Chapter 1560: A Pre-Wedding Reunion
Veronica and the team immediately started to come up with a plan, ideally one that could hit multiple stones at once.
Moving in a City was much too dangerous, after all, and if they were going to make a move, most of them should be finished within a few steps, lest someone notice them.
The wedding was scheduled to be held in 5 days (word on the street was that Lia’s fiance was beaten up quite badly), so they had a few days to get them here.
For this, they’d need help from the family already inside—Margaery. However, it wasn’t nearly as straightforward as they wanted.
It was too risky to have Veronica go to the Lord’s Palace—regardless of whether she had a cover—because any interactions Margaery received were probably monitored.
Even if it wasn’t, it was likely because the Lord wanted to show his nonchalance to the Golds in general, but the people around him could still be watching.
So if the interaction was closely followed by the family’s disappearance, then this would likely lead them to Veronica somehow.
Fortunately, there were other ways, even if they did take a bit longer.
....
Hassen City, a day later
The currently black-haired Silva looked at the platform in front of him. His eyebrows rose.
[Would you like to receive the letter from Hoye Flin of Ferrol Town?]
He clicked ’Yes’ and saw the letter was relatively untouched and unopened. It seemed like this letter hadn’t captured interest, for now.
He heaved a sigh of relief and went to find a restaurant with private stalls to have his breakfast as he read. Still, while he read, his mind couldn’t help but shift to the party.
He felt a little worried and guilty, recalling the look of recognition in Esstia’s eyes. He had hoped she wouldn’t recognize him. It had been so long, after all.
After the party, he immediately sent a letter back to Alterra, reporting—in code—everything he had seen... as well as the fact that he could’ve been compromised.
It was his oversight, and he felt extremely ashamed of it.
There were naturally a lot of considerations when the Golds (and Alterra, as it was a mission that could affect them) chose him for this mission.
The advantages of choosing him were that his level was good and would fit the level requirement of city guards.
Another was that he was from the City himself, so he naturally knew many of the customs. While there were a lot of differences between cities, at least he didn’t have to start from scratch in his adjustment.
The risk was that there was a small chance of his getting recognized. However, it was not big because even while he worked under the Golds—Otto, in particular—he was assigned to the caravans, so he wasn’t typically associated with them.
If there was anyone who might recognize him, that’d be Lady Estra, but she wasn’t in Hassen City at all. Lady Octavia was focused on the Eldest Master, so she wouldn’t have known about him.
He did not know that Esstia would be there.
Esstia...
Esstia was his lover from when they were young and weak.
However, one day... she just disappeared.
At the time, her father told him she had been married off elsewhere. He was naturally not reconciled, but he understood how a woman’s fate depended on her father.
However, he still tried to trace her, to find out more, but it was like she had disappeared. There was no indication of who her husband was, either. He was then accepted as an employee of the Golds and was assigned elsewhere, and he could only move on.
However, after months, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. The only clue—her father—was also gone, though he would re-emerge months later, dead, killed after irking people because he was unable to pay his debts from gambling.
It would be a lie to say that—after nearly two decades—he had not thought about her, and he was still a bit shaken from seeing her. He just never let it show, compartmentalizing well as was needed in his job.
It seemed that, prior to the party, he had not encountered her because he was fixed on a single zone of the large palace complex. Lady Octavia barely went out as well, so their paths simply never crossed.
So many months he had been here, he felt it was a waste that he hadn’t talked to her yet.
In any case, he did not hide much from his letter to the Masters. At the same time, he hoped he would not get pulled out of the mission.
For one, he had already started and was already integrated. He promised to talk to Esstia, and he’d come up with an excuse that wouldn’t reveal he worked for the Golds at all.
The greatest relief was that they didn’t ask him to go away. He could continue this mission and talk to Esstia as well, which was the best-case scenario for him.
The Golds told him that if it was revealed that he worked for the Golds at one point, he could just act like a refugee who simply ran away because he was associated with the Golds.
Anyway, now that the greatest worry was pushed down, he could focus on the main mission at hand.
He was told to tell Lady Zinnia to go to Bleulle within the next few days, because they would be organizing their rescue. This was all coded, of course, but Silva understood it perfectly.
He headed to work while calculating, trying to find a way to smoothen the mission as much as possible. He was heading straight to Lady Zinnia’s palace, but he was stopped by a familiar woman.
His eyes flickered. He had been planning on going to her within the day, and he wasn’t entirely certain he was ready to interact with her now.
However, he couldn’t help but soften regardless. He looked at the woman, who was looking at him with a mix of guardedness, relief, and warmth. He was probably looking at her the same way.
"Esstia."