The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-1282

Chapter 1282: News From the South

When Hao Ren came to the special meeting room, aside from the king, two other people were there. One of them was Grand Duke Loen, and the other was a mysterious woman shrouded by a shadow. She was standing behind Rudolph III.

The atmosphere in the room was a bit strange; weird, but not oppressive or something else.

“You look for me?” Hao Ren sat down in a chair and looked at Rudolph III curiously.

The king nodded. “There is a piece of news from the southern front. You would probably be interested to know.”

“News from the South?” Hao Ren was startled. At first, he thought that the frontline news in the south had nothing to do with him. But he had quickly sensed something else. “Wait a minute. Is it that you have found the person I am looking?”

The king did not answer immediately but seemed to talk about an irrelevant matter. “Recently, a force has risen in the south. It was a large group of beasts and abhumans called the Beast Tide. They first appeared on the floating island outside the southern border of the kingdom, and then flew across the Sea of Carnos using some unknown methods. After landing in the forest in the south, the beasts headed north. You should already know that there was a powerful storm of Chaos in the south not long ago. The storm did not kill the beasts. Instead, the Beast Tide has survived and roped into the surviving abhumans in the Black Forest. A few days ago, the beasts arrived at Fort Raven at the border and clashed with the Chaos on the great wilderness. The Beast Tide saved Fort Raven and secured the southern border.”

“So, this Beast Tide…” Hao Ren blinked.

Grand Duke Loen nodded. “The leader of the Beast Tide is a mysterious character called the Alpha, who should be a woman with wolf characteristics, seemingly very similar to the ancient one you have described.”

“Just so little information?” Hao Ren became a little curious.

Rudolph III spread out his hand helplessly. “As the storm is still raging, primordial magic energy at the border between the Order and Chaos has affected information flow. We have dedicated the limited magic network resources to relay battlefield reports from the frontline. So we have just received the news about the Alpha. If it weren’t for the scale of the Beast Tide, the relay of this information would have been delayed.”

“The Alpha and the Beast Tide?” Hao Ren was stunned. He mumbled to himself, “I couldn’t believe that the husky has caused so much trouble.”

“What did you say?” Rudolph III asked.

“Ahem, nothing. I am very interested in that alpha. In all likelihood, the alpha could be the person I’m looking for.” Hao Ren replied. “I didn’t expect she had gone to the deserted islands off the mainland. I am going to the south to check it out.”

Rudolph III and Grand Duke Loen exchanged a look, and the king had a reluctant expression on his face.

“Are you not letting me go?” Hao Ren was calmed and seemed to have expected this situation long ago. “I have done whatever I could to help you, and I have even left you with the lifeblood, which you can use to rekindle the Sunscorch Towers in other kingdoms. I think that you have just solved your biggest problem. What’s more, I don’t belong here.”

“Of course you can leave, the Taros royal family isn’t that unreasonable,” Rudolph III quickly said, shaking his head. “The kingdom owes you a big favor and would not ask for more. But I hope you can bring someone along. Isn’t that easy for you?”

“Who is it?”

“Lady Gloom,” said Rudolph III. As soon as his voice trailed off, a slender woman had come before Hao Ren like a ghost. She movement of the woman was so strange that even Hao Ren could not see how she did it—it was almost like teleportation. “I hope you can bring her along.”

Hao Ren looked at the ghostly secret agent of the King with surprise. At first he thought the king wanted him to bring Veronica—after all, the knight princess was a general; it was a matter, of course, to bring her along to the frontline. He had never thought that the king would want him to escort the kingdom’s secret agent who usually should stay beside the king.

“Isn’t she your secret agent? Why do you want her to leave at this particular time?”

“She has a mission.” Rudolph III did not mind explaining more to Hao Ren, whom the king thought was the Ancient Guardian. “You might not know; there is a group of Sanctum investigators in the Beast Tide. According to our intelligence, they met an accident while crossing the Sea of Carnos. Later they somehow came under the protection of the Alpha and became members of the Beast Tide. I hope you can take Lady Gloom to meet them. Until then, Lady Gloom will know what to do.”

