Above the mage

Chapter 354 The Princess in Distress

As a region with frequent personnel exchanges, ports have many small restaurants or pubs that serve crew members, dockworkers, fishermen, and passengers.

Across from the Harland shipyard, there is a small restaurant that opens early and offers simple and affordable breakfasts, including bread, butter, jam, ham, eggs, sausages, and tea or wine.

Although the environment was simple, it was full of life.

At a table in a small restaurant, Anna was unconsciously chewing on a loaf of bread covered in butter, while keeping a close eye on the restaurant entrance.

Just then, a figure appeared there.

The little girl's eyes lit up, and she put down the bread she was holding.

The figure went straight to the table, sat down, picked up a slice of bread from the plate, stuffed it into his mouth, swallowed it in a few bites, and then said with a smile, "Don't worry, it's done."

"Have you found your sister?"

"Not yet, but your sister did visit Harland Shipyard to inquire about purchasing ships, but she didn't have enough money and left to make preparations, and she didn't leave any contact address."

"What should we do? If we can't find my sister, the bad guys will find us here too." Although Anna was young, she was very smart and realized the danger.

"You don't need to worry about that," Gao De smiled slightly.

"Because I have already signed a letter of intent with the owner of Harland Shipyard to acquire his shipyard and have him withdraw all information related to the transfer of the shipyard and the sale of the ships."

"So even if that bad guy knows your sister is planning to buy a ship, he will never approach Harland Shipyard."

"Then I also instructed the shipyard owner that if your sister comes to buy a boat again, she should go to the Palm Tree Hotel to discuss it with Miss Anna," Gao De said with a slight smile.

"My sister will definitely come when she hears my name. We just need to wait for her at the hotel!" Anna said excitedly.

"That's right," Gao De ruffled Anna's head, which was shaking with excitement, "and we shouldn't have to wait too long."

After all, Haaland had already laid the groundwork by saying, "We need to hurry, otherwise we won't be able to keep the ship if there are other guests."

With such a favorable price for the boat and Harland offering conditions that perfectly suit Elsa's tastes, Elsa will undoubtedly raise the funds as quickly as possible and return to his door to avoid missing out.

After stuffing all the bread from the plate into his stomach to fill his early morning hunger, and drinking a large cup of tea, Gao De picked up the little girl and left the small restaurant.

"Brother, where are we going now?" Anna asked.

"The library," Gao De said.

"Oh, by the way, brother, why did you want to acquire Harland Shipyard?" Anna asked curiously.

"Because it's very useful for some of the things I want to do," Gao De said honestly.

"Brother, are you very rich?" The little girl in his arms raised her head and stared straight at Gao De, her eyes sparkling.

With the young girl's knowledge, she naturally understood the enormous amount of money required to acquire a shipyard.

Even if it's just a small to medium-sized shipyard on the verge of bankruptcy.

"No, I'm also worried about how to raise this money," Gao De said with a smile.

In the past, most cities had large public libraries.

These libraries house collections of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of books, covering all fields of human knowledge, from ancient historical texts to classic literary works and modern art books—all of which are free to the public.

But in this world, this is something that is simply unimaginable.

It is a consensus that knowledge is expensive, and acquiring knowledge requires paying an extremely high price.

For many ordinary people, books are almost equivalent to luxury goods—expensive but "useless".

This situation has resulted in all libraries in the world being privately owned, and all the books within them being extremely valuable assets of the library owners.

However, some private libraries are like mysterious treasure troves, accessible only to a select few.

Some private libraries are open to the public, like a potion shop or a general store; they are an industry where people can pay a hefty fee to enter and browse precious books.

There are three such libraries in Lagos.

Gaode Maps, on the other hand, is looking for the Lagos Library, which is operated by the Lagos city government.

It is the largest of the three libraries, with the most books and the most comprehensive range of topics.

The Lagos Library is located next to a wide square in the city center, surrounded by old buildings and streets.

As Gao De entered the Lagos Library, he was greeted by a spacious hall with smooth marble floors and exquisite paintings adorning the walls.

In the center of the hall is a huge spiral staircase with handrails made of carved oak, which looks both ancient and elegant.

Go up the stairs to reach the various book rooms of the library.

The library is filled with tall bookshelves arranged neatly, each book carefully protected and exuding a faint fragrance.

A waitress came forward and handed over a stack of complicated index parchment.

The books here are charged per book or volume, so you need to search the catalog beforehand to determine the titles of the books you want to read. The staff will then deliver the selected books to you shortly.

This catalog is organized by the fields the books cover.

Gaode quickly flipped to the parchment containing the geography category, then rapidly scanned the titles of the books, quickly determining what he was looking for.

The waitress led Gao De to the front desk and handed the books Gao De had selected to the old man at the front desk.

