The Amber Sword

The July morning in Chablis was a song of birds’ warbling that filled the forest. When the morning sun covered the town, it also seemed to fill it with vigor and life.

Brendel’s habits had completely changed ever since he entered this world. He used to sleep in late whenever he could back in his original world, but now he woke up early as a swordsman. He took in a deep breath, filling his nose with the air inside his room that smelled of peppermint leaves.

Having the luxury to sleep felt like it was ages ago.

He walked towards the nearest window to look outside the inn’s window. The scenery was Chablis’s undulating mountains, with the town’s stony architecture giving an indescribable charm. As he admired the landscape, he held down a paper card with two fingers and opening it with his thumb. The Wind Crystal that was placed beside it immediately turned into a path of green smoke that went straight into the paper card. A small gust of wind blew within the room, and numerous dimension cracks appeared to reveal twenty Wind Spirit Spiders which jumped out.

He immediately gave them an order, and the chattering spiders scattered away, becoming blurry and transient, before they finally disappeared as wafts of smoke and went outside the room. The cracks closed and the wind stopped, and upon witnessing this event, the youth smiled.

“The current situation appears like it’s a quest mission.” He furrowed his brows as he opened a bottle of mana potion. This thought has been lingering for two days and he did not sleep well over it.

The game had events that appeared randomly without warning, which either led to a chain quest or a dungeon. There were hints of how the quests were going to be spawned from logical events, and it was an attractive selling point.

[Should I treat this current situation like the game or should I worry how far it is going to deviate from the game? Wait. Think about it, thus far, all the major events have followed the game’s history. Surely there’s a possibility that this mercenary group that appeared here was in the game’s history as well.]

Brendel went back and forth in his mind, trying to recall the insignificant events during the early years in the game. After a short while, he finally recalled about an event about within the Baern’s ruins. The people involved claimed to be the first team that got a chain quest.

[It’s really familiar—]

As he tried to recall details about the event, a series of impatient knocks could be heard from the door.

[Not Romaine, she wouldn’t bother knocking, not Amandina either, it’s unlike her to knock in such a rude manner— Makarov’s men.]

Brendel immediately guessed.

“Please enter.”

The door opened to reveal two young men. One of them was the youth with white hair and a feminine face, who looked at Brendel with considerable scorn. The other man was one whom Brendel had not seen before.

Brendel observed the second man closely; he had short near hair, a skinny and short figure, and he looked inside the room with an expression full of curiosity.

“S-ser Brendel, we’re ready to move, may we know if you’re ready?” The short youth glanced at him with an inquisitive expression that’s mixed with doubt and admiration. It was evident that the battle Brendel had against Buga had given him a deep impression.

It was well known that Buga’s abilities was far beyond Makarov, and a young man whose age looked about twenty had bested him in terms of technique, was something that beyond imagination.

[I have heard of the people who are ‘Chosen’, but I don’t know how strong they are... I wonder if he’s one?]

Brendel would have laughed if he knew what the small youth was thinking. At his current strength he was not even close to be a ‘Chosen’, he could not even compare to a ‘Blessed’ person either.

“Understood. We will be there shortly. I thank you for informing me.” He nodded.

The youth with white hair immediately scoffed.

Brendel’s eyes darted over to him. He had socialized with some of the mercenaries and found out that the white-haired youth was a noble’s scion. It was not surprising that he had a temper and a condescending personality. Brendel guessed that his reason for joining the mercenary was an entire whole story altogether.

He had no interest to learn of it in any case.

But while Brendel ignored him, the white-haired youth did not do so. In fact, he became even angrier for being ignored at, and he scoffed again: “You listen to me. Even though I’m not your match, I’ll constantly have my eyes on you, and if I find out you’re trying to do something out of order—”

The youth beside him turned around in shock as he did not expect his partner to say something like that. His eyes went back to Brendel. He mouthed wordlessly, but no sound came out of his throat.

“Oh, you—?” Brendel secretly added ‘moron’ in his mind, then held his gaze on him: “Are called Redi, are you not?”

“My name has nothing to do with you.” He spat the words out.

“Are the nobles in your homeland without manners?” Brendel asked.

“You....” Redi said through gritted teeth, his hand reaching for his sword, before he recalled the difference of strength between them, before he dejectedly lowered his hand.

