Chapter 909: Act 85 – Infiltration of the Night V
“We will split into three groups. Rogers, you and Earl Ji’en will take the west gate of Gravel Town to ensure our retreat. I will let Charles join you to deal with the high-level beings among the Jotungrund army,” Brendel stated as he looked at the four royal knights, deliberately emphasizing the name of Earl Ji’en. Everyone present understood that Brendel was effectively handing over command of the noble private army under Earl Ji’en to these four knights, and the notion of working with Earl Ji’en was just a facade to save face for the Earl.
Earl Ji’en, not far away, could only grunt in dissatisfaction, recognizing he had to swallow his pride. Quite frankly, this arrangement suited him well; it was far better than having his own troops captured by the enemy.
Of course, he would never show Brendel any good grace.
Rogers nodded silently at Brendel’s command. He knew that this young grand mage was not only there to aid them but also to keep an eye on them. The Earl could not fully trust these Cruzans with his military.
Seeing Rogers had no objections, Brendel nodded in satisfaction. He trusted these royal knights serving the Queen. Rogers was an upright man, free from the bad habits of the noble gentry. He continued, “Medisa…” but suddenly noticed Merchant Miss jumping and waving enthusiastically from the embassy. He couldn’t help but sigh, “All right, Romaine, the embassy is in your hands. There’s a bakery called Rowse in Gravel Town. It has a secret passage leading to the downstream of the Silverflux Valley…” He glanced at Rogers, knowing that the bakery was actually the hidden base of the royal knights in Gravel Town. This information had been relayed to him by Rogers. Rogers nodded in confirmation. Brendel turned back, “Miss Nasha will lead you and the embassy to that location. Additionally, Medisa will lead a squad of White Lion infantry to protect you. I entrust everyone’s safety to you, so at least try to act composed this time.”
Merchant Miss’s eyes sparkled as she nodded vigorously.
Brendel, still feeling uneasy about her demeanor, turned to the Duchess and said, “Miss Oni, I would appreciate your assistance.”
The Duchess turned away, not wanting to see him, and replied coldly, “I will ensure my own safety.” She then added, “Moreover, I believe Miss Romaine is much more reliable than you. At least she won’t start a war for no reason.”
“Well, that’s because you haven’t interacted with her enough,” Brendel thought to himself, feeling this Miss would soon regret her words. However, he was confident that the embassy wouldn’t encounter much trouble on this route, which is why he entrusted it to Romaine. Even if they ran into combat, there were still Aike and the officer from Janirass with them. Additionally, among the Cruzan prisoners were knights from the Summer Solstice Knight Order, including a vice commander, Bulfield, who was strong enough to reach golden peak levels. Along with Medisa, their safety seemed assured.
He instructed the embassy to guard the entrance of the secret passage. Should any unforeseen circumstances arise with the other paths, they could at least retreat through the passage if the worst came to pass, leaving a backup plan for the entire operation.
As for the last path.
Brendel glanced at Sir Cooper not far away, who was still oblivious to what was happening above. The gargoyle attacks were conducted in complete secrecy, and only those four royal knights knew of the situation, leaving the nobleman looking dejected and hopeless. “Sir Cooper,” he asked, “are you willing to join me in dealing with Earl Orkans and the other imperial nobles?”
Cooper paused slightly, then slowly looked up at him, his expression akin to staring at a madman.
“What’s wrong, Sir Cooper? If I’m not mistaken, you are a vassal of the Earl. Is your loyalty to him limited to this?” Brendel pressed.
Cooper licked his chapped lips and replied hesitantly, “With all due respect, Earl Toniger, your plan sounds perfect, but the issue is that you seem not to have mentioned how we should enter the city. Should we fly in?”
“Fly in?” Brendel chuckled and shook his head. “That would take far too long.”
He snapped his fingers.
In an instant, dozens of portals appeared before everyone. Cooper was almost awestruck by this scene, while Rogers exclaimed, “The teleportation arrays of the Bucans!” He looked at Brendel with a complicated expression. “Earl, the artisan mages truly support you from behind.”
Brendel placed his finger to his lips and smiled. “Sir Knight, since you know so much, keep your voice down a bit. If Sir Cooper hears, he might start doubting your identity.”
Rogers’s expression changed. After a moment of thought, he deemed it more prudent to conceal the identity of the royal knights and cautiously fell silent.
Cooper seemed to finally recognize these portals. He had had the fortune of seeing the Flame Gate of the Temple of Fire. Although the portals here were not as grand as the gates, they carried the same essence of space and time. He stammered, “Is… is this a teleportation portal?”