The old man flipped through the large booklets on the counter before looking up and saying, "Sir, you have selected four books: 'Changes in the Royal Family of the Duchy of Xidian,' 'The Classification of Nobles and Royal Secrets of the Duchy of Xidian,' 'Gazetteer and Culture of the Duchy of Evoga,' and 'Gazetteer and Culture of the Duchy of Xidian,' all of which are available for borrowing."

These four books are all from the second-floor collection of this library. According to regulations, the borrowing fee for books from the second-floor collection is 5 silver dragons per book, so four books would cost 2 gold coin. You are free to choose to read them in the reading area on either the second floor or the first floor, for as long as you wish, until you leave the library.

Even though he was mentally prepared, Gao De still felt the urge to curse.

Four books, just for reading, and the kind you can't take home, you can only read them in the library, and for just one reading, they charge him 2 gold coins.

Based on purchasing power parity, this is equivalent to a year's tuition for compulsory education in his previous life.

Despite the cursing, Gaode still obediently handed over two Golden Bird Coins.

"Let's go to the second floor."

"Okay, sir, please follow me."

"This is free," the waitress said, leading Gao De to a seat in the reading area on the second floor and serving him a pot of black tea. She then reminded him, "Sir, you are not allowed to copy, mark, or damage the books while reading. Otherwise, you will need to pay double the original price."

Then, another staff member delivered the four books that Gaode had selected.

Gao De angrily opened the book, vowing to read it until he got his money's worth.

Gao De guessed that Elsa might come knocking on his door soon, but he never expected it to be so early or so sudden.

That evening, Anna had just finished taking a bath when Gao De was wrapping the little girl's head, which was shaking excitedly, in a towel and drying her hair.

"Don't move, your hair needs to be dried first, otherwise you'll catch a cold." Gao De said while "rubbing" Anna's little head with a towel.

"Hehe." The little girl wrapped in a towel let out an indistinct laugh.

Suddenly, Gao De abruptly stopped what he was doing.

Suddenly, a woman appeared at the head of the bed.

He was completely covered by a long robe, with a hood over his head, and his face was hidden in the shadows, making it impossible to see his true appearance.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Anna asked, puzzled, when she noticed that Gao De had stopped moving.

Gao De didn't know who the other person was, how they had appeared in their room so quietly, or what their background was, but he knew he had to remain calm.

He used one hand to shield Anna, who was sitting on the bed with her head wrapped in a towel, behind his back, keeping the towel covering her head to prevent Anna from being frightened by the sudden intruder and to prevent the intruder from seeing Anna's face.

At the same time, Gao De looked at the other party with a wary gaze, his other hand already ready to cast a spell at any moment.

The other person gave Gao De a deep look, then said, "Anna, it's me."

The next moment, Anna exclaimed "Wow!" and her joyful mood flew out through the towel.

She suddenly lifted the towel off her head.

The cloth fluttered in the air.

"Sister!" Anna ran a few steps and threw herself into the woman's arms.

The woman reluctantly caught Anna as she threw herself into her arms, and her hood fell down, revealing a beautiful face that Gao De found extremely familiar.

"Elsa?" God asked, looking at the woman in front of him.

She was a very beautiful woman with a cascading head of golden curly hair that shimmered with golden light under the room's lamps.

With a high, straight nose and golden eyes, his overall features exude a mature charm.

After a slight hesitation, the woman, who had one arm around Anna, nodded.

"Is it invisibility?" Gao De asked again.

He was referring to the reason for Elsa's sudden appearance.

Elsa nodded again.

That means Elsa is at least a second-circle mage.

Because [Invisibility] is a second-circle illusion spell, its effect is to make a creature invisible and maintain that invisibility until the spell ends. As long as the target's clothing and possessions remain on their body, they will also remain invisible. If the target launches an attack or casts a spell, the invisibility effect will immediately disappear.

It was with this magic that Elsa just performed a "magic trick" of "disappearing into the light".

In fact, even a single second-circle illusion spell could be easily seen through by the third-tier Mandora's Eye of the Highlord.

Under normal circumstances, why would Gaode open Mandora's Eye?

"Who are you?" Elsa asked in return.

"Gold, the Sea Sentinel Mage, met Anna on the airship from Dorne to Lagos. At her request, he helped her find you."

"Sister, brother is a good person. I secretly ran onto the airship, and the aunties on the airship tried to catch me, but luckily brother..." Anna chattered on, defending Gao De, and briefly recounted her experiences over the past few days.

After hearing Anna's words, Elsa looked at God as if he were a monster. After a long silence, she said incredulously, "You, a sea sentinel mage, actually agreed to a five-year-old girl's request?"

That sounds really absurd.

If it were an ordinary person who encountered Anna on an airship, their first instinct would be to hand her over to the airship's crew.

Even if he was soft-hearted and didn't expose Anna at the time, he should have handed her over to the local authorities as soon as he got off the airship, instead of taking Anna with him at the risk of unknown consequences, let alone helping Anna search for him.

