CHAPTER 89.

Baron Renard thought he knew a fool when he saw one, but today he was disappointed. He had thought that the ‘Great Hero of Cytel’ was smart, that she was someone who had an eye for success — she was a hero after all — but he had been wrong. Painfully and deeply wrong.

Because not only had she declined everyone’s offer, but she had also made it her mission to ridicule everyone present and threaten them. She had made an enemy out of all the barons and lords present. And now, she was going to pay the consequences.

“Attack,” Renard bellowed.

At that moment, all of the mages attacked. Renard too did so as multiple bellows echoed.

“Despair—”

“Break.”

“Destruction!”

His staff fired a dark blue beam, it was a rare kind of magic. It wasn’t fire, nor water, nor even poison. It was pure mana— unbridled destructive energy, that immediately reached along with all the other attacks causing a massive explosion in the city plaza. Bricks flew through the air and some even hit the bounces only to harmlessly bounce off a barrier that was previously set up.

The risk had been premeditated, so there was nothing to worry about. In fact, guards were blocking every street from accessing this very part of the city. So that only meant that all they had to do was teach Amber a lesson and then get her to join their cause. While he wished she would have seen reason, having a favor from the hero of Cytel wasn’t bad either.

And the main reason he was so confident about things is that he had prepared a mana contract, one that would bind her to certain terms lest she wanted to grievously suffer. All they had to do was beat her near an inch of death. He wasn’t stupid enough to not have a plan to fall back on, he was making an enemy out of the hero of Cytel with this— everyone was.

But should it all fail, there was a failsafe, one that he hoped wouldn’t happen. Thankfully, nobody would be losing their title so long as they paid the owed amount in the end— even with this scuffle. So, they could go all out, and attack her with their heart’s content.

Given the fact that the authorities were going to punish them regardless, convincing the rest of the nobles hadn’t been hard. Except for two nobles who did not want to partake in this. So everyone aimed to kill Amber— knowing of her durability from Lord Irwin’s servants, and fully knowing she wouldn’t be dying from that.

The onslaught of spells continued, and Renard looked around to see if she had used a pesky movement skill to move somewhere, but from the looks of it, she hadn’t. So that meant that she was still in there. He turned around at the chain of explosions, and finally, the spells stopped. Smoke billowing from the center of it all.

Everyone stared at it, except for Renard, he teleported instead. He didn’t know if Amber was dumb, or if she was too overconfident, but deciding to tank everyone was simply put— a bad move. He activated his storage ring and then, heard the sound of a bone cracking. He saw the woman in the smoke massaging her neck before speaking.

“This is really good resistance training, actually.”

She didn’t sound pained at all, and a moment later Renard felt danger. He hurriedly raised his staff and stepped, a sword collided with it and nearly broke his arms from the strength it carried— even though he himself also had a Legacy Branch and was almost ten levels higher than her! In fact, almost every single noble here had a Legacy Branch.

He gritted his teeth as he pulled back and Amber was already on him, swinging her sword again. Renard summoned a barrier and it immediately shattered. His high-quality staff was cut halfway through in a single moment as he felt pain shoot through his entire being. And the mages around him hesitated.

He bellowed. “Dumbasses, my Legacy Branch gives me extreme magic resistance, just fire!”

At that, the mages snapped out of their stupor and Amber pressed down. “Interesting, first time I hear that, so are there Legacy Branches that do the same for physical attacks?”

What kind of stupid question is that? Renard snapped in his mind as a barrage of spells rained, doing nothing more than pelting him and replenishing his secondary mana reserve. While his Legacy Branch did not allow him to absorb attacks made on him or anything of the sort, it allowed him to access a different kind of magic.

Death magic.

And he fully planned on using it.

He screamed. “Blow away!”

His mana drained and a blast of dark red magic hit Amber, she went flying against a building and cracked the high-level barrier placed upon it. And then, she landed as the nearest mage turned and blasted her with a beam of lightning— it hit her, doing nothing more than covering her with soot and she smiled, wiping a single drop of blood coming from her mouth.

Once more, she was looking at him, something that terrified Renard this time. Why does she look fine? But he tried to not let it get to him, he couldn’t—

And she appeared behind him, he tried to spin but it was too late. However, he still had his passive barrier that every mage had, and as she reached her hand to grab him, he smiled preparing more death magic. Unlike other magic, this one dealt true damage, bypassing armors and multiple skill effects except for Magical Resistance. Not only that, but it also temporarily increased his vitality.