“Correct, but no extra points for that answer,” Brendel replied with a light laugh.
…
With a flash of white light from the portal, Brendel and Nemeses appeared in a secluded courtyard, followed closely by Cooper and his guard, as well as Juliette and a squad of White Lion swordsmen. As soon as the tree-spirit druids in the courtyard saw Brendel, they immediately bowed in reverence. Brendel nodded in return. At this moment, Husher entered the courtyard with sisters Flour and Diya. Seeing Brendel, he placed his hand over his chest and saluted, “Lord.”
“Ready?” Brendel asked.
“We’re ready. We captured a patrol squad of troglodytes. Their loyalty, as you said, is purely based on siding with the strong, lacking any sense of honor. Under questioning, they revealed everything,” Husher replied casually. The level of the White City vanguard was established based on the rank of the Fran knights. Now, Medisa had reached the power of elemental manifestation, and they were close to the golden downstream level. A few troglodytes were merely a piece of cake for them.
“Does anyone here speak Jotungrund?” Brendel thought he might show off his mediocre grasp of Jotungrund inherited from Sue, but then he was surprised to find that someone among Husher’s group actually understood the obscure language. His momentary sense of superiority shattered. More importantly, he was curious. In the entire Vaunte world, aside from the dwarves in the mountains, contact with Jotungrund’s underground inhabitants was scarce. The underground and surface realms were practically two separate worlds due to the obstruction of the Hive. Moreover, the Jotungrund language derived from ancient gnome speech, distinctly different from the Cruzan language family, which stemmed from Minel. Even scholars rarely studied this language.
Standing next to Flour, Diya smiled and suddenly rattled off a long string of bizarre words. Brendel was taken aback; wasn’t Diya speaking Jotungrund? And her accent had the thick tone of the troglodytes, instantly evoking the thought: ‘Yes, that’s the tone!’ He nearly asked the little girl if her family knew she spoke Jotungrund so well, but looking at the stern-faced Flour beside her, he decided against it. After all, they likely knew, and teasing Diya could lead to an outburst from Flour that he would prefer to avoid.
In the end, Brendel could only inquire in amazement, “Diya, when did you learn Jotungrund?”
“Tagib taught me,” the wild elf sister replied proudly. “Pretty cool, right, Brother Brendel?”
“Very impressive,” Brendel praised without reservation, making her giggle.
After some light banter, Brendel focused on Husher and asked, “What did they say?”
“They told us everything they could. As you anticipated, the lord of the troglodytes in the city is Tanpu. He resides to the north of here. These blind ones got lost, but I deduced their location from their descriptions. There are also some landmarks; the street is wide, and there’s a square with a fountain in the center. Tanpu is stationed there,” Husher pondered for a moment before cautiously answering.
After hearing this, Brendel looked towards Cooper, who had yet to recover from the teleportation until Brendel patted his shoulder. He awakened and asked, “What’s up?” Husher reluctantly repeated the information, and once Cooper had grasped it, he exclaimed, “I know that place, St. Sand Square. There’s an inn called Silver Bell there. I once passed through Gravel Town and stayed there.”
“Well, it appears it’s in the central area of the city,” Brendel noted. “Our troglodyte friends have chosen a good location.”
Cooper appeared a bit surprised. “Earl, is this not your first time in the Empire?”
Brendel laughed, “The central area of the city is surrounded by the most prosperous commercial zones. A place where you could take lodgings surely isn’t some back alley.”
Cooper understood.
“Since Sir knows that place, would you kindly lead the way?” Brendel suggested, glancing at the dark night sky. The harpies changed shifts every hour or so, meaning the Jotungrund underground inhabitants would eventually realize they were under attack. Although there was ample time now, it was certainly not the moment for idle chatter.
However, Cooper appeared hesitant. He looked this way and that, noticing that aside from the druids in the courtyard, it seemed Brendel’s escort consisted of only a small group behind him. Perhaps Husher’s trio could be counted too—though to him, Diya and Flour were hardly more than maidservants, and there might be a few outside, but it still felt too little. He couldn’t help but show a distressed expression. “With all due respect,” he ventured cautiously, “Earl, is this small number of people enough to storm the lair of a Jotungrund lord? Isn’t it a bit rash?”
“Is it still a raid if there are too many?” Husher retorted, somewhat disdainful.
Brendel was accustomed to the behaviors of such nobles. He reassured, “Sir, do you think I’d lead you to your doom?”
