Amber Sword

As he spoke, he lifted his head and looked at Princess Griffine.

"Yes," the Half-Elf Girl nodded steadily, answering in place of Ou Fuwei’er, "but we still don’t have many options. The troops in my Territory will move north along Anlek Province, but it’ll take at least three to four days before they can reach the southern border of Flada Forest."

"And if they’re intercepted by the local forces of Anlek Province, I’m afraid it’ll take even longer."

Brand nodded to himself as he listened. He had known from the outset that the Princess and Ou Fuwei’er really had a trump card. Judging from her tone, this army could still be put to use, and even the forces within Anlek Province didn’t seem strong enough to completely defeat them, only to delay them for a while.

As far as he knew, the Princess’s own troops within Flada-Pes were absolutely not that capable, and those Officer Cadets in the Royal Knight Academy didn’t have that kind of ability either. In fact, at this time of year, the only ones in the Royal Knight Academy who could be of real use were the first graduating class, plus top-notch new students like Frey and Breson.

Which meant that there definitely were nobles backing Her Highness behind the scenes; the Royal Family’s foundations really ran deep. And this was only counting the nobles who supported the Royal Family, not including the Royalist faction that had gone their separate way—behind the Royalists stood Duke Lantoniyan. As long as the two sides didn’t completely fall out, together they truly did possess enough strength to partition the North into separate northern and southern regimes.

But that was clearly not what Princess Griffine wanted.

Brand understood this Her Highness’s personality better than anyone—on the surface calm and rational, but in truth fierce to the bone. She would never compromise with anyone.

But it was clearly more than just that.

He showed a curious look. The Princess definitely had more than this one card to play; otherwise, on this gaming table she should’ve already been forced to fold. Right, what else was he overlooking...?

Seeing Brand’s expression, Princess Griffine sighed. "But it’s not like we have no chance at all, Mr. Brand. As long as we can leave Ampezel Port and retreat toward Holy White Bay, I can arrange for reliable allies to meet us..."

Holy White Bay?

A flash of Light went through Brand’s mind. He knew this place—lying south of Ampezel, past Flada Forest, a bay ringed by sheer cliffs. Because of the geography, it was impossible to build a port or docks there, so it was only used as a temporary storm anchorage.

But in his memory, he could only recall it as the habitat of Storm Hermit Crabs—a level-12 aquatic monster. In the past, that place had only ever been involved in a few fisherman quests out of Ampezel Port.

What allies could possibly be there?

Wait!

"Anchorage point," Brand suddenly reacted, blurting out, "the anchorage point of the Eruein First Royal Fleet!"

"Ah!" Princess Griffine gave a soft cry.

The moment he said it, Brand realized something and raised his head to look at Princess Griffine, only to see Her Highness indeed gazing at him with an expression that was hard to describe. "Mr. Brand... you... how did you..."

Ha, slipped up again. He felt a bit embarrassed at once—having knowledge ahead of its time wasn’t always a good thing; it made it way too easy for people to treat you like some Godman.

The Erune Royal Fleet’s secret anchorage in Holy White Bay—that was a secret nobody knew outside the Royal Family...

He was about to explain, but the Half-Elf Princess was looking at him with an extremely complicated expression. Then, as if she suddenly understood something, she spoke after a long moment: "Mr. Brand, so Lord Bunide was telling the truth... So Mr. Shire really is still alive, and you and Mr. Shire truly are..."

"Huh?" Brand was dumbfounded. "Wait, what does that guy Char have to do with me now? Weren’t we just Knight and Attendant?"

He turned his head back, utterly baffled.

To see Char wearing a bitter smile.

...

(PS: I got carried away writing and lost track of time—looked back and it turned into 8K words... OTL. I don’t really want to break up this stretch of plot, so I’ll just post it all at once.

Also, a quick clarification: we’ve recently gotten to the Conflict Aura. If I remember right, it should be 7 points of Protection at this stage; I wrote the calculation formula wrong in one previous Chapter and made it 11 points—that was a BUG, now it’s been corrected. Everything is to follow the formula Brand proposed when he met Albton.)(To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, you’re welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote recommendation tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)