Now, all he had to do was hit her at close range and end her. Her hand reached and it burst into blue flames.

Fool, even my Legacy Branch applies to my skills, my barrier won’t break from that. He grinned and— the barrier shattered to the flames. Instantly, he was grabbed by the forearm, her azure flames melting through his flesh like no attack ever had, but before he could even attempt to counter-attack she spun and threw him.

He zipped through the air and before he could even react, he hit something before crashing against the barrier. It nearly shattered as he fell to the ground, gasping for air. His head spun as he heard the voices of his companions.

“Baron Renard!”

“Lady Azana!”

Lady Azana? He craned his head to the side only to see the noblewoman fainted. He had crashed against her at lightning speeds, and now, she was out cold. His body on the other hand, also felt ragged. But he didn’t let that get in the way of his mission, he had to participate in fighting Amber, he had to teach Amber a lesson since they were getting punished anyway—

And a mage flew across his vision. He blinked as he saw a baron hit a flower bed, breaking it into pieces. The man was out cold, this couldn’t go on for much longer.

Renard turned only to see another noble being held by the arm and slammed into the ground, breaking it apart. Duke Zizel was nowhere to be seen, and while at first, he had been worried about the man’s interference before, now it didn’t exactly matter. Because the hero of Cytel was a monster under a human’s skin.

Somehow, she achieved impossibility, somehow, she was strong enough to defeat over a dozen of experienced mages who were similar to her in level. He knew that the king had withdrawn a secret from most of the nobles regarding the woman, and while he didn’t understand what it was. He could still make an educated guess.

Only those that were this strong— in his opinion and based on reading the history of Vir— were the ones who had been backed up by Primordial Spirits.

And Amber was certainly one of them.

But still, he had to fight. He wanted to fight, out of pride, out of the fact that he had nothing to lose, and he also wanted to show her that he was more than met the eye. So, he teleported, barely blocking a punch made towards a fellow noble with his staff, protecting him in the process. He was launched into the wall as his back cracked, and Amber punched again, but he managed to cast his spell—

“Deathblow!”

The blast of red engulfed the woman and— her punch went through, he was sent into the wall and he nearly blacked out.

Was this it…?

Renard didn’t want to believe that he was that powerless against the hero of Cytel— he didn’t want to believe that that was the case. He didn’t want for his failsafe to be put into place— he didn’t want that humiliation.

The woman turned around to deal with more nobles as he gritted his teeth.

He nearly fainted but pushed himself to stay conscious, all so he could fight the woman. Otherwise, he knew his honor would be tarnished for many years to come. Not only that, but many other reasons drove him to make this decision, and so, he continuously forced himself to move.

All while Amber fought on.

* * *

Duke Zizel couldn’t believe his eyes when he first saw his son, William, defeated and unconscious. But once he accepted it, he believed that it had been a hard-fought battle for Amber, and that was why she had resorted to such extremes. As such, he felt the need to go the extra mile to make it up to her, but now, he wasn’t so sure.

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Not that he wasn’t sure about becoming acquainted with Amber and gaining her favor— no that had been nothing short of a blessing— it wasn’t that he was unsure about the fact that he helped her to begin with. The thing he was unsure about was if Amber had struggled against his son at all.

And it was all because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it simply made his jaw drop.

He had retired to a rooftop to let her deal with the battle, and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it simply made his jaw drop.

What he saw was an expert, a true seasoned warrior demolishing a bunch of helpless mages. Even if he himself had fought more people than he could count, he simply couldn’t compare to her battle instincts, after all, they were truly inhuman.

She craned her neck and a bolt of concentrated ice harmlessly passed through. And it hadn’t been any bolt, no— it zipped through the air in a split second, like a beam that would heavily incapacitate her, and yet she did it as if it was something mundane.

Her instincts ⁠— her senses, were out of this world. And for a moment, he couldn’t help but feel inadequate. He had been proud of his strength, he really had been, but now, he was truly humbled by what true strength was. But rather than feel jealousy, a different feeling took place, deep within his heart, admiration blossomed. Admiration for a woman who at twenty years of age, had surpassed him in every single way even though he was over a century old.

