Ramblings: I ruined a perfectly fine pork belly by accident. It was the saltiest and driest pork I have cooked in a while, darn it. It tasted so good in the beginning too :/

Romaine was in a rare state where she was quiet and still, sitting obediently in front of Brendel with a lowered head. If she did not peek from the corners of her eyes at Brendel, she actually appeared to be quite like a noble’s daughter.

Of course that would only be true, if one was to discount her shabby appearance, with her face covered with soot and her tattered clothes.

The real noble’s daughter who sat beside Romaine was roughly in the same state. She clutched her cloak that was full of holes from the explosion with a lowered head that was covered with full of ashes, and appeared anxious.

“Brendel, I....” Romaine saw Brendel’s furious face relaxed a little and rushed to explain herself, but before she was able to finish her sentence, the latter’s glare sent her words back down her throat.

She had no choice but to lower her head gloomily.

She was sure that her plan was perfect, and if it was not for the small mistake at the end , she would have helped him a lot. Even if there was just a tiny problem at the end, it flattened a few Lizardmen right? It even sealed off their escape route too.

She told herself that she needed to put less Exploding Crystals the next time she did it.

If Brendel knew what she was thinking, he would probably spank her immediately. He and Nalaethar went to inspect the area after the explosions. Based on Amandina’s calculation, the plan was indeed able to kill the majority of the Lizardmen that escaped towards the hills. Unfortunately it was clear that she worked with the wrong person, or to be precise, that plan would never have materialized. If the troublemaker Romaine did not see that plan, then the plan would simply remain on paper.

Unfortunately, history did not have the word ‘if’ in it. Just like how Romaine did not have the word ‘caution’ in her dictionary, her plans were constructed in reality.

Brendel cast his gaze back on Amandina. She seemed to feel his eyes looking at her, and she shrank a little and said in a small voice: “I’m sorry my lord, this is my fault....”

“No, this has nothing to do with you.” Brendel shook his head.

Amandina’s mind was blank for a moment. She thought he would ask her to take responsibility for this matter. It was clear to everyone how much he spoiled Romaine, and if something was to happen to her, she did not know how Brendel would react. She had gotten used to being Brendel’s aide and his finances, and she felt that she would not be able to go back to her old life if he did not want to use her any longer.

[If Romaine did not change Amandina’s dosage on her own she would not caused the explosion to go wrong. In the end, only a few Lizardmen died and nearly caused the two of them to get buried because of the improper explosion. If Amandina did not realize something was wrong, the results would have been disastrous.]

Brendel could not help but glare at Romaine when he thought about this point. This was also the thing that made him the angriest. He did not mind Romaine helping out, as long as she did not act senselessly and placed herself in danger.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead.

This girl from Bucce looked as if she was able to see things clearly like it was an innate talent, but at times she seemed so out of the world that it caused him headaches.

“Amandina, did you create plans like this all the time?” He suddenly asked.

Amandina felt troubled again and was full of shame. He had treated her like an equal noble of his status, and other than the slight difficulty of traveling, she felt that there was nothing to complain about.

“I apologize....”

“No,” Brendel continued to glare at Romaine to check whether she was reflecting on her mistake.: “I’m asking if you’re coming up with plans on your own whenever something is happening.”

She blinked twice before nodding. Ever since she joined him, she had planned various schemes every time he acted and was even proud of them, but he was always better and certainly proved that she was always lacking. In front of his foresight which was verging on precognition, she felt that it was almost like a joke for wanting to become his advisor

Even so, she had never given up on this habit. Now she made these plans to judge herself instead of her initial goal to become his advisor. She would constantly check her plans as the events unfold to see whether she had improved on her old mistakes, but she did not expect Romaine to peek at her boldest plans amongst the ones she did.

She felt like Mother Marsha was playing a joke on her.

“Why didn’t you show them to me?” He asked.

“I....”

The youth was silent for a moment as he guessed what she was thinking. “Miss Amandina, you were the one to recommend yourself to become my advisor. Since that is the case, isn’t it to be expected for you to tell me your plans?”

“I’m sorry.... I know that, but all the time your plans.... I didn’t know that I’m so immature. In the future, I’ll—“

“Brendel, the entire thing is my fault, stop picking on Amandina-” Romaine interrupted the conversation.

Brendel nearly failed to keep a straight face from the sudden interruption because he was angry.

[Shit. Luckily I told the Nightsong Tiger and Nalaethar to give me some space, otherwise I really can’t maintain my appearance as a lord.]

He took a deep breath, ignored Romaine and continued his words from before: “Miss Amandina, there’s no one who is accomplished from the very beginning. You are especially different, as there are very few who has an astute mind like yours. If you give up your chance to become my advisor because of your childish thoughts, then you’re wasting your talents and Mother Marsha’s efforts.”

Amandina looked at him with confusion and incomprehension.

