Miss Carina was indeed as busy as Shade thought. Even if Ajelina wanted to see her, she had to wait at the door of the office for 30 minutes. But there was nothing she could do about it, because the people she was talking to were her father, Larousse III, and the Kingdom's Minister of Health and Social Security, Count Huntelier.
The little princess held the silver cat and sat on a bench in the corridor, swinging her legs under her skirt, enjoying the sunlight coming in from the window on the other side, and enjoying this peaceful afternoon. The servants walked and stopped, and the attendants carried documents and shuttled between the office buildings of the palace.
Everyone would greet Ajelina, and Ajelina Cavendish was not anxious about the wait, but hoped that the waiting time could be longer. On this unexpected Wednesday, she received what she thought was the best gift.
Around two o'clock in the afternoon, the door of the office was pushed open by the servant, and His Majesty walked out first. Seeing Ajelina standing up from the bench in the corridor, he smiled kindly, and then walked to the west side of the corridor with the count following behind him.
Ajelina asked her maid to help smooth out the wrinkles on her skirt before she walked into the office.
The Duke's servants were clearing the minutes of the meeting on the table. The red-haired Grand Duchess sat behind the desk, looking at the sunlight outside the window with a bored face. Tifa was holding a stack of manila file bags and stuffing them into the bookshelf on the wall behind her.
"Good afternoon, aunt."
Ajelina's voice made Miss Carina turn her head:
"Good afternoon, Ajelina. Haven't we finished discussing your trip to the Green Lake area?"
She said, and then saw the cat in the little princess's arms:
"oh?"
She frowned slightly, because the Transfiguration was so advanced that even she couldn't see what it was at the first sight. This was also the reason why Shade dared to break into the Yodel Palace in broad daylight.
"oh!"
If you saw this kind of cat on the street, you would just sigh at its beautiful fur and then forget about it. But since Ajelina brought it in, there must be something wrong. She looked carefully and indeed saw some clues, and then judged that there were some traces of Transfiguration.
"Oh~"
Only then did he remember that this was clearly the appearance of the cat that Shade transformed into after drinking the "Cat in the Bottle" last time.
The Duchess stood up from her chair, and the maids all looked at the cat held by the princess. Seeing that the situation was not good and the door was closed, Shad immediately jumped out of Ajelina's arms and returned to his human form:
"Karina, don't even think about it!"
"Really? Ajelina can hug me, but I can't?"
The witch expressed her dissatisfaction slightly, and was then warmly embraced by Xia De.
The smile on her face grew wider, and the annoyance she had felt while discussing issues in meetings with the men disappeared.
"Your Transfiguration is quite advanced. When did you learn it?"
"Last week at Fort Midhill."
Shad said:
"Also, I have a few ciphertexts I got from Green Lake. See if they can be of any use to you."
"Sit down and talk. Tifa, have someone bring some tea and snacks. It's time for the afternoon tea break."
"Aunt, I'll leave first."
The little princess said this tactfully, and waved goodbye to Xia De playfully.
"Ajelina is going to Green Lake with you?"
Looking at the little princess's departing back, Xia De asked curiously, and the witch nodded:
"Yes, she considered it for a long time before making the decision. It's a good thing, girls of this age go out more and mature quickly. You see, Yin Luna and Ajielina are the same age, only half a year older than her, but they look completely different."
Xia De agrees with this statement:
"Have you told Ajelina's father about her impending awakening?"
Shade asked again.
"Not yet. Lecia said that it won't be too late to wait until I'm fully awake. That way, I won't have to worry about causing other troubles. Don't look at me like that. There could indeed be trouble. In the royal family, especially a royal family with many children, anything could happen."
She said with a smile, unfolding the three ciphertexts that Shade had taken out.
Shade had already decrypted the ciphertext from MI6 with the help of three books, which was not complicated for him. The content of the ciphertext showed that MI6 tried to bribe Barry the Rotten Eye and use these gangsters to find a few people during the negotiations in the Green Lake area.
"This list of personnel is from our spies in Carsonrick, who learned about the gray glove agents lurking in the Green Lake area. Sometimes it's easier for gangsters to find people than professional agents."
Miss Carina said, putting the document aside:
"But why would that rotten-eyed Barry leave such an important document lying around? If it was not you but someone else who took it and deciphered it, the Sixth Department would be in an awkward position."
"He actually put it there in a fairly concealed place, but he couldn't stop Megan and me... and he wasn't thinking about that."
