Chapter 11: Are You All Sick with All This Scheming and Backstabbing?
The silver-haired female rogue didn’t bother to deliberately conceal her face. It was a somewhat gloomy young girl’s visage, not very old. The leather armor covering her upper body was stained with luminous powder, making her look a bit disheveled. Seemingly startled that her perfect stealth had been discovered, she was somewhat distracted. So, facing Joshua’s questioning, she only nervously blurted out, “Where is my smell that strong?!”
“…Answer my question!”
“Ah!” Realizing what she had just said, embarrassed, the female rogue immediately understood the situation. She looked at the warrior before her, whose expression was cold and who exuded a terrifying aura from head to toe. She shuddered and quickly said, “This, I just wanted to come and see if you really are that Joshua of the Radcliffe Family…”
As she spoke, facing the advancing Joshua, she nervously scanned her surroundings. Unfortunately, the narrow alley offered no means of escape. Unlike the Silent Warrior, she was too close to Joshua and covered in alchemical dust, making it impossible to forcibly stealth away. She immediately looked dejected and abandoned the thought of fleeing.
“That’s right, I am.” Placing one hand on the female rogue’s shoulder, Joshua thought for a moment and decided against grabbing her by the neck. “Now tell me your name and background. Don’t lie. By the way, your scabbard should be new—the leather smell is too strong.”
“So that’s where the problem was…” Muttering to herself, feeling the strength contained in the hand on her shoulder, the silver-haired woman weighed her options and decisively chose to stop hiding. She said frankly, “My name is Nolan Wilson. I came here to…”
“Wilson!”
Hearing this name, Chris, standing nearby, pushed up his glasses and gasped, interrupting, “You’re from the Wilson Family? Right, I should have guessed from your hair color! Silver hair, silver eyes, and that lifeless expression!”
“Wilson Family?” Hearing what Chris said, Joshua’s expression remained unchanged, seemingly unsurprised—just moments ago, he had encountered his enemy’s son; meeting another family member of an enemy now was nothing strange.
He looked at Nolan, his hand gradually tightening, and said in a deep voice, “As an enemy, daring to appear before me like this—I admire your courage. I assume you’ve made the necessary preparations?”
“Wait! Don’t just kill someone without a word! Even though I’m from the Wilson Family, I’m not with that group!” Feeling the increasing pressure on her shoulder, as if it were about to crush her shoulder blade, the girl named Nolan finally regained the calm and reaction speed befitting a rogue. Under the threat of death, her words were concise and clear: “Like that alchemist, I didn’t come here to seize your family’s assets. On the contrary, I came to find an opportunity to sabotage this plan!”
“Ha, how amusing. I’ve already wasted at least half an hour today listening to you and Chris say, ‘I’m not with them,’ which is utterly stupid.”
Despite saying this, Joshua no longer tightened his grip. He could see that the woman before him had no need or intention to lie, so he slightly raised his chin and asked directly, “Chris doesn’t want to be a noble in the North, to be a puppet for others. As a beneficiary, why do you oppose your own family’s actions?”
“Interests.” Feeling that Joshua wasn’t about to kill her outright, Nolan breathed a slight sigh of relief, but she didn’t dare slow down her explanation: “This operation was my eldest brother’s unilateral decision. The family’s high-level members are currently on the sidelines, adopting a wait-and-see attitude. If it continues and succeeds, I wouldn’t mind. But now there are too many variables. Continuing the operation will only harm my interests, so I must find a way to sabotage it.”
“What interests?”
“Half of my branch’s assets are in Moldavia. If chaos erupts here, it will greatly impact my future plans.”
“Your goal?”
The two exchanged questions and answers, the entire process taking less than two minutes. Watching this remarkably fast interrogation, Chris vaguely felt that this girl’s situation seemed similar to his own—it seemed that under absolute violent threat, people’s words became concise and forceful.
Nolan continued to answer, “To eliminate my eldest brother—so I’m definitely on your side. Please, can you let go now? My shoulder is about to break…”
“…I don’t know why, but I’ve become numb to this kind of news. Continue.”
Another family dispute. Frowning, Joshua looked somewhat pained. The scheming and backstabbing among nobles truly annoyed him. Couldn’t they just simply draw their blades and settle it? The warrior sighed. Amid Nolan’s soft cry, he released his grip and said, “Clearly, supporting a Winterfell Count who is pro-Wilson Family would be more advantageous. Why is your family’s high-level still on the sidelines?”
“People have their own demands. Even a single family can’t unify its thoughts, let alone a large clan.” The silver-haired rogue twisted her shoulder, feeling a burning pain. She didn’t dare ignore Joshua’s question: “Besides, someone like Danelia, even if he takes power, might not be pro-Wilson Family. In reality, this operation is at most taking advantage of the Radcliffe Family’s internal strife to seize market share. Swallowing or controlling them is impossible. The power of a Count’s territory isn’t so easily leveraged.”
“Even if the lord is an idiot, the knights underneath aren’t pushovers.” Nolan said this with a serious expression: “Moreover, if we initiate a noble war, the Noble Court would have an excuse to intervene—violating legal order means opposing the Empire, opposing the Emperor. Only my eldest brother, desperately accumulating prestige for the position of family heir, would ignore this and engage in such borderline behavior.”
