Chapter 142 — Bard Wendell's Intelligence

There could no longer be any doubt about the cultist's identity.

Bard Wendell, former Wolf General of the Typhon Empire, a duke's son who had once possessed a glorious station and an immeasurable future.

Yet here he was, defeated by Gao Yang as a fifth-rank fallen druid, and in the end he had even lost an arm to a grenade.

What on earth had happened in between?

To discover a great stain on a high-ranking figure of a neighboring country (and one that could now be called an enemy country) was certainly a gain, but what Gao Yang was more curious about at this moment was what sort of unbelievable course of life Bard Wendell had gone through to reach this point. Such an astonishing transformation could hardly be explained by a few ups and downs in life—it was more like ups and downs and downs and downs and downs. He could not help but speak up and ask the agent lady before him: "I don't know much about the nobles of the various countries today. How much do you know about that Bard Wendell and his family? How much can you tell me?"

"The Mithril Vault is not a dedicated intelligence organization. What we know is limited to matters that can circulate and do not involve secrets," Meitzen nodded slightly. "Bard Wendell, the only son of Duke Peiyi Wendell, was exceptionally gifted and diligent, and at the same time a devout follower of the God of War, Kael. From childhood he received an elite noble education and the teachings of the Church of the God of War, and at the age of ten he displayed Kael's spiritual gift. After his conversion he rapidly grew into a powerful godfavored knight, his strength approaching the high rank. He was the most outstanding transcendent among the younger generation of Typhon's previous era."

"Stop," Gao Yang interrupted Meitzen. "So you're saying his transcendent class was godfavored knight?"

"That's right—at least that's what the outside world says, and I believe there's no problem with that intelligence."

"When he fought me, he had only very strong swordsmanship and not a trace of Kael's divine power about him," Gao Yang said gravely. "All of his transcendent power belonged to druidic magic. Of that I am certain."

"Perhaps some cause led to his loss of the God of War Kael's protection," Meitzen speculated. "That may well be exactly why he threw himself into the cult."

"Never mind that. Go on—you said earlier that Bard disappeared more than ten years ago. What was that about?"

Meitzen nodded: "After passing the God of War Kael's trials and tests, Bard Wendell formally took over the 'Wolf General' title passed down in their family from his father, and was elevated by the Typhon Emperor to knight lord, becoming one of the high-ranking commanders of the Typhon Empire's knight order. But he remained in that position for only a year. During a routine standoff on the Ansul-Typhon border, he and an elite knight company were sent outside the city on a reconnaissance mission, and before everyone's eyes they walked into a thick fog and vanished along with it. Only three days later were several knights, already driven mad, found wandering the wilderness—and Bard Wendell and the rest of the elite knights remain missing to this day."

At this point Meitzen added a few words in passing: "In recent years relations between Typhon and Ansul have worsened steadily, and Bard Wendell's disappearance greatly aggravated that trend. The Typhon side believed Ansul had used dark arts to murder their commander, while the Ansul side believed it was a farce staged by Typhon itself, its purpose simply to find a pretext for sending more troops. In fact, at the time this nearly led the two sides to open war, but when the situation was at its worst, Bard Wendell's father, Duke Peiyi, voluntarily declared that his only son's disappearance had nothing to do with Ansul, and so the war did not break out."

Gao Yang lightly pinched his chin: "Peiyi Wendell? Was he of the anti-war faction?"

"No, quite the opposite. Before that he had always been a key military minister of Typhon, and a steady pro-war man. Several of Typhon's military reforms were completed by him in assistance to His Imperial Majesty. So when that old duke suddenly stepped forward to prevent the war, it truly made a crowd of people's eyes pop. And after that, the old duke shifted from his original pro-war stance to neutrality. He still pushed forward Typhon's military reforms, but repeatedly delayed the Empire's border military operations on grounds such as the timing not being ripe. Although many later events proved his judgments sound, this transformation of his still set the outside world buzzing..."

Gao Yang let out a slow breath and pinched the bridge of his nose, sinking into thought.

A shining star of tomorrow, a devout and powerful "Wolf General," vanished in a simple military operation, remained missing for more than ten years, and then suddenly appeared in a godforsaken corner of southern Ansul—not only stripped of all his godfavored knight power, but turned into a fifth-rank fallen druid. And the old duke, once pro-war, after losing his son not only did not go after the "suspected culprit" but repeatedly prevented the outbreak of war. What was the connection between these two things? Had the old duke learned something that led to his later transformation?

To make a devout godfavored knight betray his faith—and betray it all the way into a cult formed by another religion—the cause of that could not be simple. A thought suddenly surfaced in Gao Yang's mind: could it be that Bard Wendell had learned the truth that "the gods are dead"?!

Among all the intelligence he currently possessed, only this one point could explain the earth-shaking change that had come over Bard!

Gao Yang's thoughts could not help but extend further: if contact with the truth had caused Bard Wendell to forsake his faith, did that mean his original divine spell power had been lost at the same time, for the same reason?

So long as one could not maintain faith in the god, one would lose the corresponding divine spells?

Then what were divine spells? A kind of "cheap" transcendent ability obtained simply by firmly believing that some god was out there fooling... protecting you?

But power that great had to have a source...

So going round and round, Gao Yang suddenly found himself back at the question that had troubled him not long ago:

At a time when "the gods are dead," those priests and believers who still kept their piety and obtained divine power through prayer and ritual—what exactly were the things they prayed to and worshipped?!

"Your Grace?" Meitzen, seeing Gao Yang silent for a long while, finally could not help speaking. "Your Grace, are you listening?"

Gao Yang snapped back to attention. He rubbed his brow and asked offhandedly: "Did Bard Wendell have any children?"

"Before he disappeared he left a young daughter, Anluo Wendell. More than ten years have passed now, and that little girl has grown up, and the Wendell family bloodline has shown its influence in her as well: her swordsmanship is as outstanding as her father's," Meitzen said unhurriedly. "Anluo has now also been appointed a knight lord by the Typhon Emperor, serving as commander of one of the branch companies in the imperial knight order. This is probably some sort of compensation, but the girl has done fairly well in the position. The outside world believes that with only one or two battle merits, Anluo Wendell will be able to take over the title of 'Wolf General' just as her father did, and become the next head of the Wendell family."

"The name that hotheaded youngster gave himself back then has actually become a family glory now," Gao Yang remarked, shaking his head, then asked, "So this Anluo Wendell is like her father—a follower of the God of War Kael, a godfavored knight?"