Pillar of Yita

Luo Yu rarely looked at him quietly, then glanced at Gita: ”How do you plan to handle those things that day?”

Upon hearing this question, Luo Hao fell into silence.

”You recognized them too?” He looked at the two, then asked.

Gita nodded. Luo Yu replied: ”It was Gita who recognized them.”

Gita wondered for a moment: ”I, I’m actually not too sure...” Then added: ”If Brother Ade were here, he would definitely recognize them...”

Luo Hao sighed. He originally thought he was the only one who had recognized those things. However, he didn’t intend to keep it to himself, it was just that those things weren’t the priority right now. If the Dawood couldn’t return, those things being placed there would be in vain.

He then answered: ”There’s no need for the Captain to come, I can recognize those things. They should be what you imagine... and should be the remnants after they’ve been used...”

Hearing this, Gita widened her eyes, her small mouth also opened slightly, looking somewhat cute. ”Doesn’t that mean the Arcanists might be creating...?”

”Not Arcanists,” Luo Hao shook his head, interrupting her: ”Arcanists are only one of the Executors; don’t forget what Lord Captain told us. The person behind it should be King of Sand Barbaltan. I understand what you mean, this information is indeed very important, especially for the Captain... I guess the Magicians placed explosives on the ship just to destroy evidence...”

But he changed his tone: ”But the most important thing now is to return the ship, as the Communication Crystal is unusable, and it’s impossible to leave any image data. If the ship sinks, these things would be worthless to us.”

The two listened and both nodded.

...

After meeting with Berlede, Fang Hong obtained access to the Royal Library.

Aleph was very efficient, just as he promised, bringing him to the Royal Palace the next day. With a Prince’s assurance and having become acquainted with the Watcher, Fang Hong could now enter the place alone—of course, only limited to the library area.

This matter seemed smoother than imagined, everything was going according to plan. It seemed finding an opportunity to meet the Grand Princess next would be naturally. But after three consecutive days in the Royal Library, Fang Hong found things were not as simple as he imagined.

Firstly, the Royal Library is located on the edge of the Royal Residence and is actually not entirely within the Forbidden Palace area. Aleph’s influence was very limited, unable to allow him free entry and exit into other areas. A few times he pretended to walk wrong and was quickly stopped by the Guard.

The Istania Palace’s security was more tight than he imagined and after observing it for several days, Fang Hong realized that even if he planned to sneak in, he would soon be caught under normal circumstances.

Of course, being closer to the Royal Palace made him even more hesitant to act recklessly. After all, he was recommended by Master Berlede and had Aleph’s verbal guarantee to freely enter this place. If caught by the Guard, these two would have a hard time avoiding implication.

Although he befriended Aleph with some intent, Aleph’s help was concrete. Master Berlede also taught him generously—Fang Hong confessed he couldn’t do something like repaying kindness with enmity.

Of course, he couldn’t confirm if the Seven Seas Travel Group was involved in this whirlpool or not—

If Miss Hilveld or others were in danger, he might not care so much.

Time passed day by day, and soon another three days went by. But what made Fang Hong slightly uneasy was that there was still no sign of communication recovery.

The positive thing was he could connect to the community, but the community was still in offline state from about a month ago, without any new posts. He tried posting but was prompted that communication status was limited. After that night, the community went offline again. However, with these one or two experiences, Fang Hong was relieved.

At least nothing major happened, it seemed the disturbances in the Ether Network were only temporary.

This situation evidently was experienced by others, and caused some discussion among the Invokers in the city. But as the community fell silent again, the topic quickly faded away. Everyone silently waited for the communication to recover, not just Invokers, but natives as well.

The Artisan Association and Adventurers’ Guild haven’t received any news from Colin’s north for more than half a month.

However, news from within Istania Kingdom, following the Messenger’s footsteps, gradually gathered information, allowing people to understand snippets about what’s happening outside. These bits of information mainly consisted of news about disaster-hit regions and the post-disaster rebuilding works among other important updates.

Like this, Fang Hong waited another week.

This week he was not entirely without gains; at least regarding the ’Stellar Network,’ his learning finally made some breakthrough. After studying the documents left by Master Mayote, he understood some of Delan’s ideas, although very limited. Reading, however, increased his cognitive experience by a few thousand points.

Better than nothing.

In the last few days, he nearly completely gave up on continuing to consult materials, opting to transcribe these books instead. During this period, Aleph came to find him several times, and Master Berlede also visited once. They showed little curiosity towards his actions, as both understood Fang Hong was an Invoker and unlikely to stay in one place for long.