Chapter 76: Task Selection

  Happy New Year to everyone! On the first day of the new year, I'll be posting two updates at 2 pm. So while I'm sending you all New Year's greetings, I'm also rolling on the ground and begging for your New Year's recommendation votes!

  As for today's 6 updated tickets...... Alright, I give up. There is still one more update at 6 o'clock tonight.

  I am the dividing line between New Year's greetings and asking for votes.

  In the valley near Oakden town.

  "An Qi, the woman has woken up." Lianzi said as she found An Qi in the command tent, "However, her mind seems unstable, and she keeps asking to see the commander of the troops."

  "The other party must have some urgent matter." Seeing An Qi looking at herself, the mercury lamp on the table suggested, "It doesn't hurt to listen to what she has to say, maybe we can find some valuable intelligence?"

  "Alright then."

  As soon as she entered the tent, the restless woman immediately stood up: "Who is in charge?"

  An Qi nodded and said to her, "The commander of this unit was killed last night after entering Aoting Town, and I am temporarily in charge. Who are you? Why are you in the valley, and why are you seriously injured?"

  "I am Nia Siscaya, the commander of the Thistle Knights. My troops were ambushed and annihilated after entering Octin, which was occupied by bandits. I'm the only one who managed to escape with injuries. I apologize for not having anything to prove my identity, but I swear on the name of the Creator that everything I say is true." The woman placed her right hand on her heart and said solemnly, "The situation is urgent, please lead your troops to Vinslate City immediately!"

  An Qi asked in puzzlement: "What's going on there?"

  At the same time, in the underground dungeon of the ruined castle, Eriol was carefully reading a newspaper.

  After a period of time had passed, the headlines of various newspapers and magazines finally stopped being about Eriol's victory over the devil and gradually changed to other everyday news.

  The Imperial Daily of the Vylonia Empire also reported on this. The headline was a piece of diplomatic news: Her Highness, the Princess of the Roland Empire, would enter the borders of the Vylonia Empire this afternoon and arrive in the capital city of Mangra three days later to formally begin her diplomatic visit.

  The Emperor of the Roland Empire had many children, but they all died in the cruel and bloody court struggles - no matter how you use your brains to come up with various methods from TV dramas similar to "Palace" to arrange their life-and-death struggles, in short, only the princess born by the empress survived.

  The princess was very fortunate, for she had been discovered to have magical talent since childhood, so the emperor arranged for her to be taken by the chief imperial wizard into the wizards' tower, which outsiders found difficult to infiltrate, and thus escaped a disaster. By the time she emerged from the wizards' tower with some accomplishments, her last two brothers had also died due to their own machinations against each other.

  She thus became the sole heir to the throne of the Roland Empire.

  But none of that matters, the only thing on the newspaper that caught Eriol's attention was an introduction to a border trading city called Vinslette, which is the first stop for Her Highness in the Byrea Empire.

  It can't be... The lone wolf is trying to abduct this future queen!?

  If the Lone Wolf succeeds, it will be a catastrophic event! Whether it's the Roland Empire or the Byreia Empire, they'll go crazy searching for the Lone Wolf thieves all over the world. If something unfortunate happens to this princess, then so be it, the hard-won peace on the continent will immediately turn into shattered fragments everywhere.

  An Qi and others near Aoting also learned this news from Niya almost at the same time, and were suddenly shocked.

  "Can what she said be trusted?" Angie asked subconsciously as she stumbled out of the tent, still dazed from the shock.

  "She didn't need to deceive us," said the quicksilver lamp hovering in mid-air. "We can verify her claim of being a Knights' Commander by checking with the nearby city. Impersonating an Imperial officer is no small crime, no one would lie about that."

  "Alright then, let's set off for Winslet City immediately!" Angie said with a clap of her hands.

  Akane poked Akira's back: "Have you forgotten how far we are from Winslet? Even if we take the fastest water route, it will be evening by the time we arrive. There is no way to make it on time."

  "How about we take a few elites to the nearby big city and sit on the magic teleportation array?" An Qi thought for a moment and said, "We can let Nia introduce the situation to the garrison commander there after arriving in Winslet, hand it over to them to deal with, and we'll be responsible for helping out."

  "... Haven't you looked at the map?" Shuǐyín dēng looked at ān qí with disdain.

  They are located in the northwest of the Birea Empire, near the Beastman Prairie. In autumn, beastmen will venture through the dangerous forests deep in the Uruk Mountains to enter the imperial border and plunder human settlements, so the most developed here is only at the level of small towns, and there is no big city.

  The beastmen highlands and the Imperial Plains were separated by treacherous mountains and terrain, with only two flat roads leading to the heart of the Empire - where humans had long established impregnable fortresses. It was only there that humans developed cities in a stable environment. However, this place, which was frequently raided, clearly did not have stable conditions.