Cooper thought for a moment, feeling it was more likely Brendel would lead him to death. Yet it didn’t seem sensible to accompany him to doom. He recalled that the Earl from Erluin had a fairly good reputation. Previously, he had directly inquired of his colleagues who had been captured by Brendel. Although everyone, including Earl Ji’en, wished for this hick from Erluin to encounter misfortune soon, they did not deny that Brendel had treated them reasonably well—at least in this regard, he demonstrated some noble demeanor.
Holding onto that thought, Sir Cooper felt he had grasped onto a lifeline, or perhaps a sigh of relief, and reluctantly nodded at Brendel.
St. Sand Square was indeed located in the bustling area of Gravel Town’s center, but it didn’t mean it was geometrically central. The town had undergone two to three expansions, long surpassing the walls’ limits—which was quite common in the heartland of the Empire, where warfare was rare. St. Sand Square was located in the old district and served as the center of the area. The five main streets leading to Gravel Town’s five gates all converged here, forming a large open square surrounded by shops, inns, local chamber halls, and grand buildings housing noble assemblies. Naturally, under the moonlight, the most magnificent structure was the Temple of the God of Pottery, Kalidas. Unfortunately, this god of pottery was quite unfortunate; last time at Buche, Madara’s undead had only knocked down a wall of his shrine, and now these troglodytes had commandeered the temple as a barracks.
Brendel and the accompanying group hid behind a wall beside a nearby shop. Husher couldn’t help but sneer upon seeing the scene. “These troglodytes may be blind, but they can tell good from bad—look how they’ve turned the temple into a place for them to eat and drink.”
Despite being in a mortal age, a millennium after the deities had departed from Vaunte, the dark dragon and four sages established a new order on the land, yet the followers of Martha never forgot the favor the ancient gods had shown them. Many believed the deities would eventually return to Vaunte. The monks of the Temple of Fire devote themselves to Martha and do not suppress this notion, especially since the priests’ divine spells have never lost efficacy, proving that the protectors of order still respond to their people’s call. This belief was quite popular in the countryside, particularly among the Cruzans in the south and the Erluin believers of the God of Pottery. Poor Sir Cooper was a devout follower. Hearing Husher speak so irreverently nearly drained the color from his face.
However, he couldn’t rebuke Husher, as in his eyes, these damn troglodytes were indeed too much.
In the center of St. Sand Square stood a fountain featuring a statue said to depict Mr. St. Sand, the local founder, but unfortunately, the statue had toppled from its base and shattered into pieces. Two razorback wild boars were by the fountain, dipping their heads into the water to drink, while not far from them, their trainers—a dozen or so purple-skinned Sandelves with long manes—sat or stood on the marble steps of the temple, muttering in a language most present could barely understand.
“Truly crude,” even Brendel couldn’t help but shake his head. The troglodytes possessed no civilization, worshipping mysterious spirits dwelling within the dark caves. Expecting any basic respect for Cruzans’ history and culture was clearly unrealistic.
He pointed at the rooftops of nearby buildings. “Diya, Flour, you handle those noisy creatures.” He indicated the seven harpies that flew above the chamber hall and noble assembly, keeping watch over the entire square. They appeared especially lively at night, perpetually flying and attacking each other while producing sharp, irritating noises.
“Got it,” Flour replied, and Diya nodded eagerly.
Brendel then pointed at the troglodytes at the temple entrance and a nearby patrol squad. “Juliette, you’re in charge of these—there are a total of eighteen rats. Don’t let them make any noise.” The White Lion Guard accompanying the embassy were mainly elites drawn from the original guard, and the ten picked for the raid were the crème de la crème, each with at least silver middle-tier strength. Even against razorback wild boars, they could hold their own; Brendel had no concerns about their capacity to handle a squad of half-troglodytes.
Juliette hesitated, brushing her flame-like hair aside, but nodded.
“Lastly, there are two razorback wild boars left. I will handle one, and you, Sir Knight, take charge of the other with your squad leader,” Brendel said while looking at Cooper’s guard leader. “Mr. Walton, what do you think?”
Walton—a renowned swordsman from Ludvig—boasted a pair of bushy eyebrows and piercing eyes. He regarded Brendel with suspicion, seemingly doubting the strength he could possess at this age, but ultimately nodded.
“Nemeses, you and the druids will stay back to deal with any unexpected situations,” Brendel instructed last.
“Understood,” the lady knight replied calmly.
