The Amber Sword

————– Princess POV —————

“Land of the Holy Saint’s remains?”

Legend stated that the natives in the mountainous valley built a sanctuary during the Era of the Holy Saints. A statue of the king was placed at the entrance of the valley, and all manners of dark creatures that tried to enter would be struck by lightning, and all forms of dark energy would be suppressed to the limits.

In the Era of Darkness, humans, elves and dwarves went out of this protected land, and the gathered knights formed under one banner and defeated the [Dragon of Twilight], ‘Calamity’, bringing about the new era: ‘Year of Chaos’. (TL: Coughs out blood. Hopefully I don’t TL things wrongly...)

“It’s the blessed land that is protected by the king, my lady.” Oberbeck answered.

“He actually found that fabled land?” Her tea had been replaced, but the princess did not even noticed that. She merely played with the silver spoon as she listened to Oberbeck’s tale.

“That youth probably knew how to get to this mystical place, but he didn’t know the exact location.” Oberbeck said. “But his method of searching for that area is quite unique. My lady, I am sure you have heard the Witch King in Bunoxone who inherited the power of the stars. The archmagi in various factions believe that this lifeforce from the stars, comes directly from the Blind Goddess, Elaine.”

“I thought this is just a myth.”

“That might not entirely so.”

“Can I continue to listen to the story?”

“My lady, your teacher, Lord Panos is probably waiting for you.”

The princess laughed and said slyly: “I’m already late, Lord Oberbeck. Please continue your story, I want to know what happened during the night.”

Lord Oberbeck smiled as he had predicted this outcome, so he continued: “Then our story have to start from a legend concerning a king and a white male dear.”

—————————-Brendel POV————————

The night had gone dark completely. Strong winds blew across the land, causing the fir trees to rustle loudly against the wind, and the refugees felt like they were listening to ocean waves.

Freya stared at the gloomy sky with great worry as the wind caused her hair stands to dance across her face. She grabbed her best friend’s hand and whispered: “Does that idiot Brendel have any confidence in what he said? He talked about some land of the holy saint’s remains, but Leto and Mano never heard of it before. They are natives too—”

“Calm down, there’s absolutely no problems when it comes to Brendel.” Romaine sat down and stared at the starry sky, answering as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“You didn’t think about it all, right?”

“There’s no need to in the first place.”

Freya was exasperated at the girl whose mind was filled with blank space, but at least she felt that she was more relaxed than before. She wondered if Brendel and Romaine had the same quality to make people feel at ease.

[Brendel’s way of making people feel at ease comes from his steady confidence, while Romaine is her natural disposition not to worry about things....] She suddenly wondered what would happen if both of them were not at her side when she meet an obstacle.

Suddenly there were voices of loud gasps that came from the refugees. Romaine and Freya turned their heads, and they could not believe their eyes:

There was an ethereal creature of beauty, a white deer with a translucent body, lighting up the area around it with soft light. It appeared elegant and noble, with long slim limbs and a sturdy body, its antlers on its head sharp as blades.

This creature seemed like it did not belong in this world as it jumped onto a body, leaving behind a trail of light similar to fireflies behind it.

The leaders, Leto, Mano and Batum stood up at the same time as they stared at it. Brendel, who was holding onto a statue, was somewhere further away with Tamar at his side. The deer jumped up higher onto the boulders in the mountain, turned around and nodded to them, then ran further ahead.

“The finished product is a little imperfect, but it’s quite impressive since our conditions are limited.” Brendel said. He was very pleased at his first result in making an alchemy tool.

Tamar and Ciel gave the same opinion, but the young squire still asked: “My lord, how true is that blessed land that you talked about?”

“You heard of that before?” Brendel was surprised.

“Certainly. Knowledge about the ancient history is something a wizard must study. Many different forms of magic came from the Era of the Holy Saints.”

“I can guarantee that the land is real, but that area is always covered in fog, and I am not sure exactly where it is. I can only pray that the Goddess Elaine can lend us some help, so that my precious deer can find the way.”

[Except that countless players visited that place and got nothing. I didn’t get anything out from it either. It’s famous as heck in the game, and everyone speculated that there was something amazing in it... but no one has ever discovered what secret there is—]

“Lend us some help?” Tamar asked.

“I mean I hope that Goddess Elaine is going to bless us.” Brendel answered.

“What happens if she doesn’t?” Ciel turned his head towards Brendel and asked.

Brendel did not reply. There was at least three thousand skeletons and ghouls right behind them, and Medes and Kabias elite forces in front. With the shades in this forest, this night was going to be very dangerous for them.