And while there was no true way to verify her age⁠— he didn’t care. All he knew, all he felt for her was admiration.

Zizel watched as Amber tore apart through the nobles as if they meant nothing to her, and the part that truly was terrifying to anyone who was paying attention was that she wasn’t even serious⁠— she had hardly used her sword, she had used her rumored flames a single time⁠, let alone the signature curses that took down the demon of the capital.

Yet the nobles were on their path to total defeat without doing anything significant, and soon they would face deep punishment for their actions, for threatening the hero of Cytel in such a way ⁠— or perhaps not, however, he still condemned the greed of all of these people.

Zizel shook his head in disapproval and Amber⁠— screamed. In a single moment he felt boiling hatred for the woman as he raised his staff but he managed to hold herself, the rest of the nobles however⁠— rushed at her swinging their staffs. The effect lasted around two seconds, which gave Amber the chance to knock down two more nobles as the rest teleported out of the way.

However, Zizel couldn’t help but blink. What was that…? He… he had heard of aggro skills before, but… weren’t they only for those above level 200? Yet, he was pretty sure Amber had used one.

He gulped at the realization and that was when the head baron, Baron Renard stood up and rushed. He whispered something as his staff began to glow in a red light, and Amber raised her brow as she blocked the first strike from the man’s staff. It didn’t look particularly powerful but— blood burst from Amber’s nose.

And she— headbutted.

The baron stumbled back in pain, the ground cracking at his feet from the sheer shock. And somehow, he was still standing, it was an admirable effort, but Zizel thought it was truly useless.

“Give up,” Amber advised, wiping the blood from her nose as if she was unconcerned. “Most of your friends are knocked out.”

She gestured at the surroundings, where only two mages remained yet they seemed to be scared of even firing a single spell at Amber. However, the baron ignored reason, instead he was panting, bleeding from his mouth.

“The thing is, I have nothing to lose.”

“What about your nobility or whatever?” Amber asked, raising her brow. “I could bring it up to the king you know?”

The baron flinched. “That is… true.”

“Yeah, so help me get the taxes from the marquesses and I’ll forget all about this,” she said before looking around. “I don’t really want to do this a second time, especially considering the destruction.”

“Mages will be able to restore it in a day, so don’t worry,” he reassured before shaking his head. “But to answer your question; I do not want to betray those that have been with me for the longest time.”

Zizel raised his brow at that. He felt that the baron was being nothing short of idiotic, but he couldn’t exactly say he didn’t understand the sentiment a little bit. However— hadn’t he offered to betray them earlier?

Amber chose to ignore the comment and asked what she had in mind.

“Is there anything you can do for me then?”

And the baron shook his head. “No. Which is why I’ll fight you, I’ll show you my true strength—”

Amber appeared in front of him and kneed— he went flying across the plaza and into a main street, breaking through the pavement and benches, before finally stopping by hitting a distant stone statue.

Zizel blinked, he hadn’t expected that, but the woman let out a sigh.

“Such a pain in the ass.”

And as if on cue, a spell circle flashed a few meters away from her and around six more people arrived. They all had their weapons at the ready yet paused seeing the destruction in their surroundings.

They were none other than the marquesses and the rest of the nobles, which Zizel immediately recognized.

Amber quirked her brow. “And you people are…?”

The group flinched and then looked at Amber in horror, evidently now suddenly stuck in an awkward situation.

At the sight, Zizel pinched the brow of his nose. The lengths these lesser nobles went to feel like rulers were truly ridiculous, and yet he had seen it many times before. That said, he felt like this was part of the now unconscious baron’s scheme.

So, he waited to see what would happen next, however, if they had brains nothing more would happen.

* * *

Amber looked at the armed group, they were all of a similar level to the group of nobles she had just fought. And while she could make a very educated guess on who they were — based on their previously raised weapons and their appearances — she still decided to wait to see what they did.

The new fighters that had arrived looked around at the battered plaza, shock in their eyes, and finally, they looked at her— and the cycle repeated a few times for some of the people, while the others just had their heads lowered.

Finally, Amber saw them break a lot of the high-level members break into hushed whispers, and while she could clearly hear them discussing what to do in a panic she didn’t stop them. Because there seemed to be a general consensus, or well two of them— one was that she was terrifying and the second one was very obviously to submit and hope for the lowest punishment.

