Pillar of Yita

After saying that, he finally opened the door.

But when the door opened, both of them were momentarily stunned.

Behind the door was a bright light, somewhat dazzling, causing the three of them, who had already grown accustomed to the dark environment, to squint their eyes instantly.

However, the Combat Artisan’s wind goggles had a filtering capability, so Fang Hong was the first to adjust and could see the environment clearly.

It was another office—

He had not yet had time to make out the furnishings of the office when a deep roar interrupted his thoughts, ”Enough, cancel the celebration? Just for some unfounded concerns, you are joking!”

An old man dressed in noble garb, holding the Zealot’s Mark of Sacrifice, disdainfully flung it with a ’clang’ at the feet of Diket and Luen.

The old man stood beside the office desk, behind him a large floor-to-ceiling window; the bright sunlight streamed in from outside, and Fang Hong could even see the tall crowns of pine trees in the courtyard outside.

He then recognized the place—The Chief Praetor’s office at the City Hall.

The identity of the other party thus became obvious.

The last Chief Praetor of Dolifen, Declan Groselle.

Diket looked emotionlessly at the pin by his feet as if completely disregarding the Earl’s fury, slowly bent down to pick it up, and brushed off the dust with his hand.

The young man beside him had already turned pale with fright and hurriedly stammered an explanation to Earl Declan, ”Lord Praetor, we didn’t mean that, but what we said is certainly not a lie; the pin really was taken from within Holite Academy, and those lists, they are all genuinely authentic things.”

Declan laughed coldly in anger.

”Mr. Luen,” he said coldly, ”I gave you this opportunity because of the Colin Commerce Alliance, but I think your actions have already exceeded the permissions of the Alliance, and I will inform them of your conduct accurately. Now, please leave before I change my mind.”

Luen was shocked and quickly said, ”Lord Praetor, please reconsider. If something really happens at the celebration, it would also be a big problem for you.”

”Are you threatening me?”

”I’m not... ”

”Enough, I warn you again, and you—Knight,” the old man coldly pointed at the two, ”you better not cause trouble. There will be distinguished guests at the celebration, and you’d better hope nothing goes wrong at my celebration; otherwise, I will remember you rats first.”

”This is the advice I give you on behalf of the Grossel Family, I assume you don’t want to test the sharpness of the Grossel Family executioner’s axe with your necks,” the old man repeated, ”Now, get out!”

Luen opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something else.

But just then, the office door was suddenly thrust open with a bang. This startled Fang Hong beside it, knowing that this was the office of a Chief Praetor, representing the authority of the Colin Royal Family.

Even local nobles with real power wouldn’t dare to disregard royal authority so blatantly.

But the newcomer was not any noble; instead, it was a short man dressed in an Alchemist’s robe, with a face full of cunning and guile, only short of having ”I am the villain” written on his face.

Fang Hong had not seen this man in the Phantom Realm, but seeing the star and decorations on his robe, Fang Hong understood who had arrived.

There were only five Artisan Masters in the Elpaxin Artisan Association, and in Dolifen, the only Artisan Master could only be the leader of the Manlo School,

who was also the dean of the Holite Academy.

”This man is Manlo Huolite?”

And Manlo Huolite was already speaking in a shrill voice to Declan, ”Mr. Praetor, I believe the Dolifen Artisan sub-association has not offended you for you to send people to illegally enter my office, I will report this matter accurately to Lord Magus.”

Fang Hong was slightly stunned.

Because the name mentioned by Manlo Huolite felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t recall it immediately. Just as he was confused, the situation in the Phantom Realm took a drastic turn.

Declan faced Manlo with a stern expression and said, ”I’m afraid you’ve misunderstood something, Mr. Manlo, but indeed I have caught these rats that broke into your office.”

He banged on the desk and shouted, ”Guard, arrest these two damned men.”

Just as he finished speaking, Fang Hong saw several Morning Knights clad in red cloaks rush into the office from outside. Seeing this, Luen, who was standing next to Diket, was so frightened that his hair nearly stood on end, and without a thought, he retreated towards the document room on the other side of the office.

But the older knight grabbed his arm and calmly said to those people, ”Don’t walk into the trap, jump from the window.”

As he spoke, he drew his longsword and hurled it toward Lord Praetor Dolphins not far away. Declan could never have dreamed that the opponent would dare to strike him at this time, and in his panic, he raised the Scepter of Authority to block, but he missed.

The longsword slashed a gash on his arm, and he couldn’t help but scream in pain, the scepter also slipping from his grip and rolling to the ground.

At the same time, he screamed, ”Guards, guards, protect me!”

The Morning Knights were also taken aback, clearly not expecting a Paladin of Marlan to act so crazily, and momentarily they didn’t know whether to capture the man or protect their primary target.

Capturing him seemed more reasonable since Diket and Luen were closer to them, but on the other hand, their primary duty was to protect the Chief Praetor, a holy mission given by His Majesty the King.

If anything happened to Declan here, their reputations would be ruined.

But in that moment of hesitation, Diket had already poker-facedly kicked the French window, breaking it outward, and glass shards cascaded down like a waterfall.

He grabbed Luen and threw him out, then looked back once before jumping out himself.

It was only then that the knights reacted, but being Heavy Armored Knights, they naturally didn’t dare jump from the second floor like Diket did; they could only turn and rush downstairs to give chase.

Fang Hong, not bothering to look at Earl Declan, who was still wailing in pain on the ground, rushed to the window and saw below that Diket was helping Luen up, then pushed him and said,

”Split up, meet at Lady Tengye’s Inn. If you come across Miss Misu first, try to get her out early. I’ll follow soon.”

”Alright,” Luen quickly nodded, ”Take care, Mr. Diket.”

The older knight glanced at him and nodded slightly.

Then the two turned and ran each into the forest, Fang Hong watched as their figures faded like smoke, and then the whole scene began to collapse.

Like sand.

He turned around, and in an instant, but what Governor Dolphins and the Morning Knights in the City Hall office?

The previous scene seemed nothing but a phantom, and the once grand office was now empty, left only with dust and ruins.

He and Madam Hilveld stood facing each other, between them the massive Orrery.

Declan still lay in that pose under the Orrery, but now only a skeleton remained—just as they had seen when they were hiding in this office with the people from Tabopolis.

Fang Hong just silently watched this scene.

After quite a while, he said looking at the skeleton, ”So this skeleton is indeed Declan Groselle. A Chief Praetor dies here unknown—”

”But the problem is, unless Diket’s sword was poisoned, that one sword strike shouldn’t have been enough to kill him.”

Hilveld shook her head lightly at these words.

”Even with poison, it wouldn’t leave a Chief Praetor exposed here like this. He had knights and servants; how could they let him die so miserably in this place?”

”Unless?”

”Unless something else happened.”

The young noblewoman moved to one side, picking something up from the ground. Fang Hong looked puzzled until he saw that she had picked up the dropped Scepter of Authority.

Hilveld didn’t look at it, just handed the scepter directly to him.

Fang Hong took the scepter and his eyes flickered slightly—

”The ignorant’s Scepter of Pride...”

”The second scene,” Hilveld said, looking at him.

...