“I see.” Joshua thought for a moment and said, “Why do you want to kill your brother… never mind, it’s probably about inheritance rights. Forget it.”
Shaking his head, he decisively ended the topic: “In that case, there’s no time to waste. I’m going to kill that uncle now and disrupt the Wilson Family’s schemes. If you want to follow, come along.”
“Wait, you’re just going to head straight to the Lord’s Manor like that?”
Seeing Joshua seemingly ready to march toward the Lord’s Manor without another word, Nolan and Chris were both startled. They spoke up together to dissuade him: “Could you at least make a little plan?”
“No time. My entry into the city this time was open and direct, meant for a surprise decapitation strike. Originally, I had enough time, but you and the Silent Warrior wasted quite a bit.” Without stopping, Joshua had already reached the end of the alley. He turned back and said, “The Silent Warrior has surely gone to notify the other soldiers and knights. Now is the time to act quickly. The longer we wait, the tighter the defenses, and the harder my goal becomes—not to mention yours.”
“Joshua, I know you’re strong, a warrior who achieved a hundred kills on the orc battlefield, but you at least need a weapon, right?!”
Nolan continued trying to dissuade him, her expression sincere: “The Lord’s Manor has over a dozen Silver-rank guards. Within five minutes of an attack, other Silver-rank knights will arrive. Without a suitable weapon, a successful surprise attack is impossible. Moreover, there’s reliable information that my eldest brother will arrive in Moldavia today. He’s a Gold-rank expert. No matter how strong you are, you can’t defeat him!”
“Gold-rank?”
Hearing this word, Joshua couldn’t help but stop and turn to look at Nolan. The silver-haired girl’s expression didn’t seem fake. He said in a deep voice, “That’s troublesome. Are you sure it’s today?”
After all, Joshua was once a Legendary warrior and knew very well the gap between Gold and Silver.
To put it simply, if he were fully armored and armed, Joshua believed he could fight his way through dozens of Silver-rank opponents and escape if necessary. But if there was a Gold-rank on the other side, it would be like having wings clipped—impossible to escape, even for someone of Joshua’s caliber.
This was the Mycroft Continent, a foreign world filled with strife and war. Adult men were at Black Iron rank, stronger than ordinary oxen, with physiques comparable to knights from Earth. Silver-rank knights were essentially humanoid self-propelled artillery; armored, they were living tanks. Gold-rank experts, capable of free flight, had destructive power at least equivalent to supersonic bombers capable of unlimited heavy bomb drops.
“That’s right, Gold-rank. I’m not sure of the exact time, but he’ll definitely arrive today.”
After Nolan said this very certainly, Chris, standing nearby, couldn’t help but interject: “Regardless, cousin, I think you should go to Black Forest Fortress to gather your family knights. Lead a large force and crush them head-on. Even a Gold-rank expert wouldn’t dare face a charge of a hundred Silver-rank knights.”
“…” Joshua’s brows furrowed, his gaze intimidating.
Chris was right. By common sense, he shouldn’t be so impulsive—charging into the city alone for a decapitation strike. Although killing that convenient uncle would automatically make him the sole heir of Moldavia and the lord of this land, and Old Steward Fan would tell him the truth, his current strength was only Silver-rank. The risk was simply too great.
But Joshua wasn’t an ordinary person. The warrior didn’t need to follow common sense.
Summoning his status panel, Joshua checked his level.
【lv28·Silver (Challenge Level lv29·Silver)】
【4730/5400】
“Just a little more.”
Murmuring to himself, Joshua began to calculate rapidly in his mind. He was just a bit of experience away from leveling up from 28 to 29, which wasn’t far from the Gold rank.
If he could defeat all hostile targets in this city, the experience gained would surely allow him to level up once or twice and enter the Gold realm. At that point, able to use the various powerful skills in his mind, Joshua would find even four or five Gold-rank opponents nothing more than easy prey.
“You don’t need to say more. I’ve already—what?!”
Just as Joshua made up his mind and prepared to move toward the Lord’s Manor, he suddenly felt a burning pain at his right wrist.
It was like a branding iron, a searing heat directly touching molten metal. Caught off guard by this sudden attack, even Joshua couldn’t bear it. He gripped his right wrist with his left hand, cold sweat trickling from his temples. After a muffled groan, Joshua said with a mix of anger and surprise, “What’s happening?!”
“Whoosh—”
Like wind, like light, a strange, ethereal sound echoed in his ears. The mana in the atmosphere condensed into a visible, semi-transparent silver light. It surged up and then, like a river flowing into the sea, poured entirely into Joshua’s right wrist.
Under his astonished gaze, a trace of coolness suddenly seeped into his originally burning wrist. As the coolness expanded, intricate runes, like tattoos, appeared out of nowhere on his wrist and the back of his hand. They were incredibly complex, each flicker taking a completely different form. As the last traces of heat and coolness faded, these runes finally settled into the image of a two-handed greatsword entwined with a black serpent.
“This—what is this?!”