Tavier quickly asked after Aaron left the tent, “Sir, what about the monster’s owner? Will he attack us again?”
“He’s dead.”
As Angor expected, the apprentice was a Summoner with an extremely old and evil look who wasn’t very far from his age limit. A rogue level-2 apprentice.
At first, Angor only planned to drag this apprentice away from the war without killing him. But as they talked, he noticed that the strange apprentice looked extremely fearful for some reason and would not look at him. Due to suspicion, Angor used a nightmare illusion to manipulate the apprentice into revealing his identity—”Ghoul Whisperer” from the Centipede Guild.
Two years ago, every member of the Centipede Guild received Angor’s portrait, which was why Ghoul Whisperer recognized Angor the moment they saw each other. Ghoul Whisperer was certain that he had no hope of defeating Angor in a fight, so he decided to play elusive and find a chance to get the message back to his guild.
Although Angor never gave him a chance.
“He’s gone? Nice!” Tavier almost jumped in joy. Without their biggest helper, Heylan’s ground forces wouldn’t be so strong.
“I checked. That apprentice attacked Goldspink for personal reasons, and there are no other supernatural individuals at Heylan. I’ve done my part, so...”
“Sir-sir, I need to join my soldiers in the fight outside Moonwater City soon. Can we wait until this is finished?” Tavier tried.
“I don’t have time for it. Either you take me to the palace now, or I’ll go there myself.”
The two options didn’t sound much different, but Tavier chose to accompany Angor because she wasn’t sure what would happen if Angor ran into someone careless at the capital.
After asking her second-in-command to handle the battle plans, she prepared to leave the camp with Angor.
“I’ll leave this kid here.” Angor pointed to the unconscious child on the floor. “Make sure he doesn’t escape. I’ll come back to pick him up later.”
“You will return here? Can you bring me back as well?”
Angor nodded. Doing so wouldn’t hurt.
Tavier grew reassured again. She witnessed the speed of Gondola for more than once now. If they finished their visit to the capital soon enough, she still had time for the fight at Moonwater City.
To make sure her soldiers stayed at their top condition, she, as the commander, had to stay with them.
After briefly telling her plan to General Aaron, she immediately joined Angor on Gondola and headed into the distance.
The delicate boat looked ever more dazzling when accompanied by the bright moon and stars in the sky. Like a lovely ark from a fairytale, it quietly glided past the land, showing its existence to human civilizations.
For a moment, Tavier forgot everything that had been haunting her mind recently and fully enjoyed the beautiful view.
“If nothing goes wrong, I’ll take you back to the camp tomorrow. To fight Heylan, I suggest you rest up both your mind and body,” said Angor.
“Sir... do you hope that Goldspink wins the war?”
“It doesn’t matter to me. However, Grue Town will probably have less trouble if Goldspink repels the enemies instead of letting them in.”
“When everything ends, I’ll tell my father to send more resources to Grue Town and grant Viscount Padt a higher title,” Tavier offered sincerely.
“Similarly, I don’t want my family to have unnecessary trouble.”
It took Tavier a while to understand what that meant.
“Will do.”
She then tried to get some sleep as Angor told her, but she failed to do so because too many exhilarating incidents happened today.
She sat up instead and looked at Angor again.
As one of the princesses, she saw many handsome patricians in her life. But still, she couldn’t help but admire Angor’s perfect bodily features. That humble yet alluring face of a gentleman would undoubtedly cause most women to fall in love in an instant. Had she not become someone’s mother already, Tavier knew she wouldn’t be able to resist Angor’s charm.
“What do you want?” Angor’s voice came.
“Oh, ahem... It’s nothing, sir. Just thinking about random affairs.” Tavier looked away. “By the way, who’s the kid you brought back with you?”
“A Heylan.” Angor leaned against the railing and looked at the horizon.
He found this child following Ghoul Whisperer closely. When Ghoul Whisperer explained his identity as a guild member, he also mentioned that he adopted the child as a successor.
This meant the child was probably a talent. Since Angor still needed one more talent to finish his recruiter task and that he couldn’t invite Leon to Brute Cavern, he thought about taking the child with him.
They arrived at the capital of the Goldspink Empire—Sembia—at about 4 in the morning.
The city at night looked dark and silent, which was completely different compared to the capital of Anrum Monarchy.
The arrival of Gondola alerted the palace guards, who immediately rushed to the boat and surrounded it.
Tavier removed her helmet as she stepped off the boat first.
“It’s Princess Tavier. Return to your posts!” the guard captain called out before he quickly approached Tavier and went down on one knee.
“Take me to my father, Captain Michaela. I have an important matter to report,” Tavier ordered in a serious tone.
Michaela quickly nodded and led the way. Even though the emperor was in repose, no one should delay the princess’ order since it was probably something about the war.
Angor also landed on the ground and put Gondola into his bracelet, which greatly shocked the onlooking guards. However, no one raised their questions in public. It was until Angor and Tavier both headed to the emperor’s chamber that the guards found a chance to whisper to each other.
...
This area looked more like an underground cavern rather than a basement. There were many stalactites hanging from the ceiling, which meant people built a storage inside the cavern that had been existing for a long time.
The emperor was a hulking middle-aged man named Lochet. The man’s messy brown hair was hastily pressed under a shiny crown that made him look quite funny.
“Mister Wizard, ahead is our treasure vault, where you’ll also find the precious stalactite we talked about,” said Lochet, as he politely showed Angor the way.
Tavier was also peeking inside the vault curiously. Usually, only her father and his closest guards were allowed inside.
Angor used his spirit feelers to check and noticed that “treasure vault” didn’t have many artificial constructions. Most of the cave walls and other terrains were kept as was.
While walking further inside, he kept his attention on the other hanging stalactites and was disappointed when he found no traces of energy from them.
The special stalactite was supposed to be behind a heavy door. Yet he didn’t sense any energy coming from there either.
There were two guards clad in black armor standing in front of the door, who lowered their heads in respect upon seeing their emperor while completely ignoring Princess Tavier.
Lochet moved ahead to unlock the door, while the guards slowly pushed it open. Telling from how the floor was shaking, that thick gate was probably over a ton.
A gust of cold and moist air rushed out of the inner vault chamber. It looked just like another cave, but with an extra man-made stone platform placed in the middle, directly below a single stalactite.
There was a strange-looking chain hammer placed on the platform. According to Lochet, the other treasures of the palace were stored in other dry areas, while this room was solely used to receive the stalactite liquid.