The Princess And The Lord



"Miss Jane, are you a former soldier?" Jack was curious about the young girl who didn't seem cut out for difficult professions like hunter or soldier, yet she possessed great power, whether it was a blessing or a curse for a girl like her.

Lory didn't notice the sympathy in Jack's eyes but Zhao Li Xin could see it clearly Unfortunately she didn't understand what they were talking about and it annoyed her.

"I'm not a soldier, but I was trained quite hard" Lory shrugged nonchalantly like it was nothing cause she indeed thought it was nothing to be shocked or awed.

"Are you in military school?" Jack was even more confused.

Lory waved her hand and laughed, "No way, I went to a regular school...but sometimes I was sent to a youth military summer camp, but it was just for fun!"

Everyone was silent, Youth military summer camps were initial training for anyone who wanted to enter the military and were usually attended by young people from army schools so their training was no less rigorous than that of new soldiers so it wasn't an activity that could be put into the fun category. 

If only they knew that Lory and Lucas had also been sent to train with the King's Men for several months when they were in their early teens just to show the disparity between them and the army as encouragement for Lory and Lucas to work harder.

Of course, their participation was kept secret from the public and needless to say, none of the king's men dared to open their mouths about the presence of the royal family in their training.

On the contrary, all of the king's men who took part in training with the royal heir became obsessed to become strong after witnessing the prince's strength. and young Princess.

"Well, let's back to Samuel Albrecht, Are you sure he's the same person with that Albrecht?" Jack turns their conversation back.

"One hundred percent!" said Garrof confidently.

Jack rubbed his jaw while immersed in his thoughts "So he was a Dragxtarn, huh..." Jack lifted his cigar from the ashtray and took a deep drag then blew the smoke into the air "That's new information...but why did the fellow Dragxtarn want to kill him?"

"My first guess is because he was annoying, heck, Even I would kill him if we met again" Garrof still held a grudge after almost being killed by the junk-called airplane from Albrecht.

Jack rolled his eyes and then decided to ignore his hot-tempered friend, "So Luxembourg decided to rebuild the deadly group from the dead?"Jack could already feel a lot of trouble was about to arise.

"Who knows, maybe the group never disbanded in the first place..." Lloyd looks at Jack with a conspiratorial expression.

"You remind me, I never heard of the announcement from Luxemborough that they rebuilt the Dragxtarn again?" Lory narrowed her eyes.

"And now somehow they work closely with the S.A.I.N.T organization." Lloyd's eyes were fixed with worry.

Jack whinges while crossing his arms over his chest "I don't like this, this doesn't sound good"

"You think?" Garrof sneered.

Lloyd massaged his forehead "Okay, leave that for later, for now, we need to analyze everything in order...let's start with what we know first"

"Okay.." Garrof grumbled while scratching his head.

Jack took paper and pen, Meanwhile, Lory briefly explained to Zhao Li Xin what they were discussing Zhao Li Xin's face turned tense.

"Okay, firstly we start with Ethan Hamilton being attacked," Jack wrote on the paper.

"Tsk, your writing is still lousy"  Garrof never forgot to complain about Jack

"Fine then Lloyd's write it." Jack angrily threw his pen at Lloyd.

Lloyd sighed at their childish bickering then he took the pen and continued "And then the S.A.I.N.T. organization asked for Ellecant group shares in exchange for helping Ethan but totally rejected by the old Hamilton..."

Lory then added "Everyone should know to break the curse one has to destroy the source, has no one tried to kill Maren before us"

"Of course, they sent several groups of high-level hunters before us but they failed, either they couldn't find Maren or they were all killed by that monster because there were many victims. The Hamilton family's request was rejected by many famous guilds until finally, they contacted me who worked semi-independent to hunt down Zhyger then for some reason the S.A.I.N.T. organization 'kindly' lent Miss Boyd to help us" Garrof know become suspicious by the organization generosity.

Lloyd then chimed in "Oh, I even heard Mr. Hugo trying to ask for help from the new director of N.I.M.S., Justin Thornberry, but unfortunately received no reply from Mr. Thornberry..."

"Jay?!" Loy mutters with a frown.

"Hmm?" Jack thought he heard something.

Lory immediately changed her tone, "Oh, that's very strange, I mean why didn't they reply, even if they ultimately refused Mr. Hamilton's request, at least they had to say something, right?" Lory felt there was something strange about Jay's attitude.

