Benedict was stumped. He never imagined that their story would spawn such a cesspool of bizarre theories! To begin with, he never socialized that much. He was too absorbed in training that this was sadly ignored. Well, perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that he had few friends. At his level, Grand Nobles were expected to befriend each other and form their own social circles. This directly represented the major factions and powers in the Grand Nobility. Do not be misled by their age because there were an uncountable number of schemes and plots surging below the surface! Smiling above, scheming below was practically their modus operandi! That was why Benedict never fancied talking with them. As for the working class… It was not an exaggeration to say that they lived in two different worlds. Much less him talking to them, they would be too scared to approach him! Consequently, his social sphere was rather small.
As for Elizabeth… Benedict felt unsure. They were friends, that he was confident of. The problem was that did it go any further? Originally, they met on New Havens after his abrupt crashlanding. This exposed the existence of the flying island to the Xingyuu Empire, which subsequently led to the Slaughter of New Havens. Elizabeth's family, friends, life and home were burned right before her eyes! And the culprit? It was none other than Benedict! Understandably, she hated his guts for a long time. Were it not for the empire taking the bulk of the blame, she might have lashed out and tried to kill him! Eventually, their terms settled down and he was forgiven.
Elizabeth's foster mother insisted that Benedict protect her as her knight, and he gave his vow as a Hawken. A vow as a Hawken was a very serious matter! It meant that he placed his honor as a Hawken, as one of the twenty-five Grand Nobility Households, on the line! Benedict gave his word and swore, pledging to protect her, and he did just that. And yet he knew that his intentions were not totally pure. That was not to say that he had devious ideas in mind. Rather… his decisions were influenced by the fact that… Elizabeth looked like his former lover, Isabella. The resemblance went beyond uncanny and into levels of ridiculousness. Elizabeth genuinely looked like Isabella reincarnated! Whenever he saw Elizabeth, he would inevitably think of Isabella, masking their relationship in another level of ambiguity. What were his true feelings? Even he, himself, did not know the answer to that.
All he knew was that right here and right now, he wanted to meet Elizabeth again. It was less about longing, and more about concern. The last time he saw her was during the Grand Nobility's celebration in Algard, followed by their brief run-in with the Whispering Shadow. After that, he vividly remembered the gut-twisting feeling of something wrong and he believed that Elizabeth encountered a calamity. He tried to alert the soldiers at the castle, but he was firmly denied by his father. Then, when he later infiltrated the Lannisail Household and learned the truth, he was nearly killed by his enemies. If it not for his master, the Sword King's intrusion, then he would have bled out and died. And that was ignoring the Lannisail explosion, which later erased the Grand Nobility Household from the map. As a result, he never knew what happened to Elizabeth in the end.
Was she safe, unharmed, and happy? What was she thinking or doing? What was she going to do from now on? And how did she survive the Lannisail explosion? Did someone rescue her, or did she escape herself? Benedict wanted to figure things out. Looking back at it now, they barely exchanged words the last time they met. The last true conversation they had was more than half a year ago when they were returning from the Xingyuu Empire. Currently, time passed, and Elizabeth was chosen to be the Royal Army General for the kingdom's invasion! Just like Shirley and Freon, Benedict wanted to understand what her goals were, and help her if need be. Although people like Sir Winstin stood as her Protector, he was still her knight! It was his duty to protect her. And above all else, he was her friend!
"I'm her friend," Benedict answered with a smile. "I'm not a spy for the empire nor did I kidnap the princess. It's just a bunch of nonsense rumors. That's all there is to it."
"What a boring answer," Owen snorted and said nothing else, drinking more alcohol.
"What about you then? Why are you joining the war?" Benedict grew dissatisfied and tried reversing the conversation.
"Me?" the mercenary wondered with a long pause. "And why should I tell a brat like you?"
"I told you my reasons. Isn't it fair that you return the favor?"
Owen laughed. "I never agreed to that. That's your fault for assuming things."
As Benedict furrowed his brows, he accidentally released a surge of his Martial Energy out. Martial Energy was, in the end, an internal energy unlike Magic Energy. It was synonymous with terms like stamina, inner energy, and so forth which was why it was much harder to maintain control over it. For example, it was like trying to properly control your grip strength to prevent crushing an egg. With increased mastery over Martial Energy, your potential grip strength would increase by many times, making it that much harder to finetune the correct output. The same was playing out with Benedict now. A little bit of mental agitation and it caused his body to involuntarily exert Martial Energy. After all, he was a Fundamental Realm. Rank 1 individuals, for lack of a better term, were equivalent to children, still trying to understand and manipulate energy. Until he reaches a qualitative transformation like Rank 2, mishaps were bound to happen.
Unfortunately, this sudden burst of Martial Energy was enough to sober all the mercenaries up as their party halted. They might be lowly mercenaries, but anyone who worked in this profession had keen senses for danger. Otherwise, they would be dead! Owen was the closest to Benedict, so he sobered up instantly and bemoaned himself inwardly. Who was Benedict? Regardless of looking like a worn-down runaway slave, the sword by the boy's waist was no joke! Coupled with the fact that Benedict exerted a presence almost on par to those Perception Realm martial artists, while being extraordinarily young… A dullard could tell he was a unique existence! Due to alcohol, Owen got complacent and misjudged Benedict before as well. To think he committed the same blunder… Everyone watched as Benedict shrug his shoulders and walk away.
Benedict was never a confrontational person to begin with. Some might even call him cowardly and indeed, his darkest memories involving Isabella would indicate the same thing. He ran and left the girl he loved behind just to save his own pathetic life. Although Isabella begged him to leave and chose to sacrifice herself, how could he use that to justify himself? How could anyone? That regret only amplified with Elizabeth, Isabella's lookalike. However, he was aspiring to change his cowardice, bit by bit. After all, he was a young man and there was a long road ahead! In his mind, the first step towards that was undoubtedly reaching Perception Realm!
He unsheathed his sword and flexed his muscles, channeling Martial Energy! Since he had the energy, he was going to train! Spending every tiny bit of time to improve himself was the only way forward! His legs erupted with explosive power and propelled him through the uninhabited wilderness. On the way, they encountered a small group of boars which they scared off. Now, Benedict was going back to hunt them! Do not look down on boars. Wild boars killed people every year who underestimated them. Especially in a large pack, they could overrun a trained group of soldiers! But Benedict already had a grasp on Martial Energy, making his combat strength soar. The boars would be sufficient to further hone his skills! Elizabeth, Shirley, and Freon were the same way, spending their free time improving themselves to break into Rank 2!