The Amber Sword

Recap: Freya met up with Brendel. The latter advised her to put her support behind Princess Gryphine. She faltered because she felt that she was just a small militia captain, but he told her that she could follow the example of the ‘Goddess of War’ in his memory. Soon after, Freya got up to leave, but told him to take care of Romaine in an ambiguous manner. Brendel pondered on her words and drank his wine.

The end of summer’s breeze brought a hint of sweetness in the air. Under the warm sun, it made people slightly drunk. August had gone by, and October was approaching soon.

The youth stretched his hand towards the blue sky, his fingers blocking part of his vision, while the pleasant sunlight poured through the fingers’ gaps. He felt like he was seeing a colorful flare as the dazzling light entered his eyes.

He then sighed as he lowered his head and hand to survey Chablis’s surroundings. The viridian mountains once again invited themselves into his eyes. The dry air and clear weather made him feel comfortable and peaceful, which put him into a good mood.

The emerald trees that used to decorate the mountains during summer’s peak had started to fade at one corner. The fir and sycamore trees were starting to have a layer of faint yellow, while the maple trees had a faint red applied to them. The intermixing colors were like a canvas speckled with different oil paints blended together to form a naturally pleasing painting.

He rode on his horse with one hand on the reins. He peered a short distance ahead, observing the white walls of the nearby mountains that intersected with a river. Houses with red roofs were near that area.

The town Chablis.

Brendel did not know much about it as the town was not renowned in the game. He only knew that it was situated in the center of Randner, and there were not many Aouine citizens living there.

To the north of this little town was a dense forest, and there was an Elven ruins that was hidden under layers of trees. It was called Baern Shyrltaesi, a temple build by the Silver Elves a long time ago. The silver courtyard was constructed in the center of the forest. The corridors were made with ornately carved white marble, and there was a divine feeling to it. It was aesthetically beautiful and mysterious at the same time.

However, during the Year of the Giant Shadow Dragon, the elves left this area for unknown reasons, and the temple was abandoned.

[Now the only creatures that live near it are a bunch of Lizardmen bandits, if I remember correctly.] Brendel started to recall the details surrounding this place.

[There really isn’t any backstory to this region, and players only gathered here to steal the loot from the Lizardmen. The game designers probably wanted to give a reason like getting rid of evil or something. Which is quite hilarious actually, since we really didn’t need any real reason to ‘farm’ them.]

But he shook his head after a moment.

[Certainly, it looks like it’s just an excuse to feed the ‘content locusts’... But the backstory I didn’t understand back then, looks like there’s some sort of mystery behind it in this world.]

Brendel had never been to Chablis. There were no less than a hundred ‘instances’ in the Grinoires region and low leveled players did not need to take risks. Players spread out to every region and made the kingdoms look active, while the location here was made for higher level players.

Even so, as a veteran player, he had more or less heard about the rumors in this area. The Lizardmen holding on to the Baern Shyrltaesi territory, a tomb guarded by undead, and a floating city nearby. They were adventures that promised treasures accompanied with fights.

He had collected all these information without even thinking that he would had the chance to visit here. When he stood at right at the top of the mountains overlooking the town, he saw the smoke rising from the chimneys of the houses slowly dissipating into the air, and felt a strange sense of tranquility.

[It’s fortunate that I took time to research back then, otherwise I’ll be completely in the dark for this particular plan. But Chablis is just as beautiful as the forums described.]

Chablis looked so peaceful that it felt like it could be a place that someone could stay there forever.

Romaine led her beloved horse out from the forest. She had bought it from Bruglas and she loved it so much, that she could not bear to ride on it all the time. Her black eyes darted curiously at Chablis’s surroundings, shining with excitement.

“Brendel, this is the place?” She asked.

“Yes,” Brendel answered and nodded: “The Silver elves left the name Chablis behind, and the meaning of the word is ‘The sweet mountains’. Our luck is quite good. The Madara’s undead did not pass through here and it is still undisturbed.”

[Although from a tactical standpoint, Incirsta would definitely choose the regions that are wealthier. He left Bruglas alone because of its solid defense and went around it to get to Randner to find a more suitable place. He wouldn’t bother to come to this secluded place.]

Brendel was even more confident of his reasoning since these were ‘stories’ that already happened in history.

“Is there anything to eat in Chablis?” She quickly asked.

“You can try their stew.” Brendel looked back and grinned fondly at her. “But our little Romaine is becoming more and more picky with food, be careful of becoming fat.”

