The Amber Sword

“All For One?” Romaine raised her chin and thought for a moment when she heard this answer. “I once heard it from Brendel. That is a cult organization, right?”

White Mist looked at Viscount Benninger on the ground and said, “The Philosopher of Nihility believes all is meaningless, as the World-Devouring Serpent, Ouroboros, lies underneath. After every period of Order, an epoch of Chaos shall reign…an ideology predating even the War of the Holy Saints…”

Viscount Benninger was stunned after listening to her explanation. Subject to the brainwashing of the four Holy Cathedrals, everyone believed that ‘All For One’ was the name of an evil cult, yet few truly understood their history and doctrine.

He looked at White Mist with his eyes wide open and loudly demanded, “If you understand the truth of the world, why don’t you join us? You know, our goal is majestic!”

White Mist refuted him and said, “All For One, the concept that everything is merely cycles of Order and Chaos, that everything shall disappear into nothingness…I cannot believe people nowadays still believe in this kind of antiquated nonsense. The ignorance of humans is truly astounding.”

“No, this is not nonsense!” Viscount Benninger said angrily.

“Romaine, please smack him.” After thousands of years, White Mist had no interest in reasoning with mortals, especially if the other party had nothing to do with her. The best way to deal with such fools is brute force!

“Sure!”

“Don’t, no!” Viscount Benninger screamed, tears and snot running down his face. He stared at the two female demons with fear. At that point, it was unclear who the true evil cultist was.

“Answer the following questions.”

The merchant lady waved her hammer and asked, “Aren’t you guys third-party forces in this situation? Yet you are still hard at work manipulating the situation. Every decision made by mortals is for a certain purpose. It’s like a businessman working for profit. What are the purposes of your actions?”

“…” Viscount Benninger went silent for a moment. He looked at the hammer but he could not help and tremble “Well, of course, it is to overthrow Aouine.”

Romaine turned around, and Miss White Mist yawned and said, “Half-truths. Only seven parts of a mortal’s words are true while the other three are lies. Truth intertwines with falsehood to mislead others.”

“So you’re lying. All For One must be hiding its true intentions behind the veil of defeating Aouine, no?” The business lady nodded while continuing the interrogation.

Viscount Benninger stared at Romaine as if he had seen a ghost and said,  “Are you acting stu—”

He was smacked square in the face hard before he could even complete his sentence. She corrected Viscount Benninger seriously and said, “Romaine will be a world-class businessman in the future. It’s said that a smart man acts dumb, okay? Stupid idiot.”

White Mist looked at the poor guy, shook her head, and thought, This time you actually guessed right. She is stupid, but she has a pair of eyes that can look through the human heart.

The essence of witch-hood itself was to manipulate people’s hearts. None could resist her.

Romaine clapped her hands and looked at Viscount Benninger and asked, “What do you want to do? Out with it.”

Viscount Benninger seemed simultaneously dejected and indignant. He desperately wanted to control his words, but he could not go against his heart. After a brief struggle, he finally caved in.

“Jorgendy Ridge.”

…

Before nightfall, Sani managed to bring Amandina down from the boat and regroup with Brendel. But she came with bad news—

Romaine had gone missing.

Again!

Brendel was extremely annoyed.

She was doing well recently and Brendel thought she had finally been cured of idiocy. But no one would have thought that the female merchant would disappear yet again!

I really want to spank her hard this time. He thought. But there was nothing he could do right now. Besides, Amandina had other news about what Romaine had said at the time she left.

Brendel knew very well that although Romaine always had fleeting moments of pure lunacy, her predictions were always accurate. In Bucce, Long Song Forest, and the other adventures she had with Brendel, she displayed amazing observation skills.

Not to mention that she still had another identity: The successor to the Witch Queen!

Brendel calmed down quickly. He did not know if Romaine was still in Ampere Seale at this time, but could only hope that the Witch Queen would protect her. And according to Amandina, there should be a Contract Spirit with her.

In The Amber Sword, a Contract Spirit was similar to a witch’s familiar, except it was far stronger. A Contract Spirit was said to be an existence just below the lower-ranked Gods. Most of them had existed in this world for thousands of years, bearing rich knowledge and experience, and the Contract Spirit left behind by the Witch Queen would definitely be something outstanding.

Although the business-lady looked a fool, Brendel knew that she was actually extremely clever. With a Contract Spirit, she should be able to cope with most emergencies. Brendel tried to comfort himself.

There was a moment of silence between Amandina and Brendel.

