The Amber Sword

“Sir, please do show some respect.” Princess Magadal yanked her hand out of the man’s grip, and asked with her eyebrows raised. The middle-aged man had a pale complexion and his saggy eyebags purple. It was evident that he was drunk. He wore some really fancy clothes, and it was obvious that he was nobility. It was just his disheveled looks and empty eyes, plus that awfully white collar bones that were revealed through his unbuttoned clothes, made him look like he was some beggar that had been wandering for days.

Brendel immediately recognized what happened at first sight. Marquis Yoakam, cousin of Oberg the Seventh, the illegitimate son of the last king was here. He was a lot younger than Oberg who had passed away and, although he had land, his position was really small compared to his cousin. And the social pressure applied by the other nobles led him to develop a wild behavior, in disregard of how others looked at him. It was said that he had spent the night with a lot of married wives of the nobles, which led him to be picked on by the nobles. But he had close ties to the eldest son of the King Orberg, plus he had the support of House Seifer’s matriarch, making him invulnerable from the attacks of the other nobles.

Why is he here? Don’t tell me it’s because of that?

That was when Yoakam spotted him. He turned and hissed, “I believe he must be the owner of the two beauties. Hand them over to me now!”

“What a foul mouth!” Magadal was a really composed and logical person, but even so in this situation, it can be seen from her chest that was rising and sinking sporadically, that she was really angry as well. “This is the Holy Cathedral! Our ancestors are watching us from above, so please watch your behavior, Sir!” She clenched her fist, wondering angrily how this guy managed to sneak into the place.

“Princess Magadal, before you care for others, do you know who am I in the first place?” Yoakam smiled slyly. “I will be the uncle of the future king of this Kingdom so I’m sure you must’ve heard of my name before.”

“I have heard of your beauty for some time now, but looking up close, you sure live up to that name. Hehe…he…he… I must have you no matter what, pretty flower.”

Magadal gritted her teeth. She had received education from the Cathedral since young, developing her soft and innocent character. The people she had met were those courteous people, that was until she saw Yoakam.

She was trembling with rage, but she did not know how to rebut his words. That was when Brendel intercepted, “Forgive me if I didn’t understand, sir. But I want to ask you, do you see any beauties around me right now?”

He looked around but Amandina and Scarlet were not to be seen. His reputation sure is a problem though. I have a bad feeling about this

“Oh. They dare be rude to me? I will ask my men to punish them later. But don’t worry, I will not hurt their lives. However, that red babe really is really ahead of herself, if not Ketilbern would not have hurt her accidentally. But that doesn’t matter. You will hand them over to me sooner or later anyway, and it’s normal for a noble to punish his own servants.”

“Dear sir, you don’t have to worry. Your comrade is injured so we have already ordered my men to send her to the medics!” Before Magadal managed to convey her message to Brendel, she saw a streak of light fly at Yoakam’s cheeks.

It was a silver dagger.

Yoakam did not expect Brendel to be so quick that his guard did not even manage to respond and took a hit to his face, leaving a streak of blood down his cheeks.

The middle-aged man wailed, and sucked in a breath of cold air at the same time.[T/L: How does he do that? Is he a beatboxer?] He did not burst out in anger, but was shrieking like a loser as he covered the bleeding section of his face, “You dare assail a noble? That’s against the laws of the Holy Cathedral!”

Even Magadal was shocked. In the scriptures of the Holy Cathedral of Fire, the nobles are indeed protected. Even though he was in the wrong and needed punishment, if anyone were to attack them unexpectedly, it would be an irredeemable sin. That was why the nobles had to come up with excuses when waging wars. Of course, the wars should not involve any assassinations and poison. Then again, they were only hidden from the Holy Cathedral.

Magadal opened her mouth initially to warn Brendel to not do something that would lead to serious repercussions. But she did not think she would be one step too late. She was just gawking at him at the moment, but she could feel the mystifying, chilling kill glare in his eyes.

