Zanac Traversed the long narrow corridor of the dungeon along with three other individuals, His sister, the Marquis and Lakyus, unlike the other two and Zanac himself Lakyus did not need a change of clothes since she was already in her adventurer attire, although she did stick out amongst the individuals who wore plain brown potatoe sacks.
"So sister, are you willing to tell us who these prisoners you captured are?"
"Indeed your highness, I'm quite curious as well"
Zanac spoke, and the Marquis concurred with his words. Both had suspicion that it was probably some low ranking henchmen from eight fingers or perhaps some people higher in the chain of command.
While the name of a few members of eight fingers are known, it does not help that despite knowing the names Zanac and most other nobles have never really seen any of the high ranking members, one exception to this would be Barbro but even he only knows one high ranking member.
"I'm afraid I can't do that brother, you'll just have to wait and see"
It was the same thing she had told him when she brought the prisoners the other day, Zanac could not help but have higher expectations about the whole thing.
After a few moments of walking in silence, they arrived before three black doors that were guarded by three men, Zanac commanded them to open the doors, revealing each individual held within.
"So who are they?"
He asked. Looking at each cell, one could tell the difference between them, while the dark-skinned woman was chained to the wall like the other two. she looked less haggard and had practically no scratch on her, while the two men were battered and bruised.
"Brother, you're looking at two members of six arms, one former member who shall be my maid, courtesy of Arthur"
"Sister are you implying that you've captured 3 members of the eight fingers security department?!"
"I am not implying anything, I am informing you."
The prince could not help but remain silent as he heard his sister's words. He was stunned in silence. Gazeff was the most powerful warrior in the kingdom, fully equipped, no man could stand up to him however, even he would be hard pressed to take on three members of six arms.
"did blue rose assist in their capture?"
Marquis Raeven asked, Renner did not outright say it, but the implication seemed to be that Arthur did this by himself.
"no, they were on standby while Arthur subdued them, easily I might add"
Hearing such words, Zanac was no longer shocked but rather envious. He cursed his damned luck for not being the one to have Arthur as his knight.
On the other hand, Lakyus could not help but tighten her fist. It was clear to her that she could not compare to Arthur in strength and that she needed to train harder.
"Wait you said one of them was your maid?!"
Raeven asked in both confusion and shock.
"indeed, Arthur is powerful enough to have his opponents submit to him, speaking of that, release her, she'll be coming with us."
Renner commanded. However, Zanac did not order the guard to heed her command.
"you don't expect us to let a criminal go, do you?"
Zanac asked as he raised his hand, stopping the guards from heeding Renner's commands
"yes I do. If you wish Arthur to be officially knighted"
Renner informed, She was aware that the nobles knew of Arthur's value to the kingdom, the War with the Baharuth empire is a few months away and having Arthur and Gazeff fight for the kingdom would be the ideal situation, once this news of capturing 3 members of six arms spread Arthur's value will sky rocket.
This means that Renner doesn't have to put in a request for Arthur to be officially knighted. She simply has to bring up the idea, and the nobles will want to knight Arthur. She knows that Zanac should be able to understand this, meaning that she can threaten him with the idea of Arthur going to another kingdom.
"Ugh fine, release her"
He commanded, he couldn't help but sigh in defeat, Arthur may not be his knight or connected to him however the idea of Arthur going to Baharuth or the Slane theocracy was something he could not stomach, Both Baharuth and the theocracy had greater military might than the kingdom as such Re-estize needs someone to help them be on equal footing with both.
"Thank you brother"
She said with a wide smile, expressing gratitude toward her brother and Per Zanac's command The guards moved to release Edstrom from her Chains.
Renner could not help but feel elated as she watched what she wanted happen. She was certainly never letting Arthur leave her side.
…..
"Oof"
A man found himself slamming into the dirt ground with his chest as Brain had dodged his feeble attempt at an attack and tripped him.
"You guys are just weak, like come on, I'm not even trying here"
Brain proudly said as he watched multiple of his mercenary "friends" laid out on the Floor, some of them were groaning in pain, clutching body parts that were hurt during this impromptu training session.
"it's not like you're the second strongest swordsman in the kingdom or anything, so sorry for not being a challenge"
One of the men commented while rubbing his knee, and Brain could not help but smile. There was a great sense of accomplishment that filled him when he looked at the mercenaries before him. This convinced him that Gazeff would no longer be a problem for him if they were to fight against each other again.