The white deer caused the refugees to exclaim in wonder as it ran to the other side of the mountain valley before stopping. Brendel knew that the night’s adventure was about to start. He looked at the pocket watch.

[11 PM. Time to move out.]

He gave the order to get the refugees to break the camp and move. The conscripted militia which were armed with long spears, marched together with the refugees, and two long snaking group of people started walking out of the valley, with fifty riders guarding the rear. The stars and moon were bright enough for them to see the road without lighting torches.

Brendel and Ciel rode together with the riders, with the former pulling out the Thorn of Light. The sword did not glow, proving that there were no undead nearby.

“Get the refugees to follow the white deer. It will lead us to safety.” Brendel turned and instructed the riders.

A man beside Mano suddenly rode up and asked loudly: “My lord, are we really able to cross that something valley and be ahead of the Madara’s army?”

“Definitely.”

“I’m not suspecting you, my lord, but all of these things you say sound unbelievable.”

“It is true. But all of you simply have to trust me at this point of time. I’m not going to risk my life over some false information.”

“But how we are going to move to the north when there’s a large undead army in front? There are at least three other groups of Madara’s undead patrolling this region, with them surrounding the nearby area. Each of them came from different directions, one is from the River of Sharp Rocks, the other comes from the side Hunting Deer Mountain’s forest. These are most likely comprised of Pale Knights and Ghouls.” An officer from the White Mane army came up.

Brendel suddenly recognized the two of them. He had fought against the two men once in Fortress Riedon and disarmed both of them, even sending them flying backwards. It seemed that they had deep prejudice against his judgment.

“If we fight against Medes’s troops directly, we’re all going to be killed.”

Brendel looked at him. He needed someone to keep the White-Mane army’s soldiers in line, so he did not get angry and replied politely. “What is your name?”

“Please call me Taron, my lord.”

“Then Ser Taron, there’s no need to worry, their armies are bound to have openings we can exploit.”

“What openings are you talking about?”

Brendel did not want to reveal the gargoyle’s secret to them.

“We’re going to go to the rear of Medes’s army, and they will pass through here in half an hour.”

Everyone was silenced at that moment, and even the ones who were starting to believe in him started questioning his sanity for following Medes’s army.

But Leto suddenly said: “That is a good idea, if we are able to grasp the right timing.”

Brendel looked at him in astonishment.

[This plan is just a random fib... To even make it work, we have to get the right timing to cut across their weakest link of segmented troops, while suppressing their runners so they can’t alert the other patrolling units. This requires a great command of the situation during a battle... I have only done this once in the game and simply used this as an excuse to shut this Taron up—]

Brendel did not expect Leto to guess what he had done before, and even dared to go along with what he said. Everyone was stunned, but Mano was the next to recover and understand Leto’s intentions. “Alright, I’ll bet on it as well—”

The rest of them gradually understood what his intentions were. But even after understanding what he had in mind, everyone wondered if the three of them were crazy. Brendel looked at the gargoyle which was a speck of black in the sky.

[But the odds are much better than the last time since I have the gargoyle to survey the surroundings...]

————————— Madara POV —————————–

The [Undead Maggot] Medes knew there was a group of refugees that escaped into the direction of the Silver Sparrow Mountain. The group had even defeated his squadron of undead skeletons.

But he did not place too much importance on chasing after that batch of refugees, as his attention was on working together with Kabias to deal with the White-Mane army.

[The humans are weak.]

It was just as easy as he had predicted. Aouine’s formal army was completely defeated by them. They had chased them all the way from morning and delivered a final blow by ambushing them. When the sun had set, the battle had ended. Even though their vanguard forces were heavily damaged, they were mostly cannon holder. The ghouls and Kabias’s skeleton cavalry did not suffer much losses.

In comparison, the forty odd skeleton riders hurt his scouting forces greatly. To regain this forces required a long time.

It was at this point that Medes turned his attention on this group of refugees. Lord Tarkus had given an order to seal the pathway to the River of Sharp rocks with their lives, and everyone who participated in this war did not dare be careless.

[Something is amissed...]

The leader who led the group of refugees appeared to be skilled at avoiding the bone eagles that were spying on them. Ever since morning, they had only caught glimpses of the refugees five times, and at the end of the night, they lost their presence entirely.

[This is a bad omen.]

Under the weak soul fire, Medes opened the goatskin map. He drew several circles on the Silver Sparrow Mountain.