Negotiations Break Down

"Why are you blocking my way?" Fran frowned, pretending not to know what these knights were there for.

She dismounted and jumped directly to the ground, revealing the frailty of a mage, and almost fell to the ground.

Just as one knight was about to step forward to speak, another knight exclaimed in surprise.

"It's her; she has that Territory Token."

The Tracking Bug kept crashing into Fran, as if venting their frustration from the long wait they had endured for so many days.

Connor drew his longsword and said to Fran:

"It seems we've finally found our target, Miss Mage. Hand over that thing."

A commotion broke out at the knights' temporary encampment nearby, and the knights were taking up their weapons and rushing towards them.

The knights gradually surrounded Fran, putting Fran in a disadvantageous position.

Fran was still pretending to be stupid at this moment, and said:

"What are you talking about? I didn't say anything!"

Connor chuckled twice and said menacingly:

"I don't care if you know it or not, just go for it, kill her, and take that thing from her corpse."

The surrounding knights were eager to make their move. After all, they'd been enduring the cold winds in this godforsaken place for over a month, and no one was feeling well. Now, their target had finally arrived...

Fran smiled, seemingly with a hint of helplessness, and said:

"Okay, okay... I'll give you that thing, can you let me pass?"

Her response was nothing but a cold laugh.

"This won't do, Miss Mage. Aside from the fact that you've left us here for over a month, letting us stand in the cold wind for so long, it's been unbearable."

"Furthermore, it was a pact I made with the person who wanted to kill you; I was to take that thing from your corpse."

Fran continued to persuade:

"Why don't you take a look at what I have? My mentor is a Fourth Order Mage. If he finds out you killed me, your whole house will probably be turned into an empty field by magic."

Fran's words were so confident that they intimidated the knights, causing them to pause in their advance and even take two steps back.

"Haha!" Fran's words immediately amused Connor. After Connor finished laughing, he said contemptuously:

"Miss Mage, there's no need to use your influence. It won't work. I know better than anyone what important identity a mage has who is going to the Northern Lands Society from within the Alliance."

"Even if you really are a Fourth Order Mage, I'm certain you're not well-regarded by your mentor. Otherwise, he could easily have gotten you into those University Association; you wouldn't need to come here at all."

"Furthermore, I know better than anyone that the true mage geniuses are all on the Floating City. Only those geniuses have a chance to gain the attention of a Third Order Mage during their apprenticeship."

"And in your records, there's only a mention of the City of Apprentices. I don't believe a Fourth Order Mage would just wander around the City of Apprentices and take on an apprentice out of nowhere."

Fran offered a brief explanation.

"What if I want to come to the Northern Lands Society? My mentor gave me two choices, and I gave up the opportunity to attend the Yobner Society Academy in order to come to the Northern Lands Society."

This time, instead of Connor's cold laugh, she was met with an angry face.

Connor hated it when people mentioned the Yobner Society, as it reminded him of his childhood friends who had passed the entrance exams while he had failed.

This was a very painful thing for him, and it was after this that he made up his mind to go Floating City and become a knight.

"Enough, apprentice. Stop with those blatant lies. Hand over the Territory Token."

"That way I might be able to leave you a whole corpse, to give you some dignity. I'll only give you twenty seconds."

Unlike Connor, who had a stern face, Fran had a faint smile on her face.

"Don't you really want to consider me handing over this Territory Token, and then you can take it? Wouldn't that make everyone happy?"

"This thing is useless to me; I have absolutely no idea how to use it."

Connor responded coldly:

"Are you just going to spend the last moments of your life spouting nonsense?"

Fran's smile faded. Thinking of the vision she had seen with her Divination Art, she suddenly had a thought and said:

"Connor Lorenzo, you'll regret this."

She deliberately drew out the last syllable of her words to make them sound profound.

But Connor scoffed and said:

"Okay, I'll regret it. The day I realize what you meant, I'll remember your words and regret them to my heart's content."

"I regret giving you all this time to spout this nonsense."

With that, Connor waved his right hand, and several knights rushed forward eagerly, wanting to kill the culprit who had kept them squatting here for over a month.

However, as the knights rushed forward, their greatswords struck something that was clearly not human.

Before they could even wonder what was happening, Fran's body erupted with a fierce red light, engulfing all the surrounding knights.

When Connor looked at Fran's location again, what he saw made him unable to contain his anger.

A large, charred crater was visible on the ground, and around its edge were three charred humanoid figures that appeared to be lifeless.

"Flame Trap?"

Connor recognized the damaging magic Fran was using, but there were still some parts he didn't understand.

For example, he didn't know how Fran managed to make something that had been afflicted with Flame Trap walk right up to him like a real person and talk to him so freely.

What kind of magic is this?

Connor frowned again, looking at the charred marks on the ground. The rapidly burning flames reminded him of something.

"Dragon Flame!"

Yes, only Dragon Flame could have such power, blasting all three knights who approached into serious injury.

Connor turned his head sharply and saw Fran's Black Horse galloping towards a figure in a mage's robe slowly approaching from a distance.

Fran gripped her longsword, swung her other sword to signal the Black Horse to run to a safe place, and then walked forward alone.

At this moment, the other knights also came up behind Connor, drew their weapons, and pointed them at Fran.

Connor put on his helmet and gripped the greatsword on his back, but a sense of unease lingered in his heart.

Judging from Fran's performance just now, Fran is definitely not an ordinary mage, and such strength is enough for her to join a University Association or Battle Mage Corps...

This gave him a sudden bad feeling.

At the same time, Fran looked behind Connor. Her extremely high Mental Power allowed her to know the exact number of those people the moment she saw them.

"There are eleven soldiers in total. We'll have to clear out all these knights before we reach the second tier." Fran silently calculated the number of knights in her mind.