Chapter 336: Act 104 – Toniger and the Young Lord (4) (Second Update)
However, after a series of discussions regarding the seemingly mad idea of placing wizards on the front lines, Brendel remarked that everyone discovered it was indeed an excellent strategy.
Because the role of wizards was not limited to just relaying information; they excelled far beyond ordinary people in stealth, clearing information, and evading pursuit.
Even so, Charles only supported this approach in the early stages of the war, as it might yield an unexpected effect. But once their opponents understood this tactic, the loss of any wizard would be unimaginable for them.
Brendel could only accept this viewpoint; he knew Charles was not wrong—of course, he wasn’t, but simply the timing was wrong. The greatest magical tide in history was still far from arriving.
Then Brendel glanced at the mercenary delivering the message, took the letter, opened it, and looked at it; however, his expression changed to one of seriousness almost instantly, dark and brooding, more ominous than the gray sky of the season.
Behind him, Xi and the Silver Elf Princess exchanged worried glances at the young man’s demeanor. They rarely saw Brendel so grave; what was happening?
“Lord?” Medisa asked softly.
Brendel shook his head.
The message was simple. It only stated that a clan of mountain folk had appeared within the territory of Parsons. One could say that had this letter been in the hands of anyone else under Brendel’s command at that moment, it probably wouldn’t have drawn attention.
The term “mountain folk” was quite common in Rendener. These natives had been at war with outsiders like Erluin almost year-round. Sir Parsons had dealt with them for almost half a lifetime.
If others saw this information, they would probably feel fortunate that the old knight was facing trouble again. However, this letter had a different meaning in Brendel’s eyes.
“It seems our list of enemies has just grown by one more,” the young lord said with a helpless smile, casually handing the letter to Medisa. But the Silver Elf Princess only glanced at it, and after a moment of surprise, she asked:
“Mountain folk? Aren’t they the enemies of Count Rendener? You said Sir Parsons has fought them for years; why would they join forces to attack us?”
Medisa asked, somewhat perplexed.
“The mountain folk are divided into many factions. The clan mentioned in the letter comes from the eastern side of Graham’s Mountain, and they have nominally been under Count Rendener’s rule while practicing autonomy—however, the mountain folk have a strong sense of territory, and they seldom migrate to other areas, much less venture out of their autonomous lands—”
“What then?” Although Xi didn’t understand military matters, she could sense the unusual tone in Brendel’s voice.
“I suspect they’re not here to celebrate the Deep Sleep Festival. I don’t know what promises Count Rendener made to these stubborn folks, but they are definitely coming for us.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Xi snorted lightly, “whoever comes, it’s the same; we will defeat them.”
Brendel could only smile at that. He knew this red-haired girl was merely trying to boost her own morale.
Medisa, however, remained calm: “Is it a significant issue?” she asked.
Brendel shook his head. “It will certainly increase our pressure, but it’s hard to say how much. I believe Count Rendener, that old fox, has mobilized more than just this clan of mountain folk,” he said, glancing into the distance, where the snow had turned the streets into a misty haze. “It seems we have underestimated these ‘beasts’ who fight daily!”
Though Brendel spoke lightly, he felt uncertain inside. Who knows how many mountain folk would enter Parsons? Perhaps the food supply for these people would become a bottleneck—
But Brendel was also unsure how much resources Rendener could mobilize within his territory or for how long.
Regardless, the military forces under Parsons, the mountain folk, plus the undead of Madara—
The young man couldn’t help but deeply furrow his brow.
“Should we notify Miss Antinna?” Medisa asked.
Brendel shook his head; Antinna was stationed at the South Gate, supervising those mercenaries in distributing wages to the workers—wages paid in copper coins from the cross-coins, just a few coins per person.
This amount wasn’t much, but better than nothing; it was more symbolic. The noble lady intended to forgo this payment, but this was part of Romaine’s entire revival plan, and the latter naturally couldn’t agree.
In the end, Antinna had pulled that guy along to stay at the construction site. Just thinking of this made Brendel, even in his somber mood, smile slightly and shake his head.
He recalled how Little Romain had pretended not to understand and wanted to default on his payment, but in the end, he was taken back by that impeccably serious noble lady, urging Flour to bring him back.
That noble lady was different from him; even if Romain pretended to be teary-eyed, she remained unmoved—although Antinna was probably, apart from Freya, Romain’s closest confidante.
However, in business matters, the noble lady would not show any favor.
Whenever he thought about the troublesome yet resigned little guy looking so distressed in front of Antinna, Brendel found it sincerely amusing.
He had once felt fortunate that he dodged just in time; otherwise, Little Romain would surely have tried to shift this matter onto him—while Antinna could impose her promises on anyone else, she had no leverage over this young lord.
