Chapter 538 A Strange Rumor (1/2)

The next morning, Rhode followed Emily's lead on the chariot to the silver ore mine operated by the Edward Trade Association. Of course, Rhode had heard from Emily that her father, the Chairman of the Edward Trade Association, would receive him personally and discuss the business trade with her. Rhode wasn't surprised by this arrangement. Even though his disguise was outstanding and his identity of coming from the Country of Light was a great cover, merchants would always be merchants, and no matter how profane, money-making was their main priority. If Rhode didn't bring out enough sincerity and attitude, the Edward Trade Association wouldn't be blindly deceived by him.

”That's the excavation mine that our Edward Trade Association controls, Miss Seren.” Emily pointed delightfully and Rhode nodded in agreement. He narrowed his eyes and turned toward where she had pointed. The image looked exactly the same as in his memory. Nothing had changed.

”It's a pity that Miss Celestina is feeling unwell and she can't come on this trip with us…”

Emily's words dragged Rhode out of his reverie. He simply smiled and Celia, who was seated beside them, tilted her head curiously and gazed at her Master. It was apparent that this Battle Angel wasn't convinced of Rhode's excuse of Celestina not acclimatizing to the environment. After all, Celia knew better than anyone else what her elder sister had been up to.

However, she was rather inquisitive about the exact happenings last night.

Although Celestina was a formidable presence in her eyes, Rhode wasn't a Master who was easy to deal with. He was smart, decisive, cunning, and sometimes sinister. Moreover, he was never mindful about his pride nor appearance. As a Holy Sword Spirit Card, Celia maintained her self-conscious even when she wasn't in human form. But she was more like a spectator instead of a participant when she was in her weapon form.

Due to this reason, Celia had observed Rhode's battle style countless times and frankly speaking, she wasn't able to accept its cruelty. There were many times when he performed shamelessly and was unregretful after the whole incident. What made her knit her brows the most was that Rhode was different from the humans she had met before. The humans would find an excuse for themselves after doing a bad deed, but Rhode would behave as though he liked to do it. This crazy wildness was somewhat unbearable for a kind, orderly Battle Angel. But she eventually tolerated this point of his because this was her mission and she understood the situation. No matter what, at least he was progressing in the situation and she admitted that there were indeed many situations that couldn't be resolved by screaming justice slogans.

This was why Celia didn't believe that Celestina could give Rhode a hard time. But she also didn't feel that Rhode would do anything to Celestina. After all, they were summoned spirits who had a Master-Slave relationship, where not only did the spirits need to respect their Master, but the Master must also return a certain extent of respect back. Celia observed that Rhode had always treasured his summoned spirits, which was why she felt that even though Celestina was taken advantage of, she would just yell out in fluster and exasperation and everything would return to its usual state.

But this time, the situation was apparently different.

Celestina shut herself in her room and refused to come out, asserting that she needed more rest because she wasn't acclimatized to the environment. This reason was still plausible for an outsider like Emily, but it sounded totally like an excuse for another summoned spirit like Celia. Although Celia did check in with Celestina spiritually, Celestina stuck to the statement that she simply needed more rest and Celia had no choice but to accept that explanation.

However, even though Celia wasn't aware of what had exactly happened, there was something that she was sure about. Master must have tortured Celestina bad enough. She had been with Celestina for so many years and this was the first time she had seen her that miserable. If it were in the past, Celestina's arrogant nature would force her to stand out, no matter what failures she had faced. Celestina and Rhode were similar in a certain aspect. They were determined to do what they wished to and they wouldn't come up with any excuses after doing it, no matter if the consequences were good or bad. Therefore, if it were a normal conflict, it wouldn't be possible for Celestina to behave like an ostrich. This proved that she was afraid of Rhode…

But… What exactly did Master do to Big Sister?

This question lingered in her mind. This pure Battle Angel counterpart racked her brains and she couldn't figure out what methods Rhode used to discipline her elder sister. Could it be that both of them fought? And Master defeated Big Sister? That isn't too possible… Even though Big Sister's powers were diminished due to the seal, their fight wouldn't end easily if they had fought seriously and I would surely have detected some signs of activities.

In fact, Celia's guesses weren't exactly wrong. Last night, Rhode and Celestina had indeed gone into a 'huge battle', and Celestina surrendered to Rhode's 'violent smashes'…

The chariot entered the mine.

Unlike the busy mines in Deep Stone City, this mine seemed relatively unfrequented and the atmosphere was rather tense. Rhode knew the cause of that. The instant he exited the chariot, he spotted a dozen fully armed soldiers surrounding the mine, holding crossbows and swords, backs against the group. It seemed that they weren't preventing miners from escaping, but to stand guard from intruders.

”You must feel surprised, Miss Seren,” Emily showed a bitter smile. ”These are our Edward Trade Association's private soldiers. They are here to guard against outsiders who are looking to cause trouble in our mine… After all… This is in the deep mountains and sometimes there will be…”

Emily paused while Rhode had understood their purpose.

It was apparent that the private soldiers were guarding against the Howard Family members. In Fiat, the secret struggles between the two families were known to the public. But this was great news for Rhode because he was pondering on schemes to incite the Edward Trade Association and now, it seemed that the Reformist Party's declaration of independence had tensed up the mood in here. The air around him was as though filled with gunpowder and it would explode so soon as he lit a spark.

Emily led the group into the mine and Rhode spotted the Edward Trade Association Chairman, Phillip Edward: a tall, slim man with two artistic mustaches above his lips. He wore a ridiculous scarlet, skintight outfit and a hat of peacock feathers. Edward was surprised to see that the woman arriving to discuss business with him was such an outstanding beauty. He actually turned up his nose when he first heard from his subordinates about Rhode and his two maids. This was what most normal men thought. Beautiful women were nothing more than just flower vases. They were visually attractive but useless in reality. Moreover, a merchant's nature was to upsell an ordinary item. This was why Edward refused to take his subordinates' words seriously. But now, this experienced and knowledgeable merchant's pupils shrunk instantly. He gazed at the black-haired young lady unbelievably like the entire world had turned black and white apart from her. ”Greetings, Miss Seren.”