The Amber Sword

Avram wanted to say something else, but suddenly Brando was staring at him coldly, shrunk his neck, and swallowed the second half of the sentence into his tummy filled with red meat. The regiment's convoy continued to move forward, passing the imperial soldiers and refugees, the eyes of the crowd passing through the men, women and children of Cerser trembling, most of them silent. Enid and Duke Kim from Vieiro all noticed that the atmosphere in the convoy was a bit strange. Laurie, the little Goran-Elson family, held her nanny's hand tightly, a little frightened, and followed Eko closely behind Brando in a leaping attempt, looking to help the refugees, and he kept looking in Brando's direction, but without permission. The sergeant from Janilassou followed him with one hand pressed against the handle of a sword hanging between his waist, his eyes only on the soldiers of the Empire.

Chiara, on the other hand, watched with a cold eye, the little girl with the huge, uncoordinated scholar's square cap standing next to Enid, looking at it with a cold gaze beyond her age, only occasionally revealing a sarcastic look at Avram. As for Charles, Hipamila and Metisa, who saw the scene with different ideas, they stood behind Brando and waited for orders, Yuta looked at the refugees and frowned slightly, a scene she had already seen too much of in this country.

Brando didn't even look at the refugees. His eyes didn't stop on the soldiers of those empires for a moment. He held his lips and led his convoy through the chaos with a cold face. The Imperial knights who passed by him were ignored as if they were air. Despite spending almost two weeks with each other, the people in the mission were not familiar with the temper of the group leader. They only knew that he was a close minister to Her Royal Highness and had no less strength outside than the former Grand Duke of Anrek. Avram and the Duke of Vieiro were also good. Most of them were reminded before travelling to try not to offend the future of the powerful Count, so Brando did not speak, and they dared not act without permission. The convoy remained silent, only one step closer to the dazzling gate of the Black Sword Barrier.

The mission soon passed through the merchants, the detained refugees had long been dumped far behind, only Ike in the team for a while still looked at the back, his frowning face did not hide the rush, as if he did not understand why the knightly Count, whom he had always admired, refused to let him do it, but Brando's image in his heart had long grown to an unattainable height, the latter did not speak, although he had a cat in his heart, he could only stay in the team in peace. He turns around and finds that little Lori from the Goran-Elson family is turning back, and she looks at him with her head crooked, her pale brown eyes filled with incomprehensible gods —— she doesn't seem to understand why those people are being arrested, she's only seven or eight years old, and the aristocratic world is too far away from her.

The crusaders in front of the mission had already informed the Cruz, so that the Cruz also knew the whereabouts of the noble convoy, which slowly arrived beneath the Black Sword Barrier City, before Brando raised his hand and stopped everyone. Shortly after the motorcade stopped, three Knights of Cruz came to them on the terrace dragon, wearing a silver-grey ceremony with a chest armor, a swaying medal on the chest armor, Brando looked at his ribbon and the colour of his helmet and understood that the man was a Knight Chief - and behind him, the daughter of Grand Duke Vieiro had changed her face slightly, in accordance with the normal courtesy of the Temple of Fire to interact with his subordinate countries, the Empire should at least personally verify their identity with the deputies of the highest officer of the land and welcome them into the city, the Cruz now sent a district Knight Chief to replace them, already naked arrogance.

This was not the first time such a thing had happened, and it had been treated as such three years earlier, when Cruz's envoy had traditionally travelled to the Empire to meet the Emperor and celebrate the New Year. Or even earlier, long before the cold years, the Kingdom's envoys seemed accustomed to such lightness. However, when the Duke Qianjin read these things from the history of literature, he only felt that the kingdom of Eruin was weak. It seemed natural that such a giant empire was first class in front of him, but now it was her turn to experience the slowness of the Cruz people herself, she could not help but create a resentment in her heart.

But she didn't talk rationally.

Others in the team perceived the atmosphere somewhat incorrectly, but with the exception of Chiara and Charles, who had limited knowledge of the diplomatic process, could only wait silently for Brando to make a decision. Brando was expecting this, and he patted Avram on the shoulder, still ignorant, and asked the meatballs to hand in the paperwork. The latter reacted by hurrying out the paperwork and the seal, respectfully coming to the knights of Cruz with their hands on.

