Amber Sword

Miss Merchant hugged her knees, squatting in the ruins. She occasionally stretched her swan-like slender neck to check outside, her brown pupils swirling around, waiting until there was not a single soldier outside before she satisfactorily patted the dust off her skirt and stood up.

"Ha Yi-" She let out a long breath before asking, "White sister, is this what they call the Holy Temple? But I didn’t seem to see Brand anywhere!"

The one referred to as ’white sister’ was a female-shaped Contracted Spirit. She had a beautiful and alluring female figure on her upper body, with elf-like long and slender pointed ears, but her lower body seemed transparent, composed of a swirling mass of dust and air.

This female figure, documented in ancient magical red parchment literature, was known as a Contracted Spirit. Although the Queen of Witches could contract any spirit, she was particularly fond of the ’White Mist’ of the North Wind. The North Wind was the keeper of knowledge on the glacier, and the Ice Queen left it to Roman, hoping to leverage its wisdom and experience.

’White Mist’ was a beautiful and enchanting woman, but she had a pair of lackluster deadfish eyes. She glanced at Roman and replied listlessly, "Destiny is both before you and behind you; mortals can grasp its direction but cannot see its form."

"I thought Brand should be over there, is the divination really accurate, white sister?" Miss Merchant asked curiously.

"Divination is self-questioning; if you believe, there is, if you don’t, there isn’t."

Roman tilted her little head, unclear if she understood, but confidently walked toward a certain direction. After just a few steps, she stopped, retreated a couple of steps, and picked up a nail head hammer from the ruins.

This was a sacred artifact used by the Priest in ceremonies to expel evil. The silver handle of the hammer was intricately decorated, and a Holy Light Bullet was infused into the head of the hammer. Normally, the clergy handled it with great care. But Miss Merchant seemed to have no concept of this, casually swinging it—it felt just right, and she nodded in satisfaction.

"You intend to use this for self-protection? Wisdom and knowledge are more effective," White Mist shook her head, showing a bit of disapproval.

"Well, I used to have a hammer in Buqi. But later Brand lost it," Roman thought for a moment but couldn’t remember which bone skeleton might have picked up that hammer. She decided to blame Brand. How could a big merchant be careless? It must be Brand’s fault!

Brand sneezed inexplicably.

The two walked through the ruins of the Ande Fulei Grand Temple. Suddenly, there was a ’crash’ as gravel loosened and fell from an inclined wall, and a person emerged from below. That person was dressed in noble attire, with a longsword at his waist, but his hair and clothes were covered in white lime, making him look dusty.

Viscount Beigening blinked his eyes and finally adjusted to the outside light. When he initially left through the secret passage, he hadn’t expected the earth to suddenly crack open, with magma erupting from all directions. His attendants perished in the fire, but he narrowly escaped thanks to the family heirloom life-saving talisman, and then, by recalling the secret passages beneath the temple, he slowly found a way out.

He pushed aside the stone wall and saw a graceful figure not far from him, hands behind her back, staring at him in shock. Beigening had a meticulous personality and an extraordinary memory. Although he had only seen Roman once beside Magdal, he instantly recognized her identity.

"Miss Roman?"

"Ah," Roman was slightly stunned, "How do you recognize me?"

"It’s me, Viscount Beigening. Miss Roman, do you remember me? I was with the Princess when we met before," Beigening was secretly pleased that she was so easily fooled. He wasn’t aware of what had happened outside the temple but guessed that both sides had engaged in battle. This girl seemed to be closely connected to Brand, and if he could seize her, it would be a blow to the Princess’s side.

"Oh, oh," Roman nodded meaningfully, "I understand. Since you recognized me, there’s no helping it!"

"Huh?" Viscount Beigening was slightly stunned. What kind of conversation flow was this? "Wait, I’m with the Princess—"

He never dreamed she would move at the mention of it and even less expected that Roman had her trump card hidden behind her. By the time he realized it, Miss Merchant had already leaped forward and swung the nail head hammer down on his head.