Two o'clock in the morning.

Dawn Castle.

Lady Agnet, in a dark purple dress, sat upright on a bench in the reception room, waiting to be summoned by the Duke of Dawn.

It was time for us to sleep peacefully, but many people came to the living room.

All decent people, all there for much the same reason.

People were whispering to each other, exchanging the information they had obtained in low voices.

"Warrior Aaron was galloping on horseback in the downtown area, killing many people."

"What's that? My bathhouse is open for business, but they still rushed in to search for people. My men raised their hands to stop them, but their arms fell to the ground."

"The barbaric Aarons are trampling on the pearls of Veran. Why doesn't the Duke do anything about it?"

"Come on, this matter was caused by the Adrian family. If the Duke wants to intervene, he should first take care of the willful princess!"

Amidst the discussions, Mrs. Agnet remained seated motionless, like a sculpture.

Time passed minute by minute, and finally a servant came to her side and whispered, "Madam, the Duke wants to see you."

Madame Agnet stood up silently, followed the servant, went up the spiral staircase, passed through a corridor full of armored guards, and finally entered the Duke's study.

The Duke was alone in the study.

He sat lazily in a high-back chair, one hand supporting his forehead, his drooped face revealing extreme fatigue.

After hearing the footsteps, the duke, who was just in his early thirties and in the prime of his life, did not raise his head.

"Anna, I knew you would come."

Madame Agnete bowed slightly to the Duke.

"Your Excellency the Duke, I salute you, but I want to ask, what is the situation now? Why are Aaron's Night Guards running wild on Weilan's land?!"

The Duke chuckled, changed his hand that was supporting his forehead to his chin, and looked at Lady Agnet with his emerald eyes.

"Anna, you obviously know it, why are you asking?"

Madam Aignite took a deep breath, as if to suppress her anger: "So, you treated my apprentice as a sacrifice? And your sister as a commodity?"

In fact, when Rosen disappeared in the harbor area, she knew this would happen, but she didn't expect Reid to be so indulgent to Aaron Night Guard.

She had expected the Duke to capture Rosen, and then she would try to intercede and save him, but now there was no room for turning back.

As a mentor, she could not ignore the killing of her apprentice!

There was a hint of surprise on the Duke's face.

"Your apprentice. Do you care about him? I thought that in your eyes, the little baron was just an insignificant waste."

Mrs. Agnet's face turned even colder. "In terms of talent, he is indeed mediocre, but this is not a reason to sacrifice him casually."

"Just like you, Lord Duke, your talents may not be that outstanding, but your father did not give up on you. He still insisted on bringing you back from Aaron to succeed the Duke, instead of sacrificing you in Aaron!"

These words touched the Duke's lungs, and his face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"I am the only son of my father, so the Dukedom should be mine."

"The founder of the Principality of Weilan was Saint Weilan, and there was more than one Duchess in Weilan's history!"

Madame Agnet fought back mercilessly.

The Duke leaned back on the high back of his chair and snorted, "Anyway, I am the Duke now, and the situation is irreversible."

"As for your apprentice Rosen, although he brought this upon himself, I still apologize to you and will find a way to compensate you for your loss of reputation."

"Also, I want to congratulate you. Your apprentice is not as mediocre as you and I thought. He is very clever and has fooled Aaron's hounds around."

Mrs. Agnet sneered: "You sacrificed Rosen, but you want to compensate me? Ridiculous!"

After saying this, she waved her hand vigorously to stop the Duke from refuting.

"Duke, I don't want to waste time on verbal arguments!"

"I need your authorization to allow me to recruit four teams of black guards to save Rosen's life."

The Duke spread his hands bluntly: "I can't possibly give you the authorization. This will cause a war between Weilan and Aaron."

Mrs. Agnet was of course aware of this, and she immediately took a step back.

"If you don't support me, then I will go to the Mages Guild to mobilize the Knights of Erudition."

The Duke smiled lazily, as if he was facing a snarling rabbit.

"Anna, you can't move unless I nod."

Madam Aignite gritted her teeth and said, "Because of the honor bestowed upon me by the Robert family, I became one of the guardian mages of the Mage Guild."

"As the Guardian Mage, I have the authority to forcibly recruit two teams of 20 learned knights!"

"So, I'm here to inform you, not to ask for your consent."

The Duke felt Madame Agnete's firm will and finally realized that she was serious and not just coming to him to vent her dissatisfaction.

The casual look on his face completely disappeared. He stood up with a bang, supported himself on the desk with both hands, leaned forward, and stared at the other person without blinking.

"Anna, Aaron has sent out 300 Night Guards, led by two four-ring combat masters. You are simply going to die!"

"And if you die, no one will shed a tear for you except your brother, Earl Robert, and my silly sister."

"People will only laugh at you for throwing away your life for the son of a bird shit baron. You are even more stupid than a donkey pulling a millstone!"