Of course beating down a bunch random mercenaries with hardly any sword skills was not that impressive, however what was impressive was the fact there at least fifty of them and Brain had bested them all at once and he barely felt tired, in fact he felt he could take on a hundred more maybe even more than that.
"Well, how about we call It a day then? Seems like none of you will be a challenge anyway."
*snap!*
With the quickness of lightning, Brain turned around, his sword grasped tightly as he turned to see who was approaching. None of his men had gone out for anything as such, there should be no one who knows of their hideout.
The hideout in question was a cave on the side of a small hill, that he and the mercenaries had dug deeper into creating a large enough to house all of them, the cave was hidden behind a thicket of trees that obscured the cave from view.
"fucking hell, I might be lost"
A voice sounded from beyond the thicket of trees, Brain could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer. Brain signalled his men to remain on the ground partly to not alert the guest that seemed to be headed towards them and partly because it seemed that the person that was approaching was alone, meaning that Brain can fight him by himself if it's an enemy.
It took a few minutes before the man was revealed to him, he walked through the trees cursing the fact he didn't have anything to protect his face from being scratched by branches.
"finally a clearing"
The blonde haired knight stepped through and let out a Sigh before starting to pull out some leaves and branches out his hair.
"you lost, friend?"
Brain asked, feeling that the man was not a threat however he wore armour meaning he was a knight, so he was possibly sent here by someone or by some noble.
"What?! No I'm not"
Arthur quickly denied such an accusation, he came here because he wanted to be here and there fact the person he was looking for is before him is proof of that fact. He certainly didn't spend a good amount of time cursing the fact that in the anime it wasn't clear where Shalltear encountered Brain.
"Then might I ask what you are doing here?"
"I'm looking for you Brain Unglaus"
Brain squinted his eyes and took a stance indicating he was ready for battle.
"and why are you looking for me?"
"to recruit you to be part of my knight order, Gazeff is too loyal to the king so he wouldn't agree and so you're the next best thing"
Those words caused Brain to relax a bit however he did not like the implications that he was somehow second to Gazeff.
"I'm insulted that you think I'm second best to Gazeff, but regardless of that I'm not interested"
"what would it take for you to agree?"
Arthur asked, obviously he knew that Brain would not just accept his proposal but that didn't mean that Arthur had to just accept Brain's refusal, he just had to pull out the Ol' I refuse your refusal.
"I'm not about to Prance around Wearing armour and doing some fat nobles's bidding"
"You won't be working For a noble but Instead working for me and you don't gotta wear armour If you don't want to"
"Still not Interested"
Brain responded and Arthur could only roll his eyes, it seemed that it was time to give up and look for someone else.
"Oh well, I suppose you aren't worth much considering that you're weaker than Gazeff, see ya B–"
"Weaker? Please, bring Gazeff right here and I'll show how I'm better than him"
Brain interrupted Arthur before he could finish His sentence, his words seemed a little sarcastic but the seriousness in his eyes was clear as day and Arthur could not help but smile.
"How about we duel? If you're truly stronger than Gazeff then Beating someone he once taught and trained with should be an easy task right?"
Brain Scoffed at Arthur's proposal, the thought to refuse crossed his mind however, if the actually was taught and trained by Gazeff then a dual may help him glean something about Gazeff moves.
Brain Still remembers his battle with Gazeff vividly so, the duel may be help him be able to compare how similar Arthur's moves are to the old Gazeff in his mind.
"OK fine However since this is duel why don't add somethings to spice it up"
Brain suggested and Arthur Smiled, he was going to suggest that anyway.
"OK what are your conditions?"
He asked, seemingly more relaxed and uncaring which Brain found odd considering he was the one that suggested the duel.
"Simple, if you lose to me, you owe me a 100 gold coins"
"ok, But if you lose to me, you get to agree to join my knight order and be my surbodinate"
Brain closed his eyes and thought about before letting out a sigh and deciding to agree.
"Fine"
He agreed
Of course Arthur was aware that this duel of theirs is entirely illegitimate and Brain had zero obligation to follow the demands should he lose.
Arthur was not a firm believer of the Philosophy of might makes right however he understood that should you be stronger than someone else that means you can enforce your demands on them regardless if they like it or not as such he was not worries about Brain not following the demands.
...
A/N: Sorry yall, I actually wanted to write the fight with Brain on this Chapter but I kinda got a block on how to structure it so I had to hold off on writing it, honestly this whole chapter felt off and a little unsatisfying.