Chapter 141: The Heretic Cult Believer’s Identity

Hearing the voice behind her, the veiled woman turned around. She saw a half-elf with pointy ears standing not far out. The latter was hugging a big bag of roasted beans in her arms, crunching on them while watching her in suspicion.

“You can… see me?” The woman wearing a veil — Melita Ponia — looked at this half-elf, whom she happened to have met once, in slight surprise. She naturally remembered her; as a high-ranking agent of Mithril Vault, her memory was exceptional. Hence, she could also clearly recall the combat ability of this half-elf guard. A half-elf who was barely stronger than a goose could actually see her so easily?

“Is it very difficult to see you?” Amber crunched and chewed on the roasted beans. Till now, she had yet to remember who this veiled woman — whose style was different from the entire camp — was, so she looked full of curiosity. “Say who exactly are you? A pedlar? This place finally has traders who are willing to come?”

No one knew how she associated the person before her to a trader…

“Trader… If you must put it that way, it doesn’t seem wrong either.” Melita smiled and withdrew her concealing-effect as well as mental-hint spell. It was also fortunate that there was no one else around; otherwise, if the residents coming and going saw a person appear out of thin air on the streets, it would probably cause another commotion. “You are Duke Gawain Cecil’s guard? Please show the way. I’m here to discuss matters with him.”

“Oh (crunch crunch), okay.” Amber threw another two roasted beans into her mouth, then walked to Melita, and stretched out her hand. “(crunch crunch) Three copper coins.”

Melita was instantly stunned. “Why?”

“Fee for leading the way (crunch crunch).”

“…Are you interested in coming to work at the Mithril Vault?”

“Ha?” Amber immediately faltered for a moment but then was reminded by the term ‘Mithril Vault’. She was struck by a sudden thought and put a distance of a few meters between herself and Melita all at once. “Ah! Mithril Vault! I remember now! I’ve met you previously!”

“It’s me.” Melita smiled. She found this half-elf rather interesting. Every startled reaction of hers was so exaggerated that it left a deep impression. “Your feudal lord invited me here. So do you still want the fee for showing the way?”

“Psh, I thought I could earn a sum of extra income. — Being a lackey for that old dumpling, yet I can’t even earn some errand fees. What a loss,” Amber complained in a low voice and then waved her hand. “Alright, alright. Come with me. I’ll bring you to him.”

Under Amber’s lead, Melita arrived in the depths of the territory very quickly. She saw a huge tent standing in the middle of the empty space although a foundation had been built beside the empty space. A large number of bricks, wood, and rocks were piled aside, like they were preparing to build a big house.

“He’s in the tent. At this time, I think he has yet to take his afternoon nap.” Amber strode towards the tent on wide steps. “Wait outside for a moment. I’ll go in to inform him.”

Moments later, Melita heard the half-elf’s unconcerned voice from the tent. “Gawain! The agent called My Little Pony is here for you!”

Melita frowned in confusion. Why were the pronunciations of that fellow and the people around him all so strange?

Gawain had been awaiting this agent’s visit for many days, and she was finally here today. Miss Agent was dressed about the same as she had the previous time — wearing a gauze dress in a peculiar style, a lilac veil covering her face, her disposition mysterious and elegant.

Amber had seen this agent strolling near the brick-kiln yard, and before that, not a single person had reported that an outsider had arrived at the territory.

This was truly a young lady accompanied by obscurity.

“Long time no see, Miss Melita.” Gawain stood up behind the desk, wearing a smile on his face. “I thought you would take a long time to come. After all, the transport in this area isn’t very convenient. Please take a seat.”

“The Mithril Vault always has many convenient channels.” Melita was also smiling. “And I’m very glad that you’ve finally pronounced my name correctly.”

Gawain instantly felt a little embarrassed. “Ahaha… Don’t be so sure first. I might still pronounce it wrongly the next time.”

“Duke is really a humorous person,” Melita rose slightly and said in a befitting manner.

She still did not remove her veil, but Gawain wasn’t bothered by that. He only watched this agent from the Mithril Vault with curiosity. “You seemed to have ‘looked around’ my territory? What are your thoughts?”

“It’s a very nice place, better than I’d imagined, and there are many unusual… magical equipment,” Melita said frankly. “But what I’m more curious about is here. — You’re actually still living in a tent and instead let those civilians live in wooden huts. This is very strange.”

“The majority of those are workshops or lodging are for technical personnel. The infrastructure of the territory has to take precedence,” Gawain explained. “As for here… you should have seen that vast empty land beside the tent. This tent of mine will have to be dismantled in the near future.”

Melita’s eyes widened slightly. “I’d thought those were barracks prepared for the knights and soldiers. It seems like you do not plan on building a castle for yourself?”

“I’ll see about it when we have the resources in the future. It’s a pure waste to build that now.” Gawain waved his hand. “Enough of that, let us get down to business.”