He behaved humbly enough that even the officer behind Ike could not see the discontent, but the Knight of Cruz did not appreciate it. He took the paperwork impatiently, glanced at it and threw it back into Avram's hands. These light-hearted moves made Avram, even the most ignorant, react —— the document in his hand, some solemnly described as the book of Eluin, if the other side was an empire's border marquis, he wouldn't dare to say more if he threw the book back in his face, but the other side was just a small knight elder, technically not a real nobleman —— he couldn't help but stare at the other side and wonder how the other side came to this end.

But the Cruz knight looked at him with disgust and waved: “Come with me. ”

Avram stood there motionless, and he turned subconsciously to Brando, which was no longer the courtesy that the Empire deserved to receive the other nations under the Temple of Flame, or any courtesy at all. He was just dumber enough to understand that if he made a good argument, the charges of diplomatic malpractice would fall on him today. But the meatball cried and found that Brando stood there as if he hadn't seen him.

Helpless, he had to warily say to the knight of Nacruz: "Sir Knight, this... doesn't seem to follow the rules very well? ”

He hoped that it was a moment of negligence on the part of the Krutz, forgetting diplomatic manners, but disappointed that the knight looked at him with some indifference: "It is not possible to open the Knight's Gate to greet you in this time of war, if you have any dissatisfaction, you can take a detour, or go back the same way. ”

(Note: The Knight's Gate, the name given by the Duke of Sempree to the main entrance of the fortress, is in honour of the Cruz soldiers who lost their lives at this fortress.

Back the way it was?

Avram was sweating, and at this point he was kind of really seeing what the Krutz saw, and he used to take it for granted that the world was strong, and the Krutz fists were big enough, so it was tolerable to show that attitude. But it wasn't until he enjoyed the arrogance himself that he realized how hateful that arrogance was, and if he could, he would hate to punch the guy in the face and throw it back in the face of the damned Count Tonigle.

Of course, that's just a thought, and even if he had ten balls, he wouldn't have the balls.

But Brando finally said, "Avram, tell him we can't go back. ”

Avram looked back at the Krutz as if he had expected it, and couldn't help but smile with contempt: "Then come with me, envoys.” He will deliberately make His Eminence read extremely hard, accompanied by his strong accent in Krutz, full of irony. Avram was shocked to hear the words. He feared that the arrogant commander would be impatient with the opposite lips, and in addition to him, other people in the mission frowned, especially Count Janilassou's right-hand man behind Eko, who, as a soldier, had his right hand firmly on the handle of his sword.

Although Avram was a famous dude in Karasou, the ability to observe colours that must be present in this circle was not abandoned. Naturally, it was felt that this tense atmosphere had come to pass. He wiped his sweat and irresistibly threw his eyes at Brando, trying to make the Count take a stand, whether he was dead or alive.

But, unfortunately, Brando still stood there as if he hadn't heard the Knight Cruz.

This time, the Krutz knight finally realized something was wrong. He set aside the fat man in front of him and looked up at Brando a little strangely, realizing that this was who these Eruins were. He didn't know who they were, but it didn't prevent him from speaking, and he answered with some arrogance: “What's going on, guys, are you going to stay here? ”

Brando took a look at this guy, and he'd seen the arrogant faces of these Krutzians in his last life —— central aristocrats like Veronica, Leonarette, and Blunded -- a little better, but especially Krutzian soldiers on these borders, who had more access to the Eruins on weekdays, as if they were refugees with Cesar trembling and The Eruin nobility, who met the Empire with its soft legs, had long spoiled their temper - so this group was almost the most visible group of people in the Empire, and the Eruin people were only about higher in their eyes than the beasts, a culture that became particularly evident after the first Black Rose War, and later in the Eruin Middle Ages, even influenced the players of the Cruz, dealing with the Cruz Empire of that era, to make the Eruin players mad. One thing.

In contrast, this attitude is now quite good, at least without apparent cynicism.

But Brando didn't get any gratitude for this‘ better ’attitude, because he was looking for something, and for others, the empire was meant to participate in a mobilization festival held before the jihad, and for him, this purpose was actually possible. He stared at the Knight Cruz and couldn't help but say, "We're here to go to the Empire, so naturally we're not staying here, and we're not going back the way we were —— Knight, do you understand?" ”

“Well, what exactly do you mean?” The Krutz knight seemed to hear the funniest thing in the world. He looked at Brando as if he were looking at a bunch of idiots. He wondered if these hillbillies had come out of a remote part of the country and had never seen the world before, otherwise how could they stay like this?

