The displeased tone of the person in the room made the knight tense up involuntarily. He turned around to look at Brand.

"Tell him, it’s because the stable’s porter swapped the black beans with regular forage on their own accord," Brand responded simply with a mouth shape. He was well aware that purebred Binod horses are incredibly delicate, their feed is specially made, and the beans in the forage must be the black beans unique to the Sulun Plateau, otherwise issues arise. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The knight quickly parroted this explanation, and this time, the person in the room believed it about eighty percent. In fact, he hadn’t really suspected anything from the start—after all, this was Ambeser, and he couldn’t imagine anyone daring to cause trouble under the Holy Temple’s watchful eyes. He pondered for a moment, then replied, "This is truly troublesome; wait for me outside."

Soon, the sound of rustling clothes came from the room. After a moment, the Knight Captain opened the door. He was just about to sternly reprimand his careless knight subordinates—these knights were under his direct command, and the problem they caused would ultimately fall on him to explain to the Count, especially since it was the Count’s most beloved warhorse that had the issue, which made him extremely annoyed. However, before he could speak, Brand, Andreg, and Medphis rushed into the room first.

Enemies! In that instant, the Knight Captain realized. Ronin, famous for years at Yan Castle, became the Guard Team captain at a young age and had extensive experience with enemies; carrying his sword at all times was a habit. The moment Brand and the other two entered the room, this middle-aged knight had already drawn his sword.

Ronen’s reaction speed startled even Brand—it was truly quick. If it were any other enemy, this Knight Captain might have had time to raise an alarm. However, unfortunately for him, he faced even more abnormal opponents. Just Brand and the other two were all Golden Rank, easily overwhelming him with their advantage; Andreg and Medphis had a racial edge, and Brand himself was more than capable of taking on opponents with Elemental Manifestation.

At least Eagle Djal was proof of that.

When Brand made his move, Ronin was instantly terrified — the gap in swordsmanship was completely not a question of level. Instinctively, he wanted to retreat to alert others in the manor. Yet, at that moment, he heard a calm voice:

"Silence Domain."

Char stood outside the room and pointed inside. A silence domain covering nearly a twenty-foot radius immediately unfolded, as if some unknown existence swallowed all sounds within its range in an instant. Sparks flew between crossing swords, yet no sound was emitted. The scene was extremely eerie, though Sir Knight had no time to care about any of this — as soon as the silence domain expanded, Brand unleashed his attacks more freely. After just three bouts, Ronin was forced to surrender.

In truth, it wasn’t that Sir Knight wanted to give up his sword, but rather that if he didn’t drop it, he’d probably lose his hand as well. Reluctantly, he had to drop the longsword and raise his hands.

Only then did Brand halt his assault, pointing his sword at the other’s heart — unable to help but glance at this knight. The latter still maintained the noble spirit, surrendering only after realizing any effort was futile, which was far more principled than the knight behind him.

In fact, that’s just how it was in this era; you couldn’t expect knights to do too much for a lord, unless they were true Death Knights. Very few would make unwarranted sacrifices for their liege. The current situation was no different from the various nobles who fled during the Ridenburg chaos. Brand didn’t feel surprised at all.

"Who are you?" Ronin raised his hands, yet his eyes still sharply fixed on Brand and the others, mouthing the words.

"None of your business," Brand replied. "Now, I need to borrow the Earl’s help to accomplish something. I can guarantee it won’t harm his life, nor put him in any adverse situation."

"The Earl has no reason to comply with you thieving scoundrels," Ronin said calmly, though his tone was mocking.

Brand shrugged, feeling slightly shamed about being called a thieving scoundrel. But there wasn’t time to care about all that now: "We control the situation currently, and that’s a sufficient reason. In fact, we don’t need you to do anything; just stay here for this period." By this point, Char had already enacted a Soundproofing Magic, thus revoking the Silence Technique.