The Amber Sword

v3c303
Vortex(7)

Navigating through the tunnel full of staggering piles of dry grain and food. It did not take long for Jill to find the secret ‘treasure’ that was buried by the three mysterious people. There was a huge sack lying quietly on the ground in the narrow tunnel.

Jill and Bu were visibly excited, “Jill, shall we open it?” Bu hastily asked.

“Of course!” Jill replied.

The two of them untied the rope, but the first thing that came into their view was not a dazzling pile of gold, but a young girl with a pale-white face and closed eyes. Both of them screamed at the same time, backing up from it as if they had seen a ghost.

“Aaaaah!! Jill, this is not a treasure!!”

“Of course I know that! Oh my, this must be a murder victim! Dear Marsha, this happened right under her eyes! The skies can be my witness, I have done nothing at all!” Jill exclaimed.

“Bu, please give me a hand here, I got scared till my legs became numb.”

His mind was spinning, but he could not come up with an explanation.

Brendel was never a rational nor a calm man in the eyes of others. His personality was exactly the opposite of many nobles in this kingdom, who were usually the cold rational thinking kind of people.

It took quite a while before he pulled himself back together. Looking back at Bu and Jill, he said, “Look at what you two have done. You two murdered the princess of another country in the land of Aouine. Do you know how big of a mistake you guys have made? This could start a war-”

“I must arrest and deport you both. This is the only way to calm our neighboring country’s anger……” Brendel said in a calm and stern tone, but in truth, deep inside he was feeling suffocated.

Jill and Bu who got coldly stared at were terrified, although they did not understand what this young noble said, the terms ‘war’, ‘calm’, and ‘country’s anger’ scared them, and they were trembling in their boots.

Freya in particular, who was standing aside in an Aouine soldier uniform, made it sound even more threatening. Although what she was wearing was the army’s uniform, the two Fairies could not differentiate between the soldiers of the army and the Coast Guards.

To them, Brendel seemed like the horrifying death god who would turn them in to justice.

Freya indeed knew that both of them could not have possibly killed Magadal, but since they were here, they might know some things. She knew that Brendel was just using a tactic to scare them into speaking the truth, but looking at the terrified faces of Jill and Bu, she could only bear it by thinking of Princess Magadal’s death and forcing herself to be strict.

Bu and Jill were too scared to even say a word. Then Brendel said, “Of course, these punitive measures also include the confiscation of all your properties- including those buried in the forest outside the city.”

“No, how did you know!” Jill was shocked. They would normally bury most of their stolen items and would only return a small portion of it to the authorities. Each group would choose a separate hidden spot, and only the Big Fairies would know exactly where the goods are hidden.

But Brendel was an exception.

“No…no… Wait, we’ve got nothing to do with this. You can’t do this…” Jill and Bu suddenly panicked. From a state of shock, they began to panic.

Especially when they heard that their assets were gonna be confiscated.

“Nothing to do with this?” Brendel raised his tone, and with a straight face, he asked. “Then what are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re here to steal.”

“As a matter of fact, we were here to steal.” Bu split the beans without hesitation, Jill who was anxious tried to cover his friend’s mouth.

“Very well.” Brendel said without emotion, “According to Ampere Seale’s law, the court will confiscate half of your assets, and you will be in prison for a year for stealing. You two should be pretty clear with this?”

“Oh no…” Bu immediately regretted his decision, although it was not confiscation of his whole assets, confiscating half of it was already devastating enough to him, especially if he was considering the assets he was hiding.

“But there still is a chance to make up for it.” Brendel continued, “Now since you are involved in this murder case if you can provide us with some useful clues, I may consider reducing both of your sentences.”

Brendel seemed to be an officer to the two Fairies when he said that, and they did not know about the legal procedures of actually becoming one. From their point of view, a noble was certainly eligible to have authority over them.

Both of them quickly nodded their heads without hesitation

“Very well, tell me, how did you find her?” Brendel asked.

“Her? No sir, we just found a sack, but we did not know that this princess was inside.” Jill answered.

“A sack?”

“Yes,” Jill hastily explained the whole situation that he witnessed previously, fearing that saying something wrong or leaving anything out might cause this judge to lose his temper and change his mind. For they knew that if he had the ability to reduce sentences, he would also naturally have the power to increase sentences.

Jill felt proud of his cleverness. He started to recap, and surprisingly, even details he did not pay attention to came to mind.

“Three people? Can you imitate how they sounded like?”

“Brendel?” Freya gave him a strange look. This request was just unnecessary. The tone and way of speaking of the nobles are quite similar, it is almost impossible to find out who the three people were.

But Brendel shook his head slightly, indicating to her that she should not worry. He raised his eyebrows slightly, his thought process never before so clear. The tragedy of Magadal really triggered his anger, and this time, those who were behind this will have to face his wrath.

Oral skills were one of the professional skills Night Swallows had, and Jill was definitely a master at it. He imitated the tone and slang of the first person and Brendel was able to distinguish who it was immediately. Moros.

“Next.”

“Yoakam.”

“Next one.”

“I don’t seem to recognize this guy, but judging from his speaking tone, he might be from the army. The Coast Guards and the Holy Cathedral should not be working together yet. Furthermore, Moros and Yoakam would not trust them. It should be someone powerful… Count Vitokin’s confidant?” Brendel frowned.

Freya’s concern that he would not be able to recognize the enemy was nothing to be worried about. Normal people probably could not discern from the imitated tone, but Brendel was not ordinary.

Someone who dares to harm Magadal would definitely be someone with powerful backing. And there are only a few of them in the whole of Aouine. Brendel was very familiar with who they were and their tones were distinctive to him.

In addition, the murder of Princess Magadal was a major crime. Not even the Holy Cathedral would be able to cover this crime up. So they would reduce the number of people involved in it, and the best way to do that would be to deal with it themselves.

As soon as he heard Jill’s description, he was even more sure of his prediction.

Brendel had a sneer on his face. Freya looked at him and asked, “Brendel, have you found out who they are?”

She was a little amazed. Although Brendel once convinced her that there was nothing impossible, she never thought that he was capable of such feats. Are there actually people born omnipotent?

That thought only lingered for a moment. But as soon as she saw the pale face of Princess Magadal, her heart tightened and she understood the reason for Brendel’s anger.

“Brendel……” she called to him in a sad voice.

But Brendel patted her hand and whispered, “Don’t worry. This matter can be solved. However, I must teach the ones who do such evil deeds in secret a memorable lesson this time.”

The last few words were as if it was squeezed out from his gritted teeth.

“Ah!” Freya froze, she looked at her partner in unbelief, “The princess……she……”

Brendel nodded his head, not to comfort her but because he suddenly thought of something.