However, after hearing this story, the most excited person was not anyone else.

It was Ai Xiaoxiao, who was holding her friend's hand tightly, her face full of excitement. "This is what we call an adventure, right, Tangtang!?" The young girl exclaimed, her eyes shining brightly, as if she was putting herself in the midst of those stories: "Sword and shadow, deception and trickery, tales of heroes, and thrilling conspiracies, it's just amazing! Tangtang, wouldn't it be great if we were also in it?"

"Don't even think about it." Tang Xin's cold voice shattered the other's fantasies like colorful bubbles.

"I-I'm just saying," Ai Xiaoxiao replied a bit guiltily, "I was just speaking offhand."

Tang Xin gave her friend a sardonic look, expressing her disapproval.

But she turned back, and after a moment's thought, said to Fang Hong: "The military spent considerable effort to find you, presumably not long after the Morning Dawn Star incident, they immediately contacted my parents. Later, you also exposed your identity in the Continental League, as described by Miss Hilveld... If it weren't for Princess Briana, you would most likely have fallen into their hands by then..."

Fang Hong listened to this and couldn't help but shift uneasily in his seat.

The others also showed signs of worry. Fang Hong had not hidden the fact that he was a stowaway from the rest of the team, but the bigger the stir this caused, the more severe the consequences would likely be.

Atira and Gita were more worried about Fang Hong himself, while the others inevitably felt concerned about the team's future.

But only Hilveld looked calmly at the other party and asked, "So, what does Tangtang think?"

This title made Tang Xin extremely uncomfortable.

In her heart, only her friends and cousin were allowed to call her that. But she suppressed her displeasure and replied with a stern face: "What can I do? It's all because of my dumb cousin causing trouble."

She snorted lightly and looked at Fang Hong: "Sneaking through Stargate Port? Quite the move."

Fang Hong quickly looked away.

"Tangtang." Atira spoke up.

For some reason, the tone of the Elf Miss seemed to carry a kind of calming strength, making it impossible for Tang Xin to feel rebellious — besides, Atira was genuinely concerned about her cousin, which she could see.

There was always something about this Elf Miss that reminded her of her own mother.

Tang Xin sighed softly: "Actually, your reasoning isn't entirely baseless. The military is definitely putting in such effort to find my cousin not just because he is a stowaway."

Fang Hong was taken aback: "Is there such an explanation?"

This dumb pigeon made Tang Xin angry right away: "Did you forget something, dear cousin?"

Fang Hong looked at her with a clueless expression.

"Do you remember your description of what happened at Traveler's Rest?"

"Nikopolas?"

"It's unrelated to that," Tang Xin gritted her teeth, "it's the military's method of checking stowaways."

Only then did Fang Hong realize: "Oh, it was that device —" He remembered the event at the time, and couldn't help but laugh: "The military probably thought I didn't have a system, but they didn't expect I already had Miss Tata then, it was really a close call at that time."

"Is that all?" Tang Xin asked.

Fang Hong was stunned: "What else is there?"

Tang Xin gave him a faint glance: "You said you didn't have a system, and the military assumed the same. But during the Elf Ruins, did you forget how you performed?"

Fang Hong wore a puzzled expression.

But after a moment, he suddenly 'ah' — finally remembered that he seemed to have overlooked something important all along — probably because he was in the thick of it. He had never paid attention to his performance with the Clockwork Fairy's Multi-Control Ability.

It was achieved without a system...

But he didn't think much of it at that time, and only after gradually enhancing his craftsman foundation, learning about the average level of other Combat Artisans, did he realize his exceptional talent with Multi-Control on Flexible Constructs.

But this talent never sparked a desire to investigate his past actions.

The performance at Elf Ruins, to ordinary people who didn't understand all this, might seem unremarkable. But to the military, it held different significance.

Because, like himself, the military knew his stowaway status and knew he didn't have a system at that time.

This was somewhat daunting.

Suddenly Fang Hong realized he had seemingly misunderstood something on a deeper level.

Tang Xin merely sighed at this, being used to this act. She sometimes wondered, if she didn't take better care of her cousin, would he lose himself as well.

"Um..." Fang Hong couldn't help but stutter a bit: "Tang Xin, are you saying... I originally misunderstood..."

Tang Xin shook her head: "Not necessarily. After all this time, the military not finding my cousin is actually not entirely bad."

"Not bad?"

Tang Xin quietly looked at her cousin and asked: "Free Summoner or the military's summoner, which would you choose?"

"Of course..." Fang Hong paused and suddenly understood.

He stopped and fell into thought.

"So given that, rather than showing your hand now, you might as well wait a bit longer," Tang Xin glanced at the nearby Noble Lady and lightly bit her lip: "Miss Hilveld was right, what you need now is support from Rose Workshop."

Hilveld smiled gently.

And Fang Hong turned to look at her.

The Noble Lady's eyes sparkled, and she responded: "If you want to meet Delice's father first, there's actually an opportunity now, Lord Captain."

She spoke softly: "Delice and I have already seen Lord Earl briefly, and he wants to see you too—"

"Tonight, Rose Workshop will be hosting a small banquet."

...

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