A Story Just Made Up

The next morning, Royal Capital.

Inside a shabby wooden shack deep in an alley.

After finishing a simple breakfast, Zana stretched a few times and prepared to step out to begin the day's work.

But the moment he opened the door, he felt something fall through the gap above the door onto the back of his hand. It was wet, like a drop of water. He initially assumed it was rainwater and paid it no mind; after all, he had clearly heard the pounding rain late last night.

But when he tried to wipe his hand and saw that the liquid was red and somewhat viscous, Zana's body began to tremble on the spot.

Blood?

Someone died nearby last night?

Someone murdered somebody around here under cover of the rain!

His mind immediately produced the most likely answer.

In this gloomy alley, aside from ordinary poor folk, there were also several low-class gangs.

Those people might not have been particularly capable, but they had cruelty to spare!

For a few gold coins, they could start slaughtering people. Fighting over territory in the middle of a rainstorm was hardly impossible for them.

After hesitating for a while, Zana slowly opened the door and cautiously poked his head out, intending to observe the situation outside.

What entered his sight was a ground full of blood-red. The pitted road was like a pond, already filled with a great deal of bloody water.

Thin streams of blood stretched from the entrance of the alley all the way to its end. Even the houses were splattered with it, as though someone had painted every one of them with fresh blood. The sight was especially chilling.

??

What the hell was this?

Smelling the faint scent of blood in the air, Zana was deeply confused.

He could not understand where so much blood had come from!

Logically speaking, even if every resident in the alley had been added together, they could not possibly have bled this much.

His gaze shifted toward his neighbors' homes. The people who would normally have already come out to brag and shoot the breeze were nowhere to be seen. Only the moving shadows behind the cracks in their doors proved that people were still inside.

That made a chill run down his spine, and he felt the urge to immediately shut the door!

After another moment of hesitation, his eyes widened as his imagination ran wild with a possibility. Could it be that the Duchy of Maldon has fallen? Someone broke into the Royal Capital in a single night under cover of the rain, and the country fell on the spot. Is there a massacre going on outside now? Is that why there's so much blood?

With that thought, his gaze sharpened. Pressing himself against the wall, he silently moved toward the alley exit. If things truly were as he imagined, then he had to flee this remote alley before anyone got around to managing it!

"Gulp..."

As he steadily drew closer to the alley entrance, Zana could not help swallowing. His heart began racing faster and faster from tension, while watchful gazes kept falling on him through the cracks in the doors and windows of the houses throughout the alley.

Everyone is watching me! he suddenly thought.

Zana could even vaguely see a large group of gang members lying on the roof of a house, secretly observing him.

Kid, you've got potential. You're pretty damn brave!

Zana felt as though he could read that meaning in the eyes of one bald, burly man.

When his head was about to emerge from the alley, he vaguely heard faint footsteps outside. It was completely unlike the usual bustling scene!

Instinctively, he wanted to pull his head back.

But driven by courage, he did not do so. Instead, he stuck his head out and looked around.

The empty street had no pedestrians, nor were there any corpses strewn all over the ground as Zana had expected.

There was only an old man sweeping the street. Scarlet bloody water rippled with every sweep of his broom. Combined with the unnaturally silent surroundings, it made Zana's scalp tingle...

After a bout of internal struggle, Zana shuffled over step by step and timidly asked the old man in the gentlest tone he had ever used in his life, "Sir, what happened in the Royal Capital yesterday? Why isn't there a single pedestrian?"

Upon hearing him, the old man—whose back was turned toward him—suddenly stopped sweeping. Like a rusty machine, he slowly turned his face toward Zana and replied in a lifeless, hoarse voice, "Nothing happened. It's just that the rain was a little strangely colored..."

Every syllable was drawn out terribly long, as though it slowly crawled out of his mouth. Together with the bloody surroundings and the old man's sallow face, it created an extremely horrifying atmosphere that made Zana's hairs stand on end.

"I-I see. So this bloody water is just rain..."

Licking his lips, Zana forced out an extremely strained smile. The old man before him gave him a bone-chilling feeling.

Just as he was about to retreat, the old man lightly raised his eyelids, as though he had remembered something, and added, "Oh, right! I heard this Blood Rain has something to do with some tragic and beautiful love story. They say it might even be a gift from heaven. You can probably go to the end of the street to find out more. I heard it's very touching. A whole crowd of young girls is crying their eyes out over there..."

?????

Zana froze, somewhat unable to understand what the other man meant.

With his limited knowledge, what connection could a tragic love story possibly have with a Blood Rain?

