Chapter 967: Act 139 – The Witch’s Uprising II
Romaine usually wasn’t very interested in witch matters and rarely managed them. However, she had a spirit companion named White Mist, who was a former witch queen. White Mist had determined that Merchant Miss was the chosen heir selected by the witch queen, someone destined to govern the entire witch realm. As for the current so-called Witch King, in her eyes, he was merely a usurper holding a seal in proxy—truthfully, this assertion wasn’t unfounded. Historically, after the witch queen’s death, no successor was appointed, and the witch lineage’s power was managed by her attendants, becoming the nominal ‘regent.’ Later, in the first era, even the term “regent” was seldom used, and the title of Witch King was adopted directly. However, the witch tradition was long-standing, and many witches within Burnoson were aware of this past.
Given this, White Mist certainly could not allow the witches’ authority to fall into the wrong hands. However, Merchant Miss was wholly devoted to her commercial endeavors and couldn’t persuade her. Therefore, White Mist had to enter the fray herself. As a contract spirit who had lived for over a thousand years, she was familiar with this kind of situation from her time alongside the witch queen. Now, facing these ‘younger generations,’ she was naturally adept. Utilizing her unique origins, she quickly won over Babasha and her kin, establishing a network of spies among the witches who had pledged allegiance to Brendel.
Thus, when the instability among the witches first arose, White Mist grasped the information promptly and woke Romaine. Though our Merchant Miss had never cared much for her nominal subordinates, she knew of the importance these witches held for Brendel. Hence, she put aside her own matters to come, leading her to encounter Flour.
According to what White Mist had learned, the primary source of unrest among the witches this time stemmed from Anwei and her Cup Moon witches. They had been introduced to Brendel by Babasha and were among the first witches to join Valhalla. As Brendel listened to Romaine’s description and recalled those two women, his brow furrowed deeply. He had initially thought it was merely some small antics from the witches, but it turned out the problem was far worse than he had imagined. Even those who had previously joined him were harboring different thoughts, let alone those later recruits who were fence-sitters. Furthermore, White Mist specifically mentioned Anwei’s background. The Sword Moon witches primarily operated in northern Erluin, and there were many Crusian among them, who had deep connections with Anzeruta’s witches. In fact, the witches who later joined him from the Silver Bay regions were introduced by Anwei.
The Silver Bay area lay to the east of Anzeruta, consisting of a series of loosely organized duchies and city-states, mostly vassals of Cruz and Saint Ausoor. Here, several historically significant witch lineages existed. Brendel had originally hoped to leverage these connections to strengthen his relations with these small nations, facilitating a passage from Erluin to Saint Ausoor to restrain Cruz, but now that Anwei had aligned with the Silver Queen, these witches were similarly unreliable.
Fortunately, White Mist had conveyed that the Sword Moon faction of witches hadn’t been affected yet. Brendel recalled a middle-aged witch named Kulur—when he first met her, she hadn’t left a deep impression, just a tall and thin middle-aged woman who always wore a hood and showed her true face rarely, seeming disinterested in everything. When she first came to meet him, the nominal ‘Dark Dragon,’ introduced by Babasha, she appeared indifferent, unlike Anwei, who was much more fervent—even if only on the surface.
Brendel instinctively tapped his knuckles on the table, suddenly feeling curious about this witch. The Sword Moon witches were not like Babasha and JarSugar’s Back Moon witches. As some of the earliest to join him and having witnessed him display the ‘powers’ of the Dark Dragon, Babasha’s faction of witches were practically his natural allies, the most trustworthy subordinates with little chance of betrayal. But the Sword Moon witches were different; their relationship with him was more distant, even less than that of Anwei and her kin, which led Brendel to wonder why it was Anwei who turned first instead of Kulur.
Was it because Kulur and her kin were too slow and only realized it too late? Brendel shook his head internally, dismissing that reasoning. Even if the Silver Queen’s deeds weren’t widely known across the continent, they were spreading rapidly from Meiz, Cloak Bay, and Ludwig in all directions. Nowadays, even in the regions south of Fanzan, near the Great Glacier, people had heard of the Dark Dragon’s return. As those situated at the center of the storm, Kulur’s faction shouldn’t have any reason to remain oblivious, especially since they were witches most closely related to this event.
So, the question arises: What made Kulur and her kin so confident, showing no concern about their allegiance to the wrong person?
To be honest, Brendel himself suspected that the queen far away in the imperial capital might truly be the actual inheritor of the Dark Dragon, as he had never thought of using this identity. To him, Odin was just Odin, and he was himself. Although he had received the legacy and power from what people called the Dark Dragon, so what? As Queen Wind said, power itself has no good or evil; what matters is the one wielding the power. He possessed the power of the Dark Dragon, but he was still Brendel.
The path he intended to take had always been his own, not the so-called path of the Dark Dragon. In fact, he had never aspired to change the entire world.
Given this, he found it challenging to identify the reasons behind Kulur and her kin’s trust in him. Perhaps they were too deeply hidden, or perhaps there were other factors. Regardless of the cause, this middle-aged woman’s peculiar behavior had drawn his attention. At this moment, he had already formed the desire to meet her, though not right now—
Brendel quietly waited for Romaine to finish speaking. After she concluded, he was somewhat surprised to find he hadn’t expressed any opinions, and he blinked, curious about what to do next. “Brendel, what are you planning to do?”
Brendel shot a glare at this quirky Merchant Miss, replied somewhat irritably, “These are your subordinates. Now that such a big mess has arisen, you come asking me what to do? White Mist often tells me you don’t care about things. It seems she wasn’t wrong.”
