The Amber Sword

Chapter 136 – Dispute.

“Father!” A sudden childish outcry of anxiety and unease suddenly cut through the cavalry’s sneering laughter.

A haggard-looking woman covered her child’s mouth and looked at the riders with fearful eyes. Silence covered the entire street as the leader of the riders dismounted and walked slowly over to her. His gait had a certain threatening weight to it as he carried his large spear over his shoulders.

While his eyes were dyed with surprise from the cry earlier, it could not hide the disdain in them.

“This boy knows that wretched thing?” The stout man licked his lips as he pointed with his spear to the blood-stained corpse on the ground. His comrades came up as well and surrounded her like a pack of hyenas.

The woman hugged her son and shook her head with tears rolling across her cheeks.

“Let that boy go. I want to hear the answer directly from him.” The man used his spear to draw back the woman’s fringe as he said.

The woman hugged her child even tighter as she was afraid of losing him; the people around her looked on with sympathetic eyes but quickly drew back from her.

“Did you not hear what I just said?”

“Ser Knight, he’s still young, please have mercy on my boy!” She begged him as she wept.

“You wretched whore.” The man said as he quickly raised his spear to strike her, he immediately found a young woman carrying a longbow spreading her arms out and stood in his way.

“Hmm?” The man looked at the unexpected interference in front of him.

Brendel relaxed his fingers that were on his sword a while ago. He recognized the daring girl from the group of youths who distributed food earlier.

“That’s enough, do you have no shame in bullying a helpless woman?” The woman with the longbow shouted angrily: “I’m a daughter of a Baronet, and I command you to stop this immediately!”

“Oh?” The burly man looked blankly at her for a moment, before he turned back to his comrades and said: “Boys, this lass here is an aristocrat’s daughter! What should we do?”

Rude laughter came in reply.

“And which land is your noble father from?” The man turned back to the baronet’s daughter and asked in a blank tone.

“Fenna, be careful!”

A man wearing heavy armor burst out from the crowd, his hand on the greatsword behind his back, but it was too late, the leader of the cavalry had already stabbed through her stomach with his spear.

That outcome suddenly came from nowhere, and the woman named Fenna looked down in disbelief as she uttered a soft gasp. Pain drowned her when the leader pulled his weapon, and she staggered back a few steps before she fell forward onto the ground. Blood pooled around her as she repeatedly opened and closed her mouth, shuddering repeatedly before she finally laid still.

The leader casually placed the spear back across his shoulders like it nothing had happened, flinging drops of blood across the ground. The cavalry behind him quickly took out their longbows and shot at the adventurers and civilians alike. Ten-odd men were instantly killed as screams broke out from the crowd.

The cavalry did not care whether they hurt the innocent and efficiently drove the crowd away to prevent any sudden retaliation.

“Fenna!” That swordsman cried out again and swept away the arrows with his sword, but before his cry ended, another member in his party collapsed to the ground as an arrow struck him. “You fucking bastards!”

He roared as he pushed away the panicking crowd and rushed straight to the leader with his greatsword. The latter intercepted his attack with his spear and bellowed: “Whoever interferes will be the enemies of Lord Trentheim!” (TL: Baron Graudin = Lord Trentheim.)

The provoked crowd of adventurers quickly abated their tempers.

The swordsman continued to attack regardless of the leader’s threat, but the latter easily deflected the strikes, accurately bashed the swordsman’s fingers with the base of the spear and knocked away the greatsword with a sweep. He then followed up with a strike from the spear’s body to the swordsman’s face before he finally thrust the blade into his neck.

While both of them were perceived as Iron-ranked fighters, it was clear that the cavalry’s leader was several grades above the swordsman.

But the spear never reached the swordsman’s neck. A tremendous force had struck against it and caused a metallic clash to ring out. It inched away from the latter’s neck, and caused the cavalry’s leader to wobble unsteadily. His hands were numb from the impact.

“Who dares!” The leader roared in fury and turned around, and his eyes laid on a youth wearing a jet-black cloak over an alabaster shirt with fancy patterns stitched across his collar. His cashmere gloves were dyed in a startling red and were connected to a heavy longbow.

That youth was gazing back at him as though he was filth.

The old and new Brendel were aligned perfectly with each other right at that moment. They did not allow unjust actions to defile their sanctuary.

Amandina, Sanford and Scarlett looked at the youth in utter surprise. They did not think that Brendel would interfere with this situation so openly. Romaine was looking at him with sparkles in her eyes, feeling that this was his true personality.

The different faces that he showed were many; his courageous expression, his resolute appearance, his air of violent bloodthirst when he fought against his enemies, and even the one when he was angry with her.

She liked every one of those faces.