Madame Agnet stared at the Duke, but her eyes turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye, and tears appeared in the corners of her eyes.

"Ryder, I never expected that in just a few years, you would become such a cold-blooded and heartless person."

The Duke felt the other party's will soften and knew that his words had worked.

"I would like to be merciful, but the mountaintop is too cold. The chill wind chills my blood."

"Don't worry, I won't recruit the learned knights, because I won't force them to die for me."

"But I will never give up rescuing my apprentice, even if it costs me my life!"

The Duke responded loudly: "You are crazy, just like Selena, you are crazy!"

"You are incompetent for being a duke but having no persistence!"

"All the powerful ones are dead. You have no idea how powerful Aaron is!"

There was no response, and Madame Agnet had gone far away.

The Duke sat back in his chair dejectedly. After sitting for a while, he suddenly raised his hand and scratched his hair hard, cursing, "This is totally unreasonable!"

At first, he just wanted to play a joke to make his sister face reality. He couldn't understand why things turned out like this.

After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly yelled: "Andre~~Andre~~~"

After shouting a few times, a black-clad battle mage quickly walked into the study and replied expressionlessly: "Master, I'm here."

Ander, a personal guard of the Adrian family, commander of the Black Iron Guard, a high-level 20-star battle mage, and the Duke's most trusted confidant.

The Duke took a deep breath and asked, "How is the situation in the city?"

Ander immediately reported: "We just received a wave of new intelligence ten minutes ago, saying that the clue found in the Temple District in the north of the city was a false clue, and the coachman was actually under mental suggestion."

"Master Schmidt was furious and swore a sacred oath on the spot, saying that he would drag the man out of the harbor area and skin him alive."

The Duke found this a little strange.

"Then how can the old man be sure that the person must be in the harbor area?"

"Master, this is the result of the divination of the wide-area water divination."

"The divination results show that the entire harbor area is filled with the aura of the Baron and Princess of Sturgeon Island. This is enough to explain the approximate location of the target."

The Duke asked again: "Approximate location. Then I want to ask you, where did the bird shit baron take my sister?"

Master Ande's indifferent face, like a wooden sculpture, twitched slightly, and in the cold night of late autumn, beads of sweat quickly seeped out of his forehead.

"Master, no one knows the exact location of the White Sturgeon Baron. He is hiding very well."

The Duke frowned upon hearing this: "In other words, my sister is now completely out of control, and we can't even be sure whether she is dead or alive?"

Master Ande had cold sweat dripping from his forehead: "Master, His Highness must still be alive. Because His Highness's family bloodline has not been broken."

"waste!"

"Plop~"

Master Ande fell to his knees under the pressure of these two words.

"Master, the warriors have tried their best. Aaron's Night Guards also couldn't find anyone."

The Duke also knew that Ender was not to blame. He pinched his sore forehead, took a long breath, and issued a new order.

"Send more personnel to the harbor area to ensure the safety of His Highness. Also, ask Aaron's hounds to exercise some restraint and stop trampling people with their hooves or chopping their arms."

"Yes, Master."

"Finally, send someone to control Madam Agnet. The harbor area is already in chaos enough. Let her do whatever she wants. Maybe she can lead us to find the missing apprentice."

"But be careful not to let her die. After all, she is Earl Robert's sister."

Earl Robert is the supreme lord of the northern Shire County and the leader of the island independence faction. He holds a special position in Vilan.

"Yes, Master."

Master Ande responded again.

After a pause, he asked cautiously, "Master, what if His Highness and Lady Agnet are determined to protect Baron White Pelican?"

The Duke was startled, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that this was really possible.

Because both her sister and Mrs. Agnet were very stubborn, and the more they were pushed, the more they resisted.

It is also because of this that the two became good sisters.

However, Aaron is determined to avenge himself with the life of Baron Bird Shit, so this situation will lead to a confrontation between the Black Guards and Aaron's Night Guards.

If things go wrong, the two sides will start fighting and things will get out of hand.

Things are tricky.

The Duke pinched his scalp hard, gritted his teeth, and finally gave an order: "Knock the man unconscious and bring him back by force."

Master Ande gritted his teeth and asked until the end.

"Master, what if we can't knock them out? After all, they are both outstanding high-level mages."

This matter must be clarified. Even if it offends the Duke, he must be made clear. Otherwise, he may be blamed for it later.

The Duke glared at his confidant hatefully and gave the answer he wanted.

"Then let's make a big fuss about this, let everyone see this, let everyone know that they took the initiative to give up their responsibilities to the family and the principality, then... then..."

The Duke repeated it twice before he finally spoke.

"Then, the Principality and the family will have no obligation to protect their lives!"

After saying the last sentence, the Duke let out a breath as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and waved his hand weakly at Master Ander.

"You bastard, just do as I say."

Master Ander returned to his expressionless state again.

"Yes, Master."

(End of this chapter)