Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong also didn’t expect that the Seven Seas Travel Group was not forcibly brought to Quistack with the Princess, but rather she voluntarily brought them back.

However, her reasoning was reasonable, and he could not think of any objections for the moment. After pondering for a while, he merely asked: ”So where are they now?”

”No need to worry,” the Grand Princess said again, ”My father’s target is just me. I have Achilles place them in the city, safely with no concerns. But not all of Mr. Ade’s companions are in Quistack; some have stayed in Tansnier.”

She paused: ”That’s because the Seven Seas Traveler is still there, Mr. Ade’s companions requested to leave people behind to guard it. After weighing the pros and cons, I agreed.”

”Those left are the Paladin Mr. Rotao and a Lady Elf. Before leaving, I specifically sealed the shipyard. As long as they don’t leave the shipyard, there’s no safety concern.”

Fang Hong discerned that those left behind should be Miss Atira and the Big Cat People. If these two stayed in Tansnier, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Moreover, he roughly understood now that the Arcanist’s target wasn’t the Seven Seas Travel Group. With Miss Atira and the reliability of the Big Cat People, staying in Tansnier naturally posed no problem at all.

But other people should have arrived in Quistack, so the person in charge here...

And at this time, the Grand Princess spoke again: ”Although I’m under soft confinement in the Royal Palace, I’m not completely cut off from the outside world. Sometimes, I also learn about your people’s situation through Achilles. Currently in the Royal Capital, the person mainly responsible is your Miss Ship’s Officer. Her name is Hilveld, isn’t it? She truly is a capable person.”

”In fact, it’s all thanks to her outstanding ability. The day after Mr. Ade went missing, we clarified the relationship of this matter to the Arcanist and tracked their movements, thereby guessing that Mr. Ade might be in Bain. If it weren’t for that sudden sandstorm, we might have already started the rescue.”

Speaking of this, she slightly squinted her eyes.

”... However, as Miss Hilveld said, Bain is indeed no match for Mr. Ade.”

”Did Hilveld really say that?” Fang Hong was taken aback, not expecting Miss Ship’s Officer to trust him so much, subconsciously asking.

Yet, as soon as he spoke, he realized his question might be too hasty. Looking up, he indeed saw the Grand Princess with a teasing expression in her eyes, making him blush slightly.

Fortunately, he and Hilveld had nothing to hide, and thinking so, his face thickened again.

”Are they all in the city now?”

Fang Hong couldn’t help but ask another question.

Though he asked, he was speechless inside, realizing everyone was much safer than expected, with the so-called dangers nonexistent. And that so-called infiltration plan seemed purely redundant. He took such great risks, almost causing a ’diplomatic incident.’

As a result, everyone wasn’t even in the Royal Palace.

But then he thought, Quistack was so vast; if not for finding the Grand Princess, he wouldn’t even know where others were unless communication resumed. But this returned to the original question—under the circumstances of not having restored communications, how did he know so much?

Thus, infiltrating the Royal Palace seemed still necessary.

To his question, the Grand Princess only nodded slightly. ”After Mr. Ade leaves, I will have Achilles take you to that place.”

Fang Hong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

As if a heavy stone pressed in his heart for days had completely landed at this moment.

Moreover, after relaxing, he realized he seemed to only care about the Seven Seas Travel Group’s issue—though he did say that infiltrating the Royal Palace was only for this purpose, considering the Princess’s current situation, it seemed not quite right to just turn around and walk away?

After all, she helped them a great deal both in sentiment and reason, even if they had an employment relationship, bringing the Seven Seas Travel Group to Quistack was entirely beyond her duty.

More importantly, Fang Hong hadn’t forgotten that the Seven Seas Traveler was still inside the Royal Family’s shipyard and hadn’t come out yet.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but ask: ”...About the Bain matter, does the Princess know too?”

Upon hearing this question.

The Grand Princess fell silent for the first time.

After a long time, she gently nodded.

”Does the Princess know the reason?” Fang Hong then asked—this was indeed one of his questions. Although Bishop Faris did tell him some ’insider information,’ even if the King of Sand Barbaltan absurdly wished to resurrect the Queen, how did this conflict with what his eldest daughter was doing?

He was very clear that the Grand Princess’s commission to them was merely to investigate the whereabouts of the assailant who attacked her mother—doesn’t this align with the King of Sand’s expectations? Even if it might involve the Blind Followers, if solely for this reason, for the King of Sand Barbaltan to order his eldest daughter’s confinement.

The reason would be somewhat far-fetched.

Moreover, based on his experiences in Bain, it was obvious the Arcanist and Count Nulman had an elaborate plan, indicating the conflict between the Grand Princess and the King of Sand Barbaltan wasn’t something formed overnight—meaning, even without them, the King of Sand Barbaltan might have ordered the Grand Princess to return to Quistack at this juncture.

This was quite strange.

Clearly, they couldn’t comprehend the King of Sand Barbaltan’s motive for acting this way, merely because of missing links in this chain of information.

Though he had gathered a lot of information from various aspects, among these fragmented pieces of information, they were evidently missing several critical ones to connect these clues.

”Originally, I wasn’t clear either,” the Grand Princess answered slowly after hearing his question, ”but since the information returned from Bain, I might have guessed some...”

...