Walking out from the
Guild.
Tsukasa finally received the commission fee that belonged to her.
Because the Guild Master had previously paid 500 gold coins to the Four Sages, they felt embarrassed to ask for the bounty for subjugating the Goblin King. Furthermore, seeing that the Guild's audit was taking a long time to pass, they decided to give the entire bounty to Tsukasa. Therefore, the Guild no longer needed to ask for their opinion and paid the bounty directly to Tsukasa at the Guild branch in the Kingdom's capital.
The Adventurers Guild itself was fully capable of paying this bounty. If it weren't for the major nations being unwilling to see the Guild remain independent of royal authority and insisting on interfering in the Guild's business, this matter wouldn't have been so troublesome. However, even if the major powers controlled the Guilds within their own borders, the independence and status of the Adventurers Guild still warranted caution from all nations; after all, the strength of Adventurers was not to be underestimated.
There were also rumors that the founder behind the Adventurers Guild was someone from the Theocracy. The Theocracy was a group of human-supremacist fanatics; though they were the protectors of humanity, they were extremely xenophobic toward other races, even to the point of madness where they would actively go out to invade them. Moreover, they would use their own methods to judge the value of other nations. If they determined a nation no longer had value, they would judge that nation in the name of being humanity's protectors. This behavior of acting as if they were the masters of humanity naturally could not gain everyone's support.
Neither the Kingdom nor the Empire liked the Theocracy, but the Theocracy's historical achievements were undeniable; they had indeed protected humanity during countless disasters. Furthermore, they were the descendants of the six great gods and possessed an extremely high bloodline status. Combined with the legacy items left by the six great gods and the power of the God-kins who inherited the bloodline of the six great gods, the Theocracy's status was currently unshakable.
However, these matters had nothing to do with ordinary people. As an Adventurer, Tsukasa only needed to know that the Adventurers Guild was strong enough. As a top-tier Adventurer, she held extremely high authority and would receive good treatment regardless of which country she went to. As for the relationship between the Guild and the Theocracy, she had no need to know the details so clearly.
Stowing the bag of gold coins into her Magic Item, Tsukasa no longer had any interest in continuing to watch the swordsmanship tournament.
"Hanta, go back to the inn and bring the carriage over. We're getting ready to head back."
"Yes, I'll go prepare right away."
Hanta left as ordered. Although Hanta didn't want to waste the money spent on the swordsmanship tournament ticket, as a coachman, he naturally had no objections since his master for this trip had made the decision.
Tsukasa and Alice stood at the Guild entrance. They saw a unit of cavalry rushing toward the city gates. The man leading them was the Kingdom's Warrior Chief, whom she had defeated not long ago. She found it a bit strange; that man had clearly lost his strength due to the side effects of his Martial Arts. Even with magical healing, he wouldn't recover all at once. What on earth had happened to make him leave in such a hurry, even ignoring tomorrow's swordsmanship tournament?
Not long after, Hanta arrived with the carriage. He walked to Tsukasa's side and said in a lowered voice, "My Lady, this is bad. Everyone at the inn is saying that the Empire's army has appeared at the Kingdom's border. We must leave the city quickly. It's very likely they will lock down the city next to check the identities of outsiders."
Hanta was worried that the Kingdom would put out a warrant for their arrest next, since they had just attacked that Warrior Chief. Although they hadn't harmed him, the current situation was wrong. The Empire's army appearing at the Kingdom's border at a time like this coincided perfectly. Even he couldn't help but suspect now whether they were on a secret mission during this visit to the Kingdom.
When Tsukasa heard Hanta's words, her first instinct was that someone was plotting against her. The first candidate she thought of was the Empire's Blood Emperor, because that Emperor was entirely capable of doing such a thing. However, after seeing Hanta's anxious expression, she felt something was off. If it were the Blood Emperor's doing, then Hanta, who was traveling with them, would most likely be the Blood Emperor's man. And based on the intelligence she had gathered about the Blood Emperor, if that Emperor truly decided to use her to create chaos in the Kingdom, Hanta's behavior at this moment wouldn't be like this.
This wasn't the Blood Emperor's usual style. If this were truly the Blood Emperor's handiwork, then Hanta, who was by her side, should be shouting: 'The Imperial Sword Saint is here!' to draw all of the Kingdom's attention to her. That way, the Kingdom wouldn't notice the situation at the border until they had dealt with her.
And even without her.
With the Blood Emperor's methods, it would be impossible for the Empire's soldiers to be discovered by the Kingdom's scouts just as they entered the border. If the Blood Emperor had truly made such a decision, he would have certainly made preparations to deal with this situation in advance. As for whether this was news deliberately leaked by the Empire to lure the Kingdom's Warrior Chief? She felt the possibility was slim, as the Empire didn't have absolute certainty that they could take down this Warrior Chief. Even if he fell into a trap, with the Warrior Chief's strength, it was very likely he could break through the encirclement and escape.
Unless the Blood Emperor was ruthless enough to send out the Four Knights, the Chief Mage, and other high-level Imperial combatants. But given the Empire's current situation, there was no need to take such a risk. Moreover, even sending such a lineup to attack the Warrior Chief couldn't guarantee the mission's completion, let alone the fact that sending a squad composed of all high-level combatants into the Kingdom was inherently filled with immense risk. If the Kingdom discovered intelligence on these important figures, they would likely send a large army to surround them. At that time, forget about killing the Warrior Chief; they themselves would first fall into a difficult
situation.
Tsukasa frowned.
She felt something was wrong with this matter.
However, she knew she wasn't good at analyzing such things, so even if she felt there was a problem, she couldn't confidently say her guess was correct. Thus, she quickly gave up on thinking about it.
"Alice, get in the carriage."
Tsukasa led Alice into the carriage.
"Hanta, leave the Kingdom at maximum speed. Do not enter any other cities to stay along the way."
"Yes!"
The carriage drove toward the city gate, but right after the Warrior Chief had left the city, security was currently tight. Although the Warrior Chief had just instructed them not to stop those who wanted to leave the city afterward, the Noble Faction's orders had already been issued in advance. That was to intercept everyone who wanted to leave the city once the Warrior Chief had departed.
Some people just refused to believe in bad luck.
They wanted to witness the swordsmanship of the Imperial Sword Saint.
"My Lady, the city gate is locked."
Hanta shouted anxiously.
Inside the carriage, the Sword Saint's voice came out:
"Charge through!"
"Huh?!"
Hanta cracked the whip, and the carriage accelerated.
He saw the Kingdom's guards in front of the gate had already raised their spears. The tightly closed city gate made him feel a sense of despair; it was simply impossible to charge through!
He suppressed the fear in his heart and gritted his teeth as he looked forward, even though he didn't feel there was a shred of hope.
But he chose to believe in the Sword Saint!
Just when everyone thought the carriage would crash into the city gate, a faint light flickered on the carriage. Then, the carriage ignored the city gate and, under everyone's gaze, passed right through it.
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