Chapter 295: Act 70 The Wind Among the Mountains

“Who would have thought that Lord’s swordsmanship is so superb.”

As they walked, Antitina praised without reservation. The only opportunity she had to witness Brand giving his all was at the underground auction in Brags. However, that time she was busy dragging Romantic to escape, having no time to notice how Brand dealt with the Spirit Statue Captain.

The footsteps of the three echoed through the hollow corridor within the rock walls of the inn, the sound extending forward until it reached the dim end of the passage. The inn’s owner had carved stone hole windows into the rock walls to let light in. Looking forward, natural light cast pale, weak spots on the dark floor at intervals.

“Of course, Brand has always been very strong.” Romantic added on the side with a little self-satisfaction. She squinted her eyes—carrying a bit of innate charm. The Merchant Lady glanced back at Brand with a smiling face, making his heart skip a beat and instinctively worry that this lady was brewing some strange idea again.

This concern was not unfounded. Before leaving the Forest City, Romantic was not at all well-behaved. First, she pretended to be a merchant from a trade association to visit the local nobles and investigate the market, and then she secretly approached someone from the Thieves’ Guild to buy a map from Majitan to Chablis—an act of sheer audacity, since drawing maps privately in this era was punishable by hanging.

Of course, this was done behind Brand’s back from the start. If it weren’t for the fact that this lady could never hide things from him, he might still be unaware of her little secret activities. Hiding maps, pretending to be nobles, forging documents and certificates—Brand thought he had already shown enough contempt for the laws of this ancient country, yet he never expected that the Merchant Lady probably never cared about that black-covered Kingdom Codex from the start.

Naturally, Brand suspected she didn’t even know what a codex was.

However, Romantic was careful and cautious outside, as clever as a little fox, never letting any information slip. If Brand hadn’t discovered her counting money secretly on the carriage, he wouldn’t have known that this girl had used these illicit means to make a small fortune—her pocket money.

Of course, Brand had severely warned her about it, but the Merchant Lady accepted it humbly and hummed twice in agreement. Only Martha in heaven would know how much she actually took to heart.

“What are you thinking about again?” Brand couldn’t help but ask.

“Nothing.” Romantic shook her head quickly, as if trying to deny everything.

“If it’s nothing, why are you so nervous?” Brand’s suspicion deepened involuntarily, and he asked irritably.

“Am I that nervous, Brand?” Romantic touched her little face, widened her eyes curiously, and asked.

“Don’t try to divert the topic, this trick won’t work on me anymore, Little Roman.”

“D-Don’t call me that…” The merchant girl raised her little eyebrows for a moment before her eyes twirled: “Brand, can I go out for a walk alone?”

“Absolutely not.”

Brand flatly refused. He wasn’t afraid that this scenic town of Chablis would turn upside down by her, but he had other considerations. Today, under the watchful eyes, he fought Bujia and used master-level swordsmanship to awe everyone present, even silencing ‘Mane Wolf’ Macaro. But it was just a facade. As the warrior’s heat of the moment faded, Brand’s thoughts became clear again.

In the past, it was common for lone mercenaries or adventurers to temporarily join a strange mercenary group while traveling. In fact, anyone might encounter trouble while traveling and have to rely on others for help.

Although Article 314 of the Mercenary Code rarely appeared in formal contracts, this practice of merging a lone person into a group was quite common. In name, they acted with the group, but actually, each had their own agenda and guarded against each other. Apart from mutual assistance, it held little meaning.

Therefore, the provision in the written code that allowed mercenary groups to test new joiners was often just an empty formality. Thus, the abnormal behavior of ‘Mane Wolf’ Macaro and Bujia this afternoon seemed to carry a different implication.