Pillar of Yita

The Princess’s thunderous fury came suddenly, and its echo lingered between the hall’s columns.

Achilles merely bowed slightly and lowered his head.

”I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

”I don’t want to excuse myself, I just hope to explain the situation to you.”

”I’ll give you a chance to explain, Achilles.” Princess Rupert pressed a letter, her tone icy.

”This is the investigation commissioned by Your Highness a month ago; the letter should have come from spies over there.”

Princess Rupert seemed hit by an arrow, her face turned pale.

She widened her eyes and looked at him with disbelief: ”Achilles, are you insane?”

Achilles kept his head bowed, saying nothing.

The former’s mind was in turmoil, gazing at the letter, muttering to himself: ”No, it can’t be Father... he... wouldn’t do such a thing.” Her tone turned stern and cold again: ”The people conducting these investigations... there must be something wrong with them, Achilles... I need a favor from you...”

”I’m here, Your Highness.”

”Identify the ones with hidden motives from these people... then investigate their issues further, but no leaks are allowed, and...” Rupert’s fingertips were icy, hardly feeling the weight of the letter.

But after a moment, the letter seemed somewhat scorching again, causing her fingertips to shrink back slightly, as if avoiding some poisonous beast.

”I don’t know who’s behind this, but I can’t allow anyone to sow discord like this. Those people must pay the price.”

Achilles sighed: ”This is my negligence, Your Highness.”

”No,” Rupert’s voice softened slightly: ”You do have some responsibility, Achilles. But the fault isn’t yours...”

Her voice answered hoarsely: ”The next matters still need you to handle...”

She covered her hand over the letter again, cautiously, as if walking on thin ice: ”Remember, not a word must be leaked about this matter, all participants must be screened one by one. At least for half a year, the same people can’t undertake any other tasks...”

”I understand,” Achilles replied quietly: ”I’ll make sure it’s done.”

”Simply doing it isn’t enough,” Rupert interrupted him: ”It must be flawless.”

The latter gently nodded.

He turned to leave, but before departing, he glanced at the letter and asked: ”Are there backups of these documents over there? Should they be destroyed first?”

”Of course—”

The Princess instinctively nodded.

But suddenly, she hesitated slightly, bit her teeth, and decisively shook her head: ”No, keep them as evidence. First... put them somewhere secure, but remember... I don’t want anyone else seeing these until they’re destroyed.”

Achilles paused, silently watching his Princess, with a deep gaze seemingly perceiving something.

He finally nodded, but before leaving, he asked quietly: ”Should we continue investigating this matter?”

The voice was very soft.

But it was like the whisper of a devil.

Princess Rupert shivered all over, as if hearing something terrible circling in her ears, she stayed silent for a long, long time, before laboriously nodding. ”Continue... no matter what, we have to investigate thoroughly... although these things are improbable to be true, we can’t let them continue circulating outside.”

Achilles glanced at her.

As if understanding something, he nodded slightly in acknowledgement, said nothing more, and quietly left the hall.

The Grand Princess watched his departing back, and sat down as if exhausted, releasing her grip, gazing at the pinned letter, momentarily feeling dizzy.

But how did things come to this?

...

Fang Hong did not expect that the place Nulman arranged for his meeting with Ye Hua would still be the same tavern from his previous meeting with Aleph.

It seems this place is quite popular among the Quistack upper Nobles.

Only the location changed slightly from last time, on the other side of the courtyard atrium, last time Fang Hong saw a verdant grapevine hanging on racks in the Inner Court, while this time he saw a small pond with several lotus leaves floating on the Water Surface, just recently after a dust storm, yet the courtyard had been cleaned spotlessly.

Ye Hua arrived before him.

This Ranger King had not changed much since their last encounter; only his chin now sported some stubble, and his neck was wrapped with a scarf shielding against the sandstorm, appearing somewhat weathered—seems he hasn’t been idle in the Sand Sea lately.

He watched Fang Hong take his seat and smiled slightly: ”Long time no see, Ade.”

Indeed, it has been a long time.

Aside from the recent ’mutual unseen’ encounter with Bain. Counting carefully, it has been almost half a year since Dulun’s turmoil, and another year has quickly passed, Istania although still midsummer, yet with North passing autumn, Colin Ishurian’s winter festival is almost near again.

Ye Hua smiled somewhat freely, pushing a dish towards Fang Hong; on the reddish-brown plate was a spiky golden fruit.

”This is a local specialty, hard to find once this season is over.”

Fang Hong watched the scene silently.

”Last time, I heard it caused you quite some trouble,” Ye Hua replied candidly: ”Rolin is indeed a young person I favor, the recommendation letter was hoping he could enter the Elfendo Council—you should be aware of the relationship between the Southern Region Alliance and the Council,” but he lightly shook his head: ”I was too presumptuous, I didn’t expect the letter to be used in such a setting.”