Amber Sword
Chapter 130: Revised: Scene 56 Witness

Chapter 130: Revised: Scene 56 Witness

Brand coldly watched the nobles bicker amongst themselves, while their private soldiers bickered and panicked, unable to calm down. The nobles wanted to head east out of the city, but as for their subjects in Ridenburg, who cared about them? No one mentioned them.

No one cared about political struggles now. Their arguments focused on what to do with their family property—some insisted on saving their lives, others on taking as much as they could. Some even preferred to die rather than abandon their wealth, as if Madara would spare them because they were nobles. Their loud quarreling and mutual accusations grated on Brand’s nerves, so he lowered his head and wiped his sword—it had just brought him 220 points of experience, the richest gain he’d had apart from killing the Golden Tree boss.

It seemed that had been an Intermediate Corpse Witch; he was lucky. The Corpse Witch probably never expected him to target it. Among its kind, the Corpse Witch was relatively weak; the Intermediate one, at around level 30, was immobilized by a Stone Statue Ghost, giving Brand the perfect opportunity to land the finishing blow.

The Intermediate Corpse Witch had more benefits to offer than just that.

In front of everyone, Brand split open the Corpse Witch’s forehead with one slash, extracting a bone-like object from within. He then cut off four fingers from its right hand with another slash and pried open its jaw to carefully pocket each of its teeth. His shocking actions silenced the crowd; they stared at him as if he were a demon, though the Corpse Witch still had a human form. Brand’s actions, however, were as practiced as the most seasoned hunter handling their game.

Brand himself didn’t think there was anything inappropriate about it, as he was indeed handling prey. Intermediate Corpse Witches were different from low-level cannon fodder; their Soul Fires had a chance of being refined into gemstones for embedding, the four fingers on their right hand were wizard casting materials, and their teeth could be used to make paralyzing poison.

In short, they were treasures all over.

Char, aware of some stories, had been standing at attention beside Brand since he ran out of the private soldiers. The nobles’ private soldiers, mercenaries, had long since lost morale and no one cared about him. However, the young wizard follower couldn’t help but recall everything that had happened, especially Brand’s act of testing his sword near the body of Count Du’en. It was only now he realized that the Lord’s every move had deep meaning, filling him with admiration.

He looked at Brand and felt that even the wise Highland Wizard Masters of Karasu were no more composed than this.

Meanwhile, Luc Besson, after a brief daze, calmed down. He gripped the reins and sat atop his horse, watching the young man with interest rather than fleeing like the others. To him, Brand was steady, resourceful, and decisive; given his power at this age, he would have achieved great things if born a decade earlier.

But in today’s Erune, even he, a royalist, couldn’t help but shake his head. He looked up at the oppressive night sky, unable to stop thinking about what would become of this country.

A peculiar quiet fell among them—

But only Heaven knew Brand was calculating the best route to escape. He glanced at Char standing beside him before turning to ask, "Between the Pale Rider and the Black Knight, which do you think is easier to deal with?" Char was stunned by the abrupt question, unsure how to answer.

Brand shook his head, watching the noisy nobles finally retreat east with their private soldiers, leaving the messy corpses of their comrades on the riverbank, uncared for.

"Gorpe likened the nobles of Karasu to bandits in his poems; it seems Golan-Elsen’s are not far off," Char sneered.

"This country’s finished," Brand said mockingly, not caring if Luc Besson was beside him. However, he didn’t bother with those soon to die; these fellows would run east only to collide with Tagus’s top general, the infamous ’Dragon Calamity’ Lord Tamara. Brand had always wondered how they all perished in history; now their foolish decision made it clear.

"You’re not running?" Luc Besson, as if not hearing his former words, asked from atop his horse.