Chapter 529: Act 277 – Infiltrating the Manor
The guard in the cage was already scared silly; he thought he had been captured by some unknown evil wizards. Trembling in fear, he spilled the beans about the situation in the manor as Brendel and the others pressed him for information. There were more than thirty guards in the manor, and with the cooks and servants, there were nearly a hundred people. He couldn’t confirm whether the Lord Earl had come in person, as usually, the three knights were responsible for relaying orders.
Based on the description, Brendel speculated that the strength of the three knights should be somewhere in the gold tier. He frowned slightly; dealing with three gold-tier individuals wasn’t a problem with his current strength, but he worried about the skills the enemy might possess. Avoiding making a disturbance would be difficult.
However, he was more concerned about how Romaine had learned that strange black magic. Little Romain’s eyes were darting around, claiming that her big sister taught her. No one could clarify who the big sister was. She held the cage and eventually explained the operation of the magic. This cage could imprison all creatures within the witch’s line of sight; as long as the will of the target wasn’t strong enough, they would end up trapped by the spell. The target wasn’t limited to one person, with a maximum of ten.
After listening for a while, Brendel understood that this was a genuine illusion. As long as the victim believed in it, the illusion would turn real. However, regardless of whether the victim believed or not, they had to pass the subconscious barrier first. But this spell wasn’t omnipotent; at its level, it was more than enough to confine a black iron-tier guard, but it wouldn’t be as effective against stronger foes.
Confounding and tempting the dark side of human hearts, this was typical black magic.
Little Romain covered the cage with a black cloth, cutting off the occupants’ perception of the outside world. Everyone couldn’t help but marvel at the witch’s miraculous spells. Even Charles couldn’t help but compliment them a few times. As law wizards, their spells seemed magnificent to ordinary people, like conjuring a bridge out of thin air or turning into a wall, even raising steel to a high temperature to melt it. However, law wizards manipulated the lines of rules within the Vaunte world and ultimately couldn’t break free from those rules. They couldn’t turn flames into ice or make ice scalding hot, while witches, on the other hand, could do the opposite; their magic was “marvelous” and could accomplish many things that defied common sense.
Thus, the world had a dislike for witches, as their spells leaned more toward chaos. Some even claimed that witches were in league with the twilight, though Brendel knew this was nonsense. Nevertheless, in terms of raw power, black magic was indeed not very righteous.
He pondered for a moment, “It seems we need to find Aunt Jennie quickly to clarify what’s happening with you. Unfortunately, there’s been no news of her.” He then asked, “Aren’t you at all worried about your aunt?”
Merchant Miss widened her eyes, her flat forehead shining brightly: “Aunt often goes out for months and doesn’t return home!”
It had been nearly a year, Brendel couldn’t help but hold his forehead: “Alright, anyway, until we sort this out, you must refrain from casting those strange spells in front of others, understood?”
“Why?”
“Does my little Romaine want to be tied to a stake and burned?” Brendel answered seriously.
Romaine thought about it seriously and nodded, realizing it wasn’t a good idea, agreeing, “Okay, Brendel!”
Most people were used to the way the two interacted and silently waited for Brendel to make a decision. He looked in the direction of the manor and called the guard in the cage to carefully inquire about the distribution of guards inside the manor. Since Romaine had previously covered the silver cage with a black cloth, that guard hadn’t heard anything before. Now that he was called out for questioning, he still looked frightened.
After listening attentively to the guard’s description, Brendel remained impassive and asked, “Are there patrols?”
The guard nodded like a chick pecking at rice, stammering, “Yes… yes… there are… wizard sir…”
Brendel quickly confirmed that there was a team of patrolling knights that passed by approximately every half an hour. This was the information he needed, so he gestured to the cage and let the black cloth fall down again, asking Romaine, “You can bring him over; you can also let him go, right?”
Little Romain hurriedly nodded, seemingly afraid Brendel would think she wasn’t powerful enough.
That was enough. Brendel then proceeded to threaten and coax the guard, warning him not to disclose their encounter. You see, it was quite simple for a mysterious and unpredictable wizard to intimidate an ordinary person. Therefore, everyone knew they had various means to end their lives—and make them wish they were dead. One of the most famous ways was to cast a curse. Brendel pretended to cast a “curse” that would cause him to rot and die if he disobeyed, then let Little Romain release him.