"Why not? She asked me for help, and I was willing to help her, so I agreed, even though she was just a little girl."

"You really are a good person." Elsa was slightly taken aback, then sincerely praised her.

"Don't give me the 'good guy' card. I don't consider myself a good person," Gao De shook his head and added, "Besides, 'good guy' isn't exactly a nice thing to say."

Elsa didn't understand why "good person" wasn't a good thing to say, but since the other person didn't like it, she naturally didn't say it.

"And then you approached Harland Shipyard based solely on a portrait of Anna, and even wanted to acquire it?"

"The first half of the sentence is correct, but the second half is not," Gao De corrected earnestly. "I want to acquire Harland Shipyard because I have this need myself."

"How did you do that?" Elsa asked curiously.

"Actually, it's not complicated." Gaode briefly introduced his approach and thought process.

"You are a truly wise person," Elsa exclaimed again.

"You flatter me," Gao De said modestly.

"In short, I would like to express my gratitude to you, Master Gaode. Thank you for taking care of my sister these past few days." Elsa placed Anna on the bed, then lifted the hem of her robe and knelt down in a standard noble greeting to Gaode.

Gao De accepted it calmly.

"Are you going to take Anna away?" he then asked.

"Of course," Elsa replied after a moment's hesitation.

"Where are you planning to take Anna? According to Anna, there are bad people following you," God said again.

"My original idea was to buy a boat and then use it to shake off those bad guys," Elsa said after a moment of silence.

"If I'm not mistaken, you don't have a clear place to stay yet, Princess Elsa."

Elsa's expression changed, and she instinctively hugged Anna, took a step back, and looked at God with a wary expression.

"If I were your enemy, you would have fallen into a trap the moment you entered the room, and there would have been people lying in wait to swarm you and capture you." Faced with Elsa's reaction, God remained calm and said slowly.

Elsa paused for a moment, thought about it carefully, and realized that this was indeed the case, before returning to normal.

"How did you know? Did Anna tell you?"

"No, Anna didn't tell her brother!" Before Gao De could answer, Anna immediately raised her hand to show her innocence.

"Oh right, brother, how did you know?" After proving her innocence, the little girl couldn't help but stare at Gao De with wide eyes.

Gao De smiled slightly and slowly explained his analysis process.

After discovering Anna's extraordinary insight and talent, he could indeed guess that Anna's background was not simply "well-off," and he also had doubts about her origins.

However, he could never have inexplicably connected Anna's identity with the Duchy of Westin mentioned on the handwritten parchment, which had recently been destroyed, nor could he have imagined that Anna was a "runaway princess."

When did this speculation begin?

Actually, it was just last night when I ran into that "bad guy" who was looking for Elsa at the hotel reception.

He noticed that the man had a very unique feature: his ears were unusually long and slightly curved at the tips, unlike the common rounded shape.

The instructor mentioned it briefly during a geography class at Cyrus College.

The Principality of Ovoga is characterized by rolling hills, deep valleys, and dense forests covering vast tracts of land. In ancient times, it was inhabited by the Elven race.

Although the elves were never seen again, the people who lived there, the people of the Duchy of Ovoga, all had long, curved ears like elves, which may indicate that they had some elven blood.

This is a distinctive physical feature that distinguishes the people of the Principality of Ovoga from those of other regions: scorpion droppings.

Therefore, the "bad guy" is undoubtedly from the Principality of Ovoga.

With this as a starting point, Gao De naturally thought of the briefing he had seen on the parchment at the front desk about the destruction of the Xidian Principality by the Ovoga Principality.

Given the extraordinary qualities Anna displayed, which led the Ovoga people to pursue her all the way to the Plantagenet dynasty, it's almost certain that Anna must have come from a noble family in the Duchy of Westminster.

"That only proves we are nobles, how can it be concluded that we are royalty?"

"That's right, the current conditions don't allow me to confirm your specific identities," Gao De nodded and continued.

"So today I went to the Lagos Library again to borrow books about the Principality of Sidden and the Principality of Ovoga."

"In the book 'The Classification of Nobles and Royal Secrets of the Duchy of Xidian,' I came across a very interesting description: the royal family of Xidian would coat silver spoons with Xidian lavender honey, a specialty of the Duchy of Xidian, during the weaning period. This honey has a rich and fragrant flavor, which helps newly weaned babies eat better."

"However, this Xidian lavender has a special fragrance and a very strong ability to retain its scent, so this habit will cause the baby's right thumb and forefinger to carry a special fragrance when holding the silver spoon."

"Of course, as they get older and no longer need this method to wean them, the scent on their fingers will gradually fade until it disappears completely."

"But..." Gao De looked down at Anna, who was listening intently to him. When she saw Gao De looking at her, she immediately gave him a sweet smile.

Gao De smiled in response, and finally said, "Anna is only five years old."

(End of this chapter)