“There is always a limit to a person’s understanding of a given situation. The Nightsong Tiger is able to help me solve many things because of his experience, but he cannot match one particular thing that you possess.” He pointed repeatedly at his head as he looked at her. “Miss Amandina. I hope that you don’t stay outside of my circle any longer. I believe you can help me. Are you willing to do so?”

He wanted to give her confidence and comfort. A conman like himself could easily shake her confidence, especially when she had such a strong desire to win.

[Even if I don’t change history too much, this foresight of mine can only last for a few years. In the game the players had a great impact of how the world turned out, and without their interaction in this world, ‘history’ will definitely differ from what I know. Even though I can still use my experience to look at things, the ability to know what the future holds will be heavily discounted. Just this mission alone is enough to show me that there were things I missed out.]

In the game he was not the best warrior or the best commander, and while he could try to become the former with items and experience, the latter had to be done with other means.

[I have the Goddess of War with me in the future, but that won’t be enough. Amandina can see the entire situation just from a few details and that isn’t something that I can do easily. While she isn’t someone who’s omniscient she’s more than enough to be an advisor.]

Amandina was deeply moved by Brendel’s words. There was nothing more precious than give trust to someone like her who was proud. Even though she still felt that Brendel was merely consoling her, she nodded earnestly and was determined to help him.

Brendel did not expect the shy Amandina to have such a strong reaction as he thought he was only able to dismiss her worries. His eyes went back to Romaine as he asked: “Do you still have any Exploding Crystals left?”

“My lord, you know about them?” Amandina looked at her in disbelief.

“Something like that....” Brendel coughed awkwardly.

[This thing isn’t invented yet? Don’t tell me that this girl also invented the Exploding Crystals too, coincidence much?]

But he still tried to gloss it over: “The High Tower’s wizards have something similar, so I’m just asking.”

“That’s a coincidence,” Amandina said in a small voice: “I named them as Exploding Crystals too. I used the discarded materials during the creation of Magicite. They are capable of piercing through the surrounding structure of an object, displacing their stability, allowing the Elements to become active, and ultimately causes an explosion.”

[You really created this!]

Brendel’s head spun to her again. This was something quite big in the game, although it was gradually phased out in the later half of the Madara War. Gamers agreed that they were the ‘explosives’ in this fantasy world, but the stability of the crystals were poor and not suited to be kept in storage. It was quite effective in the early stages, but the strength of the undead units were eventually strong enough at the end of the war to withstand it.

“Do you have more of them?” He asked.

“I have a few more left,” Amandina immediately answered: “If my lord needs them, I can make them overnight.”

“Overnight?” Brendel’s eyes became wide. Was it not supposed to take at least half a month?

Brendel thought history might have changed because he took her along with him when he saw her nodding. He wanted to ask for more details, but he saw the Nightsong Tiger beckoning at him with an urgent expression.

[Damn it, isn’t he supposed to be with the lucky babe to gather the loot? I wanted to ask about this hack.]

But the Nightsong Tiger looked like he was about to run up, so he quickly gave his instructions: “If it’s possible, I want everyone to have one or two of them. Also, these crystals are unstable right?”

Amandina felt a little numb at Brendel’s know-it-all words and nodded after a moment of shock.

[Okay! It looks like there’s no sudden change in history.]

“I’ll teach you a method to let it stabilize a little longer. But that method’s effectiveness has its limit, so you need to research on it.”

“What?” She uttered a surprised gasp as she watched Brendel leave who appeared relieved.

[He even knows how to stabilize it....]

Her confidence that was repaired from Brendel’s encouragement was once again shattered with his words. She thought she would have at some advantages in creating Magicite-related artifacts, but he seemed to know even more than her.

However, this was a misunderstanding because Brendel did not take on such a profession in the game and knew nothing about it. He did have some knowledge about a few recipes and materials regarding to the profession though.

While Amandina was swimming in a pool of misery, Romaine finally gave a long sigh of relief as the only person who could control her left.

“Thank you, Amandina.” She looked gratefully at Amandina and said.

[I’ll be grateful enough if you don’t give me anymore trouble.] Amandina glanced at her and shook her head hurriedly. She was terrified of this girl.

But Romaine did not seem like she intended to let the only one whom she could talk to off the hook. She thought for a while and asked: “Oh, that’s right, did you see that earlier?”

“That?”

“You know, there are a few flying lights that came towards us like fireflies when we were escaping. Did you notice them?”

“I....”

“Did you?”

“I think I did....”

============= Brendel POV ==============

When Brendel met up with the Nightsong Tiger, he saw him with a thick book covered in leather. That was without a doubt an item from the Dark Bishop, which were covered with scorched marks left from the explosion of Dark Mana.

[The lucky babe really has the golden touch of Midas. She can even scrounge items from one of the poorest mob. Damn, it would be fun to watch the reaction of the other gamers if I can post them screenshots online.]

“What’s this?” He asked.

The Nightsong Tiger looked at him secretively, and opened the book in front of him.

Brendel’s eyes turned into dots when he saw what was in them.