The Amber Sword
chapter-721

The snow and ice were like a knife’s tip, flickering under light and freezing to the bones. The forest trees on both sides of the glacier were shaped like ice crystals, and the wind was blowing through the forest floor, carrying with it the sound of tiny breaths. Freya clasped her hands, staring at the white glacier below. Black spots were scattered around, a group of about a few hundred people was struggling to move forward, the scene looming in her vision, sometimes obscured by the swirling snowstorm. The future Valkyrie frowned, her eyebrows covered with snowflakes. She was wearing a thick cloak, which almost completely hid the furred armor underneath. The armor looked similar to that of a forest hunter.

Extending to a wider vision, hundreds of soldiers in the same silvery cloaks were hidden in the bushes, motionless and nearly the same color as the snowdrifts from afar. Maynildlooked at the time, her pocket watch was nearly cackling from the cold, but the hands were still accurate.She handed it to Freya. “Is that them?” “That’s them.” Freya nodded in confirmation, seeing that those people were almost the same as what Brendel had described and that there should not be a third force in the area.

“What great luck, that smatterer lord of theirs guessed it.” Not far behind Freya, several Kirrlutznobles were squatting down, whispering to each other. Beneath the white cloak was a pale, blonde young man, no more than twenty-one or twenty-two years old, but the insignia on his collar indicated that he was an official knight leader. He said, with a mixture of unconcern and amusement, and a low chuckle ensued. Another laughed, “But I can’t believe that Veronica took that guy’s advice and gave that little girl full command.

The others then shrugged their shoulders. “Just watch, she doesn’t know how to give commands, how can we charge from this distance, this is glacial terrain, not hills or plains.” The blonde young man shook his head.

“Browder, I’ve heard they are cadets who graduated from Aouine’s Royal Cavalry Academy.”

“I see.” Browder raised his brows. The distance here was the same as the fixed distance on the handbook, but the Aouine soldiers must have lacked experience in fighting on the snowy plains, as tactics should be adapted to their local conditions. This woman is just stuck to that inflexible Dogmatism.

“Let’s wait for the show.” He took a look over there, seeing that they were good soldiers, he did not think they would disobey orders. But he assumed that the other side would fail and could not help but take a somewhat unconcerned glance in that direction. “Be prepared. The other side may discover us first, but they are nothing more than private soldiers of the Aouine nobles, just some dirty dogs. That lord has some sense, it’s probably just a cannon fodder troop down there, we shouldn’t run into any trouble.”

“He’s probably trying to train his commanders, just to bring us down.” Behind Browder, a tall, but a little too skinny female knight said.

“And he’s still trying to put it up in an imposing manner ” one teased, putting his hands to his cheeks and mimicked a dragon’s roar, “hahahaha……” causing low laughter all around.

The low laughter finally caught Freya’s attention and she took a soft breath, looking back with some displeasure, and frowned. “Let them be.” Maynild reminded her. “I know.” Freya nodded.This was truly the first battle she had ever commanded and she would never take it lightly. She lifted her head, her light brown eyes reflecting the shadows of those noble privateers, and her mind could not help but recalled the question Brendel had asked her.

……

“Please stop laughing, Lord Commander.” Shido looked embarrassed with her small red face in the snowstorm. “I’m sorry, Shido, but you really shouldn’t think of Aouineians as barbarians…… hahahahah…..” Veronica narrowed her eyes, but could not hide the lifted corners of her mouth. She saw the scholar girl turn away somewhat embarrassed before she uttered an explanation, “Their late ruler, Erik, was also a noble of us Kirrlutzians, and actually, the Aouines and Kirrlutzians have always been of the same origin, but they also have their own culture. What you learned from following those guys in the capital…… is biased.”

“So the only way to see the real world is to experience it.” With the book in her arms, Shido stood amidst the pure snowflakes and looked in the direction where Brendel was, “Is he, the Count, going to be angry?”

“No, he’s not that petty. Let’s go over there, he’s probably the only one who would recognize that thing up ahead.” Veronica replied, pressing the furs wrapped tightly around her neck and gripping the hilt of her sword with one hand as she walked over.

“Even you don’t recognize it, Lord?” Shido was surprised.

“Don’t be curious, that little guy is a wonder, he said he learned these things from the scrolls of the Black Tower Wizard. Hmm, I have talked to William and it seems that there is some knowledge that even he doesn’t understand. There must be some secret about this little fellow.” Veronica replied.

