Aren't You a Highland Knight?

After the shifty-eyed guard captain escorted them here, he left after issuing a few cold threats, making Freya grit her teeth in fury. Brando, however, remained unhurried. Sitting alone in the darkness, he examined the cramped space around him through the faint glow of torches in the distance—it seemed to be the second level of the dungeon beneath the barracks. This level had thirty-two cells, guarded by four jailers, all light infantry from the 104th Swordsman Regiment of the White Mane Legion.

Who hadn't once had a red name from PKing back when they played games? This wasn't Brando's first visit to Ridenburg's dungeon. However, back then they had always been locked up on the third level. In the eyes of NPCs, players were practically a bunch of lawless ruffians. Thinking of that, Brando couldn't help finding it a little amusing.

He took the Ebony Gargoyle Statue from his robes and stroked it. The crack on its surface had already become almost imperceptible. Then he turned around and called toward the pitch-black space opposite him, "Freya, Roman, are you two all right?"

"Brando, how long are they going to keep us locked up?" The Merchant's Daughter's slightly uneasy voice came from the opposite side.

So you can be scared too, Brando thought. The two girls were locked together in another cell opposite him. It was a little dark, but at least they were safe. He was about to say something comforting when a dull bang came from the darkness across from him.

"I'm so angry! Those damn bastards! How could all our hard work have been for people like them?" Freya slammed her fist against the wooden bars, her teeth aching with rage.

"What's all that noise in there? Do you want a taste of the whip?" the jailer shouted viciously from outside.

Freya wanted nothing more than to rush out and drag those lackeys, who were shielding tigers, out one by one and beat them senseless. But she understood her situation. She took a breath and calmed down.

"Brando, what should we do?" she asked quietly.

Another voice immediately cut in. "This is the black prison, right? Aunt Syl said some people spend their whole lives locked in black prisons without ever seeing daylight. Brando, will we end up like that too?"

"Shut your crow's beak, Roman." Freya answered for Brando irritably.

He smiled. "Do you still have any hope for those people?"

"I hope they all drop dead!" Freya said through clenched teeth.

"But without their help, Ridenburg will be in danger." Brando walked to the cell door and answered in a low voice.

Freya fell silent.

"At least I did my best," she said. "My strength isn't limitless. This is all I can do for everyone in Buchi."

Brando felt relieved. It seemed that all the trouble they had gone through half the night had been worthwhile. In fact, he had noticed that Freya had rapidly matured ever since her dream beneath the Golden Tree.

That was precisely why his Valkyrie Cultivation Plan could be carried out. He absolutely had to make Freya his second-in-command. An S-rank general from the game—there was no way this deal could lose him money.

"That's good, then," he replied.

"Brando, do you have a plan?"

"Mm. Step back a little." Since Brando had dared to enter, he naturally had a way out. He was so confident because he knew that the coming night was when things would truly become complicated. The ridiculous part was that the nobles of Ridenburg still had no idea.

Freya had brought those people their last chance, yet they had locked her up here on baseless charges.

This was what it meant to bring about one's own destruction, wasn't it?

"Wait, Brando! What are you doing? Don't do anything reckless! This is a dungeon!" Freya had cursed those nobles to death, but she still considered herself a citizen of Eluin. Charging out so brazenly would be rebellion, wouldn't it?

"I know what I'm doing."

"What do you mean, you know what you're doing? Ah, Roman, hurry up and talk him out of it!" Freya lowered her voice helplessly. On one hand, she hoped the guards outside would come in and stop Brando's madness. On the other, she feared they would notice the commotion inside. For a moment, she was caught in deep conflict.

"Brando, I want to go out too," the Merchant's Daughter replied.

"Shut up! That's not how I wanted you to persuade him!" Freya nearly burst into tears. Did these two understand their situation at all? Escaping prison was punishable by hanging! Thinking that her two closest companions might become wanted criminals guilty of the most heinous crimes, she couldn't help feeling utterly flustered.

On the other side, Brando took out the Highland Retainer card and threw it onto the ground. The small amount of Water Elemental produced by the Sacred Tree Secret Realm that week was immediately paid from the Earth Card. After a cloud of smoke, a young man in robes, carrying a large bundle of scrolls on his back, walked out of the smoke and dusted off his sleeves.

Brando already understood that, without an Elemental Pool, the element produced by an Earth Card had to be paid that week and would be lost afterward—in other words, it couldn't be stored. However, it could still be used during that week.

"My name is Charles, my lord. It would be my pleasure to serve you." The young man looked at him and bowed deeply.

"Are you a Highland Mage?" Brando asked.

"An apprentice," the young man added solemnly.

Brando discovered that he could inspect the young man's Attributes. He opened the panel and found a Highland Mage apprentice with 16 health, 8 mana, and two spells: Basic Construction, which cost 2 mana, and Magic Arrow, which cost 1 mana. His fields of knowledge were Basic Magic, Construction Magic Knowledge, Basic Knowledge, and Local and Geographical Knowledge. He also had level-one Heraldry.

"You studied Law Magic?"

"Indeed."

Law Wizards were a type of wizard in the broad sense, devoted to studying the power of laws. Their magic involved manipulating the lines connecting the material world and the world of laws, converting them through gem energy and manifesting their power. That was the nature of their spells.