And how could it be linked to a gift from heaven? Shouldn't this be classified as an ominous sign of great calamity, the descent of Heavenly Punishment???

Filled with confusion, he began walking toward the place the old man had mentioned. Along the way, he encountered a few scattered pedestrians, but everyone wore either wary or bewildered expressions. Clearly, they had not figured out what was happening either.

Before long, he saw a large crowd gathered at the end of the street. And just as the old man had said, there was indeed a large group of girls crying within the crowd. They were crying their hearts out while discussing something, leaving Zana utterly baffled.

In his confusion, Zana leaned his ear closer, wanting to hear what they were talking about...

The result was that he became engrossed the moment he listened!

Duke had gathered dozens of poets, storytellers, and speakers. The story they had invented was not only gorgeously worded and beautiful, but had also drawn on collective wisdom to incorporate a great number of depressing plotlines, making its development exceedingly tortuous and gripping.

The Duchy of Maldon: the poor male lead. The Duchy of Yar: the wealthy young lady whose family had fallen on hard times and needed a benefactor's helping hand. After helping the female lead's family through a major crisis, he became engaged to her—the noble second male lead whose main responsibility was to be a background extra and get cuckolded.

Through the collaborative creation of dozens of people, the three formed a complete chain of events!

It not only described in detail the complicated feelings that arose between the male and female leads after they met by chance, but also portrayed, in an extremely subtle manner, the tangled troubles of their respective families, as well as all kinds of injustice and conflict in the world.

For example, the second male lead, who suffered a cuckolding falling from the sky yet still chose, "Of course I forgive her!"

Then, as a final embellishment, the male lead died on the spot under the second male lead's vicious, lovebird-separating blows. Combined with the Blood Rain that descended from heaven when the female lead committed suicide, it might not have been unprecedented and never to be surpassed, but it was at least among the top three masterpieces in the industry.

Zana, who lived in this era starved of entertainment and truly had not seen much of the world, was immediately drawn in!—

The love story between the commoner boy Mark and the wealthy young lady Evelyn??

"Entanglements of love and hate between several families??"

And a Duchy of Yar noble fiancé whose sole purpose is Hate Grabbing??

More importantly, both the male and female leads are dead. Isn't this a fantasy version of Titanic plus Romeo and Juliet???

Drinking the vegetable soup before him and watching the maids in the distance cry their eyes out as they passionately discussed the story, Orsaga tilted his head, finding it somewhat interesting.

Judging by the plot, the tastes of the masses seemed roughly the same on both Earth and in this other world.

The only issue was that he had no idea what sins the female lead's fiancé had committed in his previous life. His wife had been stolen from him, he tried to take her back, yet he was still cursed and nailed to the pillar of shame.

Even Orsaga, a great villain himself, could not make sense of the logic behind it.

Perhaps this was what it meant for a bootlicker to come to no good end.

He also truly had not expected that one casual action of his would allow Jem to grasp the tactic of a public opinion war. In a few days, this freshly invented story would surely spread throughout the country and stir up the lower classes' hatred toward the Duchy of Yar.

It could be considered a small favor to Jem, though Orsaga himself did not feel that way.—

After finishing his meal, Orsaga said to the Housekeeper standing beside him—a beautiful, perfectly proportioned woman of around twenty-five with a serious expression, "Prepare a carriage for me. I want to go out for a walk today."

Hearing that Orsaga wanted to go out, the Housekeeper paused before replying, "Yes, my lord."

Ever since she had been assigned here, she had never seen Orsaga leave the residence. He rarely even interacted with others. From her observations, although Orsaga possessed exceptional bearing and appearance, he also seemed utterly out of place in the world, as though he had never cared about anything outside.

Even when Crown Prince Jem had personally come to visit, Orsaga had shown not the slightest trace of nervousness. Instead, it was Jem, the Crown Prince, who had seemed somewhat restrained. This puzzled her greatly, but she also understood that many matters were not hers to concern herself with, so she had never asked.

It might have sounded somewhat derelict of duty, but over these past two or three months, all she had learned about Orsaga, the master she served, was his name and his general habits. Beyond that, she knew nothing else.

She did not even know his origins or full name.

It could only be said that they were a little better than strangers!

Fortunately, though Orsaga's temperament was cold, he had an exceptionally good temper. He had never lost his temper with anyone, even when they acted rashly, and he never harshly nitpicked over anything.

Otherwise, she truly would have found him rather difficult to deal with.

Only now did I notice someone had sent a reward. Thanks to Silent for the 100 Qidian Coins.