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The ship carrying ' Lai ' slowly moved forward. Although the mages present were all of relatively high Order, they had no idea how to determine the direction of travel on the Ocean.

In response, Oinrich specifically assigned a professional navigation mage to the ship, but this mage had been tested and proven not to be Spirit Realm Mage, and was loyal to the Alliance.

Under the monk's guidance, the ship sailed on until it spotted land.

"What's going on? There's a small island on the sea route to the Bottomless Sea?"

A monk found it incredible because the Bottomless Sea, as the name suggests, is an Ocean whose seabed cannot be seen, describing this Ocean as extremely deep.

Based on experience and various sources, the Bottomless Sea should be like this, and there shouldn't be any islands there, otherwise the Lohan Archipelago would have already claimed this island as its territory.

The other mage looked at the map in his hand, even more puzzled, because according to the map, there were absolutely no islands along the way to the Bottomless Sea.

"Where are we? Have we gone the wrong way? We're a little to the east. There is indeed a fairly large island here..."

"You're overthinking it. Callum has been working on ships for almost 100 years, and he's handled half of the Alliance's ships. Do you really think an old man like him would give the wrong directions?"

"That's true. Perhaps the fighting among those Ocean Magic Creature caused some islands to float..."

In the end, the mages accepted the latter, less probable possibility, watching the ship pass by the island, and then the island disappeared before their eyes.

Meanwhile, inside the cabin, Harbos, sensing the signal from the underwater magical device, shook his head and spoke to ' Lai ' beside him.

"We haven't found a single clue, not even a single intelligent being here..."

In fact, this island is located to the east of the Lohan Archipelago and is not included in the Lohan Archipelago's jurisdiction.

The reason is simple: this island is actually too close to the main body of the Lohan Archipelago. In fact, if ships sail slightly north, they can see the massive Lohan Archipelago.

The island has comfortable land, and it's quite small, so there are currently no intelligent beings on it.

"The next target is Dread Island, which is further north..."

' Lai ' looked at the marked points on the map. According to the plan, they would first head in the opposite direction to the north to see if there was any military presence on that large island, Dread Island.

Then, head south a bit further to the last large island. As long as there are no enemies on this last island, it can be said that there is no large-scale army preparing near the Lohan Archipelago.

"Lord Harbos, you've had a long day," ' Lai ' said with a smile, as if he didn't recognize Harbos.

Harbos, still somewhat confused, slowly asked:

Are you called ' Lai '?

"Yes, my name is ' Lai '," Lai said without any hesitation, his face showing no sign of anything amiss.

Harbos scratched his head, still somewhat confused about the situation, and after a moment of hesitation, he continued:

"I'm sorry, my disciple has a close friend also named ' Lai,' but logically speaking, she shouldn't be on this ship right now."

In fact, logically speaking, the identity of ' Lai ' shouldn't even exist.

Harbos knew, of course, that ' Lai ' was Fran's alias used in the Northern Lands Society, and he even knew that Fran had won the Gold Alchemy Award because of this identity.

Harbos's attitude was to make the best of a bad situation. Since he had already gone this far as to win the Gold Alchemy Award, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to change his name later.

However, the matter stalled because Fran received the Amber Law Award under her own name.

Now that Fran has made up her mind to develop within the Battle Mage Corps, ' Lai ' should disappear. After all, one cannot have two identities. He hadn't heard about ' Lai ' for a long time and thought Fran had already dealt with the matter.

Harbos never saw ' Lai's ' true appearance when he appeared. When he bumped into Fran in the Floating City, Fran had already arranged for another body to participate in the academic exchange program.

This made him forget what ' Lai ' was like back then, and this ' Lai ' also had a rather frightening identity: Legendary disciple.

Even Fourth Order Mage like him knew the value of a Legendary disciple. When he heard that Oinrich had taken on a disciple named ' Lai ', he actually suspected that Fran had gone to great lengths to find Legendary to be her mentor.

However, in reality, that wasn't the case. Because of the rush, he could still see Fran waving goodbye as she saw him off onto the ship, and then, this ' Lai ' appeared on the ship.

During this process, he did not sense any magical fluctuations, which basically confirmed that Fran was not playing two roles by herself.

So where did this ' Lai ' come from? Is it just a coincidence of names? Why is it such a coincidence?

"My disciple's friend also has that name, and she won the Gold Alchemy Award. I think you've heard of her, since you're both mages from the Alchemy School."

