209: Chapter 209 The Two Women Meet! Princess Alice is Overjoyed!

Golden Flame Castle, drawing room.

Princess Alice stood by the window, her fingers unconsciously twisting the corner of her clothes. Her gaze drifted toward the door from time to time, her anxiety evident.

She had traveled day and night without stopping to reach Gino City from the Imperial Capital as quickly as possible.

She couldn't even bring herself to rest; as soon as she entered the city, she headed straight for Golden Flame Castle.

She had only one thought in her mind.

She had to find Garuvi before anyone else!

Just then.

The door to the drawing room was pushed open.

Alice turned around abruptly and said:

"Count Rowan, I need you to help me—"

Her words stopped abruptly.

Because—

She saw the person following behind Rowan.

Garuvi stood at the door, wearing a slightly oversized plain dress.

Her complexion was still somewhat pale, and her lips lacked color, her whole demeanor exuding weakness.

Alice was stunned.

"Garuvi!" she exclaimed in surprise. "You're actually here! You're okay! Thank goodness! You don't know, when I heard the news..."

She stopped halfway through her sentence.

Garuvi looked at her friend and smiled.

"I'm fine, Your Highness. I'm fine now. This time, I owe it to the help of Count Golden Flame."

"Mm," Alice nodded, then looked at Rowan, who was waiting quietly to the side, and said happily: "Count Rowan, you did well! Very well!"

Upon hearing this, Rowan smiled slightly, did not dwell on the topic, but turned to the side and made a gesture of invitation.

"Your Highness, Miss, this is not the place to talk. Please follow me."

Alice and Garuvi exchanged a glance, nodded, and followed Rowan.

The three of them went upstairs to a quiet study on the fourth floor of the castle.

After Rowan personally closed the doors and windows, he sat down to the side and looked at the two ladies sitting on the sofa opposite him, saying calmly:

"Alright, Your Highness, no one else can hear your conversation with Miss Garuvi now. You can talk freely."

Garuvi was silent for a moment upon hearing this.

Then, she raised her head and began to state her account.

Her voice was calm as she began from the night Cangyuan City fell.

She laid out that experience word by word in a nearly detached tone...

After listening, the expressions of both Rowan and Alice became subtle.

Neither of them spoke immediately, but both were quickly sorting out the context behind this matter in their minds.

Having calmed down, Alice asked after a moment of silence:

"Are you saying that your brother, Richter Lance, is the real traitor? That he colluded with Duke Witton and the Blood Barbarian Tribe to murder Marquis Lance?"

Garuvi nodded: "That is correct."

Alice's expression became even uglier.

She bit her lip: "But... the royal decree has already been finalized, and Richter Lance has become the new Marquis of Cangyuan."

She looked at Garuvi: "Moreover, we have no evidence. Everything you said is just your side of the story. Your brother has already submitted evidence proving that it was you who colluded with the Blood Barbarian Tribe, leading to the fall of the city."

Garuvi's expression remained calm, as if she had already guessed this result.

She was silent for a moment, then slowly raised her right hand, palm upward, and a blood-red aura rose from her palm.

Although that aura was still very weak, it carried a kind of solid and pure quality after a qualitative change, completely different from the aura of a High-Order Grand Knight.

"I have already broken through to become an Earth Knight," she said calmly.

Rowan and Alice were both shocked upon hearing this.

Rowan's gaze narrowed slightly.

Earth Knight!

That was a realm with a fundamental difference from a High-Order Grand Knight, meaning she had already initially mastered Domain Power.

To be able to reach this level at Garuvi's age, no wonder she could get 94 points!

The gaze he cast at Garuvi suddenly carried a hint of hidden heat!

A look of surprise also appeared on Alice's face: "Really?!"

She looked at the blood-red rose in Garuvi's palm, her excitement evident.

But soon, that excitement cooled down as if extinguished by cold water, and she frowned:

"But this is not very useful for overturning the case... Breaking through to Earth Knight does not prove that you did not commit treason."

"Instead, it might make some people more wary of you, thinking that this is what you gained from your betrayal..."

She sighed, stood up and paced the room for a few steps, then suddenly stopped, looked at Garuvi, and asked:

"My mother told me that the North is going to be in chaos. Garuvi, do you know what is going on? Has the strength of the Blood Barbarian Tribe increased significantly?"

Garuvi fell into thought upon hearing this.

She recalled her years of experience fighting the Blood Barbarian Tribe and slowly shook her head:

"The strength of the Blood Barbarian Tribe has indeed increased, but not by much. Without an inside man and the assistance of Duke Weiduns Estate, they could never have breached Cangyuan City with their strength alone."

"I don't understand... Why did things turn out like this? Duke Witton and the Blood Barbarian Tribe have had a blood feud for years, why would they cooperate?"

"Also, those people of the Blood Barbarian Tribe have always been unruly, why would they be so obedient, and even voluntarily abandon Cangyuan City after breaking it?"

"This doesn't seem like their style."

After listening, Alice was thoughtful, then her voice lowered: "The Royal Council also passed a resolution allowing border trade with the Blood Barbarian Tribe."

"What?! Impossible!" Garuvi raised her head abruptly, her voice filled with uncontrollable shock and anger.

She knew too well what this meant. The Lance Family had guarded the Cangyuan territory for generations and had dealt with the Blood Barbarian Tribe for over a hundred years, knowing deeply the dangers of this measure.

Successive Marquises of Lance had resolutely refuted such proposals, even willing to fall out with anyone to hold this bottom line.

But immediately, she gave a bitter smile.

What did these things have to do with her now? She was already a wanted traitor, her own life hanging by a thread, what qualification did she have to worry about border trade?

Both of them fell silent.

They both vaguely realized that behind all this chaos, there must be some deeper reason they did not know.

But what that reason was, they had no way of knowing.

Rowan listened quietly from the side, not interjecting.

He realized that both women seemed to know nothing about the Red Moon prophecy.

He thought about it and felt it was not strange.

If Aurora hadn't happened to tell him about this, he would probably have had to wait until the Red Moon fully revived to realize it.

Such secret, high-level intelligence was clearly better known by fewer people; no one would go around proclaiming it.

From this point of view, the witch from the Moon Chant Covenant Wizard Academy probably had a much more complex identity than he had initially thought.

Thinking of the shy witch whose cheeks were flushed when she parted with him in the Mist Forest, he couldn't help but smile slightly, then cleared his throat and said:

"Two ladies, I might know something."