The Amber Sword

Chapter 47 – Silver mines (8)

============= Cohen’s POV =================

“Just who is that fellow?” Maher said.

The youths began discussing amongst themselves after Brendel left. Maher had been against that dubious person since yesterday, but the latter found a Cold Iron vein and used a large sum of money to make a trade between them. He had to admit there were good points by dealing with him.

However, Jocah was a little worried. 25,000 Tor coins was not a small sum of money, and he felt the entire situation was a little off. They had gotten money too easily. He could not help but look at Cohen. The sickly youth was the most knowledgeable person amongst them, and he even knew magic.

Whenever they got injured in the mines or fought with someone, Cohen would treat them with a magic spell. Even though it was not like the magic spells in bard tales where injuries could be healed in the blink of an eye, it was more effective than using herbs.

Eventually, Cohen was quietly recognized as their leader, although Maher did not fully admit that fact. It was mostly because the latter’s pride was a little beaten when he was taken off the leader’s seat.

“It’s none of our concern,” Cohen shook his head, “continue mining. The things that happened here do not concern us.”

“This place looks like a good place to battle, but will it hold with four Gold-ranks fighting here?” Scarlett said.

“We can try and capture him as quickly as possible,” Medissa said.

“It’s going to be a little tough,” Brendel frowned as he considered the possibility. “Our opponent isn’t some random person who recently became a Gold-ranked fighter. He’s likely to be a Grandmaster Swordsman, but there isn’t a better way. In any case…… Let us wait for him. Jana, make sure you’re waiting for us back there. You wouldn’t want to come near us.”

=============== Perkins / Kodan’s POV =============

Voices were circulating in the administrative building as soon as the morning sun rose. The rumors first started in the deeper mining sections. The workers found monsters appearing out from nowhere, and the news quickly spread to the foremen who immediately requested for a squadron of soldiers to investigate the situation.

But none of them returned—

When the foremen realized the soldiers were missing, they scrambled to put up a report. Perkins received it on his desk in less than thirty minutes. This thirty-odd years old energetic administrative officer, who was still considered young by Vaunte’s standards, finally realized the severity of this issue.

One of the reasons why he was able to come to the silver mines and work for Count Randner was because of the latter’s recognition of him, and another was because he had connections. He was the nephew of Count Randner’s wife and thus easily gained his position. Once he finished dedicating his time to this temporary post, he would be ushered into the council of advisors working for the Count.

The silver mines were of great importance to the Count, and if he would be one of the trusted retainers if he succeeded in handling the silver mines without nay mistakes. This was why he governed this site with a great passion and was completely satisfied at getting the position of his dreams.

It was going well for him, and the incident where the workers broke through a cavern of monsters was a decade before his time, at least until this morning.

[Giant spiders sighted in the lower pits? A squadron of soldiers completely missing? Possibly because the workers dug through a tunnel leading to the Jurgen Underworld!? Fuck! Fuck! This is a serious incident beyond imagination!]

He felt cold perspiration coming out from his body. He could not imagine what would happen if there were invaders from the underworld. He was in a position where Count Rander kept an eye on, and he was unlucky enough to possibly encounter the worst situation.

Losing the silver mines.

Perkins sank into his seat like jelly. If he lost the mine, he might be executed by Count Randner—

When Kodan pushed the door open, he saw Perkins in a miserable state. This old man had entered the Gold-ranked status thirty years ago and was one of Count Randner’s most trusted men.

The Grandmaster Swordsman was unable to suppress the waves of disdain in his heart when he saw Perkins’s spineless expression, especially when he came to his position through nepotism.

[This boy is even more worthless than I thought.]

Kodan coughed once and woke Perkins from his stupor. When the latter saw Kodan, his grey eyes lit up in joy. The old man was different from him. Even though Perkins’ position was technically higher than Kodan because he was in charge of sending off the gold, Count Rander recognized the latter as his right hand with complete trust. The old man did not use connections like he did, which meant he had gotten to his position through sheer capabilities.

The young man took on an even more respectful tone and expression than usual because of the situation, completely hiding away his darker thoughts of cursing the old man because the latter constantly looked down on him.

“Ser Kodan, you’re here, we’re in big trouble!” Perkins spoke as though he was a drowning man clinging on to the last hope for safety.

“What sort of trouble?” Kodan shook his white hair in contempt.

But Perkins did not dare to get angry and explained the report in detail. Kodan had already gotten hold of some information along the way and understood things to a certain extent, but he was seething with fury when the young man described the situation.

[You damned bastard. You suppressed the rumors from reaching my ears and sent my men off to the pits without telling me. Now that the situation has gotten worse you’re looking for my help?]

However, the situation was grave enough for him to restrain his anger and he replied with cold indifference:

“I see. Then what are you going to do, my lord?”

Perkins felt a lump in his throat. He knew that Kodan was trying to show his displeasure through this opportunity. But he also knew that he was in the wrong, so he gave an apologetic smile and tried to think of something:

“Well….. we don’t know what the real situation is in the pits, and I’m afraid that the workers might be panicking and disorderly, so I want to send in the guards to maintain….. order……”

He gulped as he saw the old man’s expression getting darker and darker: “Perhaps, at least enough men to…..”

Kodan scoffed coldly.

“Your idea is shit. It’s utterly worthless. If you send all the guards in, wouldn’t the workers know that there’s something wrong with the pits? They would go crazy and immediately panic. Furthermore, there are over a thousand workers in the mine, and you want to maintain order with less than a hundred guards? Administrative Officer Perkins, perhaps you’re not thinking hard enough with your brain?”

Perkins’s dignity was almost shredded to pieces, but his skin was thick enough for him to ask: “T-then what do we do?”

“I’ll bring in a few men and take a look,” Kodan rubbed his sword’s sheath and said, “the monsters in the pit below are troublesome, but they won’t be able to trap me. We will discuss our options once I find out how serious the problem is.”

“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!” Perkins exclaimed with a placating tone. Even though the situation was not over, he was relieved to know that Kodan was going to settle it himself.