Chapter 276: Act 43 – The Silver Mine (4) (Second update, please support)
“You can go and try it, Mahler,” the boy countered.
“Cut it out, now he’s already on guard. You really are calculating well, aren’t you?”
“But that guy is pretty impressive; it seems he has been to many places,” Joeka said. “Although he’s an outsider, it feels like he knows our rules already. I was quite surprised!”
“Hmph,” a weaker voice remarked, “the guy Mahler picked up his stories from a drunkard. He just copied down a set of rules. It’s strange that nobody knows about it.”
Mahler’s face turned red. “Enough of your nonsense! So you’re saying that guy isn’t knowledgeable? Those spooky things in your hands might as well be sold to him. Maybe he will appreciate them!”
Though he said “sell,” his tone emphasized it, sounding more like ridicule.
“I don’t want to deal with you, a vulgar guy, who doesn’t know the real value!”
“Enough! I’ve said it already; don’t provoke trouble.” At this moment, a fourth voice interjected, a girl’s voice.
Brendel was taken aback—there really is a woman disguised as a boy? He couldn’t help but mutter a curse at the cavalry outside and continued to listen:
“Yesterday we encountered that man at the forest trout; he was with a few women, and he didn’t look like an adventurer at all,” the girl’s voice continued. “I saw him order the most expensive wine from Old John. He didn’t seem like someone lacking money. He’s definitely up to no good.”
Brendel frowned slightly, cursing his bad luck. He had decided to disguise himself in the mine after gathering information, but now he realized he had already made a mistake that exposed him.
However, he thought such small missteps were unlikely to be caught by others at just the right time, but it turned out Lady Martha had truly played a great joke on him, as someone had actually noticed what happened yesterday afternoon.
Just as he was thinking about how to handle this matter, he heard someone continue, “Should we report it?”
Brendel’s heart tightened.
But then he heard the weaker voice say, “Shh! Don’t say anything. This has nothing to do with us. You can just pretend you don’t know about it. This matter is not simple; he might have accomplices. We don’t want to lose our heads, do we?”
After this voice, the others fell silent for a moment.
“Alright,” the one called Mahler finally replied. “It’s decided then; after this time, we’ll leave this place. Let’s not complicate things.”
Everyone nodded.
Brendel turned back. He hadn’t expected someone among this group to say something so insightful. For a moment, he couldn’t help but become somewhat interested in the one who spoke. However, when he turned back to look, the young people had already walked far away.
“This is interesting.”
Brendel unexpectedly had such a thought in his mind.
…
The two-mile path to the mine didn’t take long, but once inside, Brendel could obviously feel the surroundings were under tight surveillance.
The Schafflund Silver Mine was surrounded by mountains; due to the mining of shallow veins, the surrounding rock walls had been excavated, forming an inward concave valley. From the valley entrance looking in, there were large swathes of reddish gray and lead black rocks. Brendel didn’t recognize silver ore, but he recognized the watchtowers built on top of the surrounding mountains—taking a glance made him frown involuntarily; the terrain was indeed very troublesome for entry and exit. Earlier, he’d wanted to lure the golden swordsman out to kill him, but now it seemed somewhat impractical—he would have to change plans at the last moment.
He looked around; the ground in the valley was relatively flat, but from here, he couldn’t see the underground mine tunnel entrance. However, he could see a semi-fortified building complex already constructed on the outer edge of the valley. That must be where the local garrison was stationed, and the clerk and executing deputy appointed by Rendener were probably inside.
Brendel turned back to observe the heaps of mine tailings piled high in the valley and the countless mine carts moving around, with workers coming and going in an orderly fashion. Most people were managing well, with only a few adventurers like him, who were new to this place, feeling lost.
However, he wasn’t nervous; instead, he calmed down and silently followed behind the others. Those soldiers would not abandon these people, and he thought that soon someone would come to line them up.
As it turned out, he was right.
Brendel soon saw a patrol of cavalry appearing from one side of the valley, driving the mounts closer to these workers. However, those cavalrymen wearing flamboyant noble military uniforms didn’t seem to be in the mood to waste too much time on these people; they shouted, “Go over there and line up; get your numbers and tools—!”
After throwing out this line, the cavalry immediately turned around and headed back to the incoming group.
Brendel glanced in the direction the cavalry had indicated, where the mine manager was distributing tools and pre-numbered wooden tags to the workers—both of which were strictly forbidden to be lost or damaged in the mining area. Any occurrence of either would incur harsh penalties. In this era, Vaunte didn’t have any humanitarian spirit—here, with just a legitimate or somewhat legitimate reason, getting killed wasn’t a big deal.