The scholar was slightly startled by this and looked in that direction with curiosity.

As Brendel walked carefully across a thick glacier, he looked up and saw something that seemed to stand in the distance on the edges of the sky. It was something that was naturally eye-catching, as if it were the corner of a huge construct, black as ink, tilted into the glacier, with only a tiny part of it exposed. The entire edge had a metallic luster, and the surface of the metal was covered with geometric patterns and its blueish texture was glittering. The patterns hung down from the top of the edge and densely covered the entire ‘body’ of the thing. From a distance, it looked more like a temple plunged into the ground, but with a closer look, Brendel felt a very familiar feeling, somewhat like a Haizaiers’ creation, full of constructs and industrial style.

He looked up and could almost imagine the object flying over the place. It fell from mid-air, hitting the ground with an instantaneous burst of energy that tore through the earth, leaving deep marks on the ground, and then slid away until it lost all momentum, only to come to a slow stop, followed by a thousand years of freezing until they rediscovered it today. He walked slowly through the ravine-like valleys that had been created by the impact thousands of years ago, where Milos, the father of the Frost Giants, had been buried, as the snow and ice of a thousand years could testify.

He was distracted.

“Mr. Brendel?” A voice sounded behind him and he turned around to see Shido with a serious look on her face: “Do you know what this is?”

She looked up at the great creation in amusement.

“You mean that thing?” Brendel was a little distracted, and he took a look at the black square pillar in the distant sky that seemed to plunge straight into the clouds. But his mind was not really on it. It was not something important, as the views that could be seen from many places in this glacier, was like a background to a player and did not have much of an existence, but it was certainly imposing. Brendel looked up at the black pillar, “That’s Milos’ remains.”

“What!?”

Shido was so stunned that she stopped for a moment, “Is that the remains of God?” Inevitably, the scholar girl was skeptical. She was well aware of her beauty, and some people disguised themselves as being knowledgeable to get close to her, and she knew from her time at the academy that many of the legends she had heard were fabricated stories. She now felt the same about the Count, for she felt that he could not possibly look like a scholar, and even if he were, he might not dare to say such a thing.

She looked at the huge ruins and could not accept such an explanation.

“You think I’m lying?” Brendel looked back at her finding it funny. Well, at least I’ve always found her amusing.

“No……” Shido hurriedly shook her head, “But as a scholar, one must take responsibility for one’s own words, have you confirmed your words, my lord?”

Isn’t this being suspicious…Brendel replied, “It is not my words, but it is written in the Dark Prophecy of the Witches that in this battle, ‘Milos disintegrated in mid-air, and the wreckage was scattered over the earth, most of which fell into this glacier, but one fell into the Seas of the Dying Moon. The Bugas built a city on it, called Onais. You have heard of it, haven’t you?”

“The ruins on the Seas of the Dying Moon is…is……” Shido stared at the black ‘building’ in the sky.

“Pretty much, and in fact, both the Bugas and the Black Tower Wizards have confirmed this. The thing that we are seeing right now is the remains of Milos. In the future, you may have the opportunity to enter the White Tower to study the scrolls of the Silver Mages, and you will be exposed to this valuable knowledge, Miss Shido.” When Brendel himself said so, he also took a look at the black tower in the sky. “Thank you…” replied Shido softly, “I am sorry, I should not have doubted your words.”

“No need to apologize, there is a saying among scholars, ‘Doubt is the doorway to truth’, you have heard of it, right?”

“Ah, you know that too, Mr. Brendel, are you a scholar?” Shido asked in surprise, holding the book.

“Ahem…… I’ve only read the literature on the subject, but I’m not really a scholar.”

“That’s a pity.”

But Brendel was a little distracted at the moment, thinking of the action on the other side. He heard creaking footsteps coming from behind him, and by the sound of them, he knew it was Veronica.

“How about that, are you confident, little one?” She obviously heard the conversation between Brendel and Shido, but at the moment, like Brendel, it was impossible to focus her attention on these legends and myths.

Brendel did not turn around but he just nodded, “Don’t worry.”

“What makes you so sure that Arreck will go along with this plan?” Veronica frowned. It was not that she did not trust Brendel, because if she did not, she would have never agreed to Brendel’s plan.

“It’s simple.” Brendel replied.

He turned back.

……