Considering this, he chuckled and returned his thoughts to the matter at hand. The young man tapped the letter in his hand: “Actually, I want to know who sent back this information.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ordinary people probably wouldn’t pay attention to these mountain folk, for they are too commonplace for this place. This means that the person relay this information must have also thought of the same things we did,” Brendel expressed with some curiosity.
He knew this because he possessed knowledge and insights beyond this world. In fact, had it not been for casual conversations about related matters with Charles, even the latter might not have picked out anything from this letter.
And apart from him and Charles, others were even less likely to—
So who on earth was the one returning this letter?
Just as Brendel was pondering this, he noticed the elementalist before him was looking at him, seemingly hesitating to speak. The young man raised an eyebrow and asked, “Do you have something else?”
“Yes, my lord…” the elementalist said with a strange expression, stammering, “Just now, Lord Charles sent another letter to me, saying it was for you.”
“Another letter? What’s going on?” Brendel frowned, thinking what trick was that guy up to now.
“Would you like to see it?”
“Of course—” Brendel replied testily. Since it was said to be for him, how could he not look? However, he curiously stared at the elementalist, who appeared rather ill-timed with his request.
“That, um,” the elementalist’s expression grew weirder, “my lord, could you turn around first?”
Turn around? What was that about?
Before Brendel could react, he saw a shadow dart from the side, and Xi had already extended her spear to the elementalist’s throat.
“Hand it over!” Xi said coldly.
The elementalist froze, or rather, he was clearly frightened, and then shakily, yet with a face of anguish, retrieved a strange creature from under his robe—his familiar.
Brendel recognized the bizarre creature with just a glance, and the others did as well—because it was simply a duck.
Using a duck as a familiar?
This time, not only Brendel, but even Xi and Medisa were stunned.
One was a seasoned player, one was a princess of the Silver Elf Empire, and one was a mercenary who had participated in many battles; they had all interacted with various wizards, elementalists, and even witches, but they had never seen anyone use a duck as a familiar.
Brendel stared for a moment, then finally nodded; “Very good, very unique.” In his impression, there were many wizards with various strange familiars, while most elementalists were supposed to use fairies as familiars, right?
“My lord,” the elementalist said with an anguished face, “this isn’t my doing; I originally had no familiar. This thing… this thing is from Lord Charles, he said using a duck as a familiar would bring good luck.”
“Indeed, very lucky,” Brendel could only shake his head helplessly at his quirky subordinate, “What’s your name?”
This was the first time he carefully observed this guy; in fact, he looked to be about the same age, reasonably handsome. However, since he had seen this guy take out a duck as a familiar, he found it increasingly amusing. If he were in Brendel’s time, he would surely have been a comedian.
He turned to glance at Xi and Medisa; Xi was fine, but Medisa clearly found it humorous as well.
“My lord, I used to be an apprentice, and everyone called me Red Pig.”
“Red Pig?”
“That’s the name of a beast in my hometown—”
Brendel understood; he recalled that kind of level thirty-plus beast, which was violent and tough-skinned, and hardly anyone wanted to deal with it.
He looked again at the duck in the guy’s hand, coughing lightly, and said with some amusement, “How about this? You can follow me from now on—just in time, I need an apprentice.”
“You need an apprentice?” The elementalist was taken aback, “Are you a wizard?”
“No,” Brendel shook his head, “I’m an elementalist. In any case, don’t ask too many questions; just follow me—”
An elementalist?
The young man was stunned again. Elementalists could usually sense each other’s presence, especially high-ranking elementalists exuded a kind of innate pressure over their lower-ranked counterparts.
But he felt no such pressure from this young lord; the only possibility was that the latter was either weaker than him or about the same strength.
However, the thought of the young lord being weaker than him was something this elementalist apprentice didn’t dare to consider. After all, he had only seen this legendary and all-powerful lord from a distance several times, and he had already heard countless tales of his mysterious and formidable powers.
But wasn’t the legendary figure a swordsman of the Golden Realm? How had he become an elementalist?
The youth, nicknamed Red Pig, became increasingly confused.
Yet Brendel merely waved his hand at him; he indeed needed an apprentice—though not just any apprentice, but someone to prepare for another of his plans. It seemed that plan needed to be prioritized now.
The appearance of the mountain folk as enemies inexplicably made Brendel feel a sense of urgency.
“Just like that,” he said, glancing at the young man, “from now on you follow me, and I’ll give you a name—let’s call you Mage Duncan.”
“Mage Duncan?” The young man blinked in surprise.
…(To be continued. For more, please log in for additional chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
