The minstrel cried loudly, nearly fainting, yet his face flushed with excitent.
Without waiting for Li Yu to respond, he continued, "My lord, these people had their hos destroyed by bandits and survived only by the blessing of Saturday.
"Seeing their pitiful state and having nowhere to go, I took the liberty of bringing them to see you. You... you won’t bla , will you?"
By the end of his speech, Kieren’s voice had begun to tremble; one might think the minstrel was compassionate, if not for the fact that he knew he was actually terrified.
Kieren knew he had reached a critical mont.
This gamble ant nothing up until now; it was only now that the outco would truly be decided. If Li Yu did not acknowledge his identity, all his eloquence would be in vain.
Otherwise, it would be a miraculous escape from death, a turnaround from a hopeless situation!
The ti it took for the minstrel to finish his last word was only a breath or two, but to Kieren, it felt as long as a hundred years.
He had even ntally prepared his farewell letter when he heard Li Yu say, "Rise first."
Hearing this, Kieren felt as if a great weight were lifted off him. Although Li Yu hadn’t imdiately acknowledged his identity, he hadn’t exposed him either.
The seemingly ambiguous attitude, however, appeared to others as a preconceived notion, believing it to be a heartwarming reunion between Saturday’s Prophet and his minstrel.
Li Yu went on to ask Kieren several questions, including how many people he had brought and where they were from; Kieren answered each one.
Soon after, Miss Rabbit and Wild among others, having heard the news, also hurried over, curious about the four thousand new followers that Li Yu had acquired.
Because people like Wild joined later, they did not doubt Kieren’s identity much, instead continuously marveling at Saturday’s strong pull.
But the Lady, who had been with Li Yu the whole ti, looked at the minstrel with suspicion.
Once everything was arranged, and the new refugees had been taken to the main forces’ camp and had received so blankets and food to stabilize their emotions,
Li Yu finally returned to Miss Rabbit’s tent with Kieren.
There weren’t many people inside the tent, other than the Lady and her loyal Guard Captain Thomas; there was no one else.
Apart from the minstrel whose background was sowhat unclear, everyone else belonged to the Double Rest Sect.
While Kieren was still showcasing his resilience outside just a second ago, as soon as he entered the tent, he decisively knelt down again.
"I’m sorry, Prophet rlin, I shouldn’t have pretended to be a missionary of the Double Rest Sect!"
"What on earth is going on?" Ireya was still utterly confused, not knowing where this minstrel had co from, nor why he had sent such a large wave of potential followers to the Double Rest Sect.
"My real na is Kieren, nicknad golden voice, originally a minstrel. Hearing about the various miracles perford by Prophet rlin, I greatly admired you and wanted to follow you, to find inspiration for my new poems.
"I spent the last of my money to rent an old horse, but not long after leaving the city, I ran into a band of robbers who wanted to kill . Having no other choice, I lied claiming I was a follower of the Double Rest Sect, Saturday’s appointed minstrel.
"At your command, I composed poems specifically for Saturdays, for the bandits feared the prowess of Saturdays, while also coveting the giant dragon blood in your possession, so they spared my life temporarily."
"So that was the case," Ireya nodded. "You were looking out for your own safety, which is understandable... But what about the refugees?"
"That’s because, although the bandits captured , they were not satisfied and continued pillaging the villages along the way. I couldn’t bear to watch them slaughter the innocents and violate the won, so I stepped forward again, invoking Saturdays to frighten them."
"They agreed to spare the lives of those villagers but were unwilling to return the property they had captured, and they also burned down the villagers’ hos, leaving them holess. Feeling sympathy for them, I brought them along."
Kieren continued, his face showing sha, "I actually wanted to explain to them that I wasn’t really a minstrel of Saturdays, but I feared the bandits would find out and co back for revenge, so I had to keep deceiving them."
"Moreover, seeing many people suddenly struck by disaster, feeling hopeless, I wrote a few more poems in the na of Saturdays to encourage them. However, I’m not deeply versed in the doctrines of the Double Rest Sect, so so inaccuracies and improper points inevitably slipped in."
"That’s okay; you’re not a missionary of the Double Rest Sect but just a poet, so it’s normal to have so omissions while preaching," said Li Yu.
Just then, his waistband’s wireless intercom beeped; it was from Jude.
The man with the ugly face had followed Hawkeye and others for a while and was fairly certain these people were bandits, not rcenaries.
He roughly estimated their number to be between twenty and thirty, better equipped than typical bandits, and very alert.
They had left White Stone Beach and imdiately entered a forest, where the drone’s vision was severely limited by the tree canopy.
The battery was nearly dead as well, so Jude recalled the drone to replace the battery, and those people disappeared from sight.
However, the man with the ugly face could continue pursuing the bandits based on the traces left in the woods, as Jude was also a master in this regard.
Yet, going deeper ant an increased possibility of being ambushed. Rembering Li Yu’s command before leaving, the Deputy Commander of the Black Dog Guards ultimately decided not to pursue any further.
And the ssage Jude brought back coincidentally matched Kieren’s statents.
Li Yu put away the wireless intercom and looked towards the minstrel, seeing him also staring back with a pitiful look.
"What are your plans for the future?"
"If possible, I hope to officially join the Double Rest Sect and beco a follower of Saturdays," Kieren said without hesitation.
"Aren’t you already a minstrel for Saturdays?" Li Yu countered.
Kieren was initially stunned, then his face lit up with ecstatic joy, "This... Does this an I can represent the Double Rest Sect and compose poems in the future? And when you perform miracles again, can I also observe at the side and be the first to write them down?!"
"Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to portray you as extraordinarily wise and powerful! If necessary, I can even write poems to criticize your opponents," the minstrel said, growing more excited.
"Your main task right now is to look after those new refugees who seem to trust you greatly. How did you manage that?"
"Boosting morale and stirring up emotions is my specialty," Kieren said proudly.
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