Pillar of Yita

For quite some time, Fang Hong quietly watched the other’s departing figure, not quite sure what he felt inside.

He knew that before long, Miya would venture to the second world with her brother, and when they would meet again was uncertain.

He had thought that the distance between them had narrowed somewhat, but now he realized it was still as vast as ever, and he understood that he had been holding back a certain pressure in his heart all this time, seemingly wanting to prove something.

But no matter what.

He had finally taken the first step.

He would go to the second world, and one day, he would catch up to her.

Catch up to that shadow in his heart.

After Miya left, the room fell silent once again, the quiet moments ebbing and flowing like sunshine. The two remaining people didn’t speak first, Miss Hilveld was in no hurry, her hands crossed in front of her dress, contentedly watching her captain.

Under the afternoon sun, the young man shed his prior ’disguise,’ no longer the resolute, slightly distant ’Hero’ in people’s eyes, less masculine but more reassuring in essence.

He was simply wearing a long-sleeved shirt, even appearing somewhat frail, just a kind-hearted young man. But it was this that made him seem all the more real to her—the contrast made her reminisce about the moment he had reached out to her underground.

Perhaps that was her captain, the warm sunlight illuminating Fang Hong, but it also brought a soft warmth to the young girl’s heart.

Yet she smiled faintly to herself, her expression becoming somewhat distant as she took out something and placed it in front of Fang Hong, ”Captain, a statement of intent.”

”What’s this?”

Fang Hong was initially startled and took a moment to notice what Miss Hilveld had handed him; it was a stack of parchment, dry and slightly yellowed. He looked at Miss Hilveld, whose expression was even a bit indifferent, making him feel at a loss.

She’d been smiling just a moment ago.

He had a vague idea why, but for a moment, he didn’t know how to speak.

Should he explain?

But it seemed unnecessary—

”Maps,” Hilveld replied.

”Maps?”

”Copied from that obelisk,” Hilveld spoke as if narrating something unrelated to herself, ”Didn’t the captain ask me why I wanted to go there? These maps are very important to me; saving the captain was just incidental.”

”Really?” Fang Hong looked skeptically into Hilveld’s blue eyes, feeling she was lying, but there was an uneasy feeling in his heart—a hint of unhappiness.

Miss Hilveld nodded.

She stretched out her hand, her fingertips gently caressing the dry parchment, her expression softening as she spoke gently, ”Miss Miya told the captain a bedtime story, so how about I also tell the captain a story?”

When she said this, she had not been without hesitation, but in the dark underground, when Fang Hong returned her father’s Lion Handgun to her and spoke those words, Miss Hilveld realized that she had, in fact, made up her mind.

But Fang Hong was oblivious to the girl’s delicate thoughts, his face reddening: ”You, you heard that?”

He feared a terrible truth; how long had the noble lady been standing behind the door?

”Miss, Miss Hilveld?”

But seeing his flustered state, Miss Hilveld finally couldn’t help but smile discreetly, ”This story starts with my real name—”

”Your real name?”

Fang Hong then remembered that Hilveld had never shared her full name.

And Miss Hilveld began to tell her story:

”A long, long time ago, a little girl was born in Felsban—The captain might have heard of that place; it’s a small village near Gula, adjacent to the endless Egon Forest. In midsummer, the wilderness is lush and sprawling.”

”So, on that summer day, the little girl came into this world. Her name was, as it would be later, Hilveld Feng Albert.”

Hearing this, Fang Hong was completely stunned: ”Wait, you’re not from the Rose Family...”

Miss Hilveld narrowed her eyes: ”I never said I wasn’t part of the Westwood Sibika family; after all, the creator of Meimei was also my maternal grandfather.”

”Maternal grandfather…” Fang Hong’s mind whirred, but as he looked at Miss Hilveld, his eyes widened in shock—because he thought of someone, someone who had married a daughter of the Westwood Sibika family.

The reason he knew this person.

Was because his name was so well-known.

His name was—

Mawei von Albert.

He was the owner of the Mawei Fleet, the captain of the Storm Watcher, the greatest explorer of the Kingdom of Ishurian in two hundred years, possibly the only person who had come close to the second bridge in this century.

And Hilveld…

Was his daughter!?

”Miss Hilveld, you…” Fang Hong recalled what Princess Briana had told him but could never have imagined that the daughter of the great explorer, who vanished in the storm, had been by his side all along.

But the noble lady gently pushed his hand away, speaking differently.

”There’s something else I didn’t tell you, Lord Captain, but I think it might still be in time to say it now.”

”Because the person you intend to search for in Golande, is actually me.”

”Yes, it’s me, I’m the one who hired Miss Atira’s brother—Mr. Kid.”

...