Brendel mainly didn’t want to attract the attention of the hidden sentries in the manor. Although this black magic could create a reasonable illusion in everyone’s mind for a short time, some individuals had higher wills, and once they broke free, they would realize something was wrong. Moreover, the guard had already been scared to the point of psychological collapse. After Brendel released him, he indeed remained obediently at his post, fearing that the wizard would be unhappy and turn him into a puddle of pus.
The next step was simple. Brendel waited for the patrolling knights to appear and instructed Little Romain to use black magic to capture them all. After questioning each one, he had the vampire cross-dresser knock them out one by one. There were six patrolling knights in total. Brendel chose Medephis, Andrigraphis, Husher, Charles, and the Wild Elves sister, Flour, from his subordinates to don the knights’ armor.
The others selected for the infiltration didn’t raise any objections. Medephis, Andrigraphis, Husher, and Charles were either strong or experienced, but Flour stood out a bit. Brendel had reserved the last spot for her purely out of habit, subconsciously wanting to bring along a soft and “lovely” girl. The others naturally couldn’t fathom the strange reason behind this and cast ambiguous looks at the two.
Flour realized this and couldn’t help but glance skeptically at Brendel, but said nothing more and just nodded.
Brendel wasn’t aware that his casual decision led the others to speculate about an affair with his exclusive “female secretary.” Even if he had realized, he could only laugh it off. This was just a minor incident. Brendel had already learned the patrol route of these knights, and now nonchalantly led the others out of the woods, mounted the knights’ steeds, and continued towards the manor.
As he evaluated the entire manor, he noted that while the nearby manors around Ampere Seale had certain defensive functions, such merchant-built private villas weren’t fortresses. Besides, the security near Ampere Seale was relatively good, so the manor’s outer walls were only designed to deter ordinary thieves.
The manor’s outer walls were about two to three meters high, which seemed nearly negligible in the eyes of someone with a bit of strength. Inside was a yard, and the main building was located at the southern end, hidden behind layers of tree canopies.
The six circled the manor and then, following the planned route, approached the back door. The back door was nestled between two tall pine trees, but at this moment, Charles quietly reminded Brendel, “There’s a warning spell.”
Brendel thought to himself that it was as he expected. He had included Charles, who wasn’t skilled in combat, for this very reason. They were currently shrouded by Andrigraphis’s disguise spell. However, the Amber Sword contained many divination spells that could see through their disguise. But as a law wizard, Charles was the best at dealing with spells and dismantling incantations.
Brendel didn’t believe that the wizard under Count Yanfeng could surpass Charles. He knew that across Erluin, Charles was probably only second to Livwz and Turiman. Even if he included Karasu’s black tower wizards—though they usually didn’t associate with Erluin—Charles could still rank among the top five.
“Can you deal with it?” he still sidled in to ask.
Charles nodded, “The caster seems to be only of average silver tier strength. I’m confident I can resolve this spell without leaving any traces, my Lord.”
“Don’t dispel it; that would be too conspicuous.” Brendel kept his eyes forward as he replied.
“I naturally understand this.”
That was enough. The group slowly edged closer to the back door. With a slight movement of his fingers, Charles sent a nearly imperceptible light blue glow into the manor. Above the entire manor, a hexagonal lattice of light flickered almost undetectably before quickly dimming. This all happened in an instant, far too fast for the naked eye of an ordinary person to perceive. As for wizards, they discerned the presence of spells in the surrounding space through magical fluctuations. Charles had long suppressed the fluctuations to the lowest level, ensuring that the wizards inside the manor couldn’t perceive everything happening in such a short time.
Retracting his hand, Charles immediately informed the others through their mental link that the warning spells at the door and around it had been temporarily suppressed, lasting about ten minutes. For Brendel, this was more than enough. The group quietly passed through the back door, where three guards were stationed. In the eyes of these guards, the patrolling knights showed no abnormalities, remaining the familiar old faces they knew. Brendel even greeted one of the guards; having done this lift in several games, he was experienced, and he had already clarified all the details, including codes and the guards’ characteristics.
Passing through the back door, they truly entered the manor’s yard. However, Brendel understood they couldn’t act rashly just yet. They proceeded slowly along the small path inside the manor, their first destination being the stables.
…(To be continued. If you liked this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with your recommendations and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