It was rare for Romaine to feel a bit embarrassed; she stammered in defense, “I… I’m just not interested in them, all of them came to pledge allegiance to me—not to you, Brendel. Besides, I don’t want to be any Witch King. That old lady buried under the mountain, seriously, I just wanted to learn her fun magic! She didn’t even give me a heads-up and sticks me with being her successor. White Mist is so annoying; even my aunt wasn’t as fierce as her—”
Brendel’s forehead twitched as several black lines appeared. What did she mean by “I just wanted to learn her fun magic”? If the witch queen knew Romaine referred to her as “the old lady buried beneath the mountain,” she would probably be infuriated to life at once. Moreover, White Mist, a spirit companion who had lived for over a thousand years, was driven to the front lines to handle these younger ones due to this Merchant Miss, only to be deemed “too fierce.” One couldn’t help but wonder if White Mist would secretly cry alone at night. Brendel couldn’t help but feel this reflected a lack of insight. Nonetheless, he believed the witch queen’s decision to choose this Merchant Miss as her heir was probably not well thought out. It might have been due to impatience after waiting too long, and Merchant Miss just happened to stumble upon it.
Of course, Brendel forced himself to retract this absurd thought, sweating a bit cold, and said to the Merchant Miss, “Forget it, forget it. I understand. This isn’t your fault; go on and do your own thing. Leave the witches to me for now. I have my arrangements. Just focus on contacting your old clients.”
Upon hearing that Brendel wouldn’t hold her responsible, Romaine felt a little relieved and quickly replied, “Oh!” and returned obediently. At least she had one good trait: boundless trust in Brendel. Although he had never stated how he intended to handle this matter, in Romaine’s mind, as long as Brendel agreed, there definitely wouldn’t be a hint of trouble. She had feared she had caused another disaster, feeling somewhat flustered and worried Brendel would give her a hard time, but now that she had escaped a calamity, her mood lightened, and she didn’t seem concerned about the current situation at all.
As for Brendel’s suggestion for her to contact the old clients from Cold Fir Territory within the Empire, that was indeed her job. She knew Brendel was currently secretly reaching out to the northern nobles of the Empire—before the Holy War broke out, many major merchants had trade ties to Erluin, especially since there was a crucial shipping route between Erluin and Cruz across the Shining Sea. After Brendel’s rise in the Cold Fir Territory, this route had become increasingly busy, even showing signs of surpassing the southern kingdom’s main commercial port around the time of the Ampere Seale War. During that period, although tensions existed between the Empire and Erluin, commercial exchanges with Cold Fir Territory had never ceased. Through outstanding performances in the commercial field, Romaine had also befriended many major merchants within the Empire; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been invited to join the embassy for the Silver Queen as a well-known merchant.
Although Brendel had always been skeptical about this so-called invitation—
However, after the Crown Prince’s disappearance, the internal situation within the Empire had grown increasingly tense, and Brendel’s relations with the merchants in the Empire—especially those in Ludwig and Meiz—had taken on a heavy political tone. After all, in this era, it was common for major merchants and nobles to be intertwined. Usually, the income from the landowners was realized through commerce, so many business tycoons had noble backgrounds or were themselves nobles. For instance, Brendel was the lord of Cold Fir Territory and the actual manager of the Cold Fir Territory’s Seven Seas Merchant Association, while Romaine merely acted as his fiancée proxy.
In reality, such combinations were not uncommon across the continent. Nobles either traded directly or through agents, leading to political nuances in trade between nations. The straightforward commercial exchanges seen in the early development of Cold Fir Territory were more of an exception. After the Crown Prince’s disappearance, Brendel, Veronika, and the Black Legion’s commander, Mangolov, had formed an alliance. Veronika primarily roamed within the capital, seeking supporters at the power center, while Mangolov represented the military nobility’s standard and banner, and Brendel had intentionally begun contacting the northern nobility—mainly through Romaine as a channel, exerting influence from a commercial standpoint to seek more allies.
This plan had been in motion for quite a while now, around half a year, yielding quite fruitful results. After all, Meiz and Ludwig were traditionally strongholds for military nobility, and Brendel’s Cold Fir Territory was merely playing a role of connection. This role was something Veronika and Mangolov could not achieve under the watchful eyes of the Silver Queen, who probably never dreamed that a small kingdom’s lord thousands of miles away would dare to strategize against her.
By now, it was harvest time for Brendel.
Brendel observed how the Merchant Miss rolled her eyes and returned silently, realizing what was likely going through her mind. He shook his head slightly. Though the witch turmoil presented as a hassle, it was no longer the most pressing matter. Regaining his composure, he already had his accounts figured out; among the three major witch lineages that had allied with him, at least two were firmly on his side, and the remaining one wouldn’t pose much of a threat. That woman named Anwei—the current heir of the Cup Moon witches—was not particularly remarkable in history, though she was somewhat famous, primarily because she was the stepping stone for the notorious arrogant one—the Supreme Witch Mi Kaya. It was surprising that in both lifetimes, this woman had made no progress whatsoever.
History certainly has its inevitabilities, Brendel suddenly recalled this phrase and envisioned the little girl from Shallow Water Town.
He shook his head, driving that thought from his mind, and lifted his gaze to Flour. Yet before he could speak, the cold Elven Miss had already jumped in, saying:
“Lord, what I want to say is similar to what Miss Romaine has indicated, just directed towards different subjects.”
At this point, Flour paused slightly, fixing her gaze on Brendel as if she felt some disappointment in a slow-like scolding tone:
“What I want to discuss is those Crusian.”