' Lai ' pretended to be quite excited and said happily:

"Lord Harbos, are you referring to the mage ' Lai ' who shares my name? I actually admire her quite a bit; after all, she's a true genius when it comes to research."

Harbos found no clues on ' Lai's ' face, which was already used to feigning innocence. He turned his head to the other side and then said:

"But I heard that Oinrich's disciple is the winner of the Gold Alchemy Award. Could it be that the mages outside are wrong?"

This was a very sharp question, hitting Fran's weak point, and she really couldn't refute it.

However, in the end, ' Lai ' also came up with a delaying tactic.

"Those mages outside are probably just making things up. I'm not a winner of the Gold Alchemy Award; I just happen to share the same name as her."

"Perhaps this is just someone spreading rumors."

"I was chosen by Lord Oinrich because I have a great Talent for time-related magic, which is why I was chosen to inherit his mantle."

This explanation could only serve as a temporary excuse. Although Harbos couldn't confirm the matter on the ship, he could ask Oinrich for details once he got ashore.

It's very easy to tell that she is the ' Lai ' who won the Gold Alchemy Award, and is the same person as Oinrich's disciple; there's no way she could be fake.

Otherwise, she wouldn't even have been able to publish that time-related Paper, because if it weren't for ' Lai,' who won the Gold Alchemy Award, the alchemical data that Oinrich had wouldn't have ended up in her hands.

This is something that ' Lai ' needs to solve, but in reality, it's not something that really needs to be solved.

She's now Oinrich's student, so Oinrich attitude towards her goes without saying; he wouldn't believe Harbos's baseless accusations at all.

However, if Harbos tells Iris, and then they reconcile the accounts, then Fran's true form will be in big trouble. It's really hard for her to explain, and if she does, she'll easily expose more flaws.

This is a gap that Fran must find a way to close, but she doesn't actually know how to do it yet.

"Take your time, I still have time. I have a body on Sea Blue Island, and there's still a possibility of making arrangements."

That was all Fran could think.

The voyage that followed was quite boring, but many mages, after checking the map, showed puzzled expressions on their faces, because it was just too strange.

Before the first night, the ship passed a huge island. Some knowledgeable monks noticed that the shape of this island was similar to the Dread Island further north on the map. Had we gone the wrong way?

Of course, this was ultimately refuted by Caleb, the helmsman.

"Who knows more about navigation, you or me?" Caleb said, though he was actually a bit timid and uneasy. However, the mage didn't pursue the matter further.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Chachek Wind Hermit, traveling on the sea and only able to see the masts of ships from afar, had different expressions on their faces.

The Wind Hermit roughly sensed the Mental Power fluctuations inside the ship and found that there were about ten third-tier spiritual energy fluctuations. However, he always felt that there was something hidden on the ship because there was always a blank space in his perception.

Normally, the Wind Hermit would let such a target go without even glancing at it, since attacking a ship with ten Third Order Mage is far too risky.

These ten Third Order Mage might even be well-trained, perfectly coordinated Battle Mage. In that case, even the Wind Hermit would probably have a chunk of flesh bitten off.

However, the Wind Hermit felt that he would probably have to attack the ship next, because according to the contract, attacking the ship would not be a violation of his contract.

After all, on the surface, this was the only resistance this ship possessed.

Chachek had been showing him around the ship from morning till night, watching it until it came to a stop on the Ocean and prepared to rest.

What are these monks trying to do by heading east?

Chachek couldn't understand this, so that night, he had the Wind Hermit lead him to the two islands the ship had passed that morning, and they searched until dawn, but found nothing.

"Your Highness, these mages didn't even stop, and this is still within the area the Alliance can cover. They have no reason to conceal their actions."

"And even if we sail the ship there, these mages can't do anything about it."

The Wind Hermit advised Chachek that since so many mages wanted to travel on the Ocean, they should be allowed to.

But Chachek always felt there was a big secret on the ship. They watched as the ship sailed to another island and searched again, but still found nothing.

Chachek, however, remained patient, watching as the ship changed course and headed south, finally reaching the Bottomless Sea on the night of the third day.

Chachek concluded that this was the monks' destination, and they had to follow them.

On the ship, although all the mages were a little confused about arriving at the Bottomless Sea a day late, they were at least there. They started discussing how to search for the Deep Sea Golden Dragon on the Ocean.

But ' Lai ' interrupted their conversation, and simply said slowly:

"There's no need for further discussion, everyone. I have a method to find those traces beneath the water's surface; just follow my method."