I have spent my life treading on thin ice

Forty minutes later, the lead Paint looked at the newly decorated Farmhouse, nodded in satisfaction, and beckoned his men to leave. 69รђยא.ς๏๓

The soldier guarding the room didn't notice that he had an extra Paint in his hand, and that his long-handled brush was gone.

The Paint naturally contained the Military Uniform of Odorik's two "underlings" and the Craftsman's clothes of the three men, while the "long-handled brush" was left in the attic.

As the Paint were leaving the area, an officer from the French Guard stopped them again, checked their identification, and took a headcount.

There were 8 people when we arrived, and there were still 8 people when we left; there were absolutely no problems.

The officer nodded, signaling his men to let them pass. No matter how thorough his search, he couldn't possibly verify the Paint with the soldiers guarding every Farmhouse.

The next morning, the sunlight slanted across the wide avenues outside Paris, and the weather was so warm it hardly felt like winter.

Several exquisitely crafted white Carriage, escorted by more than a dozen cavalrymen, slowly drove in from the south.

In the middle Carriage, Princess Luisa Maria of Two Sicilies Princess looked out the window with her beautiful, large eyes filled with some nervousness.

Before even reaching Paris, she was deeply impressed—the "King's Road" was unbelievably wide, and the houses on both sides were more exquisite and beautiful than the last, as if everyone around Paris lived like Nobility. [Note 1]

However, what made her most nervous was the France Crown Prince, who was about to meet her and was known as the "Child of Divine Grace."

It is said that he is only fourteen years old this year, a year younger than himself, but he has already completed the courses of the University of Paris, successfully presided over the Police Reform the Paris police force, and is now even serving as the assistant to the France Assistant Minister of Finance.

This is beyond just being described as genius! She also studied University Mathematics, knows how difficult those subjects are, and understands how complicated national politics can be. How did he manage to do it?!

Moreover, it is said that the Crown Prince inherited his mother's appearance, and is extremely handsome, with slightly wavy blond hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a face with perfect proportions like an ancient Greece statue. The girls at the Versailles Palace would be excited for months just to exchange a single word with him.

Princess Maria's heart began to pound wildly at the thought that such an outstanding Crown Prince might become her fiancé.

Just as she was lost in thought, the Carriage suddenly came to a slow stop. Timothy, the Two Sicilies Ambassador to France sitting opposite her, quickly whispered, "Your Highness, it should be the Crown Prince coming to greet you."

Princess Maria quickly composed herself, glanced down at her clothes, then straightened her back and gave a polite and dignified smile.

Timothy got out of the car first and opened the door.

Maria descended the wooden steps of the Carriage and gracefully walked past a group of respectfully bowing servants. Suddenly, she saw a handsome young man wearing a dark blue thick fleece coat, white trousers, and Tricorn Hat, smiling at her.

The elegant curves of his face and his mesmerizing eyes left her momentarily blank for half a second. She swore that the person who described the Crown Prince's appearance to her couldn't even capture a tenth of his handsomeness.

Maria, somewhat dazed, stepped forward, avoiding the Crown Prince's gaze. She hastily lifted her skirt, curtsied respectfully, and said in a low voice, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Crown Prince. I am deeply honored that you have come all this way to greet me."

Joseph quickly smiled and returned the greeting with a hand on his chest, "It's my pleasure, Your Highness. Welcome to Paris."

Following traditional etiquette, he gave the princess a cheek-to-cheek hug. Hmm, her waist was slender, her skin delicate and smooth, her chest...

Sigh! Joseph quickly dismissed the thought from his mind. She was just a fifteen-year-old girl; what was he thinking?

After the ceremony, he stepped back two paces and gestured towards the princess's Carriage: "Your Highness, I will lead the way for you. Her Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen have prepared a banquet at the Versailles Palace and are waiting for you."

After exchanging pleasantries, Joseph turned back to his car and ordered the convoy to return to the Versailles Palace.

Maria was a little disappointed when he didn't invite her to ride in the same carriage. Suddenly, she remembered that she had a rival— the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Clementine.

The sounds of drums and Bugle Call out all around, signaling the departure of the caravan. She hastily boarded her Carriage, feeling dejected: Did His Crown Prince prefer Clementine? She wondered if she could even compete with her.

In Farmhouse a Lieue from where Joseph had greeted Princess Maria, Odorik faintly heard the sound of a trombone and immediately began to rub his sore and numb arms and legs—he and his two "brothers" had spent the entire night there.

