The Amber Sword

Brando came up with a candidate who was naturally the Duke of Leaf Collar, Miss Faina, a student of Veronica and at the top of the Imperial aristocratic circle. Through her, it was most appropriate to know the news, but it was even more difficult to say that there was no real stake between him and the Duke of Gold, and there was no reason to worry that she would cheat herself. The young lady behaved arrogantly in the wind ring, but did not look like a sly person.

Besides, he does need someone from the side to prove the reliability of Prince Wang's supporters of the southern Wallgrass.

In dealing with those imperial local aristocrats, he had skilfully avoided the subject of the Crown Prince - describing himself as a friend of Veronica and Mangrove abroad as a military force in the northern part of the empire, an identity inherently intimate to a family of aristocrats who had a crush on the Crown Prince, coupled with Leonarette's exposing to Brando some of his loyal informants the dead, through whom Brando and his mission had easily been associated with the imperial prince faction.

After all, these people are not worthy of relying on, and Brando is well aware of that.

He immediately wrote a letter to Faina, a long way from Floating Cloud Hill to the Leaf Collar, which he did not expect to receive in a moment and a half, but at which time the nobles of the South brought him a new message.

This information was also commissioned by Brando to help them inquire, mainly about the current jihad. Almost at the beginning of the jihad, the Eruin embassy began to travel to the Empire. When passing through the bustling areas of Ambesseur, they were able to hear more or less about the war, but as they entered the Balta Plateau and then into the mountains of Anzeluta, in these sparsely inhabited areas, when they were truly isolated, for two months they had been completely blank about almost everything but this clash with Count Gian and Count Olkons.

According to the Cruz nobles, since the Big Bang in July and August, the retaliatory actions of the Lions and the Wind Elves on the border have unleashed a fierce curtain of jihad, which took place between October and November, each deadlocked and completely silenced in the last month of the sword year, and Brando's farce with the southern nobility of the Empire seemed to attract the attention of all at once, Instead, the ongoing fighting became insignificant; the Wind Elves began to contract after the first offensive in the Four Realms, after all, a retaliatory action based on the tragedy of Auggins, which, although viewed by the parties as the curtain of the rise of Jihad, was still open, and both vast empires needed time to react to the war, which was unique to the third Jihad, compared to the private actions of this local legion. Wonder, as if the limbs of the body had moved, but the brain was still working slowly.

The Lion side, on the other hand, seemed even weirder. When the people of these lands began attacking the fortresses along the Rokozy Heights — the Broken Sword Mountains, they seemed to have fallen into silence, wondering whether it was because of their frustration or because of the logistical difficulties of winter that they had not been able to move in.

Apart from that part of Tokenin, there is no fundamental difference from what Brando heard two months ago when they were in Ambessel.

However, offensive action on the part of the wind elves is predictable. In this era, with the exception of Madara, the central force of the empires is in fact very limited. Among them, the Cruz Empire needs to be a little stronger, and the wind elves of St. Osor need to be slightly stronger, because St. Osor still faces the problem of the contradiction between the two main races of humans and elves, which remained unresolved in that era of Brando until after the Stonewall War, and secondly, the Finn Zan is a loose alliance dominated by the Inés, with allies like the Knights of Gracius, and a city-state fertile in the north, which would hardly be called a nation if not a holy power. Of course, the situation in the country has eroded to such an extent as the kingdom of Eruin, where each of the three empires is undergoing internal reforms, with the wind elves and Finzan at the forefront, the Krutz now seem to have a silver queen trying to be a highly centralized empire, and Leonaret is equally ambitious, but for a while these vast empires still have to rely on local nobility to operate.

The vengeance of the Pokémon of St. Osor was initiated by the commanders and lords of the Legion of Auggins, and although the Royal Court of the Pokémon actually granted its acquiescence; the response of the Red Legion of the Cruz was not in fact a war waged by order of the Silver Queen, it was equally acquiesced in by the High One, and even the Temple of Fire did not object. The cat is tired of the fact that both sides are already interested in continuing the war, although neither side of the country is fully prepared.

It is therefore foreseeable that the Wind Elves will come to a standstill after a sudden offensive.

But the lions are acting strangely.

Toquinin is a tribal kingdom with two main races, lions and dwarves, as well as a number of animal or veterinary minorities. Lions, dwarves, animals and veterinarians, respectively, form large and small clans and tribes scattered over the Great Plains and the high mountains of the North. They have kings, that is, chiefs recognized in the name of all clans and tribes, and spiritual leaders, that is, high priests of the Temple of the Earth, or prophets, theoretically, at the behest of chiefs and prophets, these tribal peoples came together to decide to wage a jihad, which means that this golden kingdom is ready for this war.

