The Fated Encounter

Freya stepped forward. She was wearing the silver armor of the Secret Army. And the metallic glint reflected the beauty of the night moon. On her back was a red cape, and it had two silver tassels hanging on its side. Seems like she is the leader of this squad of knights.

She paused and looked at the mess that was once a manor, and noted, “I am a knight of the Princess. I repeat, do you have anything in need of assistance?”

“No… There’s nothing I need…” The young count could see the identity of the knight. But he did not want to be affiliated with anyone at this moment, so he shook his head.

His words made her suspicious, she was clearly not the dumb bumpkin girl from back then. The future War Goddess raised her head, and looked at the people accompanying him. The hole in the ceiling opened a pathway of light to shine on the few silhouettes. Freya could not help but shudder at the sight of the young boy. How cute is he!

But her suspicious expression remained, and her gaze fell onto the people behind Dilferi. Just why do these people feel so suspicious?

Brendel was sweating buckets then. He immediately lowered his head. It seems like this girl has matured a lot since she studied at the Royal Cavalry Academy. I can feel her eyes piercing through my farce. Not good! If I were to be exposed here, it would all be over.

Freya was clueless about their planes, and if she knew, there was no doubt he would have been executed for kidnapping a noble. Ciel warned him that if he was caught for doing so, his neck would have to be tied ten times over for it to be able to kill Brendel. But most importantly, Brendel did not want his plan to fail!

My Lord, do you think she could recognize us with this disguise? Ciel was drenched in cold sweat and carefully, he telepathically asked Brendel.

Brendel cursed, Don’t jinx it! But Count Yanbao managed to come up with an excuse. It seems like he did not want to be in the company of the knights for long either, “Miss, don’t worry. I just made a mistake while experimenting with something. I will ask someone to clean up the mess later, so excuse me for showing you this ugly sight.”

Brendel and Ciel breathed out in relief.

It was common for nobles to have one or two mages in their family. But Freya still felt that he was hiding something, and she eyed Brendel and Ciel, What weirdos. During the period in the Academy, Maynild had cramped her with knowledge on the nobles. Although she did not remember much of it, she knew that they had quite a few secrets so she decided to leave before becoming someone others hate.

She just came over after hearing the explosion to check if something was out of place. But it seems like there was no trouble, so she decided to leave.

But it was then.

The guard that informed Dilferi about Freya’s arrival came back once more. It seems like another squad of knights had arrived at the manor’s front gate. And they had a similar outfit as Freya, just that they had more tassels than her. In the Royal Family, these people would be more difficult to deal with compared to the cadet from the Royal Cavalry Academy.

It must be the Senior Officer of this group of cadets. But I just don’t know which one is it… Is it Dunden or Duss? Brendel calmed his mind and thought. Cadet definitely could not operate by themselves. They would require an official knight to look after them while they patrol. But it seems like Freya is not one of those people yet. I can only imagine those two working for her back when she was still in power back in the game.

Dunden and Duss were not considered to be some sort of popular NPC, but they had been the supporters of the Royal Faction, and Brendel had once worked with them before. If he did not remember wrongly, they were at best Silver rankers, and were not the core forces in the Royal Family.

But never did he expect that none of his predictions were false. The knights came close to Brendel and the others, and Brendel heard a female voice, “What is going on?”

A low, calm yet stern voice. It felt like lightning striking down from the sky, freezing Brendel. He was pale when he looked up, and saw the face of the person who just spoke.

This voice… Just who is she?

He was looking at Maynild. That golden tassel… She’s a Knight Captain. But I swear that with my past experiences, I don’t think I saw any girl who got a top spot in the Royal Knight Squad… No, not even in the top spots, I don’t even remember any girls in the Squad to begin with…

But what he was shocked with, was the voice of the girl. It was so clear that he was sure he would never forget it. Flashback to ten years ago, she would lead him and the others into battle back in The Amber Sword. He closed his eyes, and time started to backflow. That cold face that could bring warmth and calmness whenever she smiled reappeared in front of him once more.