“Eke escaped?”

“How did you know of this, you.....!”

Redi’s brows creased together and he wanted to question Brendel, but he saw him in a contemplating manner, and immediately realized he made a mistake. He grunted heavily: “Hmph. You concern yourself too much with this matter. I will inform your transgression to the commander.”

[Blah, blah, whatever. I wonder how many idiots like you are out there.]

But a smile appeared on Brendel’s face: “I merely ask because I had the chance to meet Ser Eke, if you must know.”

[I don’t gave a shit.] Redi was furiously grinding his teeth, but there was no other expressions about putting on a taciturn face.

“I heard that you are from the same homeland as the Saint of the Silver Sword, Gory Keyes.” Brendel suddenly said.

“That’s none of your......”

The white-haired youth finally realized that Brendel was mocking him. He ceased talking and added a dismissive snort. Since he realized he could not have the upper hand against Brendel, he turned around and pulled his partner away, with the intention of leaving Brendel behind to find the way on his own, and it would be even better if he was unable to find his way.

Brendel kept laughing in his mind.

[It seems that bastard Gory has an ardent admirer.]

He had tried to learn his sword skills from Gory, but he failed to get any quest related to his techniques, and even suffered considerably under the old man’s temper.

[I wonder if he knows that old man’s real nature. He really loves to gamble, but he’s always unlucky and he completely denies making a bet when he loses... But there might be an opportunity to get one of his skill someday. It’s a pity he is traveling in Kirrlutz currently, otherwise I might try to find him.]

.......

Makarov and Buga exchanged long looks with each other. In the end it was Makarov who asked: “Ser Brendel, they are?”

He pointed at the twelve mercenaries who wore different uniforms.

[Mother Marsha above, we locked down the inn’s entrance and exit. We had scouts at the town’s gates, but how did these conspicuous men escape our notice? Did they arrive long ago before us? But we have been here for three days and these men did not appear!]

He stared at the men who carried axes, spears, shields, longswords along with full headgear.

Brendel did not understand the conflict in Makarov’s mind, so he merely shrugged as he explained with a smile: “These are my men. I believe I had mentioned before that I have mercenaries under me. Hmm..... They hail from distant lands, and as you know as a merchant, I had the chance to travel to different kingdoms. These mercenaries are from a minority tribe from the eastern Kindoms. Please do not mind what they wear.”

The smile never left his face, as though something like that really happened.

Amandina and Romaine threw furtive glances at him.

[Brendel actually has contact with minorities from the faraway lands! Incredible!] Romaine’s innocent mind praised him wholeheartedly.

But Amandina had different thoughts. Even though she knew he had another group of mercenaries under him, they were most likely from Arreck and not minorities.

[There’s something amiss. Even though Brendel said Ciel had to go back to Karsuk for a certain matter, there’s something wrong somewhere.] Amandina buried these thoughts in her heart as she did not want to question her lord.

Makarov and Buga who had more experience than Amandina obviously came to the same conclusion, but they did not understand how these mercenaries came about. Their Silver-ranked scouts even found Eke, but these new mercenaries who looked like they only had Iron-ranks fighters amongst them actually bypassed every scout.

Makarov subconsciously knitted his brows together. His opinions rated Brendel three grades higher, and he appeared to be on the realms of mystery.

“Then, Commander Makarov, should we set off?” Brendel asked.

“Certainly.” Makarov nodded with some difficulty. He was determined to place Brendel in the center of his own mercenaries to keep close watch over him. He was originally confident that he could keep trouble to a minimum, but there were twelve ‘Silver-ranked’ mercenaries who escaped detection, led by a youth who he himself was physically capable as a Silver-ranked fighter who was armed with incredible talent in the sword.

He felt a headache coming up. He looked back at Buga with a little blame in his eyes: “My old friend, this was the result of your investigation?”

Buga shrugged.

Makarov had asked Buga to search the mercenaries that Brendel had mentioned, but there was not even a hint about them, but there were twelve of them that suddenly sprung up. Even though they looked like they only were ‘Iron-ranked’ fighters, but Makarov did not believe his own eyes. These men were strangely dressed and he thought they had the means to hide their own strength.

Buga also shook his head inwardly when he saw the mercenaries.