Chapter 521 — Southland Observations

The young lady knight did indeed show a reserved smile; she brushed the hilt of the rune sword with the back of her hand, and there was a little pride in her voice: "This is the sword the Duke bestowed on me—it is my pride."

"It would seem to be a transcendent armament?"

"Yes, it is a rune sword," Margarita smiled. "But I cannot show it to you here—once it is activated, the blade would cut through the shell of this carriage with ease. It is too dangerous."

Victoria could not help but put on a look of admiration—however much of that admiration was mere courtesy, Margarita took the cue and began to explain: "…Of course, the sword is not only mighty. The finest swordsmith has adjusted the balance of the blade; it is comfortable and nimble swung in one hand, and full of force when taken in both hands for a cut. The hilt is custom work as well: unscrew the pommel, and within lies hidden a single man's single dose of healing draught. In other words, so long as the sword stays by him, a soldier has at least one chance at life, even should all his other supplies be lost…"

Victoria listened to Margarita's account with close attention, and she had indeed got the useful intelligence she sought… yet somehow she could not help feeling that the lady knight's easy, well-worn turns of phrase as she described her sword had the sound of something learned by heart…

And when Margarita had finished describing her own sword, she succeeded in rousing the Duchess of the North's interest in the suit of white commander's magic-energy armor she wore.

The magical energy that ran in the seams of that armor and the runes in its fine details had long since told Victoria that this too was a transcendent armament.

"This armor was likewise the Duke's gift—it carried me through the worst of battlefields (watching the artillery pound the walls outside Boulder Fortress), kept me unharmed before five times my number of foes (when the captives were being received), and in it I charged through the gate of Boulder Fortress (in truth I walked in, for by the time the Second Legion came into the city there was no gate to speak of; the walls themselves had been blown to nothing). It is armor to be trusted—and look, if you will, at its distinctive pattern…"

Victoria nodded without thinking: "…Indeed… very beautiful…"

The young lady knight before her was, to her surprise, a great talker.

It seemed this journey would not be dull after all.

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