The Amber Sword

The guard in the cage was scared shitless. He thought he was captured by some evil mages that came out of nowhere, and with the barrage of questions by Brendel and the others, he panicked and spilled the beans completely. There were more than thirty guards in the manor, and if you included the other occupants of the manor, there would be around one hundred people. However, it was uncertain if Lord Yanbao came himself as the orders were passed on to Brendel by three knights.

Brendel predicted the capabilities of the three knights to be at the Gold rank, and he raised his eyebrows slightly, It’s not hard to deal with three Gold rankers. But I’m unsure about their specialties, and that becomes an uncertainty to whether or not we can sneak in quietly.

Brendel was more concerned about the Dark Witchcraft displayed by Romaine just now. When he interrogated her just now, her pupils were jumping around as she kept on saying “Big sister taught me!” But as to who the big sister was, it was unclear.

She held up the cage and explained its usage. The cage was capable of trapping anyone within the user’s range of sight. As long as the victim’s Willpower is low, the target will be captured. And it was not just limited to one target, but could capture up to ten people at once.

Brendel understood immediately. Basically, it was an illusion. As long as the victim believes in it, it will become a reality for him. As long as his subconscious believes in the existence of the lie, the spell would work.

Even so, the spell was not omnipotent. It should be enough to deal with enemies at the Iron rank, but against people more powerful than that it would be difficult.

To charm someone, to trick someone into believing the void in their heart. That is the true essence of Dark Witchcraft.

Romaine covered the cage with a black cloth, shutting away the captive’s perception of the outside world. Everyone could not help but feel amazed at her Witchcraft. Even Ciel gave her words of praise. Wizards were capable of doing things normal people were incapable of, like turning a bridge into a wall, or melting a steel beam with high temperatures. But they were only manipulating the laws of Vaunte, and they cannot break those rules. They could not turn fireballs into ice, and vice versa. However, Witches were capable of doing that and were therefore more ‘mystical’ than them.

That was one of the reasons why witches were rejected by the populace. Their spells were unpredictable and there were some people who thought they had a relationship with the Twilight Dragon, which Brendel knew was not true. But in any case, Dark Witchcraft by itself was nothing upright.

He growled, “It seems like we have to visit Aunt Jenny quickly and try to figure out just what is going on with your body. But just where is she? Oh ya! Romaine, aren’t you worried about your aunt?”

Romaine widened her eyes, her pupils shone, “She would normally come back only after a few months!”

Brendel just scratched his jaw, “Alright, before we figured out just what is going on with your body, I forbid you from using those weird Witchcraft, got it?”

“Why?”

“I believe my cute little Romaine would not want to be burned on a stake would she?” Brendel asked sternly.

Romaine thought for a while, and nodded to his suggestion, “That’s a good plan!”

The majority of the people there were used to their conversation, and were waiting for him to execute the next order. Brendel looked at the manor, and told Romaine that he wanted to interrogate the guard in the cage regarding its interior.

Romaine removed the cloth, revealing a guard who was looking very fearful.

Brendel asked, “Is there anyone patrolling the place right now?”

The guard nodded like a chick and stuttered, “There’s a Wizard there…”

Brendel also found out that the guards would change shifts every half an hour. He pulled the black cloth back over the cage  once more and asked Romaine, “If you can catch him, surely you can let him go, can’t you?”

Romaine hurriedly nodded, like she was afraid Brendel was unsatisfied with her abilities.

Brendel then put on a stern air, intimidating the guard into not leaking to his subordinates about his involvement with them. The guard nodded, knowing that it would be very easy for a Wizard to kill him. They were known to have a multitude of ways to kill a person, and their curses were the most gruesome and infamous amongst them.

Before he left, Brendel warned him, “If you don’t listen to my warning, you’ll die an insufferable death!”

The key to this plan is to not alert the hidden scouts around the place. The Dark Witchcraft is capable of creating illusions to distract them, but if the person has a high Willpower, it would be easy for them to escape, Brendel thought as he saw the guard, still trembling. He stood at his post, fearful that his life would be consumed if he did something out of line.

After that was the easy part. Brendel waited until the patrol guards appeared and ordered Romaine to use her Dark Witchcraft to capture all of them. He slowly interrogated them one by one and then made Morpheus knock them out. There were a total of six people in the patrol team and Brendel picked Morpheus, Andrea, Raban, Ciel, and Ferlarn to replace them.

These people, if not outstanding, were experienced. The only exception was Ferlarn. Who knows why he would let her join them? No idea. Brendel was just used to sending out newbies to accompany his experienced subordinates to gain new exposure. But, of course, the others did not know his reasoning, and they thought that there was some sort of implicit and intimate meaning behind it.

Ferlarn also found the arrangement slightly odd, and looked at Brendel with doubt. She did not say much, and just nodded to tell him that she would do her best.

Brendel did not think that his decision would cause the others to come up with the idea that he was having a relationship with her, and even if they did, he would probably just ridicule the idea. According to the guards that he interrogated just now, they should be able to walk out of this forest, ride on their horses, and move towards the manor. Brendel gazed onto it.  Although most manors around Ampere Seale have to follow a code for their defenses, they are still the private properties of merchants. And, with the fact that the security of Ampere Seale was not bad, they should only have to deal occasionally with normal thieves.

The walls outside were only about two or three meters tall. To people with abilities, it was almost nonexistent. And on the inside was the yard, and then behind that would be the main building.

The six-man team circled the place, and when they approached the back of the manor as planned. It was then that Ciel warned, “There’s an alarm.”

As I expected, Brendel thought. That was the reason why Ciel, despite not an expert in executing operations, was included in the team. They were now shrouded by Andrea’s Face Changing skill. However, it was not one hundred percent foolproof. Ciel himself was one of the people who would see past it.

I don’t think Count Yanbao would have someone on Ciel’s level. Ciel would probably only be weaker than Grandmaster Fleetwood and Tuman, and if I include the Wizards from the Black Tower in Karsuk, Ciel would still rank among the top five mages alive.

“Can you get past it?” Brendel asked.

Ciel nodded, “The enemy caster seems to be someone in the Silver rank. I have confidence that we can get past it flawlessly.”

“Don’t remove it. That will be too obvious,” Brendel looked at him and said.

“That I understand, My Lord.”

As the party moved closer, Ciel waved a finger and a blue spike of light flew into the manor. Across the skies above the manor, a blue web flickered and then dimmed. The process happened so quickly that it was hard to perceive with the naked eye. Ciel even reduced the fluctuations in mana caused when casting the spell to the lowest limit so that no one, including the guarding Wizards, could see the changes.

He pulled his hand back, and notified the others that the alarm system had been compromised, and that they only had ten minutes. To Brendel, it was enough time. They silently walked past the back gate and saw three other guards. To those three people, they only saw the usual patrol guards. Brendel even waved at one of them. This was not his first infiltration mission, and with his experience, he had already identified all the details of the manor, including the secret codes and characteristics of the other guards.

Passing through the back gate, they arrived at the building. But Brendel had warned them earlier to not act rashly for now. And they slowly walked along the corridor at the side of the manor.

Their first destination was the horse stables.