“My Lord, I’m sorry, I…” Amandina was biting her lower lips in fear. She felt a twang of jealousy when she saw how Brendel was worrying about Romaine. However, besides Freya, no one knew better than her how important Romaine was to Brendel.

The merchant lass had always behaved carefree about everything, as if nothing in this world concerned her. Brendel was seemingly the only bond that connected her to this world. She liked Brendel. Everyone knew this fact, but only Amandina knew that this kind of love was free from all restrictions.

The business lady could even abandon the world for Brendel. She saw it behind those dark eyes of hers, that Brendel was worth more than anything she had.

Far more important than any justice, kindness, or morals.

Amandina looked down and said to herself that she might sacrifice her life for Brendel, but there were some principles that she could not change. If one day Brendel chose to fight against the world, could she kill all those who go against him?

If he became a tyrant and abandoned all his promises, would she still follow him without hesitation?

Although this was just an assumption, Amandina knew that she would not be able to do that. She might choose to live with the guilt of going against him until the end of her life. But Romaine…she would choose to be the wife of a tyrant without hesitation.

She knew this deeply.

Amandina looked at her Lord. She saw that Brendel shook his head and said to her, “It does not matter, just let her suffer a little bit.”

Amandina was pulled back to reality once she heard what Brendel had said. She exhaled heavily and realized her current identity as Brendel’s helper and asked, “But, how about the things that Miss Romaine had predicted?”

“A trap?” Brendel smiled. “I had once encountered it when the Holy Cathedral set us up to a big game. But unfortunately, it ended in failure.

Amandina wore an expression of reliefwas relieved. Brendel realized Sshe was still wearing the same dress that she wore when she was on the boat. She did not have time to change and was embarrassed about her wet outfit.

He Brendel glanced at her and saw a few strands of wet hair attached to her forehead. This must be awkward for a pretty lady, not to mention a noble. He was touched and asked, “Do you want to change your clothes first?”

Amandina’s face reddened slightly. She shook her head and said, “Since My Lord requested I come so urgently, you must have some important cases to handle with. Don’t worry about me.”

Indeed.

Brendel nodded and glanced at the forest. The sky was completely dark at this moment. Below the hills behind him, Fort Bunuo blazed in a reddish-orange conflagration—all according to the prediction of the sergeants. The Black Blade Squad had just passed by that area.

They didn’t have much time left.

He made a gesture, and several young men carrying some dark objects immediately came over. They were the parts for something else. Amandina glanced at the things and frowned; they had been disassembled in a very crude manner, as if it smashed apart.

They were the parts for a Magic Furnace.

To be precise, they were the core components for a Magic Furnace’s Magic Conductor. This was her expertise. She could analyze the parts at a glance and realized that they were old things.

From one of the earliest models, in fact. But if I want to be more specific, I have to check thoroughly.

Amandina remembered that these models of Magic Furnace were brought into Aouine from the Kirrlutz Empire and distributed across the Kingdom. Local lords generally used them to smelt iron and steel. But their worth, near-invaluable tens of years ago, had dropped so low it could literally be considered trash.

Of course, compared to Trentheim’s old furnace, these were much better.

She raised her head and looked at Brendel curiously. She did not know the reasons her Lord was showing these things to her. She recalled Ciel saying that Brendel was once a poor lad and he used to rob the rich to help the poor. The oil painting auctioned in Ampere Seale was one of his treasured thefts.

She did not believe him at first, but she was beginning to trust his words. Most of the parts were broken due to the wrong method of disassembly. She shook her head and sighed. Things would have been a lot easier if she had arrived earlier.

“Lord, it is hard to fix these things. Even if they are fixed, the cost of doing so will be much higher than buying a new one.” She observed Brendel’s expression and said carefully.

“What?”

Brendel was stunned for a moment and said, “No, you misunderstand. I do not want you to fix them. If these things are fixed, it would create problems. It took me a long time to disassemble these.”

“Ah?” Amandina was stunned. She stared at Brendel and said, “My Lord, these things were disassembled by you?”

“Exactly, and I need you to disassemble them further.”

“Why?”

“As you can see, it is too heavy. There are dozens of them. The nobles are really rich after all. But do you think we can bring all of this along with us.” Brendel answered.

“Ah …” Amandina seemed to understand and said, “Lord, are you going to….”

“Exactly,” Brendel nodded. “There’s a lot of components turned to waste in these devices… Well, I admit that I did turn them into junk. But I need them to build Disintegration Crystals.”

He looked at Amandina intently as he answered. This was the reason he was so fixated on attacking Bunuo in the first place.

Amandina stared at her lord with an odd expression. Her Lord’s acts were nothing short of an aberration to her.