Brendel was not someone who would be angry for no apparent reason, but that was before he met someone who so blatantly declared that they would hurt his subordinates. As a man, he dared hurt a woman? As a true gentleman, he could not tolerate such behavior. In Brendel’s eyes, Yoakam is truly the epitome of all human garbage.

“You are truly good at lying, Sir,” He spoke coldly. “Since when did I assault you?”

“You clearly…” Yoakam looked back at the pillar behind him where the dagger was stuck. But what he saw was a dagger embedded so deeply into the marble that only the hilt was revealed. And nailed onto the pillar by the dagger, was a white glove.

“You!”

Yoakam was stunned now. He just realized that Brendel had taken off one of his gloves. For no one to see him take it off and throw the dagger, just how powerful is he?

He looked up at Brendel, “You wanna wage a war with me? Do you know who I am?”

“Who are you?” Brendel was hell-bent on punishing the guy, and he was just putting on an act of innocence.

“I’m the brother of the previous king! The current king’s uncle! Go to hell, you country bumkin!” Yoakam bellowed. He was favored by his father back when his father was king, and even when his brother took up the throne, he did not really control Yoakam. It was like a special authority bestowed to him, and no noble in Aouine would dare mess with him. But of course, he did not mess with the other dukes who were more powerful than him. That was why in the last few decades, he was living without facing many obstacles.

He may have been injured, even if it was rare. But that was his first time getting hurt by someone physically.

Which explained his poisonous stare at Brendel, “You’re dead meat!”

“Ah!” Brendel seemed shocked. “You’re the uncle of the current king? So you must be Marquis Yoakam, aren’t you?”

“That is correct. So what, countryside bummer. You still wanna fight with me?” He thought that Brendel was scared at that point and let out a devious smile, “But it is too late. I will let you have a taste of hell itself. And for your girls, I will have them beg for mercy before my feet.”

“Marquis Yoakam! Please keep yourself in check!” The Nun Princess finally acted. She decided to help Brendel out. She may not know who the mysterious teen was, but she was fed up with Marquis Yoakam’s behavior.

As the daughter of a duke, and her close ties with the Cathedral, Magadal had a significant amount of influence around the Kingdom.

Brendel was screaming inwardly. How can he be that stupid? I have already known that he was a messed up person back in the game, but I was really surprised by how bad is his brain damage.

He looked at the man ranting before him and sighed, wondering if that was the most idiotic person he will ever meet after reincarnation.

“You’re already tens of years old, can’t you behave in a more mature way? Can you not act so uncivilized?” He shook his head, blocking Magadal that was beside him and said bleakly, “I don’t want you to misunderstand, Sir Marquis. This is the reason to why I’m don’t plan on fighting you. I heard that you are the trash amongst the nobles, and battling you will just hurt my reputation.”

At that sentence, the entire hall was filled with silence, and the only sound was the creaking caused by the winds of Ampere Seale blowing against the wood.

Magadal, Yoakm and his men stopped to look at Brendel in shock, as if they heard wrongly. Yoakam took a moment to realize that Brendel was mocking him, driving him so mad he called out, “Ketilbern, go and duel him!”

In Aouine and Kirrlutz, the nobles were corrupted by the lavish life they were living, and were not used to the old ways of combat. However, dueling was still popular amongst their circles, so they had a solution. They had aides to fight for them, against their rivals or opponents. It was already the norm and Yoakam was no wrong in doing things that way as well.

Brendel did not have an aide by his side, so he could only pull out his sword, raising his head to see the gargantuan swordsman walk towards him. He calmed down and focused. He may have intentionally angered Yoakam for a chance to battle, but he did not underestimate his opponent.

This must be the man who hurt Scarlet. Scarlet may not be that good in close combat, but she was nevertheless a Gold ranker. For him to be able to take her down, this man must be an Elemental Awakener. And there were not that many people who could do that.

And indeed, he immediately recognized the person who walked towards him.

It was Devard the Hawk. The man known to be one of the three greatest Sword Grandmasters alongside Buga the Cross and Silver Knight Silvia. But why was he with Marquis Yoakam?

And then Brendel froze.