Indeed, even the mine clerk had the authority to order someone hanged—as long as he suspected someone was stealing Lord Earl’s ore.
However, Brendel didn’t care about that; he was only concerned about which camp he would be assigned to. It’s natural that the workers would be living in the valley for those six days, so the officials at the mine would have no choice but to build some crude or shabby camps for them, no matter how stingy they were.
The camp was predominantly made up of thatched huts, filled with various odors that someone from modern society would find unbearable. If it weren’t for Brendel’s body functions having significantly surpassed the average person after entering the Golden Domain, he would have even worried about being knocked out by the stench upon entering that dim hut.
Such worries quickly turned into reality.
He stood in front of that rickety hut, frowning as he compared the numbered tag in his hand with the location of the hut multiple times. But in the end, he was disappointed to find out:
This was it——
Brendel’s nose twitched; he could smell that nauseating odor from several feet away from the hut. At that moment, he suddenly felt that it was an incredibly wise decision that Juliette, Xi, and Medisa hadn’t come, while he certainly made the most foolish choice.
He hesitated for a moment, unable to resist turning back to look—there were actually four such huts in this valley. He had quietly observed earlier that the mercenaries had almost all been scattered—though he believed that this wouldn’t pose any trouble for those experienced warriors.
Another piece of good news was that three others had been assigned to the same camp as him; he had already spotted the markers outside those thatched huts.
But whether this was good news or bad news, it didn’t solve the most immediate issue at hand. Brendel furrowed his brow in frustration and ultimately hesitated before walking toward that pitch-black hut—his expression could be likened to approaching the execution ground.
Of course, before entering, he discreetly waved his hand, and an invisible wind lifted several small stones at the entrance to form a triangle. The White Crow Swordsmanship had become exceptionally agile since he had mastered it.
Brendel thought this was an incredibly useful swordsmanship, and he should find the time to go to Erluin’s court to master the advanced portion later on. However, this idea seemed a bit unrealistic, as the court’s secret swords were not so easily divulged—
Princess Grifian must certainly be adept in this swordsmanship too, but what conditions would make her willing to teach him was indeed a problem.
With such thoughts, he entered the hut. Although he tried his best to restrain himself, he couldn’t help but slightly cover his nose with his hand.
The room silenced for a moment.
Then he heard a barely audible comment, “Tch, pampered noble kids—”
This statement was nearly silent, and if it were anyone else, they would surely find it inaudible, but Brendel heard it quite clearly.
He raised his head, and just then he saw the people in the room. He was immediately stunned because it was a bit too coincidental; the people in this room were none other than the few youths he had encountered earlier.
First, he noticed the boy named Joeka, who was awkwardly smiling as he sat on a thatched mat across from him.
Next to him was the guy named Mahler, who appeared to be the oldest among them and also the most robust—he was a head taller than Joeka, almost matching Brendel’s height.
At first glance, Brendel judged that this guy was the one who had spoken earlier; he saw that his hand was under his clothes, merely from the movement, he guessed there was a dagger or short sword there. Brendel couldn’t help but inwardly curse the patrolling cavalry outside again—
“Some guts but unaware of danger—” but that was his initial impression of this guy.
Then he shifted his gaze to the other side, sitting on another thatched mat was a boy who looked somewhat underdeveloped. His limbs were thin, giving the impression that his head was larger than normal due to his frail body, but the gaze of this boy surprised Brendel—it was neither Joeka’s confusion nor Mahler’s vigilance but rather a sense of observation.
He was observing him.
Brendel suddenly became somewhat interested. He was well aware of how different he was from a few months ago; having experienced the battlefield, killed people, and become a leader of thousands, and now possessing the strength of the Golden Domain. Although he was intentionally hiding his identity, Brendel knew that some things couldn’t be concealed.
For example, one’s gaze and temperament.
In fact, currently, few ordinary people could meet his gaze, but this boy could calmly scrutinize him. Brendel also carefully observed him in return, noticing that a grayish backpack was placed beside this boy’s mat, but he had no idea what was inside.
Finally, he lifted his head and saw the girl disguised as a boy sitting in the back, who appeared to be somewhat frail, not particularly pretty, but somewhat delicate, with a few freckles on her face—though the hut was completely dark, everything was clear to Brendel’s eyes as if it were daylight.
In addition to these few individuals he had some impression of, there were actually three other boys in the hut, who also appeared to be a group. But that was not the aspect Brendel wanted to comment on.
What truly made him want to curse inside was:
Such a small room actually houses eight people; for crying out loud, even in the third-rate university I attended, they weren’t this stingy! What a mess!
…(To be continued. To know what happens next, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support genuine reading!)
