Chapter 2296 - 97: Reunion with the Knight Order (3)

"Stop."

It was a woman's voice, and Fang Hong faintly felt that the voice seemed familiar.

But just as he was trying to match the sound with his memory, the owner of the voice appeared in his vision—it was the woman named 'Shaya'.

"Mr. Ade, we meet again," Shaya looked down at them, the distant flames reflecting on her crimson ponytail, the tips seeming to burn like fire, with a complex glint flashing in her emerald eyes, "Do you still remember us?"

Fang Hong nodded; after the encounter at Judgement Ground, he had already recalled where he had met the other party: "You're from Tabopolis, what are you doing here? I heard that after leaving Idris, you were headed to Fenris. Also, what's your connection with Crow's Claw Sanctuary?"

He asked several questions consecutively, and these had been puzzling him for the past two days.

Shaya gently shook her head: "Tabopolis is no more."

She seemed unwilling to discuss the topic further, simply sheathed her bow behind her back, jumped down from the rooftop, landed steadily, and then stood up. The other Rangers saw this and also sheathed their weapons, descending from the rooftop, forming a circle around them.

Xiangzi and Xiesta also walked over.

"What's going on?" Fang Hong was startled and asked with some surprise.

When they met in Idris, the situation with Oak Knights did not look very good, but now it seemed worse. How did the people from Tabopolis come into conflict with Crow's Claw Sanctuary; weren't they supposed to be recruited by the Rainbow Alliance or the Descendants of Flor?

While asking, he looked around at the people, noticing there weren't many familiar faces among the Rangers.

"No need to look at them," Shaya replied with a somewhat cold voice, her tone seemingly always like that, "They're not from Tabopolis, we're just on the same boat, we're 'refugees', just as we told you last time."

"Refugees?"

"I'll tell you what's going on, Mr. Ade," Shaya reached to the back of her head, untied her ponytail, letting her crimson hair down as if relieving from combat state, and walked forward, "I honestly didn't expect you'd arrive so soon, I had already given up hope..." She turned around and looked at the three of them, "But anyway, let's leave this place before the Crow's Claw Knights arrive."

Fang Hong was taken aback: "Wait, were those people sent by you?"

Shaya glanced at them with her emerald eyes and nodded: "...I had Abigail look for you, but... never mind, follow me, let's head to a safer place."

Fang Hong was filled with doubts but didn't know where to start. He had considered various possibilities but never thought of this.

"By the way," he suddenly asked, "where's Little Kong?"

The Ranger boy with a somewhat similar character to his own; he recalled gifting the boy a Magic Guided Bow back in Idris.

But upon hearing this, Shaya's face suddenly showed a difficult to describe expression, though after a while, she looked at Fang Hong, her demeanor suddenly softened: "You actually remembered him."

"Of course."

Fang Hong was internally annoyed—wondering what that meant, was she underestimating him? His memory was always good.

"Little Kong might be leaving Eteliria," Shaya suddenly answered, "The bow you gave him inspired him greatly, his progress has been swift... but let's not talk about that, actually I didn't want to bother you, this matter has nothing to do with you... but ever since you let us go at Judgement Ground, he's always wanted to meet you..."

"Why is he leaving Eteliria?"

Fang Hong suddenly clammed up.

Sometimes Invokers would use euphemistic ways to describe their departure from Eteliria, which for Earthlings meant a different kind of return. But it actually meant 'death', marking eternal loss of another lifetime in this world.

But the death of an Invoker is often sudden; the idea of possibly leaving Eteliria sounded concerning.

"Did Little Kong get afflicted by some malicious curse?" Fang Hong could only think of this possibility.

"The situation is hard to explain."

Shaya shook her head, looking somewhat tired: "If it's not a bother, you're welcome to see him, perhaps then you'll understand."

Fang Hong looked at Xiangzi and Xiesta beside him.

Then he nodded: "Take us there, and I'd like to know exactly what's happened."

Shaya glanced at them indifferently, then turned around and walked toward the other end of the alley.

The curious gazes of the Rangers also swept across the three of them, though their attention still fixated on the silent presence of Xiangzi beside them, as to everyone he seemed like a Tower Witch, or Arcanist, an expert above Level 30.

Considering the average level among Invokers was only Level 25, he was already at the top of the pyramid.

Especially since their levels were generally only seventeen or eighteen, even Level 20 ones were rare, equivalent to the outside Crow's Claw Knights, if not stronger. They were fairly renowned Adventurers in the region, but compared to the 'legendary' figures above Level 30, they were insignificant.

In the Northern Territory, there's Silver Forest Spear, Silver Weslan, and Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, all are large guilds with tens of thousands of members, but within the whole guild, Invokers above Level 30 are less than one percent, adventuring groups like Silver Shadow usually operate in remote areas, rarely seen by ordinary people.

Even considering some civilian experts, they were either leading figures of various free mercenary adventure groups, also few and far between, and most are aged.

People whispered among themselves: "Miss Shaya actually knows such experts?"

"Miss Shaya's from Oak Knights, Tabopolis had such experts in the past, so perhaps this is nothing to her."

"True."

From their conversations, Fang Hong genuinely believed what the other party said before, these people really weren't from Tabopolis.

He took back his gaze and followed them, unable to resist asking: "Did you recognize us?"

Shaya was placing her hand on a door, hearing the question, she turned around to look at them.

"We're not fools; meeting twice in succession, if we still can't guess who you are, it's like having eyes for nothing."

"How many genius Alchemists of Colin Ishurian's age are there, you can guess with eyes closed."

"Right, Mr. Ade?"

...