Hearing the voice behind her, the veiled woman turned around. She saw a half-elf with pointy ears standing not far out. The latter was hugging a big bag of roasted beans in her arms, crunching on them while watching her in suspicion.
“You can… see ?” The woman wearing a veil — lita Ponia — looked at this half-elf, whom she happened to have t once, in slight surprise. She naturally rembered her; as a high-ranking agent of Mithril Vault, her mory was exceptional. Hence, she could also clearly recall the combat ability of this half-elf guard. A half-elf who was barely stronger than a goose could actually see her so easily?
“Is it very difficult to see you?” Amber crunched and chewed on the roasted beans. Till now, she had yet to rember who this veiled woman — whose style was different from the entire camp — was, so she looked full of curiosity. “Say who exactly are you? A pedlar? This place finally has traders who are willing to co?”
No one knew how she associated the person before her to a trader…
“Trader… If you must put it that way, it doesn’t seem wrong either.” lita smiled and withdrew her concealing-effect as well as ntal-hint spell. It was also fortunate that there was no one else around; otherwise, if the residents coming and going saw a person appear out of thin air on the streets, it would probably cause another commotion. “You are Duke Gawain Cecil’s guard? Please show the way. I’m here to discuss matters with him.”
“Oh (crunch crunch), okay.” Amber threw another two roasted beans into her mouth, then walked to lita, and stretched out her hand. “(crunch crunch) Three copper coins.”
lita was instantly stunned. “Why?”
“Fee for leading the way (crunch crunch).”
“…Are you interested in coming to work at the Mithril Vault?”
“Ha?” Amber imdiately faltered for a mont but then was reminded by the term ‘Mithril Vault’. She was struck by a sudden thought and put a distance of a few ters between herself and lita all at once. “Ah! Mithril Vault! I rember now! I’ve t you previously!”
“It’s .” lita smiled. She found this half-elf rather interesting. Every startled reaction of hers was so exaggerated that it left a deep impression. “Your feudal lord invited here. So do you still want the fee for showing the way?”
“Psh, I thought I could earn a sum of extra inco. — Being a lackey for that old dumpling, yet I can’t even earn so errand fees. What a loss,” Amber complained in a low voice and then waved her hand. “Alright, alright. Co with . I’ll bring you to him.”
Under Amber’s lead, lita arrived in the depths of the territory very quickly. She saw a huge tent standing in the middle of the empty space although a foundation had been built beside the empty space. A large number of bricks, wood, and rocks were piled aside, like they were preparing to build a big house.
“He’s in the tent. At this ti, I think he has yet to take his afternoon nap.” Amber strode towards the tent on wide steps. “Wait outside for a mont. I’ll go in to inform him.”
Monts later, lita heard the half-elf’s unconcerned voice from the tent. “Gawain! The agent called My Little Pony is here for you!”
lita frowned in confusion. Why were the pronunciations of that fellow and the people around him all so strange?
Gawain had been awaiting this agent’s visit for many days, and she was finally here today. Miss Agent was dressed about the sa as she had the previous ti — wearing a gauze dress in a peculiar style, a lilac veil covering her face, her disposition mysterious and elegant.
Amber had seen this agent strolling near the brick-kiln yard, and before that, not a single person had reported that an outsider had arrived at the territory.
This was truly a young lady accompanied by obscurity.
“Long ti no see, Miss lita.” Gawain stood up behind the desk, wearing a smile on his face. “I thought you would take a long ti to co. After all, the transport in this area isn’t very convenient. Please take a seat.”
“The Mithril Vault always has many convenient channels.” lita was also smiling. “And I’m very glad that you’ve finally pronounced my na correctly.”
Gawain instantly felt a little embarrassed. “Ahaha… Don’t be so sure first. I might still pronounce it wrongly the next ti.”
“Duke is really a humorous person,” lita rose slightly and said in a befitting manner.
She still did not remove her veil, but Gawain wasn’t bothered by that. He only watched this agent from the Mithril Vault with curiosity. “You seed to have ‘looked around’ my territory? What are your thoughts?”
“It’s a very nice place, better than I’d imagined, and there are many unusual… magical equipnt,” lita said frankly. “But what I’m more curious about is here. — You’re actually still living in a tent and instead let those civilians live in wooden huts. This is very strange.”
“The majority of those are workshops or lodging are for technical personnel. The infrastructure of the territory has to take precedence,” Gawain explained. “As for here… you should have seen that vast empty land beside the tent. This tent of mine will have to be dismantled in the near future.”
lita’s eyes widened slightly. “I’d thought those were barracks prepared for the knights and soldiers. It seems like you do not plan on building a castle for yourself?”
“I’ll see about it when we have the resources in the future. It’s a pure waste to build that now.” Gawain waved his hand. “Enough of that, let us get down to business.”
“Of course.” lita still rembered her purpose in coming here. “Please let have a look at the ring that you found.”