“Sanctum? The Theocracy?” Hao Ren was startled.

“That’s right,” Rudolph III replied with a smile. “Speaking of which, you are also from Sanctum, am I right? Every temple is a base of Sanctum in the secular world. Ordinary people may hold clerical posts, but the Sanctumese always serve as the temple’s warrior and higher-ranking priests. The Sanctum investigators are your compatriots albeit a thousand years younger than you are.”

Hao Ren was a bit embarrassed when hearing that. Of course, he knew the things that Rudolph III said; things about Sanctum and temples were common knowledge in the secular world. Hao Ren even knew that there was a massive temple on the plain outside White City. When a turmoil broke out in Theocracy, all monks and knights in the secular world, including that of the temple, had evacuated, leaving the temple closed temporarily.

The evacuation had prevented Hao Ren, the fake temple guardian, from bumping into the true Sanctumese.

But now it seemed that Hao Ren could only delay the trouble but not avoid it. Both sides would eventually meet in the South.

But Hao Ren quickly calmed down. It was not that he was afraid to meet the Sanctumese; he knew that it was a matter of time, even in his original plan, before he would go to Sanctum.

Hao Ren thought he should be able to find the answer to the origins of Chaos and the evil giant Rockmarton.

Rudolph III seemed to have read Hao Ren’s mind from his facial expression. “You plan to go back to Sanctum? Well, probably you should since Sanctum is in turmoil now.”

Hao Ren just shrugged and said nothing.

He would decide if he would go to Sanctum after arriving at the south.

The road from White City to the southern border was a long journey with mountains and forests in between. At first, Rudolph III planned to arrange an airship for Hao Ren, accompanied by an escort team of knights and soldiers. But Hao Ren thought that it was too much a trouble, and he was in a hurry to find his dog. The airship as a flying unit was not even as fast as his little North Stars in sports mode, Hao Ren thought.

Hao Ren told the king that he had a better way and politely declined the king’s kindness. Bringing Lady Gloom together, Hao Ren left the secret chamber.

Now, there were only Rudolph III and Grand Duke Loen in the room.

“Is it a good idea to let Lady Gloom leave?” Grand Duke Loen said after a moment of silence. “She has been serving and guarding the royal family for three centuries since the first king built this city on the great plains. Now her sudden departure will cause us a lot of trouble.”

“She is not a Taros people,” Rudolph III said while leaning on the chair. At this moment, the king looked twenty years older than before. “We both know that she isn’t even a human being. No one knows her real name, race, and origin. She has a secret, which could be the reason she has chosen to stay here, and the same reason that she chooses to leave.”

Grand Duke Loen was silent. After a long while, he then shook his head. “An uncontrollable factor.”

“There are many more things that are beyond our control,” the King sighed. “The world is undergoing unprecedented changes, which are something that our forefathers have never faced before. In this situation, we cannot act based on common sense alone.”

“Just because of this, you choose to let Lady Gloom do whatever she likes? This is not you.”

“What else can I do? You don’t know Lady Gloom,” Rudolph III said while shaking his head with a smile. “Loen, Lady Gloom is not just an inner-court knight and a secret agent; she is much more powerful than you think. If she wants to leave, no one in Taros can stop her. We should be glad that she at least chose to discuss it with me.”

“What about the guardian?” Grand Duke Loen’s brows knit together. “Now with the Chaos running rampant, the guardian is our security. But if he leaves—”

“I have received a secret letter from the Witch Queen and the Dune King this morning.” Rudolph III interrupted Grand Duke Loen. The king looked somber. “All they could send is just this little information. But they have mentioned about the light beam in the direction of Taros in the night sky, and the anomaly of the Sunscorch Towers in other kingdoms. The nature of the ‘explosion’ a few days ago is beyond our understanding. I am dead sure that Hao Ren is not a Sanctumese, let alone an ancient guardian.”

The poker-face of Grand Duke Loen finally showed some animation. “Then he is…”

“I have no idea. But I know the smartest thing to do is not to stop him.”