After Stahl waddled away with his rotund body swaying from side to side, Nemesis's—or rather, Senior Sister's—smile faded. She opened a drawer, where a report lay flat. Three red lines, signifying urgency, were drawn on its cover page, along with the Black Pine Leaf crest, indicating that the report had come from the Golan-Elson region.
"Rosk came into contact with a mysterious faction?" Bai Jia murmured after a moment's thought.
The report had come from one of Silman's scouts and was highly credible. In this age, the nobles had almost no secrets left around them. Naturally, the Grand Duke of Golan-Elson meeting with strangers could not escape the notice of anyone who was paying attention.
Bai Jia's first thought was that the Circle of Unity was making moves behind the scenes. Golan-Elson lay in the frontier and had always been one of the provinces where heretics were most active. However, after the journey through the Dead Frost Forest, Princess Griffine had purged the southern kingdoms and Knight Orders with Su Fei's intervention—in her subconscious, she still preferred this name—and the heretic forces, especially the Circle of Unity, had shrunk drastically. They were no longer as powerful as they had been at their peak.
But could this be a sign that they were making a comeback?
The situation in the southern lands was complicated and chaotic. It could even be said that they were currently suffering through the growing pains preceding the kingdom's unification. With all sorts of factions mixed together, it was not impossible for the Circle of Unity to use this opportunity to fish in troubled waters and contact the Grand Duke of Golan-Elson.
Thinking of this, Senior Sister took the report from the drawer, returned to her chair, spread out a sheet of stationery, and began copying it.