To which they did.

The two marquesses she presumed, and highest-level individuals — not reaching level 180 but close — approached me. They had apologetic gazes as they looked all over at the town. One of them was a rotund man, and the other was a woman of tall stature and thin limbs.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, your grace,” the woman bowed.

“Indeed, it is an honor,” the man added.

“Cut to the chase,” Amber sighed. “Are you here to pay up what you owe to the Starkell family or do things have to get ugly again?”

The rotund man paused and the woman shivered.

“Oh goodness, no,” she said in a hurry. “We are here to pay up indeed, or well—”

They shared an uncomfortable glance before she continued.

“I am ashamed to admit it, but we were all here to reinforce our companions. However, now as we stand before you, yes, we are here to begin the payment process.”

Amber sighed. “I’ll just tell the princess everything that happened here, and she’ll deal with it as she sees fit.”

“R-Right…” the woman seemed scared.

The rotund man said nothing, simply closing his eyes and biting his lip. He evidently didn’t like the conversation, but at the same time Amber could tell— he was also afraid. So, all in all, that was a good thing; even if she didn’t like people being afraid of her normally.

“Well, hurry up, go collect the taxes since there is absolutely no way you people brought them here,” she ushered them. “Also, bring the tax forms, and should anything be wrong I’ll just talk to the king— bring the taxes of the nobles I knocked out in this city too.”

She wasn’t a huge fan of threatening others with her connections, but at this point, Amber really didn’t want to deal with anything. Because it was annoying, because it got unnecessarily blown out of proportion, and now she was just going to take the easy way out. Which, evidently worked.

The two nobles nodded and dispersed in a hurry, all while talking at the fact that she had defeated all of these people alone.

Amber shook her head as she watched the people leave, and finally, she leaned against a wall and relaxed. Zizel joined her side, acting out as a lookout should anything happen — it seemed to her he looked at her differently now, with admiration — and the princess returned shortly after.

And she made sure to relay to her everything that had happened, which left her in shock and also with quite a serious expression. In the end, Aurelia had said she’d probably look into punishing a lot of the nobles and also moving close to half out of this land and into other places of the kingdom.

Finally, while she waited, she turned to her System notifications, Crimson Sense had reached 2nd Rank, and a few of her other skills had leveled up.

[Crimson Sense has reached 2nd Rank ⁠— level 1.

You’ve grown so used to blood that you can now sense it from a certain range. The higher the skill level the more accurate the location becomes.

This skill takes twice the time in comparison to normal skills to level.

2nd Rank ⁠— You have a feel for the emotions of those around you based on their blood pressure.]

[Crimson Cry has leveled up from level 1 to 2.]

[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 3rd Rank level 9 to 3rd Rank level 10.]

[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from 4th Rank level 4 to 4th Rank level 5.]

[Physical Resistance has leveled up from 4th Rank level 4 to 4th Rank level 5.]

[Magical Resistance has leveled up from 4th Rank level 4 to 4th Rank level 6.]

[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 4th Rank level 4 to 4th Rank level 5.]

* * *

And a few hours later, the nobles returned with literal sacks of gold, which Amber received confused.

“This is everything we have all kept since the Risnar’s era,” the rotund man said, bowing. “Consider it a deep apology. It includes everything owed by the two cities.”

The princess nodded, and so did Amber⁠— though she quickly passed all the coins onto Duke Zizel for him to count. Which was met with a rather apprehensive look.

“That is not all, however,” the woman continued. “You see, Marquess Bali and I share some family history, and we have both decided we want to give you something.”

“Give me something?” Amber blinked.

Marquess Bali nodded. “This is not to say we are asking you to make the consequences of our actions lighter, however we simply wish to truly show you we respect you and will do our duties to the kingdom properly from now on. The Starkell family has our full support.”

Amber nodded. While it wasn’t the perfect outcome, it was good enough for now. Though she did hope that Liz would earn their full support on her own.

“So, this is a personal apology from the both of us to you, and also a gift. You are a Cursebearer so we brought what we judged to be the best thing for you.”

Then, with those words the ring on the woman shone and an armored stand appeared in front of Amber, and her eyes widened in shock.

Because it was an armor, one of the highest grade and quality, and it was cursed.