  "Uh, didn't I just rush into this?"

  "There's another way," Mercury Lamp said suddenly, drawing the attention of Angie and Retsu, "I'll carry one of you and that Nia like I did yesterday, then fly to Winslet. That will save a lot of time."

  "Let's forget it!"

  Chairman, your way of carrying people is really too weird...

  At the time of An Qi's departure, Eriol also faced a major choice.

  The system's voice sounded immediately after Little Loli inferred the Lone Wolf's plan: "You have discovered the next action plan of the Lone Wolf Thief Group and completed the first phase task goal, rewarding 1000 reward points. Now trigger the second phase task, which is divided into two options, please choose one to complete: 1. Stop the Lone Wolf from abducting Princess Roland of the Empire; 2. Investigate the whereabouts of other kidnapped girls. The deadline for both tasks is before sunset today, and failure will result in immediate failure. Successful completion of the task rewards 1000 reward points, with no penalty for failure. Please determine which task you want to complete as soon as possible."

  Although the princess being kidnapped would cause a great earthquake in both empires, Eriol still had no intention of completing the first task. After all, Vachis was still nowhere to be found, and she couldn't just abandon her friend and run off to play out a super yuri "rescue the princess" drama.

  She chose the second task.

  Since there's no need to rush to rescue anyone, what's left is naturally the boring wait for Lone Wolf's afternoon delivery.

  I am the dividing line of waiting

  "I say, if we're exposed doing this, won't we be executed on the spot?" Sun Xiang asked cautiously, hiding behind a clump of bushes by the roadside and enduring the summer mosquitoes' bites.

  "Alright, alright, aren't you reassured by my snooping skills?" Li Hua said with a flourish, proudly wiping his bright red hair.

  "For some reason, I always have a very subtle feeling after hearing that sentence," Xia Xi said with a cry and a smile.

  "Agreed." Yue Ge, hiding in the treetops, spoke softly.

  Sun Xiang slapped another mosquito to death and looked at Li Hua Yin with a gaze full of incomprehension, resentment, anger, and frustration: "Why don't mosquitoes bite you?"

  "Of course, because I'm a super invincible beautiful girl!"

  No, no, no! It's because even mosquitoes wouldn't dare to taste your freakishly dark and filthy blood that's comparable to something from a well cover that hasn't been opened for decades!!!

  As for why this group of people gathered together... it can only be said that they coincidentally met. Sun Xiang and Qi Xi planned to travel to the empire known as the land of magicians, Bireia, where they would work as mercenaries or simply have a romantic adventure, so their first stop was here; Li Hua Yin and Yue Ge were led by the former to rush to this place, of course, she had ulterior motives.

  Four people met unexpectedly in this trading city called Winslet.

  Yes, that's right. Li Hua came for the princess of the Roland Empire! This bold and daring yuri girl actually had the idea to sneak a peek at the mysterious princess who has never appeared in public before - of course, it's more likely that she'll end up making a futile trip, but what if the princess gets out of the luxurious carriage to greet the welcoming officials from the Bireya Empire?

  While shopping, Li Hua suddenly met Sun Xiang and Qia Xi, and then she exerted her extraordinary ability to act, and forcibly added two members to this sneaky team.

  They are now lurking in the woods by the roadside not far from Wensleydale, and with the help of Moon Song, they avoided the army's patrol near the welcoming segment - in the woods, humans who play hide-and-seek with elves are either egg-pained or going crazy, even the so-called jungle warfare special forces can't touch the hem of an elf's garment here.

  "Here!" Moon Song reminded from the treetop with a far-reaching view.

  Several people in their daily lives hurriedly stopped talking and held their breath, gazing out through the bushes.

  What appeared before everyone's eyes was a team led by knights in bright attire, followed by young magicians, and ending with elite warriors. The carriage drawn by eight pure-blooded snow-white horses at the center was particularly eye-catching, exuding an air of majesty and elegance.

  "It's no wonder that it's the wealthiest Roland Empire, the decorations on the carriage even use magic crystals!" Khris whispered in admiration.

  "Shh!" Li Hua glared at her, "Who knows if there are any stealthy guards or thieves lurking around?"

  He spat out his tongue and no longer made a sound.

  The crowd remained silent, continuing to steal glances. As the princess's guard unit bearing the Roland Empire flag approached the four people, the welcoming party from the Vinsley direction of the Byrea Empire also arrived at this location.

  The two teams stopped at a certain distance and then each sent out a representative to meet in the middle - right in front of Li Hua and others.

  "What's going on?" asked the messenger of the Roland Empire, "Why isn't the leader of this welcoming team 【BEEP——】? By the way, what does this censorship mean!? Author, you're just too lazy to think of a name for the extras, aren't you!?"

  Do you believe I'll send you packing in no time?

  ;