The Amber Sword

Chapter 64 –  The mercenaries

There was another man who flew out from the battlefield. Eke then struck down three mercenaries in the blink of an eye, and caused the crowd to have an opening. He moved towards the opening before anyone was able to react, but Brendel was slightly intrigued by his choice.

Capo was directly in the youth’s path.

The elderly mercenary brought his sword horizontally with his body inclined forwardly, and charged forward like a fearsome beast with tightly pursed lips.

[Randonian fencing. This swordsmanship was created by Swordmaster Imaria and was widely used in the continent in its early days. But there are not many practitioners in this era due to its technical difficulty. The number of users in this world who are truly able to use this style are exceedingly low.]

Brendel’s eyes narrowed a little. Almost all the people who knew this swordsmanship are highly skilled.

[Just raising this swordsmanship alone requires 133 TP from level 1 to level 2, and virtually exceeds the requirements of any typical sword styles by sixty percent. The accuracy rating is 2 times better than a military swordsmanship, while the damage increase is 1.3 times more, but there are not many players who actually spent time on it. That’s because the market price for the skill over one million Tor coins. As for book copies, there are only a few kingdoms who possessed them in their museums.]

Eke apparently realized his mistake as well, but trying to retreat backwards had became impossible, and he could only charge forward recklessly. Even though he did not use a sword from the beginning, it was clear from his fighting techniques that he was trained in the ways of the sword. Brendel recognized it as one of the knight’s varied swordsmanship.

[These two mercenaries look like they are close with each other, but the techniques they used are completely different. That’s quite interesting.]

But it was not exactly a rare thing to see in a group of mercenaries, so Brendel was just slightly interested in seeing how things turned out.

Eke directly charged into Capo while using his body to avoid the sword’s path, but Capo did not disappoint Brendel. He cleanly swung his sword twice and sealed off the youth’s options, and forced him to leap sideways.

If Capo took one more step, he would certainly force the youth into a dire state.

Brendel’s current stats were unlikely to match either of them, but he was certain of this fact more than anyone in the battlefield. As expected, Capo had seized the best position to attack where Eke was going to retreat next, and his sword was pulled back to prepare for a decisive strike.

But Brendel’s irides widened slightly.

Capo’s movements was slower by half a beat, and the youth grabbed his shoulder from the smallest opening to stop his arm from moving. He then lurched forward and smashed onto Capo’s body, knocking the veteran mercenary backwards by five steps. This change nearly surprised everyone, and even the youth’s stupefied expression was clearly reflected in Brendel’s eyes.

But Eke immediately shook his head. He saw that Capo’s stagger was a momentary thing, so he immediately turned around and escaped into the crowd.

[Well done.]

Brendel secretly praised Capo. He had deliberately received the blow from Eke but the way how he did it was really covert, and the average person would not be able to see through his actions. Brendel was the only exception with his unimaginable experience behind him, and everyone his age would have been deceived.

Brendel did not exclusively use a sword in the game and used other weapons for at least a decade. He had spend over a hundred and forty summers as a warrior. With one hundred and ten years in the way of the sword, and his foundation was beyond many people.

(TL: The game is 8 times faster in VR, so if the protagonist started off as 16 years old, then he would be around 33 years old IRL when he teleported to this world.

When I translate/localize, I also think about various aspects visually. So how I imagine it is from way early on when I TLed this series, this young naive fresh green kid Brendel met Freya for the first time and fought with her for years, then witnessing her death on the battlefield and Aouine’s demise, etc, which is the starting point of what Brendel is doing now and why he acts that way.)

Brendel’s true stats were merely that of a mid tier Iron-ranked fighter, and it looked like he was not even close to Eke’s match. But if they were to truly have a fight, Brendel would not lose even if there were two Ekes fighting him, especially when his military swordsmanship was at level 10 (9+1).

With the memories of the original Brendel about his grandfather’s swordsmanship, he was literally unmatched by anyone his age, and the military instructors in the army would just barely be proficient enough to become his students.

