Chapter 318: Act 85 – The New Master of the Mine
“Not at all, Senior Sister Nemeses.”
Nemeses smiled briefly, but soon became serious: “Be careful lately; that kid has been restless again. However, they’ve been quite stealthy this time; I haven’t been able to catch them in the act yet—”
Freya looked up at her, a hint of worry in her eyes.
“It’s alright,” the black-haired Lady Knight took a deep breath, “as long as I’m here, just be careful.”
After saying that, she lifted her gaze to the sky in the direction where the coach had disappeared. The northern sky was a bit gloomy, as if it was harboring a terrifying storm.
But would this storm come before the depths of winter?
No one knew.
All Nemeses knew was that the atmosphere at the academy had begun to feel uneasy; this last territory of the kingdom might not be a safe haven but rather the center of a gigantic vortex in the future, and this brief peace was merely an illusion of calm before the storm.
At least the Lady Knight understood that in the north, in Ampere Seale, a silent war was about to unfold.
She turned back and looked at Freya deeply.
“Can you manage?” she asked.
“What?” Freya was taken aback.
The future Valkyrie’s dazed expression amused Nemeses, who covered her mouth lightly and replied with a hint of interest, “It’s nothing—”
…
In the complex and chaotic final days of the Frost Descend month, it seemed that everything was coming together; while the northern situation became precarious, the same fleeting time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it had already been two weeks since the Shaflund Mine incident—
The event that had left everyone uneasy ultimately turned out to be a farce. This farce was initially widely circulated in the town but was soon forgotten by the people.
Humans are always forgetful; aside from those who were injured or the families of the deceased, who would forever remember that day, most people returned to their original lives just a week later.
On the surface, the Shaflund Mine seemed unchanged, maintaining its dilapidated appearance for decades. But beneath the surface, some things were slowly changing.
First, ever since Brendel and the others left the underground, Kuran’s movements were restricted. At Brendel’s suggestion, the Elder announced that all duties in the mine would be temporarily handed over to Ockens, and then he shut himself in to recover— as for that timid Secretary, in fact, when Brendel and Medisa burst into his office, he completely surrendered.
Now, with Juliette bringing over twenty mercenaries at the peak of black iron to closely monitor this Secretary day and night, even if he had ten million guts, he wouldn’t dare to play any tricks.
In fact, contrary to Brendel’s expectations, Ockens now appeared more cautious and diligent than ever, so much so that he even earned some praise among the uninformed civil servants under him.
Those underlings probably thought that their superior, after taking on the entire mine’s workload, had finally repented and become pragmatic and hardworking.
Even the spies dispatched by Count Rendener to secretly monitor this young man had been submitting good reviews for two consecutive weeks.
Of course, every one of these reports had passed through Brendel’s hands. When Brendel showed these reports to the timid Secretary, the young man named Ockens cursed under his breath for the first time.
Of course, after cursing, he cautiously looked around as if he feared that his disrespect towards Count Rendener might be overheard by the eyes in the vicinity.
This was what they called “mud that won’t stick to the wall”—Brendel couldn’t help but shake his head.
However, to appease this timid yet ambitious Secretary, Brendel made him a promise, assuring him that he would not disclose the details of his work to anyone, only saying that he was being imprisoned and that another person similar to him would replace him.
Although this lie could easily be seen through, it at least provided some psychological comfort to our Secretary. Now he often lived in anxiety, but at least with that bit of psychological comfort, he managed to get by.
As for Kuran, he was sent to Firburh the next day. When this Elder saw Charles, he realized he had nowhere to run. However, he still refused Brendel’s seemingly benevolent gestures and insisted that the latter honor his promise to release him when the time came.
When Brendel saw this report, he laughed and shook his head at the desk in his room in the Trout Inn of Shaflund Town.
Kuran was clearly related to his grandfather, but ever since this old swordsman left the underground, he had become taciturn and silent.
The young man wanted to uncover the truth behind this secret from the other party, but knowing his own temperament, he wasn’t in a hurry; after all, he had plenty of ways—besides, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
So he set this matter aside and turned to look at the petite figure of the Merchant Miss, who was buried in a mountain of ledgers—after leaving the underground, he had indeed properly scolded this disobedient young lady.
However, he had initially thought that Romaine would ignore him for several days, but upon leaving the mine, this self-styled great merchant girl had tightly grasped his hand—as if holding onto something important, fearing it would be lost if she let go.
