adeline also replied without any hesitation.

”I agree!” Ji Gang smiled, ”I’ve long waited for such a chance to save Ms. Olina!”

”Count me in!” Alexander also expressed his opinion.

After a moment of hesitation, Crie saw Periv moving his hand closer to his sword handle while Adeline raise her eyebrows.

”Now that you agree, I agree too!” Crie hurriedly expressed his instance.

...

After waiting over the moat for a short while, Gitta saw them lowering the suspension bridge. The five chief guards then rushed out of the gate with a great number of guards, many of whom were female fighters in light armor led by Adeline.

”Gitta, where’s Ms. Olina? How’s her condition?” Periv asked firstly.

”Ms. Olina is now in a safe place. Adeline, Ms. Olina wants you take over the defense system of the tower of the outer castle!”

”Okay!” Adeline didn’t doubt Gitta’s message at all; instead, she just glared at him, ”What were you raving about just now? I will give you a lesson when I’m free!”

Adeline then said something to her female fighters. Then all the female fighters returned to the castle and took over the defense systems of the outer castle’s tower at once. The order passed by Gitta amazed everybody else. Alexader then stared at Crie deeply. At this moment, Crie didn’t say anything; he looked pretty bad, even a bit flurried.

”Do we need to dispatch cars there?” Ji Gang asked.

”No need, follow me!” Gitta glanced at Crie with an icy expression before said, ”Crie, follow me up too!”

Crie forced a smile as he pushed in front of Gitta in a humble way, ”I was just following the rules in Bluesea Castle, hope you don’t care about that!”

Gitta ignored him and hurriedly checked over his shoulders that he was being followed by everybody else...

...

Wearing Zhang Tie’s fox-hair cloak, Olina just sat under a pine together with Zhang Tie on the roadside. Seeing the team of people holding burning torches walking towards them out of the castle, Zhang Tie knew that his speculation was right. Facing such a situation, he preferred to be derided as an idiot instead of risking his own life to test those strangers’ morality.

Zhang Tie sensed that the woman let out a sigh slightly.

”What if Gitta hadn’t come back?” Seeing the swaying flames moving closer to them, Olina who was gazing at the distant asked Zhang Tie suddenly, ”You should’ve known that was a possibility. They might not have bribed all of my loyal followers; yet with only a small plot and a vial of poison, they could make nobody be loyal to me anymore. By then, I would be isolated and you would be in an even more dangerous situation. I want to know if you’d leave me alone then!”

Hearing this question, Zhang Tie was stunned for a short while. Rubbing his face, the moment he wanted to reply, he heard Olina continue, ”I want to listen to your true words!”

”True words?” Zhang Tie kept silent. He would not tell a lie to a woman whenever it was, even on the bed. It was his principle, ”If that happened, if we could not fight those guys who want to kill you, I would escape together with you; in the worst scenario, we would leave Saint Herner Island!”

Hearing Zhang Tie’s answer, the woman’s eyes gleamed. She then continued to ask out of curiosity, ”Why? Aren’t you afraid of the troubles that I might bring to you? I might have lost everything by then and would not be able to pay you at all!”

This question made Zhang Tie a bit embarrassed. Even if he wanted to tell the truth, he didn’t know what to say, because the truth was a story of a poor teenager’s growth.

Thankfully, Olina didn’t keep asking him. Seeing Gitta bringing his men over, the woman glanced at Zhang Tie’s embarrassed face while a smile threatened to spread across her face. She then recovered her dignity and calmness again.

...

The group coming out of Bluesea Castle had already seen Olina and Zhang Tie after they left the castle hundreds of meters away. Everybody was then shocked as they hurriedly ran towards Olina...

At the sight of Olina, besides amazement, the chief guards relaxed at once, except for Crie, whose face turned pale as his body slightly shivered. ’Now that Ms. Olina has already arrived at the outside of the castle, why not enter? Why would she call them over there? Does she already known that...’

At that moment, not only Crie, even the other chief guards had thought of the same question.

Gitta walked towards Olina and murmured to her. Olina then instantly fixed her eyes onto Crie and said in a calm voice, ”Crie, Gitta has told me what happened just now. I hadn’t imagined that you are that loyal to me. Good, very good!”

Crie forcefully swallowed his saliva as he said stiffly, ”It was merely my duty...”

”Madam, Gitta said that someone wanted to murder you tonight? Oh, where are the other guards?” Periv walked one step forward and asked loudly.

”We will talk about it later. Head back to Bluesea Castle first!”

”Madam, who’s he? I feel a dangerous aura emanating from him!” Adeline had fixed her eyes onto Zhang Tie since she arrived here. Although this young and handsome man looked innocent, he felt very dangerous. At the first sight of Zhang Tie, Adeline who was sensitive to danger, felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at once. This feeling was similar to when she met the most dangerous beasts in the forest.

Adeline’s words raised everybody else’s attention onto Zhang Tie.

”This is Peter. From now on, he’s my bodyguard. He enjoys the same treatment and privileges as Gitta in Bluesea Castle.” Olina didn’t explain too much about Zhang Tie’s background; instead, she just declared her decision, which instantly showed her dignity as a lord. After that, she waved her hand. ”Go back to Bluesea Castle now!”

With everybody’s protection, Olina returned to Bluesea Castle. After entering the castle, Zhang Tie found that Adeline always kept her eyes on him while that young chief guard Ji Gang seemed to find him a bit repulsive instead of being hostile toward him. Gitta silently pointed at Crie as he looked at Zhang Tie and nodded solemnly. Zhang Tie then understood what happened...

Zhang Tie was really curious how would Olina deal with such a situation.

...

The main hall was very luxurious and magnificent. After returning to Bluesea Castle, the five chief guards were called in there by Olina.

In the hall, Olina sat on the main seat while the five chief guards were standing in front of her. As her bodyguard, Zhang Tie just stood on her left-hand side. Gitta had disappeared the moment he returned to the castle. Nobody knew where he was.

Olina then described how she was attacked that night in a very calm tone. After hearing that, the five chief guards were all stunned. Before they could ask any questions, Olina had already delivered a series of orders...