Romaine’s pair of eyebrows immediately stood up as she frowned. She desperately tried to refute him.

“I-I won’t become fat. I’ll just eat a little!”

But it sounded like she was comforting herself. She stealthily went around her waist and furrowed her eyebrows further.

It looked like she was agonizing over becoming fat or to eat delicious food.

“My lord, is there a ‘Sage Slate’ that you had talked about before?” Amandina rode on a black horse which had a radiant sheen on it. The young girl’s face was much better compared to the sickly white that she had when she first met Brendel. Even though the journey was tough, she did not have to worry about the next meal.

There was a scroll box tied on her horse, which contained her prized possessions of knowledge. Brendel also saw them as priceless, and insisted on bringing her along the journey because of them.

The girl coughed twice, and looked at the clear sky ahead of her. She muttered: “It’s nearly October.”

“Don’t worry, nobody’s going to get ahead of us.” He knew what she was asking.

They had left Bruglas for over a month, and the news of Aouine and Madara’s truce had reached every part of the southern noble parliaments. Back at that time, they had just reached the Randner region, and rested their feet in Magitan, the ‘City of Forests’.

Brendel had hoped to get the Sage Slate within the Forest of Fogs in the west, but it was taken by the Northern Wind Church, just like how it was in the game. Brendel did not deal with the northern wind knights in Randner, so he could only leave the place after a short stay.

But during that stay, he had introduced the most popular snack to Romaine. It was a dessert drenched in honey, and it caused her to be interested in the snacks in other places.

Brendel smiled a little before his mind suddenly thought about the political coup in December. He was certain that he could not do anything to affect it, and he could only leave it to the future Regent princess and the girl who came from Bucce—

Freya.

[She must have reached the Royal Cavalry Academy by now. I wonder how tense is the situation over there...]

The academy was situated within the princess’s private lands, but he had no reach over there to play any games with the ministers. Right now, his biggest task was to gain power as much as possible.

[Leto and the others should have reached the Arreck region by now.]

“Are we going to search for the Sage Slate here?” Amandina asked.

“Yes. There’s an Elven ruins to the north in this area here. Legends state that the slate is within the ruins.” Brendel replied.

He wanted to find a native guide. While he knew about the region’s background well enough, he did not know where the the ruins were exactly.

[There are Lizardmen Bandits here so the situation will not be as easy. In the game the area is a level 23 instance, and while it’s much lower compared to the Golden Demonic Tree’s Forbidden Garden, there are no shortcuts.]

After thinking it through, he decided to enter the town before deciding on the next course of action.

The three of them descended from the mountains and reached Chablis in less than thirty minutes.

The buildings were very different when compared to the southern Aouine towns. It was not an easy task to construct something in the mountains, but they used their forefathers’ wisdom to level the valleys with rocks. The slope was layered one at a time, following the river’s contours, and they appeared to be like a chiseled rock fortress.

[If I describe how this town looks like... It’s like a ladder. Or a series of ladders that connect to each other.]

The houses were placed orderly with each flat layer, while they were narrow paths cut in the form of a ladder that connected the layers together. The mountain folks preserved the underlying landscape of the mountains, and they rarely used magic. They sculpted rock statues as lamp posts and they placed braziers at the empty top, replacing oil lamps or magically lit lamp posts.

Brendel recalled there was a famous inn called ‘Chablis Winter Cherry’. It was a place where almost all the adventurers, mercenaries and players gathered together. Its appearance was like a vast living room, and the rooms were below the living room. Travelers gathered up there and exchanged information and rumors, and it was the only inn that was designed in that manner in southern Aouine.

However, once they entered the town, he immediately felt something was out of place with his keen senses. Amandina and Romaine did not appear to notice anything.

He carefully observed his surroundings. The people who appeared in front of them were mostly young adults that wore different attires from the mountain citizens, and some of them cast suspicious gazes at Brendel and the girls.

[Mercenaries. Adventurers. Travelers. Monster hunters. These people can appear anywhere in Vaunte, but...... isn’t the number a little too high for a small place like Chablis? This isn’t like the game where players gathered here.]

TL: I might be lacking in describing how the land looks, so you might have to google ‘medieval mountain river villages’ and scroll through. Also, I appreciate any Engrish help check.

Translated the town 夏布利 = Chablis.

巴洛冈圣格尔莱斯 – Baern Shyrltaesi – I went to an Elven city name generator and picked the common style and implemented in here.