A moment later, Odorik, dressed as a farmer, carefully crawled out of the cupboard and peered down into the attic. He immediately saw the soldier guarding the place leaning against the doorframe, dozing off.

He grabbed the short stick he had prepared under the bed, tiptoed down to the attic, and struck the soldier squarely on the head. The soldier immediately lost consciousness.

Odorik then drew a short knife, tossed it to the bald man who had followed him, and made a cutting motion towards the soldier lying on the ground.

Without hesitation, the bald man stabbed the soldier to death and dragged the body into the house—killing was as easy for him as drinking a glass of wine.

Odorik returned to the attic, retrieved a long-handled brush from under the bed, and pulled back the cloth covering the handle to reveal the gun barrel inside. He then removed the bulging brush head, revealing a wooden stock inside.

Soon, a United Kingdom -made Brown Bess 1742 Pattern Flintlock Gun appeared in his hands.

He retrieved Gunpowder and Lead Bullet from the other end of the brush handle, deftly loaded them into the muzzle, and handed the Musket to his red-haired "subordinate," instructing, "When the gold-carrying Carriage come by, fire in that direction."

"Huh?" The red-haired man looked at the road in the distance, puzzled. "Boss, we probably can't hit it from this far away..."

"Idiot, we were just keeping watch. Letting you fire was to warn our men that we can make our move."

As Odorik spoke, he bent down and took out a French Carbine with its stock sawed off from under the bed—the one the Paint had brought in in a bucket—loaded it with Ammunition, and handed it to the bald man. "You fire your gun too."

"Leave it to us, boss!" The two thugs were overjoyed to Lakeview Gang, thinking they could get seven or eight Livre just by firing a couple of shots.

Next, Odorik picked up the Charleville Flintlock Musket from the dead soldier, searched the body for Gunpowder and bullets, and then checked the chamber, finding it already Ammunition. He then painstakingly emptied the Gunpowder and reloaded it.

From the window of the Farmhouse attic, Odorik saw a white Carriage through his Telescope. He recognized the driver—he was one of the Crown Prince's men, someone he saw often.

Odorik immediately ordered two of his men to the window, while he himself stepped back a few paces and shouted, "Fire!"

Still lost in their daydreams that the Lakeview Gang had everything under control, the two bandits immediately opened fire on the Carriage in the distance without hesitation.

Two loud bangs suddenly erupted from the quiet Paris Outskirts, startling the birds in the nearby woods into flight.

The French Guard nearby, from officers to soldiers, were all startled, looking around in panic to pinpoint the source of the gunfire.

Bessonval's face turned deathly pale, veins bulging on his forehead. He turned to the Orderly Officer and roared hoarsely, "Sound the horn! Sound the horn now! Make the Crown Prince's entourage turn around!"

"What are you all standing there for! Protect the Crown Prince and Her Highness the Princess! Now!"

"Balthasar, Croix, bring your men and search!" he shouted, drawing his own Pistol and scanning the area. "Who dares to do this?!"

French Guard officers have begun directing their soldiers to fire indiscriminately in the direction of the gunfire, attempting to suppress the firepower of the instigators.

Inside the Farmhouse, the bald man, hearing the continuous gunshots, assumed it was his own men starting to attack. He quickly turned to Odorik and asked obsequiously, "Boss, is this alright?"

The latter smiled calmly, pulled him to the middle of the attic, stood by the window, and suddenly spat fire from the Charleville Flintlock Musket in his hand.

A bloody hole suddenly appeared in the bald man's chest, completely unprepared. He was thrown backward by the immense force of the Bullet and died without even struggling.

Odorik had deliberately reduced the amount of Gunpowder used, so the wounded body was not shattered, making it difficult to tell that it was a close-range shot.

The red-haired man by the window was stunned for a moment by the scene, but Odorik did not hesitate to smash him in the stomach with the butt of his rifle, and while he bent over, he hit him hard on the back of the head.

Ignoring the crackling gunfire outside, Odorik calmly loaded Charleville's Ammunition, then dragged the unconscious redhead to a pillar in the attic, stepped back a few paces, and fired a shot into his throat.

After doing all this, Odorik looked around the room and, finding nothing missing, immediately grabbed the remains of the long-handled brush that he had already collected, returned Charleville to the dead French Guard soldier, and then ran out of the Farmhouse through the back door.