“Of course.” Melita still remembered her purpose in coming here. “Please let me have a look at the ring that you found.”

Gawain fished out the Mithril Ring that he had gotten from the heretic cult believer on the spot, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Melita.

Miss Agent’s eyes narrowed the moment she saw the silver ring. Her look became solemn — evidently, that thing was real.

She picked up the ring, placed it in front of herself, and examined it carefully while stroking the inner side so as to verify those encrypted patterns. In the end, she lifted the ring to her lips and softly uttered a few syllables.

Those syllables sounded fuzzy and indistinguishable. Gawain had sharply realized almost immediately that they weren’t ordinary incantations; the voice that was close to a low whisper wasn’t even something that the human vocal cords could make. And as these few syllables fell, the surface of the ring was suddenly flooded with a layer of hazy glow and vibrated lightly.

A good ten-odd seconds later, these phenomena then slowly disappeared.

After completing what seemed to be the special authentication spell, Melita exhaled lightly, but her voice didn’t relax at all. Instead, it was especially solemn. “Yes indeed… It’s the VIP token of Mithril Vault. Its owner is Bard Wendell.”

“Bard Wendell?” Gawain frowned. He didn’t recognize the majority of the great figures of the present era, but he was very familiar with many surnames of those big figures. “I’ve heard of the Wendell surname before. There was a hothead surnamed Wendell amongst the batch of people moving eastward back then.”

“That’s right. Bard Wendell, descendant of the Typhon Empire’s Wendell clan.” Melita’s gaze was very serious. “You should be able to remember. The Wendell clan is as ancient as your Cecil Clan. Inherited to this day, it is already one of the most prestigious clans in the Typhon Empire. The Duke Ferdinand Wendell of the present era is the Typhon Empire’s strongest ‘Knight Lord’, also the Wolf General before the previous, and a descendant of the ‘hothead’ that you mentioned.”

“Knight Lord?” Gawain frowned. “Is it the kind of feudal lord that I know of?”

“No, it’s a unique title created after the Typhon Empire went through a military-system reform,” Melita casually explained. “The Typhon Empire went through multiple reforms in recent decades, especially in the military. They reorganized and registered all knights, warriors, Mages, and all other Beyonder fighters, forming the ‘Empire Corps’ that doesn’t have the private armies of the aristocrat clans as its foundation. The Knight Lord is the military chief of the order of knights that commands this corps.”

Gawain was originally only casually inquiring; he didn’t expect to hear such information. His brows instantly knitted together. “Typhon Empire built a professional, standardized Beyonder corps?!”

“Yes.” Melita nodded naturally. “That’s why their military might expanded so quickly.”

“…That bunch of gluttons in the capital.” Gawain instinctively clenched his fists. “I actually didn’t hear any news in this respect in Anzu at all. Even when I inquired from those aristocrats when I was in the capital, I couldn’t get such information!”

“Ah, they’re unlikely to not have the slightest idea about the things happening in the neighboring country, but as to why they’re unwilling to take it seriously, it’s hard to say.” Melita shrugged indifferently. “We can discuss these issues at the national level hereafter. We’d better continue discussing the problem of the heretic cult believer and the ring.”

“Alright.” Gawain relaxed his fists. “The owner of this ring, Bard Wendell, what is his relationship with the current Duke Ferdinand Wendell?”

“Bard Wendell is the only son of Duke Ferdinand, and also the previous Wolf General,” Melita said, pausing with every word. “Most importantly, he’s been missing since ten-odd years ago!”

Gawain’s gaze turned strange. “Heir of the Wendell clan, general of the Typhon Empire, there’s indeed nothing odd if he were a major client of the Mithril Vault, but… the one I saw at Tanzan Town was a Grade 5 fallen Druid!”

The difference between these two identities was huge, such that Gawain was totally unable to link them together. He glanced at the ring in Melita’s hand and instinctively shook his head. “I’m starting to suspect that the heretic cult believer had stolen or picked up this ring again.”

“Very unfortunately, your suspicions are still invalid.” Melita shook her head. “I’ve already checked. Other than records of your contact, this ring hasn’t been touched by anyone else who does not match the identity. In other words, this ring had been previously worn on Bard Wendell’s hand the whole time. It has never changed hands.”

“The Grade 5 fallen Druid that you met… was Bard Wendell in person.”

Gawain was stunned speechless.

But very soon, several details flashed across his mind.

When he was engaged with the heretic cult believer previously, he kept instinctively going for close combat. Even when he possessed sorcery that was more powerful, he chose to hide in the shadows and assassinate with his sword.

In the fight, the heretic cult believer revealed an extremely brilliant swordsmanship, and he was clearly highly experienced with wielding a sword.

The heretic cult believer’s weapon was a single-handed sword, and the weapon used by Tilian Wendell in the eastern roads pioneering team was also a single-handed sword. The swordsmanship of the two seemed to be very similar, highly likely that they were derived from the same origin…

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