When Adeni and her group returned to the Stormshadow Inn, they had already heard about the afternoon's farce. As for the heaven-defying strength displayed by "that young man" from the inn during his battle against the lord's knights and Rosalin's guards—in the knights' one-sided account, it had been nothing short of an overwhelming victory—all the onlookers who had witnessed the scene in the square had been delighted to gossip about it. Adeni, however, still insisted that Brando had gotten himself into serious trouble, claiming that it was fortunate she had led everyone away so quickly that afternoon. Otherwise, they might have been dragged into the heart of this whirlpool of conflict.
The knights laughed merrily, and no one pointed out that Naquel had actually been the first to tell everyone to leave that afternoon.
But after inspecting the ruined inn from front to back, the golden elf with a longbow on his back returned and asked her whether they should continue searching for Brando and the others. At that, the vice-captain of the Wings of Ra Knight Order found herself at a loss.
"Um, are you certain that the sword in his hand really is the Sun Holy Sword?" Adeni looked troubled. After pondering for a long while, she finally asked hesitantly.
But the hesitation in her emerald eyes clearly wasn't because she couldn't determine whether the Odephys in Brando's hand was genuine. Rather, she simply wanted to ask someone else—more precisely, Naquel, who was frowning deeply. She couldn't make up her mind. What should they do next?
Naquel glanced at her and replied, "My scarab emblem grew slightly warm at the time. Surely the captain's scarab emblem isn't a fake?"
"How could it be?" Adeni chuckled. She pulled a necklace from her robes. Its pendant was a golden scarab,