Reaching the grove of trees a few dozen steps away, he quickly donned his old Crown Prince Guards Uniform, hastily buried the remains of the long-handled brush, and crouched behind a tree, beginning his tense wait.

At the very moment the first shot rang out, Kexer forcefully reined in his horses, waving his hand and shouting, "Don't panic! Everyone gather around the Crown Prince and Princess's carriage, beware of any sneak attacks!"

The French Guard were already in a panic, but upon hearing this, they immediately complied, and more than a hundred men surrounded the Carriage of Joseph and the Two Sicilies Princess.

As the third shot rang out from the direction of the Farmhouse, Kexer winked at his officers and shouted, "Clermont, over there! Take men and capture the assassin!"

"Yes, sir!" Clermont jerked the reins and waved, "Third Squad, follow me!"

Immediately, to the astonished and admiring gazes of the French Guard, more than twenty of the Crown Prince's personal guards rushed toward the distant Farmhouse.

On Bessonval's side, it wasn't until the fourth gunshot rang out in the distance that the attacker's exact location was finally pinpointed. He immediately pointed his Pistol at the Farmhouse: "There! Adrien, take the men over!"

"Yes!"

Clermont, leading Third Squad, seemed to have lost their way. They first ran diagonally towards the grove of trees not far from the Farmhouse, circled around for a bit, and then, as if suddenly realizing something, turned around and rushed back towards the Farmhouse.

As they passed the edge of the woods, Odorik rushed over, took the Flintlock Gun handed to him by his teammate, slung it over his shoulder, and joined the group.

In reality, the wasteland on the outskirts was already filled with Powder Smoke from continuous Musket, and even if he ran straight back to Joseph, it was unlikely that any members of the French Guard would see him.

Clermont deliberately slowed down his men, waiting for the French Guard to surround the Farmhouse first before pretending to be in a great hurry and following them.

As Adrien, an officer in the French Guard, hesitated between charging in directly or suppressing the enemy with fire first, he heard Clermont shout, "Cowards! Do you want to wait until they fire on His Crown Prince again?!"

Adrien jumped in surprise, drew his sword, and swung it towards the Farmhouse: "Charge in! Seize the assassin!"

The French Guard rushed forward immediately and saw the soldiers guarding the Farmhouse lying dead on the ground. Some men nervously fired a volley of shots into the attic before cautiously climbing the stairs.

On the other side, after hearing the gunshot, Joseph immediately locked the Carriage door from the inside—a perfectly reasonable move, as the first thing to do in case of an attack was to prevent assassins from rushing into the carriage.

Then, he and Eman quickly removed the Wax Seal from the Carriage doors, walls, and wooden tables, stuffing all the wax blocks into their pockets.

Eman took a paper packet from under the seat, scattered the Wood shards inside into the carriage, and finally forcefully embedded a flattened Lead Bullet into a broken section of the Carriage.

At this point, the Carriage appeared to have two holes, one in the door and one in the wooden table. On the other side of the carriage wall, a Lead Bullet was embedded, and the interior was littered with wood chips.

Clearly, a bullet hit the Carriage just now.

Then, Joseph extended his arm to Eman, giving him an affirming look. "Come on."

The latter drew a short sword from his calf and said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, I'm sorry."

As he spoke, his sword flashed, and a bloody gash appeared on Joseph's right upper arm. He immediately felt a piercing pain.

Eman put away his sword, picked up a sharp-looking piece of Wood from the carriage, and took out a sheep's stomach filled with chicken blood from his pocket, then gently pierced it.

Chicken blood immediately smeared onto the wooden piece, making it look as if the piece had cut Joseph's arm when it flew through the air.

Eman sprinkled some more blood inside the carriage, carefully put away the sheep's stomach, and then shouted anxiously out of the carriage, "Oh God! The Crown Prince has been shot!"

"Doctor! Call a doctor quickly!"

The heart-wrenching screams carried for hundreds of meters, striking everyone who heard them like a thunderbolt, leaving them frozen in place. Bessonval, in particular, felt a buzzing in his head and nearly fell off his horse.

In the princess's Carriage following behind, Princess Maria was terrified when she heard that the Crown Prince had been shot; tears streamed down her face.

[Note 1] The King's Road: refers to a road that was specially widened with funding from the French Government, equivalent to an 18th-century highway.

Many thanks to Zhenzhi and Xiaodaotong from Qiuzhen Temple for their generous donations to this book! The author is deeply grateful!

(End of this chapter)