Still, even with his own vast experience, he did not reach his grandfather’s unapproachable aura that made people feel like they were on a tight rope hanging over cliffs. He was somewhat close to that state and becoming a grandmaster, but the more he raised his levels, the more mysterious he felt his grandfather was.

[A mere veteran soldier in that November War…? Even a level 100+ warrior like myself can’t gather up an aura to fight against him, it would really be ridiculous to write my grandfather off as a simple soldier. Especially when I don’t even see a hint of his strength on Leto.]

Leto was another soldier who experienced the November war. The only difference was the fact that he joined in the later part of the war, while Brendel’s grandfather experienced the entirety of the whole war.

[Who exactly received the Fire Emblem from the Holy Cathedral of Fire?]

Brendel had actively worked with Aouine’s government in the game, and joined the Church of light. This thought streaked across his mind and vanished.

Everyone looked at each other in silence as the situation suddenly changed, but the first noise that surged was from the surrounding citizens. Everyone started talking about why and how the mercenaries failed to capture the youth. Even though the majority of them did not really see how the fight started and ended, it did not interfere with their gossiping nature.

The mercenaries who were knocked onto the ground by Eke climbed up slowly. Even though they did not speak, their eyes did not show any signs of anger or depression, and instead showed like they were relieved.

Brendel naturally did not miss any of that. When he turned back to the girls, he saw Amandina also turning towards him, and their glances exchanged certain information.

“Brendel, they don’t seem like they want to go after him.” Romaine muttered next to him.

Brendel chuckled and nodded.

“Captain Capo, are you alright?”

Brendel saw a few mercenary soldiers going up to Capo carefully and asked. Capo looked blankly at his wrist for a while and then regained a strict face and look at his men.

“I’m fine. Alright, everyone form into groups and seal off Chablis. Don’t let Eke escape. If there are any problems with this afternoon’s situation, I’ll take full responsibility—”

“Oh.”

“Okay.”

“Understood, Captain Capo.”

The mercenaries answered stiffly, but their reactions were slow enough to raise a few heads.

But Capo seemed to ignore their actions. He surveyed his surroundings and his eyes fell upon Brendel. He had observed the entire battlefield and noticed Brendel helping his man out, but it was only now that he had the time to scrutinize him.

Capo was actually surprised when he studied Brendel.

He had noted Brendel’s abilities with at least a mid-tier Iron-ranked fighter, but he did not expect him to be so young. Any twenty years old youth with his skills would raise surprise anywhere, and his immediate thoughts went to Eke. That youth was the most talent person he saw in his life, and he was the commander ‘Maned Wolf’ Maccarlo’s adopted son. He had attained the Tier 2 Prowess at the mere age of seventeen, and in his memories, only the Blessed prodigies would attain such results at his age. (TL: Tier 1 prowess is iron rank, Tier 2 prowess is silver rank)

Eke has been the mercenaries’ hope and pride since he was young, and when he deserted from the mercenaries, commander Maccarlo merely wanted them to bring him back, and the rest of the mercenaries did not wish to see the youth get punished because of this reason. It was clear that the youth was dearly beloved by them.

When he thought about Eke, Capo’s heart steadied itself, and someone like Brendel appeared to be a natural thing. He exhaled and walked over to him, with his expression slightly more relaxed.

“I am grateful for your assistance, please call me Capo. May I ask for your name, Ser-?” He said.

“Brendel, there’s no need to be so courteous.” Brendel was also studying him.

The veteran mercenary had a pair of a ashen irides, and his brows looked as if they were constantly bunching up together like he had uncountable problems. Coupled with his looks was shoulder-length grey hair, and a pair of hands with long fingers. If he did not have calluses on the hands, he would look like a piano player.

Because of his looks, he did appear to be an attractive older man and he might even attract fangirls’ screams.

Brendel was somewhat jealous. Even though he was quite good-looking as well, he lacked a certain maturity that Capo had, who looked like he had been through ups and downs.

[Looks like these mercenaries are not your average ones either. I wonder which famous group they belong to in the southern regions. There doesn’t seem to be any indication on their clothes, or any easily identifiable emblems on them right now. If they went out for a mission, there might be some clues…]