As far as Lory remembered, Jay was not someone who would ignore other people's plead, especially the Hamilton family which had a lot of influence in the business sector because it would affect the business relationship with the company from Harland.

"Dunno, but these past few months the communication with Harland has been tough. They even closed the border and only a few people with special permits were allowed in and out of the country," explained Garrof.

Lory had actually read the news about this before, but surprisingly the news about Harland was not talked about much as if this matter was deliberately covered and to be honest, Lory could guess who would be responsible for this, but that only made her even more worried about Harland's situation. 

"Yes, I've read it about it but does anyone know the real reason?" the corner of her eyes crinkle from concern.

"Just rumors..." Lloyd said

"I heard something happened to the King but it's been denied by his right-hand man Fredhardt Knoxville so there hasn't been a clear statement from Harland's side but I'm sure everything is fine how could it have happened after the war of the Dark Ages ended and Nazareth was annihilated" Lloyd quickly added so as not to cause unnecessary anxiety to Lory.

But Lory didn't feel any better, because it would be impossible for Harland's borders to be closed if nothing happened especially now when the world is trying to recover from a long war.

Even Harland couldn't survive without cooperating with other countries so it didn't make sense for Harland to limit their interaction with the outside world which only troubled their people.

"Hey - hey, don't make random speculation, we need to leave that alone and go back to what we know okay!" Jack broke the tension in the room and refocused on the facts they knew.

Lory shook her head to get rid of her wild thoughts, "Okay, You're right...You may continue"

"Secondly, The  S.A.I.N.T. organization not only wants a five percent share but also wants Hamilton to produce weapons again, the question is, why?" Garrof looked at them one by one with a questioning look.

"I heard that Ethan was a talented 'creator' who discovered how to make moss combined with specially made crystals which then became renewable energy, and that helped many countries to develop their countries, even Harland" Jack suddenly said.

"Ethan Hamilton is the 'Creator'...how do you know this?" Lory did not expect this.

"From people who know people," Garrof said vaguely then he continued "According to my people, Ethan is the talented 'creator' even for the 'creator' standard so imagine if Ethan used his skills to make weapons, Maybe it's not farfetched he could make a weapon that was more dangerous than Dragna," said Jack again.

"If that's true then it's clear why they want the shares of the Ellecant group, If they succeed in persuading the Hamilton family to make weapons then with the shares they had they would able to influence the decision-making of how they distributed the weapons even decide the client..." Lory started to look at S.A.I.N.T's organizational plan.

"Like Luxemborough" Jack's voice becomes heavy.

"Why do they need weapons at a time like this?" Garrof couldn't stop wondering.

"Is there a better time than now..." Lory's words made the atmosphere quiet.

"We know even before the Dark Age war Luxemborough's ambitions were never small, they always wanted to dominate the world but that was not easy especially when Harland stood strong as a dominant but neutral power. Currently, all countries are still unstable and wounded from the last war, and a lot of turmoil happening due to their weakened state including Harland apparently so if Luxemborough wants to launch their ambition there is no better time than now."

Lory calculated the situation calmly based on logic and facts as they now knew without being swayed by emotion as if it didn't affect her at all, but Garrof and Lloyd knew better.

"And the strange Beast we found? what it got to do with the Luxemborough and S.A.I.N.T. organization, how it connected to them?" Jack's voice becomes tight with anxiety as he realizes this matter is way too big for them.

Lory shakes her head "That...we don't know, yet"

"This is crazy, you think Luxemborough and that strange organization want to launch another big war by taking advantage of the whole country being in a weakened state, Do they want to destroy the world? We were almost wiped out a few years ago, the people will not survive another war!" Jack's anger exploded but he did not dare to raise his voice instead he spoke in a hushed tone as if he was afraid someone would hear him.

Garrof and Lloyd's faces turned deathly pale. They didn't expect this situation to have exceeded their wildest imagination.

Meanwhile, Lory calmly explained their conclusion carefully without missing anything and Zhao Li Xin listened seriously yet his demeanor remained calm and relaxed he didn't look affected by the troubled news he had received like it had nothing to do with him.

Jack and the others were confused by Zhao Li Xin's indifferent reaction but only Lory knew that Zhao Li Xin was actually taking this situation very seriously, it's just that from the outside Zhao Li Xin always looked lethargic and lazy but that because of years he pretending to be weak.