But what is happening now is that lions, dwarves, animals and veterinarians have gathered to form a large army, but this army is hesitant. This situation propagates to the imperial side that the Toquinins are not good at attacking the city at all, while the Rokozy Highlands — Broken Sword Mountains Fortress is in a precarious position and the walls are strong, so these savages are simply unable to attack the empire effectively, they can only look to the wall to sigh, and when winter passes, they will naturally not be able to sustain their natural return.

Most of the noblemen who brought this information to Brando were sworn to believe it, and how could the Imperial Wall be defeated unless they were rivals of the same rank as St. Osor? But for those who are blindly optimistic, Brando would like to remind you that one of their empire's fortresses was broken only a short time ago, and that the man who broke it was only the Count of a small country on the sidelines, and this Count is in front of you now, and none of you should think about the occasion?

In the end, however, he shook his head, and the pride of the Empire was traditional, as if a deep-rooted notion had long been formed, which, once formed, was basically no different from superstition and could not hear different opinions.

In private, he and Nimmasis knew that the Golden Lions of Toquinin were not good at siege, but there were also dwarves of the Chongshan, a dwarf tribe of dwarves living in the mountains in Warnde, in fact they existed only in the Temple of the Earth, in the Broken Swords Mountains north of the Plains of Holy White, where they had been settled since the migration of the Dark Ages, digging mountains, digging tunnels, building underground palaces and halls, and they had considerable research in architecture and mechanics, that is, artisans and fighters, the army best at attacking cities, and were particularly good at digging tunnels.

These Krutz seem to ignore these artisan fighters who are best at siege.

As for the other widely circulated assertion, the stagnation of the Tokenin army was due to the problem of being constrained by the winter supply line, which was in fact nonsense. When had nomads and clans heard of the need for the supply line, their habit of fighting was to plunder along the line and raise themselves locally, and for such an army it seemed strange that they had suddenly stopped.

Brando looked at the map and looked at it, and he didn't come up with a clue.

But he's thinking about another thing.

Historically, at the beginning of the Jihad, the Lions attacked violently, breaking through the Rokozy Highlands — the Fortress of the Broken Sword Mountains and, at the most important time, almost endangering the battles of the Red Legion in the Four Realms. At that time, however, the players of the Empire were so fierce that they dragged the Toquinin Lions north with their bodies. It was said that it was the first time that players had changed the historical process in the game. You should know that the average level of players in that era did not exceed 35, and the Toquinin side also had a large army of players. That battle could only be said that the players on the Empire side were too united and powerful.

Since then, the Lions have only been able to look north of the Great Plain, which is divided between the Broken Sword Mountains and Anzeluta, and since then, it has been dismal.

Brando is wondering if this history will ever happen again.

Of course, he said not that the players repelled the lions, but that the lions broke through the history of the Rococci Height-Force Mountains Fortress. According to his knowledge, in the battle for the Lions to break through the Rococci Height-Force Mountains Fortress, the Toquinin players played a limited role, because the main force of the attack was the Dwarves, who were one of the smallest races of the player group. After all, the Lions were tall and powerful and the players preferred, the Dwarves were not necessarily, let alone the Dwarves even had beards. A race that could not attract female players certainly could not attract male players. This is the iron law of history.

And what this message means to Brando is that the less disturbed history is, the more likely Warnde is to repeat it in this world.

However, when he questioned Nimatis about this possibility, he received a negative response.

“It's almost three years ahead of the jihad I saw in my dream, Brando,” the knight looked at his face and said, “It's because of us, you won't be confused about this, the situation is completely different now. ”

Brando did not see it that way, the time node of the Jihad was advanced, but this was not necessarily a bad thing for Tokenin, the war-mobilization speed of the clans was very fast, without having to prepare logistics was a great advantage, not to mention that their mobility was already strong on the prairie, but for the Empire it meant less time to prepare, so the current situation appeared to be more favourable for the Lions than in history.

He made this point to Nymatis, but the knight shook her head: "It seems so, but the Lion movement is unusual, and they have not behaved that way in previous wars. In that dream, all the more so, the battle they fought against the Rokozy Height-Breaking Mountains Fortress was not very clean, but the whole process seemed very proactive, quite different from the present situation. ”

Brando couldn't help but frown when he heard it. He knew that Sister Bai was superior to him in the details of the game history of Spring Dawn. His knowledge of that history stemmed from memoir-like statements made by the Forum and later by some players, but for Sister Bai, it was most of his own experience. One of the key differences is that before level 30, players were exposed to a very low level of game content and plot, and Sister Xu was just one of the few players above level 30 in that era.

He listened to Nimais and couldn't help but squeeze his lips and wonder where the difference was.