A moment of silence came about as everyone in the streets turned their attention to the youth.

The cavalry’s leader narrowed his eyes as he studied the men around Brendel. He was secretly shocked at the display of strength that the youth had.

The aristocrat’s daughter was stupid enough to go against him here. There was nothing her lowly ranking noble father could do if he did not have any land under his name. Would he dare to address his grievances directly to a Baron who had a duke as his backing forces?

But the youth in front of him was different. No common man would be able to bring so many guards along with him, and they looked like they had the abilities of the kingdom’s elite forces.

[This man probably isn’t some common aristocrat’s offspring.]

He quickly put away his spear and came to attention and cautiously greeted him.

“May I inquire who you are, Messere?”

The cavalry’s arrows that were focused on Brendel, lowered as soon as they heard their commander speak politely. They quickly cooled their heads as they realized the situation was changing.

“Let them go.” Brendel said, his voice void of any warmth.

He did not even take a look at the archers. With Scarlett and Medissa around, it would be a joke if the people around him got hurt by any arrows. However, he started investing his bonus XP for completing the quest in Baern Shyrltaesi.

[200000 XP in total. There’s no telling what will happen here. If I threaten this bastard he’s most likely to back down, but I don’t want any mistakes here…… There, I placed everything into the Mercenary profession. It’s at level 25 now, and my overall character level is 32. Strength and dexerity is at 70 and 40, respectively, putting me on par with the stats of Silver-ranked fighter at a higher tier……]

Suddenly, there was an odd feeling in his mind. When he fired that arrow at the cavalry’s leader, he was suddenly reminded of the time when he lost his temper at Makarov over Scarlett. He shook off that feeling in a hurry.

[…… Regardless, I need to raise my level as soon as possible to unseal my Element. Once my perception is raised I should be able to make sense of the type of Element I have. The situation might go out of hand anytime and I need every bit of power available to me.]

Brendel was easily able to kill every one of the bastards in front of him, and would gladly do so if Baron Graudin was not in the picture.

“Messere, we will be in trouble if we do as you say,” The attitude of the riders’ leader changed to a polite tone as Brendel’s haughty reaction confirmed his suspicions: “These people who fought back might be conspiring with the bandits. We can’t answer to our lord if we let them go—“

But he chose to resist. He did kill a noble, and if he let the survivors escape then there would still be trouble for him if rumors came about.

Brendel’s laughter echoed in the street when he heard the leader’s answer.

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” The youth’s hand went to his sword: “Killing you is as easy as killing a rat, and I just need to apologize to Graudin after the deed is done— But I’m going to give him my respect by not cutting your head off on the spot despite your insolence. However, my patience has its limits—“

He pulled out his sword and caused the riders in front of him to shiver slightly.

The world was simply that practical. If the nobility’s status did not work in negotiations, then violence and power were the answers. The price of being naive was too high, and all too easily understood with Fenna’s still-warm body.

The riders’ leader considered for a while before he finally agreed and stepped away from the swordsman.

The swordsman still wanted to grab his greatsword and cut down the bastard in front of him, but another adventurer dashed out from the crowd to restrain him. Brendel watched him whisper into the swordsman’s ears before the latter finally calmed down.

– Don’t cause trouble for others.

Brendel sighed inwardly. The group of adventurers were truly naive. To the point where it was as rare as precious gems.

Tears streaked down the swordsman’s eyes as he gently carried Fenna’s body. The crowd parted as the two men walked towards Brendel.

“Thank you, kind sir.”

The person who thanked him was a skinny-looking youth around Brendel’s age. He had a pale face and long light-grey hair, and wore a monocle which was chained back behind his ear. He wore a grey set of long robes which had runic patterns on his sleeves, and Brendel realized that he was an apprenticing wizard.

Unlike the swordsman who displayed his anger and sorrow openly, the youth appeared composed and polite, although his slightly red eyes betrayed the fury in him.

“Do you want to take revenge?” Brendel asked after studying the wizard for a moment.

The young wizard looked up at Brendel in suspicion before he quietly shook his head and pulled the surprised swordsman away.

Brendel’s eyes followed his back. That young wizard was just as angry as the swordsman and would never forget about this incident, but contrary to his partner, he was cautious and showed restraint.

[I thought that everyone in that group is naive but that youth is quite intriguing…..]

“Messere, I have done what you asked of me. Would you kindly follow us and explain to our superiors?” The riders’ leader carefully asked.

Brendel gave a derisive scoff, but he nodded after a moment.

“My lord?” Amandina whispered.

Since he interfered with this matter it would be necessary for him to meet Baron Graudin. It was folly to use force here, and he thought it would be better for him to make the first move and fool the latter.