At this point, Xia De thought of the scene of the two falling into the lake last night. His heart, which had been pierced, felt a dull pain. Of course, this was just an illusion. His injuries had long been healed in the lake water thanks to the blessing of the God of the Drowned in the Deep Sea.
"Meghan? Did you call her by her name? I'm really looking forward to seeing her in Green Lake next week."
The red-haired witch kept smiling and looked at the ciphertext of the gray gloves. Shade had already learned from Margaret how to decipher the ciphertext of the gray gloves, so he had also deciphered it.
The content was not very important. It roughly meant that Gray Gloves gave Rotten Eyes Barry a large sum of money and hoped that he could use his men to regularly collect information about the Green Lake City Border Guard and report it to Gray Gloves' informant.
"But the cultist is already dead, so this information is of little value."
Miss Carina continued, and finally looked at the ciphertext of unknown origin. It had a complex pattern, and because he didn't know how to decrypt it, Shade couldn't crack it.
The witch looked at them for a while, and her expression gradually became serious. Then she said to Tifa:
"Go and ask Director Anros of MI6 whether he is at Yodel Palace now. Whether he is or not, ask him to come see me now."
"Yes, ma'am."
Tifa hurried out, and the Duchess explained to Shade:
"Do you remember last Thursday night, the night your group made a big move? Section 6 discovered a Della Riguigui clan member who was meeting with the Kasenrick people, but they didn't catch him."
"Yes, of course I remember. I met the director last Saturday night, and he revealed that the nobleman might be a prince of the royal family."
Shade has not forgotten the prince who broke into the Yodel Palace with a gun last year.
Miss Carina nodded:
"Although the Sixth Bureau has not yet found out who it is, at least it has found out that this incident has nothing to do with the Gray Gloves of the United Kingdom of Carsenrick. Based on the current investigation, they have initially locked on the enemy this time. Dark Anros's initial judgment was very accurate. Multiple forces have united to disrupt the negotiations between the two countries and even promote an all-out war between the two human kingdoms of the Old Continent."
She motioned for Shade to stand up and walked with her to the map on the wall of the study. This map included the entire Old World and the east coast of the New World. The landmarks, terrain, and various other markings were quite accurate:
"Look, Shade. My ancestors and the ancestors of Princess Margaret took hundreds of years in the Sixth Era to unify the southern and northern regions respectively. Since then, the Old Continent has had the most basic order, but then came the full-scale North-South War in the Old Continent."
Xia De stared at the map. He could imagine what kind of history Miss Carina described in just a few words.
"Now that the war between the North and the South has ended, more than 70 percent of the territory of the Old World belongs to the two countries. In addition to the uninhabitable deserts, primitive rainforests and Arctic glaciers, the remaining land also includes nearly a hundred small countries. Some of them are affiliated with the two countries. If I can make Saradir County independent, a principality will be established in the future. The other part maintains relative independence, such as the Principality of Lagson, where the Prophet Association is headquartered."
Shade's eyes followed the witch's finger and moved on the map. The map used thick black lines to mark the borders of various countries. Compared with Delarion and Carsonrick, those small countries were indeed quite inconspicuous.
"The order of the entire Old World now revolves around Carsenrick and Delarion. The vigorous steam industrial revolution was also driven by our two countries. But does everyone agree with this order? No, Shade, the ambitious people have been waiting for an opportunity, waiting for the two kingdoms of the north and the south to go to war again, so as to reshape the world order."
Her finger pointed the way for Shade:
"There is a new world to the west of the old world. People who have seized opportunities and wealth are trying to get more. What could be more attractive than building a country in a new world far away from the old order?"
The wealth and power of the New World were imaginable even to outsiders, and the strife and war of the Old World gave them the opportunity.
"In the southern part of the Rommel Mountains in the Old World, in Carsenrick-Derringor County, the former Kingdom of Derringor was annexed by Carsenrick fifty years ago, but the Zionists are still stirring, waiting for the opportunity to take back their homes and power. Guerrillas are still lurking in the jungles and deserts. Compared to them, the 'François Zionists' you once met are not worth mentioning at all. In its heyday, the Kingdom of Derringor was known as the third largest kingdom in the human race."
The witch's hand pointed to the area below the huge mountain range that stretched across the eastern part of the old continent, which was marked as "Derlingol County". This was also the second largest county-level administrative division in the eastern part of the United Kingdom of Carsenrick. Before the disappearance of the Kingdom of Derlingol, this was only three-quarters of their land area.