Gawain fished out the Mithril Ring that he had gotten from the heretic cult believer on the spot, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of lita.
Miss Agent’s eyes narrowed the mont she saw the silver ring. Her look beca solemn — evidently, that thing was real.
She picked up the ring, placed it in front of herself, and examined it carefully while stroking the inner side so as to verify those encrypted patterns. In the end, she lifted the ring to her lips and softly uttered a few syllables.
Those syllables sounded fuzzy and indistinguishable. Gawain had sharply realized almost imdiately that they weren’t ordinary incantations; the voice that was close to a low whisper wasn’t even sothing that the human vocal cords could make. And as these few syllables fell, the surface of the ring was suddenly flooded with a layer of hazy glow and vibrated lightly.
A good ten-odd seconds later, these phenona then slowly disappeared.
After completing what seed to be the special authentication spell, lita exhaled lightly, but her voice didn’t relax at all. Instead, it was especially solemn. “Yes indeed… It’s the VIP token of Mithril Vault. Its owner is Bard Wendell.”
“Bard Wendell?” Gawain frowned. He didn’t recognize the majority of the great figures of the present era, but he was very familiar with many surnas of those big figures. “I’ve heard of the Wendell surna before. There was a hothead surnad Wendell amongst the batch of people moving eastward back then.”
“That’s right. Bard Wendell, descendant of the Typhon Empire’s Wendell clan.” lita’s gaze was very serious. “You should be able to rember. The Wendell clan is as ancient as your Cecil Clan. Inherited to this day, it is already one of the most prestigious clans in the Typhon Empire. The Duke Ferdinand Wendell of the present era is the Typhon Empire’s strongest ‘Knight Lord’, also the Wolf General before the previous, and a descendant of the ‘hothead’ that you ntioned.”
“Knight Lord?” Gawain frowned. “Is it the kind of feudal lord that I know of?”
“No, it’s a unique title created after the Typhon Empire went through a military-system reform,” lita casually explained. “The Typhon Empire went through multiple reforms in recent decades, especially in the military. They reorganized and registered all knights, warriors, Mages, and all other Beyonder fighters, forming the ‘Empire Corps’ that doesn’t have the private armies of the aristocrat clans as its foundation. The Knight Lord is the military chief of the order of knights that commands this corps.”
Gawain was originally only casually inquiring; he didn’t expect to hear such information. His brows instantly knitted together. “Typhon Empire built a professional, standardized Beyonder corps?!”
“Yes.” lita nodded naturally. “That’s why their military might expanded so quickly.”
“…That bunch of gluttons in the capital.” Gawain instinctively clenched his fists. “I actually didn’t hear any news in this respect in Anzu at all. Even when I inquired from those aristocrats when I was in the capital, I couldn’t get such information!”
“Ah, they’re unlikely to not have the slightest idea about the things happening in the neighboring country, but as to why they’re unwilling to take it seriously, it’s hard to say.” lita shrugged indifferently. “We can discuss these issues at the national level hereafter. We’d better continue discussing the problem of the heretic cult believer and the ring.”
“Alright.” Gawain relaxed his fists. “The owner of this ring, Bard Wendell, what is his relationship with the current Duke Ferdinand Wendell?”
“Bard Wendell is the only son of Duke Ferdinand, and also the previous Wolf General,” lita said, pausing with every word. “Most importantly, he’s been missing since ten-odd years ago!”
Gawain’s gaze turned strange. “Heir of the Wendell clan, general of the Typhon Empire, there’s indeed nothing odd if he were a major client of the Mithril Vault, but… the one I saw at Tanzan Town was a Grade 5 fallen Druid!”
The difference between these two identities was huge, such that Gawain was totally unable to link them together. He glanced at the ring in lita’s hand and instinctively shook his head. “I’m starting to suspect that the heretic cult believer had stolen or picked up this ring again.”
“Very unfortunately, your suspicions are still invalid.” lita shook her head. “I’ve already checked. Other than records of your contact, this ring hasn’t been touched by anyone else who does not match the identity. In other words, this ring had been previously worn on Bard Wendell’s hand the whole ti. It has never changed hands.”
“The Grade 5 fallen Druid that you t… was Bard Wendell in person.”
Gawain was stunned speechless.
But very soon, several details flashed across his mind.
When he was engaged with the heretic cult believer previously, he kept instinctively going for close combat. Even when he possessed sorcery that was more powerful, he chose to hide in the shadows and assassinate with his sword.
In the fight, the heretic cult believer revealed an extrely brilliant swordsmanship, and he was clearly highly experienced with wielding a sword.
The heretic cult believer’s weapon was a single-handed sword, and the weapon used by Tilian Wendell in the eastern roads pioneering team was also a single-handed sword. The swordsmanship of the two seed to be very similar, highly likely that they were derived from the sa origin…
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