-35- The Calamity of the Balrog and the Spread of Rumors
"The calamity of the Balrog...?"
Charlotte's heart moved.
She recalled it carefully, but she couldn't recall the reason.
The memories Charlotte inherited after time travel are not very complete, especially when she was a child, the memories from ten years ago are like a dividing line.
There is nothing we can do about it. People are not machines. Memory will gradually fade away as time goes by. Only some relatively deep impressions will be retained on experiences that are too long ago.
This was the case in the previous life. As the age increased, the memories of childhood faded more and more. When it was time for Charlotte to get married and start a business, the only memories of her childhood were the old willow tree in her grandmother's yard and her mother's sunbathing
The smell of warm quilt.
It’s almost the same after traveling through time.
Among the memories Charlotte inherited, there were only fragmentary experiences of following her mother and father to visit Aunt Catherine at the Duke's Palace as a child.
Other than that, I just ran and laughed in the woods with my childhood playmates.
Um?
playmate?
At a certain moment, new memory fragments flashed through Charlotte's mind.
It seemed to be the deepest memory buried by the original body, and as she thought deeply about it, it gradually emerged in front of her eyes.
She seemed to see a familiar forest, a beautiful garden and a beautiful manor, and saw the young Charlotte running happily in the sunshine with the two beautiful girls, playing hide and seek happily together.
But the next second, the beautiful manor was reduced to a sea of fire.
She heard someone crying, someone screaming, someone shouting...
She seemed to see the whole sky turning into red, and saw her father and mother touching Charlotte's little head, gently telling her to hide and not run around, and then took out their staffs, joined hands, and looked decisively.
Rushing towards the majestic red figure in the distance...
Um?
Are you crying?
In a daze, Charlotte suddenly found that her vision was blurry.
Those were not her tears.
That's Charlotte's.
That was the natural instinctive reaction of this delicate body when the painful memories that it didn't want to recall revived...
"It seems you have remembered it."
"Think about it, after experiencing such a painful thing, even if you deliberately try to forget it, how can you really forget it?"
Looking at the tearful girl, Quasimodo sighed softly.
Charlotte:……
No, I didn't think of it, it was just a natural reaction of this body!
She really wanted to say that.
Fortunately, it seemed that his memories were also brought back, and Quasimodo soon started talking to himself:
"Ten years ago, Count Broglie, the court mage of the Principality of Bold, invited nobles of all sizes to attend the coming-of-age ceremony of his twin daughters. The former master, who was a good friend and colleague, was also present."
"The former master, madam, and you, as a friend of the Countess of Broglie, are all present."
"However, what no one expected was that the coming-of-age ceremony was just a cover..."
"Count Broglie's real purpose is to communicate with the Archduke the Blood Demon, and use his daughter's body as a container to summon the most terrifying dark descendant of the Archduke the Blood Demon - Valaroca the Fire Demon!"
"He wants to break through to legend, he wants to gain the power of the devil!"
"He succeeded...the incarnation of the legendary demon came to the world and brought endless disasters. Almost all the nobles participating in the coming-of-age ceremony were killed, including yours..."
Quasimodo's voice was a little more choked up. He looked at the girl sadly and said no more.
Charlotte knew that what he wanted to say was the original parent.
Perhaps she had inherited the memory of the original person, but inexplicably, a touch of sadness emerged in her heart.
Charlotte quickly suppressed this sadness.
The past is the past. If the original person has any regrets, then as the successor, she is willing to smooth them over for him.
But what needs to be solved now is the present and the future.
Count Broglie...
Why does this name sound familiar to me? It seems like I have heard it somewhere?
Charlotte frowned slightly.
She quickly remembered that this was the name of the owner of the abandoned manor where she was kidnapped last night.
But besides that, she always felt that she had seen this surname somewhere else after time travel...
But for a while I couldn't remember it.
"But...what does this have to do with yesterday's assassin?"
The girl suppressed the doubts in her heart and continued to ask.
"This involves the secrets of the past. Although the Duke's Palace has been blocking the news in order to reduce the negative impact, there are still many people who know the inside story, including me."
Quasimodo sighed softly and then said:
"Count Broglie's summoning of the Balrog was carried out through a ritual called 'Purity Sacrifice'."
"It was an evil sacrifice that required the blood of an underage virgin."
"For this reason, he secretly abducted or kidnapped in the principality. Over the past few years, he secretly abducted a large number of underage girls. It is said that there are more than a thousand people, including the daughters of some nobles... some girls are even only four or five years old."