Nimaisie saw the beauty of his thoughts and shouted, “Did you strike the Lion of Tokenin? ”

Brando nodded and did not hide anything from Nimmasis, who had been used to discussing such issues with the knight since those days, a feeling that, as before, had led him to hide some anticipation: "Historically Cruz players… Cruz adventurers, you know, are us, dragged Tokenin's army to July until the White Legion joined the battle, the war began in May, but it was the turn of spring and summer, and in winter, the White Legion would be in Leroux, further south, and they might react faster, and we could succeed by trying to slow down the Lions a little. ”

He paused and continued: "My arrangement, you should see, I need a reputation. My grandfather's identity is a great advantage, but Brando is too young to inherit Darius' position in the Imperial Army. But good enough at his starting point, people are always happy to believe something superstitious, and if I can act just right to prove some of their visions, then I'm still hopeful of getting a higher place in the future jihadist army. ”

“According to Veronica, the situation in the Empire is bleak, and history is no longer the one you and I have ever seen in our dreams, either Her Majesty the Queen or His Royal Highness, the Duke of Ludwig and the military might of Bankel, or the Temple, or we, if we are to take the lead in this game, must be able to determine our own destiny, and the only way is to play chess, not to play chess. I was a little hesitant, but what happened to Sy eventually made me decide to go this way, and I was too naive to think that Eluin could take a corner and find his own way out of the development of the Black Forest. ”

“But the truth is, when the tide comes, no one can hide, and you and I have both witnessed it--”

“So there's something I have to do right now, and I have to do it.” Brando replied softly: "The lesson for the nobles of the South is just the beginning, and I need them as a stepping stone to make the Empire understand the existence of Eruin. But it's still jihad that really connects Brando to St. Darius the Sword, but at the moment, our strength is so weak that we can't go to St. Osor's wind elf trouble, and our only chance is in Tokenin. ”

Nimmasis listened to Brando and was silent.

“Are you doing this to save a little mountain girl?” She asked suddenly.

“Personally, this is true," replied Brando, "as if you had planned to rescue us from Madara in Buenos Angeles at that time, which is not rational in itself, but natural for humanity. You saved us because you were our leader, and you promised to protect every member of your team, and I saved Sy, and for the same reason, I promised her freedom and hope for the future, and I had to do that. ”

“It's an obsession.” Nimmasis listened to Brando and moved her mouth, seemingly trying to figure out what he said in the second half, because she understood that the 'you’ he heard was another part of her experience, but instinctively the knight did not agree that it was her, she thought it was just a part of her dream. This time, however, she eventually did not say the opposite, but replied so.

“This obsession is the driving force behind my return to this world.” Brando replied, "I don't want to give up again, Sister. ”

“I'm not...” Nimaisie sighed finally: “Well, let me tell you something, Brando, you're too dependent on everything you've ever seen in a dream, and I don't know why you're always so sure about that dream, as if it ever really happened. But after all, dreams are dreams, and the best thing for me is to give me a different life experience, to mature quickly, to stand out from my peers, but I never thought of what to prove from this dream, because then the world seemed too illusory for me. ”

“And I'm on you, as if to see another me, you always act very forward-looking, but the more you rely on that dream, the more you can't be freed from it, which is for you - a lord, an Empire Count...”

The knight looked Brando in the eye and stopped, then answered word for word: "You look too childish. ”

Brando was completely stuck there, and he never thought Nimacees would say something like that to him, but the tone of the other side was just like the one who once taught him how to be a qualified captain.

“But…” he replied.

Nimaisie shook her head as if she knew what he was going to say. “You already know what to do, Sophie. ”

Brando was stuck there like a lightning bolt, looking at the knight like a demon.

“It's only because of the reliance on that dream that you can't trust your judgment," Nimacees shook her head and changed her name: “Now do you understand? ”

Brando stayed for half an hour, as if he understood what the knight meant, and he took a deep look at each other: "Are you saying I should analyze what Toquinine's lions would do? ”

“Didn't you just analyze it well? I once taught you how to analyze the task and how to schedule the pace of the task. Today I can at least see that you have learned very well." Nimaceous smiled. “If I were your white sister, I would be glad, but unfortunately I am not. And you're not Sophie anymore, Brando, you have more knowledge that Sophie can't even possess, and you're Lord Earl of Eluin, and you should understand that. ”

Brando took a Deep Breath.

He moved his gaze back over the map.

“Well, I see,” he replied softly, "all in all, we are still prioritizing things to arrange the task, since the Guest has arrived first, naturally we cannot afford to neglect the Guest as the owner, which is the style of the ancient nobility of Eruin. ”

Nimaisie nodded: “Exactly. ”

At the end of the winter month, the eyes of the entire empire focused on an unexpected and unexpected war, and on that day, the army gathered by Counts Jean and Olkons finally arrived in the cloudy hills.