The Money-Obssessed Archmage's Second Life As A Broke Duke-Chapter 45 - You Can’t Trust Him

Chapter Fourty Five

Snap!

The vegetable skewer in my hand snapped.

The salt and grease on my tongue suddenly turned to ash. I didn’t feel the cold of the snow anymore. I didn’t feel the fatigue that had been weighing down my bones for days. Instead, a white-hot spike of adrenaline pierced through my chest, burning away every ounce of my "dullness."

"What did you just say?" My eyes squinted as my voice dropped to a dangerously low register.

Lady Elena panted, her chest rising and falling in jagged, desperate gasps. Her dress was torn at the hem, and her face was pale with terror.

"The bandits! The bandits attacked, Your Grace! They are holding the Princess hostage! Zein and Sir Eatassh... they tried to fight, but they got badly injured. They had to throw their weapons. They couldn’t attack because the leader has a knife to The Princess’s throat. They’re... they’re beating them, Your Grace while threatening to kill The Princess."

Beside me, Kaelen stood up so fast he kicked the fire, sending a spray of orange sparks into the night. His hand went to his sword hilt, his face contorting into a mask of rage. "Master—!"

I didn’t wait for him to finish.

I stood up slowly. The air around me began to hum, a low-frequency vibration that made the nearby trees shiver. The small campfire I had built suddenly flared, turning from a cozy orange to a piercing, spectral blue as my mana reacted to my intent.

Using a teleportation spell, might be too much for me for now. But, there’s no other choice. I can’t risk anything happening to my money bank.

"Do you have anything Lily was wearing, right now?"

"Yes! Yes! A flower fell off The Princess’s dress. Here."

I grabbed the small, crushed fabric flower from Elena’s trembling palm. It was a pale pink silk, now stained with the grey slush of the North.

"Lady Elena, you go back and calm the citizens down."

"But, The Princess-"

"Go, Elena."

"Yes, Your Grace."

I grabbed Kaelen’s wrist. My mind raced, solving the spatial coordinates by anchoring onto the faint scent of lavender and sugar still clinging to the silk flower. It was a high-level resonance teleportation, a spell that usually required a ritual circle and a dozen mages.

I did it in three seconds. I wasn’t a genius for nothing after all. Plus, the mana here was so abundant. It took even lesser time than it initially took in my original world.

Voom—!

The world folded.

Kaelen let out a choked gasp as the air was sucked out of his lungs. To him, it probably felt like being pulled through a straw at the speed of sound. One moment we were in the quiet, dark woods, and the next—

BAM!

We slammed into existence in the center of the square. The sudden displacement created a shockwave of air that blew out half the nearby lanterns and sent a spray of snow outward like a frozen explosion.

"Huff... Puff..." My body felt like a weight of one tonne was attached to my waist.

Kaelen stumbled, his knees buckling. He looked around, his eyes wide and bloodshot, his face turning a sickly shade of green.

"We... we just... how...?" He puked a small amount of vegetable skewer into the snow, his brain failing to comprehend how we had just traveled half a mile in a literal heartbeat.

But I didn’t give have time to care about his nauseousness, right now.

The scene was even worse than Elena had described.

Sir Eatassh was on the ground, his face a mess of crimson while Zein was curled in a ball nearby, his fingers dug into the ice, trying to summon a spirit that wouldn’t come.

Well, there wasn’t much a first circle Necromancer with a mana heart can do in this first place. There’s only so much power that can be stored, keeping the heart as a core.

And there she was.

My Lily with her eyes closed, trembling with a blade to her neck. Just a little slip and her neck could get cut. I didn’t move. I stood as still as a statue, but inside, my mind there was a storm raging.

"Y... Your Grace... I’m sorry..." Sir Eatassh whimpered, while lying on the snow, clutching his stomach.

"It’s okay, Eatassh. Thank you for doing your best."

"...Daddy?" Lily whispered, her eyes fluttering open. The moment she saw me, her trembling intensified, but she didn’t scream. She was trying to be brave. For me.

Hah. People nowadays are getting braver. Touching my money bank carelessly.

"Stay there, Duke Halcrest!" the leader barked, his voice cracking. "If you take another step, I’ll slit this little girl’s throat! Don’t play any tricks if you want her alive!"

What a dog... Using a little girl who can’t even defend herself. When did these people’s spines break?

"Let the girl go," I said, my voice resonating the kind of calm that precedes a hurricane. "I’ll listen to your demands. I know why you’re here. Isn’t the leader of the bandits doing this so that the women and children under him can survive the winter? You’re desperate. You’re hungry."

The leader flinched. He hadn’t expected logic. He expected a screaming noble or a charging knight. "I..."

"However," I continued, my blue eyes locking onto his, "if anything happens to that child, I won’t be able to guarantee peace talks. You must have heard what happened to the orphanage director who harmed her. Do you want all the bandit families to suffer the same fate because you were too stupid to negotiate?"

"Leader! You can’t trust him!" one of the younger bandits shouted, pointing a crossbow with a trembling hand. "It’s because of him we are in this state!"

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[DING! CHARACTER INFORMATION EXTRACTION SUCCESSFUL!]

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[Character: Garrow Thorne]

[Position: Bandit King of the Northern Wilds / Ex-Knight Head Of Bloodbanner Viscounty]

[Age: 39]

[Potential: SSS-Class (Stealth & Observation)]

[Mana Circle: 9]

[Charm Points: 95 (Predatory Calm)]

[Loyalty Points: 0] 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

[Likability Points: 2 (???)]

[Description: A fallen knight who vanished into the Northern Wilds after having a spat with Eatassh Bloodbanner who stayed behind to protect citizens of the Duchy without asking for compensation, making his fellow companions suffer. He took the people of Vische Barony and some people of the Duchy who lost hope in you under him and took care of them. Master of ambush warfare. Don’t know why you have 2 Likability points with him.]

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So, he’s basically just a responsible Eatassh?

"I am also the one fixing that state. Make your choice, Garrow Throne."

"... How?"