Pillar of Yita

”I received a letter from Bishop Faris and learned about some events happening in the Royal Capital. But this return to Bain must have a reason, right?”

Fang Hong nodded.

”I’m here to help the Princess find someone.”

”Does the Princess also have people here?” Mayer Hill expressed some surprise.

Fang Hong described the person he had seen before. However, aside from a scar on the left cheek, the man was otherwise nondescript, the kind who would be difficult to pick out in a crowd. He was simply answering Mayer Hill’s question, not expecting to gain anything.

But after hearing it, Mayer Hill raised an eyebrow gently: ”I think I’ve seen this person.”

Fang Hong looked at the elderly knight in a bit of surprise.

”Why would the Grand Princess ask you to find a Sand Thief?”

”A Sand Thief?”

But Mayer Hill merely muttered to himself.

Hearing Fang Hong’s question, he finally realized and replied, ”I can’t be certain, but I have indeed seen that person, more than once.”

”He went to the Holy Sanctuary to pray and sought absolution from me, saying he was praying for a friend. But on two or three occasions, I saw him mingling with some people in the city. The Holy Sanctuary has its own information channels; if I’m not mistaken, those people are the Sand Thieves outside the city.”

Fang Hong was taken aback.

But for a mere information broker to have connections with the Sand Thieves outside the city might not be anything unusual.

He just felt something was off, but couldn’t quite pinpoint it — the term Sand Thieves seemed distant yet unfamiliar; he felt he’d heard of it somewhere but couldn’t recall its importance.

Perhaps because the matters of Istania had come to an end for him, so everything else didn’t seem that important anymore.

He didn’t stay long in the Holy Sanctuary and soon bade farewell to Mayer Hill — after all, the two had only met once before, and this elderly knight had helped him significantly, albeit under the Goddess’s guidance. However, Fang Hong looked back at the ancient Holy Sanctuary, bathed in the afterglow of the sunset, understanding that in this unremarkable fortress, in this world, he had made another friend.

He didn’t know if, many years later, he would still remember everything he had experienced in Eteliria.

And every name in this world.

...

Rupert looked at the note in front of her with a gloomy expression, like a dark cloud looming over the hall —

The note was only palm-sized and had been rolled up, seemingly placed in a carrier pigeon’s tube, with traces of being bent.

The text on it was very simple, just a few words — the curved Ishurian script seemed to imitate flames, a legacy of ancient wisdom, distinct from Colin Ishurian’s culture. But the meaning of the words was quite clear:

”Verified.”

An abnormal flush of red rose on the face of the Princess, a culmination of suppressed anger gathering bit by bit. She clenched her fists tightly, her vision darkening, nearly fainting, but still managing to suppress the dizziness. She lifted her head and, with a trembling voice, asked the middle-aged Alchemist in front of her:

”Achilles, is this true?”

The latter lifted his head, locked eyes with the Princess for a moment, and then lowered it again.

With a hint of hesitation, he answered: ”Perhaps there are some misunderstandings, Your Highness...”

”I’m asking you, is all of this true?” Princess Rupert clenched her fist, speaking word by word: ”By His Excellency the Governor’s side, is there really an ’Affia’?”

”It might just be the same name...”

”Such a coincidence?” She laughed in anger.

”She’s actually been with the Arcanist all along.”

”What difference does it make?”

Achilles fell silent.

”So, he has always been suspicious of my mother,” Princess Rupert said in a restrained voice, ”What are Affia and I even worth? I trusted that man so much...”

”Is it any wonder he keeps me confined in this place, is he so afraid?”

She couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

Achilles timely reminded: ”Princess, these two matters may not be related. We have only verified one aspect...”

There were more words, but he thought for a moment and did not continue.

But this remark precisely triggered the Princess’s rebellious emotions.

”Is this not enough?” Her voice was as cold as ice: ”The previous investigation already explained everything. Why is he always evasive... Seniman is the ’Servant’ of the Blind Followers, do I not know that?”

”Because he is my father, I trust him unconditionally. But my father was the mastermind behind my mother’s murder. For the past ten years, I’ve been kept in the dark... He’s long been suspicious of my mother; perhaps he’s also been suspicious of me. No, Affia is my sister; I will never acknowledge someone inexplicably as my actual sister —”

”Princess, your mother...”

”Shut up, Achilles.”

With a clang, the Princess drew her Curved Blade, the gleaming blade pointing at the middle-aged Alchemist in front of her. ”Shut up, what do you want to say!?”

Her voice echoed in the empty hall, sharp as if it were a Succubus: ”My mother would never betray him; for ten years, I’ve been investigating everything, every single detail, which you would know even better than I do. Are you going to betray me, Achilles!?”