“What we mean is that you must open the front door and welcome the embassy into the fortress in accordance with etiquette, which concerns the dignity of the kingdom, and also to prove to the world that you Krutz are not at least ignorant of etiquette.” Brando replied succinctly.

The Duke Jinjin opened his mouth behind him, let alone the Knight of Cruz. Even she felt that his commander had suddenly become so rigid. The Cruz had made it clear that he was going to slow them down and give them one of these 'countrymen' a disembarkation horse. These diplomatic manners were reminded by the Count. Apparently, the Cruz already knew, but only deliberately. But if Brando doesn't unravel this last piece of shame, then both sides will have a face, but after Brando unravels, if the Cruz still insist on doing so, then their embassy will lose even the last little face.

But of course she didn't believe that the Count Tonigle was so simple that she felt that Brando seemed to have deliberately pushed each other to this dead end.

The Cruz knight also changed his face at the same time.

“What are you talking about," he shouted irritably, “I told you, it's a time of war, it's impossible to open the Knight's Gate, don't you hear me, sir? ”

“This is within the borders of the Kingdom of Eruin and the Cruz Empire, and I have never heard of any war.” Brando seemed to take the knight's reprimand as a wind in his ear, answering only slightly.

“Really?” The knight couldn't help laughing. “Then you could have persuaded the Marquis that he had given the order. If you could persuade him that there was no threat of war here, I would have opened the knight's gate to welcome you into the city myself. ”

Brando glanced at him and replied, "Well, I will convince your Marquis, but, as a courtesy, you are not qualified to greet us. It would have been an honor to leave this to your adult deputy, but if I had persuaded him, he would have had to greet us personally as compensation. ”

The Cruz knight couldn't help but stare at him as if he were a madman.

“Daydreaming. He said he left the sentence at the end and said," Well, if you're not going in with me, then you're going to wait right here, and of course, you're always welcome to convince our Marquis. ”

Go ahead, he left Brando's men behind and returned to the fortress with his own men, as if he really didn't intend to ignore these unknown Eruin hillbillies.

By the time the Krutz left, Avram, Duke Kim and others had consciously landed on their captain, and Avram thought that the Count was just trying to sell his guts to push back, but the young lord apparently had no idea that the Krutz would never eat this. And the Duke is silent, and obviously he has the same idea in his heart. But the problem is that now that the Krutz have left, they can't stay here all the time, but whether going back or asking the Marquis is a facial sweep, this is obviously caused by their leader, so if someone is to come out and get better, then naturally the first thing should be done by him.

But Brando didn't seem to take it as one thing, and he looked up at the towering wall and said to Charles behind him in a slight retrospect: “The Cruz obsession, 60 years ago, 60 years later, and today, has never changed. Charles, get my sword in my carriage. ”

Avram hasn't understood what it means to come here, but the more agile Duke Kim has reacted, and she stares at them, the head of the mission, as if she remembers another identity: Kensei.

“No,” she hastily objected, "Count, you must not be so impulsive! ”

Brando looked at her and asked, "What's my impulse, Miss Owney? ”

“He asked me how impulsive he was!” The Duke almost couldn't resist pulling his own hair. She thought Brando was just a little young, but now she seemed like a complete lunatic. She couldn't help but say out loud: "If you're going to coerce the Marquis into hijacking, it could start a war. ”

Brando couldn't help but be somewhat stunned: “Who said I was going to coerce the abduction of a real nobleman, Miss O'Neill, you cannot discredit me? ”

“You're not going to do this?” The Duke is stuck.

“Of course.”

“You swear? ”

“Duchess, I don't hate jokes, but now you're a little overjoyed.” Brando replied seriously.

Now Duke Kim is a little suspicious, and she can't help but stare at Brando.

But Brando really didn't plan on hijacking that bullshit marquis in the past. First of all, he had no idea where he was staying, and he couldn't kill a seven-to-seven in this fortress. But by this time, Charles had taken his sword, not the sword of the earth that he was used to, but a long sword as if it were carved out of ice crystals.

Brando took the sword, clasped it in his hand, and then raised his head and stared at this fortress, which was nearly 400 years old.

“One thing you need to figure out, Miss Owney,” Brando replied, "I've never done anything so troublesome. ”

Speaking, he raised his sword and waved at the door of this fortress.

A bright silver wire, as if rising from the ground, between moments, leaning straight into the sky --

……