Chapter 168: Chapter 167: The Grand Event Approaches

During his spar with Bretton, Ronin could sense the kid’s exceptional talent.

The guy was only thirteen, but the Power and Swordsmanship he displayed were already quite impressive.

Fortunately, thanks to his recent Swordsmanship lessons with Macken and Ridder, Ronin had become quite accomplished in both defense and fast attacks.

And so, during their spar, he completely overpowered Bretton.

He could tell Bretton was passionate about his training.

Even when being overpowered, the boy didn’t show the slightest hint of annoyance or anger. On the contrary, after the spar, he specifically asked for advice on the areas where he had performed poorly.

Ronin didn’t hold anything back when giving pointers; he wasn’t worried about cultivating a formidable rival for himself in the future.

It was precisely for this reason that Bretton felt genuine guidance and care from Ronin. His respect, gratitude, and admiration for Ronin grew rapidly during this spar.

“Hey, Ronin, good morning.”

Blanche’s figure appeared outside the courtyard gate, just in time to see Ronin and Bretton talking with swords in hand. “What are you two brothers doing here?”

“Good morning, Blanche.”

“Good morning, Her Highness Princess!”

The two brothers exchanged greetings. Bretton quickly added, “Ronin is guiding my sword practice, Her Highness Princess. My brother’s strength is truly incredible; I’m so impressed!”

Blanche found it a little strange; she hadn’t expected the two brothers’ relationship to seem so good. After learning about Ronin’s past, she had assumed he hated Bretton.

“Ronin is indeed the most powerful Knight of the younger generation I’ve ever met,” she said sincerely.

Bretton, perhaps sensing he shouldn’t stay and get in the way, scratched his head. “Her Highness Princess, Brother, I’ll let you two talk. I have things to attend to, so I’ll be leaving now.”

As he spoke, he handed the Longsword back to Tom, then quickly left the courtyard. Tom, in turn, positioned himself outside the gate.

Missy Knight secretly sized up the masked knight, mentally gauging Tom’s strength. ’Someone who looks like that can’t be simple,’ she thought. ’That Macken from yesterday was the same.’

In the courtyard, Ronin invited Blanche inside and had one of his servants bring the Princess a cup of morning tea.

“How are you feeling today?” Blanche asked with concern.

For a princess to personally come and check on him so early in the morning showed just how important Ronin was to her.

“I’ve been fully recovered for a while. I feel refreshed and full of energy.”

Ronin looked her over. Blanche was wearing a rather refreshing long dress today; it looked less formal than yesterday’s outfit and gave her a more youthful and vibrant air.

“Blanche, that’s a nice dress. You look even more captivating than you did yesterday.”

Faced with such a direct compliment, Blanche’s cheeks flushed slightly. She stood up, took the hem of her skirt, and gave a little twirl. “Really? You like this style?”

Ronin nodded. “I prefer a more relaxed and casual style. It looks more vibrant.”

Blanche made a mental note of his words. ’When I get back to the Royal Palace, I’ll have to prepare more clothes in this style.’

The two chatted for a while longer. As her host, Ronin was supposed to entertain Blanche for the day, but she had no plans for any excursions. She just wanted to stroll around Wushan Castle with him.

After all, Wushan Castle was vast, with its own hills and waterways.

While the two were talking, other people began to arrive.

Rogner; the siblings Marina and Malik; McKinney; Jamie, the son of Viscount Dennis of Sharp Horn City; and so on.

There were many people Ronin had never seen before, but they all came by under the pretext of “visiting the hero” to exchange a few words with him and make an appearance.

In reality, now that Ronin’s true strength was revealed, many people were speculating about the future of Wushan Castle. Their past relationship with Ronin might not have been great, but that didn’t stop them from paying him more visits now.

Even if the succession rights to Wushan Territory remained in Bretton’s hands, it was no obstacle to them becoming friends with Ronin.

The whole scene gave Ronin the distinct feeling of having gone from a complete unknown to a world-famous celebrity overnight.

After seeing these people off, Ronin once again had some leisure time. He took Blanche for a stroll on the mountain behind the castle, but because of the presence of the Thunderbolt Wind Chasing Beast, they didn’t venture too deep.

In the afternoon, Macken returned with the latest results of the investigation.

The previous night, he had passed on Ronin’s suspicions about the Cyan-skinned Giant to Toru, telling him to follow up on that lead.

However, the outcome was still unsatisfactory.

The Wushan City Beast Fighting Arena brought in all sorts of strange and exotic Magical Beasts every year to draw crowds. Although the transportation costs were high, the steep entrance fees more than made up for them.

This Cyan-skinned Giant had been scheduled long ago to be the main event for the final beast fight of the year. After investigating, Toru found nothing suspicious.

This also meant that the investigation into the assassination attempt had hit a dead end. Unless they could find the Golden Level assassin who had escaped, it was unlikely they would get any results.

Although it sounded incredible, Wushan City lacked strict controls for entering and exiting. Besides, a Golden Knight had all sorts of ways to leave the city without ever using the gates.

“You don’t have to worry so much about the investigation.”

Blanche, who was beside him, offered some comfort. “Actually, there have been many assassination attempts on the Royal Family throughout history, and in more than half of those cases, the culprit was never found.”

Those at the center of power are inevitably entangled, to some degree, in the interests of various factions.

Take Blanche, for example. Even though she wasn’t a Prince and rarely participated in politics, that didn’t stop people from trying to use her status to achieve their own goals.

“You seem to be taking this all very calmly.”

Through their conversations, Ronin sensed her tranquil nature.

But just because Blanche wasn’t focused on the matter didn’t mean no one else was.

’Jesus and his people are still watching,’ Ronin thought. ’If Wushan Castle can’t provide a satisfactory explanation, he’ll definitely stir up trouble. At the very least, he could use this incident to sabotage the marriage alliance between Lurans and Bruno.’

He couldn’t help but think about his conversation with Lurans last night regarding how to handle Reisen of Sain Territory. ’That guy’s probably not going to escape being the scapegoat.’

’Pinning the assassination on the Skull Society and then implicating Reisen would be a reasonably plausible explanation.’

’As for how Reisen contacted the Skull Society, that would be a matter for the professionals from Wushan Castle and the Oduin Royal Family to investigate and interrogate.’

Ronin’s thoughts couldn’t help but turn to Grey Soil Village and the Black-collar Tribe.

’Once Reisen is done for, his followers like Philton will surely be implicated. Prison time will be unavoidable for them.’

’To survive, that group might flee into the Forest Land and form a new Wilderness Tribe.’

’So, the battle with the Black-collar Tribe must go on.’

’This battle is also a test of the combat effectiveness of the Mountain Forest Town soldiers. An army that coasts to victory without being baptized in blood and fire can never possess true combat strength.’

’Soon. In the next day or two, Sain Territory will be finished.’

’Sain Territory is said to have a population of nearly ten thousand. If I can swallow all of that, I’ll be stuffed.’

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