There were nine schools of magic in The Amber Sword: Law Magic, Elemental Magic, String Magic, sorcery, Rune Magic, Sacred Words, astrology, spiritualism, and Array Magic. In fact, each of these nine schools represented a completely different magical system. Ordinary people simply couldn't distinguish between them, so they collectively called them wizards.

That description wasn't entirely wrong, either, because all magic shared one thing in common—it was mysterious.

"Brando, are you talking to someone?" Freya suddenly stopped and asked.

"Mm, my retainer," Brando replied.

"Retainer?" The girl froze.

Brando took out the Soul Crystal containing Ten-Foot Silence and tossed it to the young man. "Activate it."

Warriors couldn't use items containing stored spells, but mage apprentices could. Charles caught the crystal orb and poured 1 point of mana into it. The surface of the Soul Crystal glowed faintly, and the surroundings suddenly fell utterly silent.

It was as if an invisible, intangible monster had suddenly appeared in the darkness and swallowed all sound in one bite. Freya was startled as well. She discovered that she could no longer make a sound. Naturally, she had no idea this was Brando's doing, and her heart began pounding. After all, when ordinary people faced mysterious and unfathomable magic, this was more or less the reaction one would expect.

Charles nodded to his lord.

Brando turned around and took advantage of the moment to punch the arm-thick wooden bars of the dungeon. After the battle with the Golden Demon Tree, Brando had more resources than ever. His total of 965 experience was enough to raise the mercenary to level eight and then increase the Militia level to six as well. After his total level rose to fifteen, his strength reached 5.4 Energy Levels. After using Power Burst, it surpassed ten Energy Levels—

When his fist struck the wooden bars, the sturdy post should have snapped in the middle with a crack, then flown into the bars on Freya's side with a thunderous crash. But within the range of Ten-Foot Silence, all they could see was the wood splitting soundlessly, splinters flying, and two pieces of timber shooting over to strike the opposite side before bouncing away without a sound, falling and bouncing twice more.

Brando walked through the gap, which was wide enough for one person, followed by Charles. He seized the chain on the bars opposite them and casually yanked it, deforming it as easily as if he were tearing apart a hemp rope. It snapped apart link by link. He then opened the door, and only then did the duration of Ten-Foot Silence end.

"What? Want to stay a little longer?" Brando stood in the cell doorway and grinned at the two astonished girls.

"You—you—you just came out like that?" Freya couldn't believe what she had just seen. This was far too lawless! Judging from Brando's practiced movements, it seemed this wasn't his first time doing something like this!

Brando smiled. Those noble lords had really treated him as some nameless militiaman. It was a complete joke. He had escaped from prison at least eighty times, if not a hundred, back in the game. It wasn't just a small place like Ridenburg—even Ironthorn Fortress in the port capital of Ambersell had been a prison he successfully escaped from.

Players had never regarded NPC rules as anything worth respecting. There had even been experts who escaped from the capital prison of Gryz, causing a sensation on the forums at the time.

If I stayed here until tomorrow morning, wouldn't that be an insult to my former identity as a player?

"Who is he?" Only then did Freya notice the person standing beside Brando.

"Esteemed ladies, I am my lord's retainer." Charles lowered his head and saluted the two girls.

"Retainer?"

"My lord?" Roman and Freya nearly lost control of their voices. What did any of this mean? Was the dungeon some sort of mysterious space? Why had Brando entered it for a while and then inexplicably become a lord, complete with a follower?

Freya couldn't help patting her face to make sure she wasn't dreaming. She couldn't help thinking that if the young man who lived alone in the old manor and went for months without showing himself was a lord, didn't that make her the Valkyrie?

Besides, "How did you get here?" she couldn't help asking.

"As you can see, I am a mage," Charles replied calmly. Brando couldn't help admiring him. This fellow's ability to make up nonsense was nearly on par with his own.

"A mage apprentice." Freya sucked in a breath.

"You—you—you are a Highland Knight? Brando, you're a Darnelian!" She stared at Brando in disbelief. There was only one kind of mage who would appear as a knight's retainer. The Highland Knights of Karasu Province had been allied with wizards for three hundred years, forming Eluin's strongest military force—the White Knight Order. The Highland Knights and their close mage retainers were already one of the best-known legends in Eluin.

At that moment, Freya had decided that Brando was a young nobleman from a Highland Knight family. No wonder—no wonder he was so powerful, and no wonder he remained calm in every situation. So he was a knight after all. She suddenly lowered her head. Thinking that this despicable fellow was clearly a noble yet had approached her and Roman, who were nothing more than two lowly commoners, she concluded that he must have bad intentions!

She immediately attributed to Brando all the vile habits of nobles she had heard about from Aunt Syl, then quietly edged backward.

Brando clearly hadn't expected their future Valkyrie to have such a powerful imagination. He assumed she was simply too shocked to accept the truth. In reality, he had no choice. If they found this easier to accept, it would save him the trouble of explaining.

He couldn't help shaking his head and exchanging a glance with Charles.

Reality was truly helpless.

"All right, ladies. It's about time. Come out," Brando said, looking at Roman, who was hiding in the darkness and watching him with bright, curious eyes. He shook his head. "Don't tell me you really plan to stay in there until dawn?"

"Brando, are you really a knight?" Roman suddenly asked.

"No, I'm Brando," he replied.

"Then I'll come out."

"Please—"

(PS: I'll be going all out, so don't worry, everyone. Please vote!)