At noon.
The sunlight fell like a blunt knife, barely forcing its way through the tightly packed canopy.
Below, a winding path cut through the dense forest and stretched into the distance.
It was the only road leading to Fruit Basket Village.
A carriage stood beside the road.
Its body had been carefully crafted from high-quality oak, polished until it was as smooth as a mirror and reflected a faint golden glow beneath the sunlight.
The roof was covered with soft purple velvet curtains, their edges embroidered with complicated silver patterns.
Even the two horses pulling the carriage were magnificent black steeds with glossy coats.
Viscount Cullen Hughes was currently lying across the front of the carriage, boredly tossing a red fruit into the air.
Up it went.
Down it came.
He caught it.
Then repeated the process again and again.
At the moment, he wore a well-tailored black formal suit with an elegant silver necktie.
If one ignored his overly broad shoulders and casual posture, he truly looked like a refined noble gentleman.
Several mounted guards were stationed around the carriage, carefully watching the surrounding forest to protect the viscount.
Of course, they all knew their presence was mostly for show.
After all, everyone knew that the lord himself was the strongest person in the entire territory.
Clop, clop, clop!
Suddenly, the sound of rapidly approaching hooves came from the distance.
The guards immediately raised their spears in alarm.
Only after recognizing the approaching rider did they relax.
“My lord, Knight Solin has returned.”
A guard reported.
“Finally! This necktie is about to strangle me to death!”
Cullen immediately brightened.
He bit into the red fruit in his hand and swallowed it whole without even bothering to spit out the seed.
Knight Solin quickly rode over and jumped down from his horse.
“My lord, His Highness has agreed to your request to meet him this afternoon.”
He reported respectfully.
“He agreed that easily?”
Cullen narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
“Then the chances that his identity is real have gone up quite a bit...”
He glanced at the sky.
“It’s almost time. Prepare yourselves. We’ll leave immediately.”
Cullen stretched hard with his fingers interlocked before jumping down from the front of the carriage.
This luxurious-looking carriage was not something he had prepared for himself.
It was actually one of the dowry gifts his wife, Danielle, had brought with her from the Martha family.
If that Highness’s identity was genuine, then this luxurious carriage would become the rather humble vehicle used to bring him from the village to Howling Wolf Castle.
After all...
Allowing the heir of a superpower to continue living in some poor, run-down village inside his territory would sound absolutely terrible if word got out.
Even Cullen, who normally cared little for noble etiquette, felt that such behavior would be enough to have his noble title revoked.
Of course...
All of that depended on whether the other party truly was the first person to return from the Eastern Continent in several hundred years.
And whether he really was the heir of an enormous kingdom that most likely ruled almost the entire Eastern Continent.
But if it was fake...
Cullen’s eyes slowly became dangerous.
A freezing killing intent spread from his body.
The surrounding soldiers instantly felt their scalps go numb.
Then Cullen would simply have to let the fraud experience the pain of watching his own body being eaten alive, bite by bite, by a pack of wolves.
“Awooo!”
Cullen took a deep breath.
Then he released a howl almost identical to that of a wolf.
Awooo!
A moment later, an incredibly mournful wolf howl answered from deep within the forest to the right side of the road.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Branches snapped one after another.
Heavy breathing belonging to some enormous creature echoed from the darkness.
Then...
A massive beast slowly emerged from the shadowy forest and entered everyone’s sight.
It was an enormous black wolf.
Its shoulders alone stood more than two meters high, while its body stretched five or six meters long.
The alpha wolf that had once attacked Xia Mingyu would not even have reached half its size.
Its entire body was covered in thick, powerful muscles.
Its pitch-black fur reflected a cold shine beneath the faint light.
One could easily imagine just how terrifying this creature would look while racing through the forest in pursuit of prey.
And between its jaws filled with sharp fangs...
It was carrying the corpse of another gray wolf.
Foul-smelling blood dripped onto the ground.
That dead wolf was already noticeably larger than an ordinary wild wolf.
