Chapter 154 (2/2)

As for Wharton, his mouth opened a few times, clearly feeling the need to speak to Link. However, despite the many attempts, he was unable to let out an audible sound. He did not manage to say what he wanted to in the end.

Link’s transformation was too drastic. He was no longer the little brother he could bully, but an unfathomable powerful Magician. Thinking on his previous attempt to suppress him, Wharton couldn’t help but feel ridiculous. He must have looked like a clown.

At the same time, he was overcome with embarrassment and rage. He did not know how to face Link.

After he was brought back to his room, only Lilith and Molly were left.

Their feelings were much simpler and direct. After the initial shock, only joy and relief remained in their hearts. In Lilith’s eyes, no matter how powerful Link became, he was still her son.

She witnessed the entire battle and saw a confident and powerful Link dominating the battlefield. It reminded her slightly of the old Duke when he was younger. No, in fact, her son exceeded the old Duke in every way.

She was incredibly proud.

Lilith smiled as Link walked towards her. Tears of joy flowed down from her eyes. Her son had finally become strong enough to protect her after all these years. She no longer had to suffer in this cold and cruel household.

Molly felt both joy and respect at the same time. She lowered her head and averted Link’s gaze the entire time. She felt that the gaze was incredibly oppressive. When Link stared at her, she instinctively bowed before realizing that Link was simply her younger brother.

“Brother…” She could not continue her sentence.

Link concealed his magic presence seeing the slight expression of fear on their faces. His expression was then restored back to the gentle and inviting smile he had previously.

He spoke softly, “The castle is slightly messy, I will have to let the servants clean it up. Mother, sister, please go rest in your rooms.”

“Oh, alright.” The two woman then headed back to their rooms.

There were only a few servants left and around twenty soldiers who were lucky enough to survive the massacre. At this moment, Clyde had also returned.

Link then said, “Clyde, the castle needs to restore its daily operations as soon as possible. The losses have to be calculated as well.”

Clyde patted his chest and said, “I will take care of it!”

He then took the remaining soldiers away while Link followed closely behind.

The three Dark Elves were indeed powerful. They merely took a total of five minutes from their initial attack to when they reached the dining hall.

In this time, they killed a total of 180 people, less than 10 of whom were servants while the rest were soldiers. There was even a Level-3 Family Knight among the casualties.

This efficiency was astonishing.

When the bodies were finally accounted for, the plaza was almost filled with dead bodies. There were close to no injured personnel, all of them were killed in a single blow.

The mood was heavy.

Link also felt apologetic at the sight of this scene. He was the reason the three Dark Elves made their way to the Morani castle. He had indirectly taken the lives of these soldiers. He sighed before speaking, “They were all loyal Warriors. Their souls have reached the heavens. In order to ease their worrying hearts, I have decided to compensate their families for their deaths.”

The soldiers who were lucky to be alive listened intently. Clyde, on the other hand, had a worried look on his face. This was a huge number of casualties. If they compensated the families at the standard rate of eight gold coins per soldier, that would add up to 1400 gold coins. Their family did not have this amount of wealth.

He wanted to remind Link about their economic predicament but was unable to in front of the surviving soldiers. He could only stare at Link anxiously.

Link saw Clyde’s uncomfortable movements but ignored them completely. He faced the soldiers and continued, “Every dead soldier will receive 20 gold coins in compensation while every servant will receive 15 gold coins. For all those surviving servants and soldiers, you will be rewarded with ten gold coins each.”

This caused a commotion within the 20 surviving soldiers, clearly excited over the news. However, some of the veteran soldiers had a look of suspicion on their faces. They clearly did not believe that the Morani Family would have this much money.

Clyde could no longer contain himself. After all, it was better to stop this atrocity now than to lose their reputation because they could not come up with enough money for the compensation. He pulled Link over and whispered, “Third brother, our family does not have this much money… this is…”

Before he could continue, Link used action to contradict his words.

A crisp sound of metal colliding against one another echoed through the plaza. Under the illumination of the surrounding light from the torches, a blanket of shimmering circular objects covered the snow ground.

They were gold coins, a huge amount of them!

Link had asked for 6000 gold coins in advance from Herrera previously. However, before he could spend this money, an accident happened. He thus had over 5000 gold coins left in his dimensional pendant. This was merely 4000 gold coins, not even his entire fortune.

Link then rebutted, “Brother, I guess this would be enough?”

Of course!

In fact, everyone in the plaza was staring at the golden phenomenon on the snow-covered ground. Two of the Warriors who were not completely dead suddenly seemed to be filled with energy, coughing and desperately signaling to their surviving comrades that they were still alive. Link cast an Elemental Healing spell on each of the soldiers who escaped from the clutches of death at the sight of this golden wonder.

All the suspicion in their hearts dissipated completely at the sight of these gold coins.

“Brother, use these to settle the compensation issues. As for the rest of the money, use them to repair the castle.

“Yes, no problem!” Clyde no longer knew what to say. He had this sudden realization that all his worries were nothing in front of his younger brother.

To the surviving soldiers, they would be loyal to anyone who gave them enough compensation. Furthermore, it would be for the best if their master was both generous and powerful at the same time. They could not let this great opportunity slip past them.

A Warrior started chanting the first name of the Morani family. Soon, the entire plaza was chanting in excitement, “Morani! Morani! Morani!”

Clyde looked at the excited faces around him and his heart burned with a newfound passion.

When he returned to the Silver Fortress, he would confidently announce, “I am from the Morani Family, the brother of Link, the great Magician!”