Pillar of Yita

”They?” Miss Red Leaf looked at him with suspicion, sensing the implication in his words, ”What about you?”

Fang Hong glanced outside the square and frowned, ”After leaving the Phantom Realm, I haven’t seen Miss Hilveld and her maid; I’m worried something might have happened to them. Before I leave, I must look around here.”

”No,” Miss Red Leaf stared at him with knitted brows, a face full of disapproval, ”It’s too dangerous for you to stay behind alone. Maybe they have already left on their own.”

”Impossible,” Fang Hong shook his head, ”I know Miss Hilveld well. She’s not one to act hastily.”

”I’ve heard about that woman from Gita,” Miss Red Leaf told him, ”She has ulterior motives towards you, Ade. As a friend, I’m warning you. She might not mean any harm, but you don’t need to be entirely sincere.”

”I know there might be some jest in this situation, but since Miss Hilveld has called me Captain, I must take up the responsibility,” Fang Hong had always been clear in his heart, but he was also clear on the way he judged values, ”Miss Hilveld has her own judgment, but I also have mine.”

”Moreover, there’s Miss Atira and Gita, too. Initially, I had Tianlan hide in the Haggston Cemetery District. They might not know what has happened in the Phantom Realm and now it naturally falls on me to lead them away.”

Fang Hong’s words were logical, and after hearing them Miss Red Leaf fell silent.

However, she looked at him with a slightly peculiar gaze.

Fang Hong’s words had touched her deeply; she knew that in the early Stargate Era, such a sense of responsibility could be seen in the older generation of Invokers.

Yet nowadays, such Invokers were becoming increasingly rare.

And because they were rare, they were all the more admirable.

After a moment of reflection, Miss Red Leaf bit her lip and said to him, ”Then be careful.”

”Don’t worry, I have this,” Fang Hong took out a brass-covered sphere and waved it in front of her, saying with a smile, ”When it comes to operating Clockwork Fairies, Miss Red Leaf, you’re no match for me.”

His words instantly dispelled the bit of emotion she had just felt, and she gritted her teeth and said to him, ”I’m reminding you to be careful not to drag Gita into trouble, you brat!”

Fang Hong laughed heartily before turning around to give orders to Hudi and Diket, among others.

The Papalarians were still insistently saying they wanted to accompany Fang Hong to help rescue people, which somewhat surprised him. How had this guy suddenly changed his tune?

It turned out Miss Red Leaf quickly exposed the truth. The man still harbored a persistent greed for the ’treasure’ beneath Hustings.

Of course, Fang Hong wouldn’t bring this troublemaker along and so he flatly refused.

Once everyone was assembled, it was Hudi and Hes’s turn to bid farewell to Fang Hong, and then Miss Red Leaf stepped forward again, looked at him seriously, and suddenly said:

”You really should join us, Ade. You need to seriously consider my suggestion. There’s no better place for you than Tabopolis—at least in Eteliria. It is only here that you will find the ideals you believe in.”

If someone else had said this to him, Fang Hong would have scoffed.

The experience at the Elf Ruins had left him with no fond feelings for the Grand Guilds. But Miss Red Leaf was different. Although she didn’t say it, after two adventures together, he had long come to see her as a comrade with whom he could share life and death.

And Fang Hong knew that given Miss Red Leaf’s character, she would never say such things to him without a good reason.

But he had his own path to follow and would not be easily swayed by the words of others.

Fang Hong smiled faintly and simply nodded at her, ”I will seriously consider all of this, Miss Red Leaf. Tabopolis is a fine place, but friendship doesn’t have to be limited to one kind of relationship.”

Miss Red Leaf looked at him somewhat wistfully, knowing that this was, in fact, a polite refusal.

She really hoped he would join the Knight Order.

Because she was certain that this young man’s future achievements would far surpass her own. She even had a presentiment that he could bring a different kind of change to the Knight Order, potentially being a catalyst for Tabopolis to enter a new world.

If Fang Hong were willing, she would even give up her position and resources to let him replace her as the future core of Tabopolis.

But unfortunately, he was destined not to belong to a small place like Tabopolis.

Miss Red Leaf sighed, but she didn’t feel too disappointed.

At least Fang Hong was right; friendship doesn’t have to have only one kind of relationship. She knew with his character, the fact that he was having this conversation with her meant at least he didn’t have a bad impression of the Knight Order.

At least the Silver Forest Spear didn’t receive such treatment.

Thinking this, her mood improved slightly. After nodding to Fang Hong, she led everyone away from Grey Oak Square.

But not long after they left, the Tabopolis Oak Knights’ Alchemist Miss turned back for another look in that direction, only to see Fang Hong waving at them.

Red Leaf still felt a vague sense of loss, always feeling like she had missed something.

But in fact, if not for the fact that there were knights from Tabopolis who needed her to lead them away, if Captain Recall was still in this place, she would have insisted on staying and undertaking this mission with him, no matter what.

Unfortunately, reality knows no ifs.

Fang Hong watched from afar as Hudi and Hes looked back repeatedly until he saw them disappear around the perimeter of the square. Only then did he step out from his hiding spot.

He felt an unexpected surge of emotion—

This emotion came from the first time he found that familiar Eteliria—friendship and bonds, adventure and encounters, and everything behind them.

He raised the Clockwork Fairy in his hands, the brass-engraved Construct buzzed as its wings vibrated and it soared high into the sky.

Fang Hong looked up as the tiny thing turned into a shining speck.

Above the azure sky, white clouds formed long trails that drifted towards the sea of sky above Eteliria, carried slowly by the high-altitude winds tens of thousands of meters above.

And the thin wings of the fairy, carrying only a bizarre dream, flew higher and higher until it overlooked the earth below.

The forests of Dolifen.

At that moment, it seemed like the starting point of this dream.

...

Faint noises came from above the cave, a rustling sound as if something was digging its way out.

The darkness was filled with a pungent musty smell; the passage was narrow and damp but not so much to cause one to bump into the walls. Because in the corners grew clusters of luminescent fungi, these strange plants with bent stems looked like colorful goose-necked bottles amidst the glowing lights.

But suddenly, with a crash, one side of the cave collapsed, revealing a small opening. Tianlan and Gita stood carefully on the other side of the hole, probing the floor of the passage with Atira’s spear before whispering, ”Seems like there’s no problem.”

”But I’ve felt that since earlier, this place has become somewhat different.” The ground was wet and cold, not at all like the stuffy heat of the underground passages elsewhere, it felt like there was air conditioning, causing one’s hair to stand on end.

Gita cupped her hands over her mouth, breathing out a faint white mist, and frowned as she spoke to Tianlan.

”That’s true,” Tianlan looked at the skull of a rodent that had died an unknown time ago in the tunnel and frowned, ”I do feel the same, but the fact is that nothing has changed.”

The two then turned to look at the Elf Miss behind them.

Atira’s gaze was fixed on the depths of the darkness.

As a believer of Ameya, she was indeed the most sensitive to changes in nature. From the moment the Phantom Realm changed, she had already perceived something wrong.

The most profound change was that the intangible connection with nature within the Phantom Realm suddenly became real.

It felt as though all of a sudden, she had returned to reality.

But subtly, the thing at the other end of the passage made her feel even more uneasy. She was approaching it, but became hesitant.

She didn’t know why she had to come to this place, especially with Gita and Tianlan by her side.

Then.

She saw that door.

An ancient door, rusted and slumbering in the darkness.

...