He was about to yell out the familiar name, but he held back. Maynild was born in Seifer, and had the skin tone of the Seifer people, and her dark obsidian hair was the perfect contrast to her skin color. She was born to be applauded for her beauty, and her name as the ‘Ice Princess’  was indeed popular amongst the knights.

In Brendel’s eyes, she exuded the aura that really resembled his senior back in the game, but he just decided that they were both different people.

He sucked in a breath of cold air, and went back on his thoughts. Just who is this woman? Brendel was sure that he did not remember incorrectly. Unless history indeed had undergone a major change, the Royal Faction would not appear a high ranked female knight. And although he knew of the Butterfly Effect, that his actions would lead to a change in the timeline, he did not expect the change to appear here.

It was not logical no matter how he saw it.

When Freya called the girl Maynild, Brendel swore he had never heard of the name in his life. Although he could not know everything in Aouine, he believed that he would not forget some NPC of her rank. And she managed to reach that position at that young age, so that meant she was not someone ordinary. Unfortunately, Brendel still could not come up with an answer.

Now there’s two possibilities. One, she’s under a guise. She may be hiding a really popular name. But at least in memory, I do not remember any famous female knight that looked like her back in the game.

But there’s the second possibility. It may be that I had changed history. It did not only affect the history after my actions, but the history before I made those changes. [T/N: How does that even make sense?] It would be an unpredictable change that I will never be able to expect what is different. Maybe the princess I’m going to meet in the future will be a guy! Who knows what is going to happen?

Brendel raised his eyebrow and looked at Maynild, who had just listened to Freya’s explanation. She raised her head, and it looked like she noticed Brendel’s gaze and looked at his direction. She had deep black eyes, and her face was smooth. When their gazes lock, they felt a stifle in their bodies.

But she immediately looked away like nothing had happened. She did not even get off her horse to greet Count Yanbao. The Yanbao family was not closely affiliated with the other families, and it seemed like the Royal Faction did not have any intentions to pull the family under their faction. She did not say anything else, but Brendel still noticed her odd glare at Dilferi. In the end, she just left.

Did she look through our guise? Brendel thought.

When Maynild was at the door of the manor, she looked back. This time, her gaze was captured by Brendel. Ahh… She did find me odd as well. At this point, Brendel only cared if she figured out Brendel’s identity because she was clearly not listening to Count Yanbao just now.

This will be a hard opponent. But there should no way for her to figure me out. It would be a big thing to disguise as a noble and attend the meeting. I don’t think anyone would expect me to do such a brave act, I hope?

Maynild POV

It seems like Brendel was not too far off the truth. Maynild indeed looked back at Brendel and thought that his gaze looked odd.

Even among the Royal Knight Squad, her true strength was hidden. Although she may be known as Princess Gryphine’s close friend and number one knight, she actually reached early Gold rank. And yet, she could feel Brendel returning her gaze when she looked at him just now.

She looked down, and Freya could feel the trouble in her heart. She could not help but ask, “What’s up, Captain? Did you find the two suspicious as well?” It seems that Freya had her doubts about the two’s identity as well. And especially when she left, she could not help but find the two closely resembling Brendel and Ciel.

But why would they be here anyway?

That was the conclusion she gave herself.

“Eh?” Maynild looked at the newly appointed cadet, and asked, “Two?”

“Yea. Two of them. Senior sister, weren’t you looked at them just now?” Freya asked. “They felt really familiar to me… Were they some fugitive I saw on some posters before? Unfortunately, I could not recognize them. Looking at their dress up, I thought they were the people I met across the border back in Bucce.”

Those people she was talking about, were the runaways and rebels from Madara.

“Yep,” Maynild just briefly answered. “In any case, one less matter is better than having one more.”

Freya looked at her senior who looked like she was not in the mood to talk and she could only sigh and stay silent.

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