Book 7, Chapter 67 (1/2)

Considerations

Richard first took a look at Julian and then turned back to Duke Myron and laughed derisively, “This is your backer?”

The Duke’s eye twitched, but he quickly nodded, “And what of it?”

Myron had no idea what had happened in Faelor, but knowing how dangerous Richard was he had summoned some of his elite troops as a backup in case reasoning failed. At the very least, he hoped to be able to obtain a public trial which would give him a chance to save his nephew. Julian was supposed to have come in later as a last resort, but the man wasn’t one to listen to anyone.

Richard smiled at the faux pas. The Myron Family had vouched for Link personally to get him into Rosie’s workshop; although this wasn’t a formal contract of alliance, it certainly would be considered a beginning towards that. To find them working together with a publicly known enemy of his all this while was annoying, even if Link had revealed it before. “Nothing,” he shrugged it off.

It was at this moment that a fully armoured knight appeared behind him, standing there quietly. This knight was only level 16, quite a bit away from sainthood, but even amongst the rune knights who had many members of a higher level than her, she stood right next to Richard. The Duke was about to mock Richard at the sight, but he suddenly sensed something strange and turned to find Julian’s smile gone. His eyes seemed to be frozen on the knight.

This prompted Myron to look at her once more, giving more weight to the full suit of legendary armour. The blank mask covering her face implied that she had an identity to hide, but she was still level 16 through and through. Was she hiding her strength? This line of thought was quickly dismissed; it would normally take a legend to hide their might from him so thoroughly.

While the Duke continued with his conjectures, Richard turned to Julian, “What is it, Mister Julian? Is a mere level 16 paladin making you hesitate? This doesn’t quite seem to be your style.”

“Who is she?” However, Julian paid no attention to the taunts and continued to stare at Nasia. Their last encounter had left a deep impression on him, from the powerful buff to Richard to the death of his three clones that tipped the scales of battle. Each of those level 16 clones had the same amount of experience and technique as he did, but they had still lost three to one. It hadn’t even taken much time; she had just slipped out of sight and destroyed them before returning.

“A follower of mine, her name’s Nasia,” Richard mentioned calmly.

“Nasia…” Julian repeated the name, his eyes glowing a deep purple that was almost black. This was an ability similar to Richard’s Insight, but despite his best attempts the paladin seemed to be hidden within a fog that blocked all vision. The woman’s aura was detestable, almost giving him a feeling of fundamental rejection. It was similar to timeforce, but not quite the same either.

Richard calmly allowed him to do as he wished. His own attempts with Insight had been blocked by Nasia’s armour before, and he hadn’t come across an ability that surpassed it even amongst legendary mages. He believed it was impossible for Julian to glean anything.

Julian remained expressionless, but his eyes kept flickering with hesitation. With Nasia around, either Richard or Tiramisu would be able to fight him off while the 200 rune knights would be free to gang up on and eliminate him. He also didn’t know how many times that buff could be used; he could still hold his own somewhat against just one, but fighting both the ogre and Richard in a buffed state would be the death of him.

The man grunted, flipping off the Church of the Eternal Dragon that was within sight in frustration. If not for his power being suppressed so much in Faust, he wouldn’t need to be so cautious around this arrogant kid. Even if he wasn’t sure of victory, he would at least know that he could escape if things went south.

This was a gamble where being wrong meant death and being right wouldn’t even guarantee survival. There was no way anyone would actually take it. Still, Richard kept up his guard in case Julian went berserk. Those who succumbed to the laws of chaos tended to lose their rationality, and the inherent unpredictability of their actions was what made them so dangerous.