Summoning the Holy Sword

Thump. Rhode’s heart pounded fiercely as soon as he saw the name of the court musician on the name list. Although it seemed like this court musician was here to represent Royal Highness Lydia to reward the troops like Marilyn Monroe cheering up the soldiers, Rhode knew that Gaya wouldn’t leave the palace without any specific purpose. Although she became the first publicly recognized musician on this continent at the age of six, Gaya had never left Golden City. Even though she was widely known as Lydia’s trusted aide, many in the King’s Party treated her solely as Lydia’s playmate. None of them objected in her representing Lydia here and even Garcia joked to Rhode that they were extremely fortunate to be able to hear the performance of an unrivaled musician… Garcia wasn’t in the least bit interested in Gaya at all. That was for sure.

Rhode knew that Gaya’s strength lay in the Middle-Level Legendary Stage and she could defeat a legion by herself. What was the exact purpose of Lydia sending her here?

Rhode wasn’t worried that Lydia would expose his identity even though through her behaviors; it seemed as though she understood more of Rhode’s background and past more than he did. On the other hand, it was exactly due to Rhode’s understanding of Lydia and Gaya that he was sure that Gaya was definitely not here to reward the soldiers. If not, why would Lydia send a being in the Legendary Stage here to perform for everyone here?

This would be too much of a joke.

Rhode hoped that he was being overly sensitive or perhaps Gaya would be here for another mission and wouldn’t be focusing on him. But no matter what, he could only wait for her arrival because it was inevitable.

After a short three days, the reinforcements from Golden City had arrived at the Cloud Summit Fortress and Garcia and Rhode awed in their arrival.

Amongst these reinforcements, 1500 of them were the aristocratic private armies while the other 500 were official soldiers mobilized from around Golden City.

“What do you think, Mr. Rhode?” Garcia gave a hopeless bitter smile and eyed the nobility flag fluttering above the brigade of soldiers blankly. Rhode simply shrugged because the magnificent view before them had represented convincingly how Lydia chose to resolve this manpower issue.

The frontline troops distributed at the border couldn’t be arbitrarily mobilized and there must be sufficient reasons. However, the nobles were different as they could gather their private soldiers in the shortest time and join the fight in the frontline. Of course, the private soldiers weren’t perfect. For example, they wouldn’t obey orders like the regular military and they might often resist or violate military regulations. The hatred between some hostile nobles would also be reflected upon their own private soldiers. For this reason, Garcia sighed helplessly as he could almost foresee that their willingness and disobedience in carrying out his orders would be a huge problem.

“Greetings to both of you.” Gaya’s voice was as crisp and melodious as a bell moving in a breeze. “I’m the court musician, Gaya. I’ve arrived at your Fortress following Royal Highness Lydia’s order…” Gaya paused for a moment. As she spoke, her eyes were fixated at Rhode’s and Rhode looked back without the slightest degree of fear. Even though Rhode was indeed somewhat worried before Gaya arrived here, it would be useless to worry about anything now since she was here already, right?

Although Gaya was speaking to both Garcia and Rhode, she was actually looking face to face with Rhode and disregarded Garcia entirely. Garcia felt somewhat awkward while he scratched his head in puzzlement. As he was about to speak, Gaya turned her gaze towards him abruptly. “… I hope that you can prepare a resting room for me.”

“Sure. No issues with that.” Garcia smiled and bowed towards Gaya before inviting her forward. “We’ve already prepared a room for you knowing that you’ll be here, Miss Gaya. Of course, even though the room seems rather simple, I guarantee that the room is sparkling clean. Don’t worry about…”

“Please bring me there.”

“Alright, please follow me.” Garcia displayed a bitter smile while Rhode made way for Gaya to pass through and nodded towards Garcia.

“So then, Mr. Garcia, I shall make my move first.” Before Rhode turned around fully, Gaya grabbed onto his wrist and Rhode’s expressionless face appeared in the young lady’s black pupils silently. “… Do you need anything else, Miss Gaya?”

“Follow me, Mr. Rhode. I have something to ask you.”

It seems like I can’t avoid what’s sure to come.

Garcia prepared a guest room for Gaya within the Fortress and even though this Fortress Commander was usually a scatterbrain, he was really respectful towards Lydia’s direct court musician. He made sure that the room was squeaky clean and the bed, table, and chairs were all brand new. I wonder where that Red Fox dug out all this from… The only flaw was that this soldier’s room wasn’t too luxurious and comfortable with the other basic furniture.

However, it seemed that Gaya didn’t mind at all. She placed her harp by the wall that had been swept off dust and cleaned with water before turning towards Rhode.

There was only the two of them in the room. Obviously, Garcia wasn’t too interested in the court musician and he came up with an excuse to leave after leading Gaya and Rhode to her room. Without a doubt, Garcia shot Rhode a strange look before he left. Perhaps he has a bizarre misunderstanding… But who knew?

“Is anything the matter, Miss Gaya?” Rhode took the initiative while the young lady’s mouth curved into a smile. This was the first time that she smiled, but Rhode knew nothing about what was hidden behind it.

“Honestly, you’re quite a successful liar, Mr. Rhode.” Gaya stared into Rhode’s eyes.

“… I don’t understand what you mean, Miss Gaya,” Rhode twitched his brows.

“I think you do understand, Mister… I don’t know who you are, but I do know that you’re definitely not from the Eastern Plains because there isn’t an outstanding talent like you from there. Besides, I have never heard of the surname ‘Alander’.” Gaya paused for a brief moment and the room temperature seemed to have dropped at that instant. “Surely you wouldn’t tell me that you climbed out of a cave?”

“Of course I wouldn’t say that, Miss Gaya,” Rhode squinted, but his expression remained unchanged. “I’m just an ordinary human, that’s all.”

“Ordinary human?” Gaya’s eyebrows rose as though she had just heard an interesting joke. “I don’t think a liar that Royal Highness regarded highly of will be just an ordinary human, Mr. Rhode. Sure, if you are determined to say that, I don’t have any other choices. But…”

Rhode noticed Gaya’s finger moved slightly.

“—!” Rhode felt a faint sound wave erupt on his body. Shortly after, his body muscles tightened and he couldn’t even budge at all.

This was Gaya’s talent attribute — Sound Force.

What is she trying to do?!

Gaya extended her right hand forward. “You’ll die if you don’t concentrate, Mr. Rhode.”