"brute!"
Charlotte said coldly.
Quasimodo sighed:
"Who says it's not the case... Moreover, this also includes the daughter of the assassin last night."
"He is not an ordinary assassin. He was once a declining nobleman who had not awakened his power. His three daughters... were also kidnapped and eventually died in an evil sacrifice."
"His entire family was also wiped out by Count Broglie more than ten years ago while tracking down his daughter's whereabouts. Only he, who happened to be out of town, survived."
Charlotte was confused:
"But what does this have to do with him coming to me for revenge? Even if it is revenge, he should go to Count Broglie?"
Quasimodo shook his head:
"The Broglie family was eliminated on the night of the Fire Demon Disaster."
"It's self-inflicted. The entire family, hundreds of people, all died from the summoned Balrog incarnation, including the count himself and his daughter."
"As for why the assassin came to assassinate you..."
Quasimodo paused and smiled bitterly:
"Because you were the only survivor of that disaster, and the only survivor among all the girls who were sacrificed..."
"After that disaster, there has been a rumor in the city of Boulder that the Count and Countess of Castel, who are the chief and deputy leaders of the Boulder Mages, are actually working with Count Broglie."
"It was they who performed the evil sacrifice together, and that's why you survived."
"Ridiculous! They are heroes fighting against the incarnation of Balrog!"
Charlotte frowned as she recalled some of the broken images that appeared in her mind.
"Yeah, but so what?"
Quasimodo sighed:
"Rumors are the easiest to spread and the easiest to be believed. When everyone is spreading the same rumor, then in people's hearts, the lie becomes the truth."
"Human nature is evil... The Castel family is extremely wealthy and lofty. For the public, what is more exciting than watching the depravity of a noble family and accusing the evil of a noble family?"
"In fact, if it weren't for Lady Catherine's repeated refutation of the rumors, and if it weren't for the Duke's strong support and platform for the Castel family, the rumors would have been spread to this day!"
Quasimodo was very angry.
After listening to his words, Charlotte's heart moved:
"So... did what happened in the manor a few days ago revive this suppressed rumor?"
"This is exactly the case, and the trend is getting stronger..."
Quasimodo sighed:
"Although the nobles all know that the truth is not like that, the public does not know, and neither does the assassin last night who is no longer a noble."
"He still believes that the Castel family and the Broglie family are on the same side, and the resurgence of rumors has completely ignited his anger."
"A sad father who fell into madness after losing his daughter and his family."
Charlotte characterized the other party in this way.
After saying that, she rubbed her temples again and sighed:
"So... the rumors are spreading again, right?"
Quasimodo bowed:
"I think so."
As he spoke, he gritted his teeth and said:
"This is a conspiracy against you!"
"The inheritance of the title requires the blessing of the church. If the rumors continue to spread, and the old lady... what that person did, the Castel family will most likely be labeled by the Tribunal as colluding with the Blood Demon Cult.
!”
"And once this happens, your inheritance rights to the territory and title will be greatly weakened, or even directly deprived of you!"
Charlotte was silent.
After finishing the last sip of milk in the goblet, she hummed softly:
"So... the nobles of the principality are also happy to see this rumor spread, and they are a lot of behind it, right?"
Quasimodo sighed:
"That's true... Once your inheritance rights are weakened, in order to retain the title and territory, the Castel family must marry other nobles, so as to strengthen the inheritance rights and find allies..."
"And this is the biggest opportunity for those nobles who have ambitions for our family."
Charlotte heard this and sneered:
"Haha, I'm familiar with this. Marry me, and then let me accidentally lose you in the future, right? Think of me as Mary of Burgundy!"
Quasimodo didn’t quite understand:
"Mary of Burgundy?"
"Nothing, just an unlucky duchess who owned a large and wealthy territory but ended up taking advantage of others."
Charlotte shook her head.
Quasimodo scratched his head and thought for a long time, but he couldn't remember any Burgundy duchess anywhere, but he roughly understood what the master wanted to express.
To put it bluntly, it is another sense of being desperate.
"Then...if I, the sole heir, die now, who will the title and territory of the Castel family belong to?"
Charlotte signaled Nice to fill herself up with milk and suddenly asked.
Quasimodo hesitated for a moment and did not answer directly. Instead, he swallowed and said:
"The Castel family is a branch of the Bold family..."