Brando coldly watched the nobles gather and argue among themselves. The Noble Private Soldiers shouted and bickered, panic-stricken and unable to settle down. The nobles wanted to leave the city through the eastern gate. As for their subjects in Ridenburg—what were subjects, anyway? No one mentioned them.
At this point, no one cared about political struggles anymore. Their argument centered on what to do with their respective estates. Some insisted that staying alive was the priority, while others argued that they should take as much as they could. Some even preferred to die rather than abandon their property, as though Madara would spare them simply because they were nobles. Their shouting and mutual accusations irritated Brando so much that he lowered his head and wiped his sword. That strike had earned him 220 experience points, his richest haul apart from killing the Golden Tree boss.
It seemed to have been an intermediate-level Lich. He had been lucky; the Lich probably had not expected him to choose it as his target. Liches were relatively weak among their kind, and a Lich over level thirty had been unable to move once seized by a gargoyle, giving Brando a chance to profit from the situation.
An intermediate-level Lich had more benefits than that.
In full view of everyone, Brando split open the Lich's forehead with a single stroke and took out a piece of bone-like material. He then sliced off the four fingers of its right hand, pried open its jaw, and carefully levered out its teeth one by one before stuffing them into his pocket. His shocking actions silenced the entire scene. The others looked at Brando as though he were a demon. Though it was a Lich, it still had a human shape, while Brando's movements were as practiced as those