Chapter 1138: Chapter 283: Bomb Acquired
The hoofbeats of the Royal Knights faded away into the night, and the manor finally returned to peace. Brand saw the young Earl faintly furrow his brows as he gazed in that direction. The youth turned back to look at him; the bright moonlight poured over that gentle face, carrying a thoughtful expression. With a hint of implication, Delphire asked, "You seem to know them?"
Brand had no intention of candidly discussing his own identity. He pulled back the hood that had been covering his face and gave the other party a mysterious smile, neither confirming nor denying it.
"Hmph." Delphire gave a soft snort. He glanced at the wreckage around him, the house with only its frame still standing. "Anyway, thank you for your help. The Lord of Yan Castle will never go back on his word. But Martha watches every person on the ground from the heavens; I hope you gentlemen will remember your promise."
"We absolutely won’t drag you into this, rest assured." Brand answered in a way meant to put the youth at ease.
Delphire looked at them suspiciously. "Who are you going after?"
Brand only smiled without responding.
"You’re making it impossible for me to feel at ease, sir." Delphire bit his lip and said, a little angry.
"Then once we enter the venue, we’ll split up."
"But the Holy Temple will still eventually find out that you went in together with us."
That was indeed a problem. Brand thought this young Earl really was meticulous to a fault. He turned to glance at Char, who also shrugged; anyone would know the Holy Temple couldn’t be compared to some manor on the outskirts. No Illusion Technique could possibly fool the Monks’ eyes, unless Lord Marsha descended in person. Brand fell silent for a moment, then said, "All right, if it really comes to that—if necessary, you can say you were coerced by us—"
Delphire was slightly stunned.
He looked at them curiously, almost unable to believe that such words were coming from a gang of vicious infiltrators. "Kidnapping nobles—aren’t you afraid of bringing disaster down on yourselves?"
"If we were afraid, we wouldn’t have come." Brand smiled faintly.
"But you could threaten me to keep my mouth shut. You’re holding leverage over me," Delphire frowned, looking at them in confusion. "Aren’t you?"
"Can I take it that you’re trying to teach us how to coerce you, my Lord Earl?" Brand couldn’t help asking with some amusement.
"N–no..." The youth’s face reddened. "I just..."
"You just don’t understand?" Brand smiled. In truth, he had never felt there was anything about his way of doing things that needed to be covered up; he simply didn’t want unnecessary complications. If the Holy Temple insisted on getting to the bottom of it, then let them. Since he dared stir up trouble in Ambeser, he had long since prepared for the worst.
The worst outcome was nothing more than standing in opposition to the Flame Temple. It wouldn’t be the first time Erune had done such a thing; Former King Ai Ke had fought more than a few wars with the Flame Temple. That Legendary King had Wind Elves as his backers, and Brand did as well. He believed Otarais wouldn’t stand by and watch him die; besides, the Wind Queen Temple would surely be delighted to light a fire in the Flame Temple’s backyard.
Thinking of this, Brand couldn’t help a faintly contemptuous smile. Be it Erune under the Flame Temple or Erune under the Wind Queen Temple, Erune was still Erune. Once he had made up his mind, there was no reason to change it.
He waved his hand. "Whatever the case, let’s settle it like this. I simply don’t have the habit of taking advantage of others when they’re in trouble."
"So that means..." Delphire gazed at Brand and his group with a somewhat complicated expression, thinking to himself, are these people mad? Do they not realize how serious a crime it is to openly kidnap a noble within the Holy Temple’s sphere of control? Raised in a noble family, he had received the finest education in etiquette and had always been surrounded by nobles’ gentle and graceful style of conduct. He had never seen, nor even imagined, something so insane; for a moment, he couldn’t help but be a little dazed.
"Well then, my Lord Earl?"
"All right...I..." Delphire’s palms were sweating; for some reason his heart was pounding wildly. "I understand. Let us make a pact, under the witness of Lord Marsha. Please...rest easy. If...it doesn’t come to the final moment, I won’t give you up. You are the most gentlemanly...bandits I’ve ever seen."
Brand couldn’t help but be amused again, thinking this young Earl was quite interesting. "So you’ve seen many bandits then, my Lord Earl?"
"No...no, just a few in the border regions." Only then did Delphire realize he had said something wrong, and hurriedly answered with a flushed face.
