No Response

Viscount Anbeite lived in the central district of Weier Main City.

Though it was not an old castle like the Merick Family's, it was a spacious detached house.

In a studio on the second floor that had recently been set up for painting,

Anna looked expectantly at the painter Ruisi beside her.

"What do you think of my painting? I really tried hard this time!"

"It's quite good. If you paid more attention to the details, it would be even more lifelike."

Ruisi, who stood beside her, was about 1.7 meters tall and slender.

As he spoke, he picked up a brush and began touching up Anna's painting.

The fingers holding the brush were long, with well-defined knuckles.

His focused expression as he painted, his blue eyes, and his sharply defined jawline did give him a certain charm.

With just a few strokes, he added several faint rays of sunlight to the painting, bringing the otherwise ordinary picture of a manor garden to life.

Anna liked Ruisi's artistic talent for painting, and she also liked his face when he was absorbed in his work.

"That's Ruisi for you! Whatever the painting, a few strokes from you make it completely different!"

Anna nestled against Ruisi.

In the quiet studio, the young man and woman soon embraced.

Anna grew bolder and bolder. Her shawl slipped off at just the right moment, her breathing gradually grew heavier, and she seemed ready to melt into Ruisi's arms.

But before she could go any further, Ruisi instinctively pushed her away.

"Ruisi? What's wrong?"

Seeing the nervousness flash across Ruisi's face, Anna spoke reassuringly and understandingly.

"Don't worry. We'll leave the Duchy of Will together on the day Lister and Quint duel."

"Just like we planned, we'll find a beautiful place to live."

"Then no one will ever be able to stop me from marrying you!"

As Ruisi listened to Anna, he put down his brush, and the fear and worry on his face grew more apparent.

"Anna, can we really escape?"

"The way Viscount Anbeite has been looking at me these past few days, it's as if he's already discovered something!"

"You're worrying too much. I know my father."

"He just doesn't like me painting, so he dislikes you too, that's all."

"Besides, he's set on getting close to the duke or the Merick Family now. Even I'm just a tool for advancing his family. Why would he spare any thought for you?"

Anna was right about that. Viscount Anbeite was the duchy's finance officer, and his daily work alone was already demanding.

On top of that, he now devoted most of his attention to advancing his family, determined to turn it into a new hereditary noble family with a legacy of professionals.

If not for Lister and Quint, Viscount Anbeite would not have paid much attention even to Anna herself, much less a mere painter like Ruisi.

But no matter how Anna explained it, Ruisi remained troubled.

"Shouldn't we think this over some more!?"

"If the two of us just leave the city like that, the world outside isn't as safe as the Duchy of Will..."

"What do you mean!?"

Anna had looked like a woman blinded by love just moments ago, but her expression changed in an instant!

No matter how much she idealized Ruisi, she could hear the reluctance in his words, and she stared at him coldly.

"I didn't mean anything else. I'm just worried about your safety."

In truth, Ruisi had already begun to regret it long ago.

Though he liked Miss Anna, his feelings were not all that deep. After all, they had only known each other for a little over half a year.

To speak honestly, Ruisi probably valued the Ambet Family behind Miss Anna more than he valued Anna herself.

His initial hope had been to marry Anna and become part of Viscount Anbeite's household.

When Lister Merick, the uninvited guest in the city, took a fancy to Anna and pursued her relentlessly, Ruisi had already half given up hope.

Who could have known that, for his sake, Anna would firmly reject Lister's advances, and even make early preparations to elope with him after learning what her father, Viscount Anbeite, had in mind?

From then on, things spiraled out of control.

The real Anna was nothing like the innocent woman she appeared to be when she was with him.

On the contrary, she was quite scheming. Under Lister's relentless pursuit, she devised a plan to seduce the duke's son, Quint, then sowed discord between him and Lister.

In the end, she made a citywide spectacle of it and stirred up a dispute that led to a duel.

And she planned to elope with Ruisi on the day the duel drew the whole city's attention.

Ruisi's original idea of seeking the viscount's daughter's hand and getting the viscount to take notice of him had suddenly turned into an extremely difficult and dangerous elopement!

At the same time, he had offended three major powers: Viscount Anbeite, Baron Merrick, and Duke Will.

"I'm telling you, if you back out now, my family might only punish me, but your life..."

"Hmph!"

"Anna! I really didn't mean that."

"I'll be ready when the time comes. Let's practice painting first!"

At the mention of painting, much of Anna's anger subsided at once, and she nodded silently.

Ruisi finally breathed a sigh of relief as well. Painting was the one thing he could use to get Anna to listen to him, so he took out a fresh sheet of paper and began to paint.

In the Merick Family castle, Lister was searching for information in the family library.

Unfortunately, most of what he found concerned the Kingdom of Lucian, while information on the other surrounding kingdoms was extremely scarce.

There was even less on the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty farther away, which was what he hoped to learn about.

The Great Chu Imperial Dynasty was the starting area of the world of Divine Revelation and the setting of its first expansion. It was also the period when the most passive skills appeared.

Lister wanted to try his luck in the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty after the Duchy of Luxian's main storyline was over, while it was still early in the game world's timeline.

If nothing else worked, he could wait in the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty for the players to arrive.

By his estimate, it should only be a few more years before the players descended upon Divine Revelation World.

He did not know whether Divine Revelation would actually launch, or whether players would really arrive.

But Lister could only take his chances. If he wanted to collect a large number of passive skills, the best place was the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty in the first act.

Unfortunately, even now, he did not know the exact locations of the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty and the Kingdom of Lucian.

Yet by the third act, the two powers would come into direct contact and conflict.

"Tap, tap."

In the library, Anke, the old butler, walked slowly up to him.

Lister returned the book in his hand to the shelf. As for the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty, he would try his luck in the Kingdom of Lucian another day.

For now, he nodded to the old butler, signaling him to deliver his news.

"My lord baron, there has been no response from the duke's castle."

"Still nothing? Are you certain Quint is in the duke's castle? Did the message reach him?"

"The message was given to Lord Quint's personal attendant in the duke's household, so it must have reached Lord Quint."

"It's just that Lord Quint hasn't left the castle since Duke Will II announced that he would witness the duel."

"Could the duke have confined Lord Quint to the castle?"

The old butler speculated to himself, though that possibility seemed rather unlikely.

It was such major news, and Lister simply had not spread it yet.

It was actually an enormous scandal. The Merick Family had only Lister left as its sole heir, and he did not care much about appearances himself, so things were somewhat better on his side.

The duke's family ruled the Duchy of Will. The duke's son dueling someone over a woman was already disgraceful enough, lowering the standing of Duke Will's family.

Let alone the fact that the woman actually had a lover on the side and might be preparing to run away at any moment.

If word of that got out, the duke's family would lose all face!