This made Brendel feel a bit remorseful, wondering if he had been too harsh with his words.
Unexpectedly, just a few hours later, this Miss became her old self again and strutted about. It wasn’t until Husher arrived, and Brendel instructed Juliette to copy the ledgers for delivery from the mine, that Little Romain finally gathered her focus.
She had been working for two days with astonishing progress—indeed, it seemed that she possessed an innate talent for commercial matters—easily discerning the items she wanted from complicated figures and abbreviations.
Fortunately, Vaunte’s accounting method was actually quite simple and still at a very primitive stage. Romaine quickly identified the discrepancies caused by Ockens and others and listed out the flaws in the accounts.
However, Brendel understood that it was still not the time for a decisive reckoning in the mine; at least nominally, it was still under Count Rendener’s jurisdiction, and neither he nor Romaine could enter the mine freely to meet Juliette, as it would draw the attention of spies in the area.
In fact, the more than twenty newly appointed mercenaries who entered were all using the guise of needing to replace the soldiers injured or killed in the mining disaster. It wouldn’t take long before Count Rendener would ensure that there weren’t too many unfamiliar faces in his territory.
At most a month, new soldiers would be supplemented—of course, Brendel could obstruct this to some extent, but it would only delay things for at most two months.
Two months was enough for Brendel.
Thus, he pushed this matter aside, waiting for the right time for reckoning. However, apart from this most urgent matter, several minor issues had him feeling quite troubled.
For instance, the youths who came out with them from the underground—Kewen, Joeka, and Mahler. Brendel had a great appreciation for that frail boy, or rather the future King of Rendener—because whether from what Brendel knew or what he had witnessed, it was clear that this boy would never be content being an ordinary person.
In fact, this frail boy’s performance in the underground confirmed this point.
However, what surprised Brendel was that Kewen had declined his invitation; the boy clearly stated that he and his friends would leave this place—following their original plan to venture out into the world.
This news left Brendel feeling a tinge of regret, for the King of Rendener was not an ordinary individual, but he also understood that such people could not be forcefully kept and could only be allowed to stay temporarily in Shaflund Town to decide for themselves whether to stay or leave after two months.
On the other hand, those who should have stayed did not, while those who shouldn’t have stayed did remain.
That peculiar old dwarf, claiming to be the last descendant of the runesmith dwarves—and it seemed like his performance in the underground corroborated this—of course, that wasn’t particularly significant. What truly puzzled Brendel was that this guy seemed to be deliberately appearing before him these past few days, whether intentionally or not.
Of course, that ill-tempered old dwarf didn’t exactly treat him, the nominal Lord, with any better demeanor, but at least he was no longer as combative as before.
However, Brendel quietly put away the Sword of the Earth, worried that the old dwarf’s intentions might actually be related to it; to his surprise, even after he put the sword away, the other party remained unchanged—seemingly unaffected in the slightest.
In response to this, Brendel could only attribute the other party’s behavior to neurological issues and turned away to ignore him.
Because just a few days later, something more important completely shifted his focus—
Husher arrived at the mine with his men, intending to secretly transport all the silver ores stored in the warehouses of Shaflund Town, smelting them afterward and sending them to Cold Fir Territory to be minted into currency.
At the same time, Husher brought Brendel some good news.
In fact, just three days after they left, Charles had found Grudin’s private mint at a nearby estate. However, there was a small hiccup—noble private soldiers hiding in the estate, realizing that their whereabouts had been revealed, immediately closed the doors to stop the mercenaries from entering and boasted that they would resist to the last man.
Such behavior evidently infuriated the small mercenary band leader who had joined Brendel, a fellow named Madolan, whose explosive temper was more widely known than his strength. Therefore, he prepared to teach these soldiers a lesson—
Since they wanted to resist to the last man, he would fulfill their wish!
However, just as this powder keg was about to charge in, our young Wizard Lord vetoed his request, and Charles only had one message for Madolan: wait and see.
This statement worked wonders.
Only the next day, the formerly proud noble soldiers waved the white flag and surrendered with their tails between their legs. Although the mercenaries present felt that this Wizard Lord was quite mysterious.
But soon, they realized there was nothing remarkable about it.
The reason was simple.
By this time, the news of Sir Minate’s disastrous defeat had already spread throughout the entirety of Duke Toniger—
…
(PS: Is this the final update? That is the question, lads.) (To be continued, for more chapters, please log in, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
