Chapter 1202 — Unexpected News

"News from Tarronde? And connected to the Wilde family?" At Betty's words, Gao Yang's first reaction was a kind of blankness — he could not imagine what could possibly happen on the continent of Tarronde, far across the northern sea, that would have anything to do with the Empire's Wilde family. But the next second, a piece of intelligence he had nearly forgotten surfaced abruptly from the depths of his mind, and his expression changed at once. "Bring her straight to the study!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Betty bowed deeply at once, then rose swiftly and left the study. The corridor soon echoed with the crisp tap-tap of her hurried footsteps.

Only after Betty had gone did Gao Yang raise his head, meeting Amber's gaze as it happened to turn toward him at the same moment.

Their eyes met; they gave a slight nod. Before either spoke, an unspoken understanding had already formed — they had arrived at the same thought. Gao Yang's voice was low: "Do you remember that book, The Travels of Mojin..."

Amber spoke at almost the same instant: "Betty actually remembered the guest's name this time she came in to deliver a message!"

Gao Yang: "..."

Amber: "..."

"So that whole grave expression and that nod just now was about this?!" Gao Yang finally managed, the corner of his mouth twitching, after half a second of stunned silence. "I thought you were thinking the same thing I was!"

"I thought you were thinking the same thing I was too!" Amber showed not the slightest embarrassment; she merely kept her hands on her hips with the self-assured air she wore at all times. "How was I supposed to know you were being so serious because you were actually thinking about something serious..."

As she spoke, the half-elf waved her hand vigorously, forcibly steering the conversation back to where it should have been before Gao Yang could get a word in. "Never mind that, never mind that. Now that you mention it, I remember too — The Travels of Mojin. If there is any connection at all between the Wilde family and Tarronde... then that book is likely the only thing that comes to mind."

Gao Yang blinked, his brow slowly furrowing. "Could it be that Tarronde has turned up some new clue related to The Travels of Mojin while sifting through the data piles in the wasteland? Some aftershock of that great adventurer stirring up trouble in the dragon kingdom six hundred years ago? Or something about the Tower of the Reversing Tide that was never recorded in the travelogue..."

Before he finished speaking, a measured rhythm of footsteps came from the corridor, and then Metzen Ponia's voice arrived from the doorway: "You can guess a little more boldly than that."

Gao Yang looked up at the ambassador as she walked into the study, and asked instinctively, "Guess more boldly? How boldly?"

Metzen, in a pale violet gauze gown, stepped into the room, found herself a chair beside them with the ease of long practice, and gave Gao Yang a faint smile. "For instance — we have found the author of The Travels of Mojin."

Gao Yang and Amber: "..."

The study fell instantly silent, and it was nearly half a minute before that silence was broken by an involuntary cry from Amber: "Huh?! What did you say?! You went and dug up someone's ancestral grave too..."

"You be quiet," Gao Yang said. He had expected some astonishing utterance from the goose when she suddenly raised her voice, but never imagined the first thing out of her mouth would be that. He frowned and cut off the rest of Amber's words, then turned his gaze back to Metzen, his expression turning especially grave. "Metzen, I must remind you — short-lived races like humans place great importance on the tombs and relics of their ancestors. Even if you are doing this out of a need to reconcile accounts for the rebuilding of the Mithril Treasury, you must still obtain the consent of the descendants of the parties involved before..."

Metzen's grave expression, held all this way, finally cracked. She had never imagined that such a serious matter could be derailed to this degree by a single interjection from a half-elf, and still less that Gao Yang Cecil, who always seemed so solemn, could be so wildly associative on this particular topic — how should she put it? These two before her were truly worthy of the title "caught-red-handed duo" of the grave-robbing world; on certain subjects, their trains of thought were invariably far removed from ordinary people's...

"You are overthinking this," the blue dragon lady said, waving her hand quickly. "We have not this time trespassed upon the tombs of any of the resting dead. We were out in the..."

"Lone graves out in the wilderness won't do either!" Before she could finish, Amber popped up again. "They are still someone's ancestors, after all — even I have stopped doing that sort of thing these past few years..."

"You be quiet!" Gao Yang had by now shaken off his initial confusion. Something had occurred to him, and he immediately reached out to pull Amber back a little, while looking at Metzen. "Wait — don't tell me you have found... Mojin Wilde, still alive? He is still alive?! And he has gone to Tarronde?!"

The moment the words left his mouth, Amber's eyes went wide — and what made the eyes of this shadow-assault goose go wider still was seeing the dragon ambassador before her give a slight nod.

"That is indeed the situation," Metzen said with a nod after two seconds of silence. "I know it sounds shocking, but we have in fact discovered an 'adventurer' who is highly likely to be Mojin Wilde himself. He is currently active in Tarronde, and our leadership has already made contact with him."

Here the blue dragon lady paused, and turned a curious gaze upon Gao Yang. "But I am a little curious — how did you leap straight to the correct answer? In theory, an ancient who died five or six hundred years ago suddenly reappearing in the world, and in the dragon kingdom no less — that is not something an ordinary person would think of."

"Because sitting right in front of you is an 'ancient' who was buried seven hundred years ago and is bouncing around alive today," Gao Yang said — then his expression turned serious again. "All right, that was a joke. The real reason is... apart from The Travels of Mojin, I truly cannot think of anything else that would make you dragons suddenly nervous and also involve the Wilde family. And you just said you found its author — finding an ancient's tomb would hardly call for the attitude you showed just now. On top of that, I have always had a vague feeling that there is far too much that is strange and tangled about that great adventurer of six hundred years ago. In my experience, in a world where supernatural forces exist, people carrying secrets that heavy do not usually lie quietly in the history books."

"People carrying secrets that heavy do not lie quietly in the history books..." Metzen's face took on a thoughtful look at Gao Yang's comment. She seemed to glance at him with some deeper meaning, and nodded slightly. "That makes sense."

"Your look just now was a little strange, but as an 'ancient' who is indeed not very quiet, I can only accept it," Gao Yang said with a wave of his hand, then regarded Metzen gravely. "Let us talk about that Mojin Wilde, then... To be honest, no matter what was said just now, I still find it a little hard to believe this is real. How did you discover him, and what is he doing on the continent of Tarronde now? Has he revealed his purpose to you?"

"You probably will not believe it when I say it... The way that great adventurer suspected of being Mojin Wilde arrived in Tarronde was surprisingly ordinary: he traveled to Tarronde with an entire ship full of adventurers, and before setting out he dutifully registered his information in accordance with the regulations — right under the noses of your navy commander and the entire fleet you sent north, he reached New Agondor."