Chapter 96 — The Hundred Who Came Too Late

Gao Yang watched the fine white great ship slow steadily to a halt. Its sails were fully furled, and unnatural waves bearing magical resonance surged along both sides of the hull, guiding the vessel precisely to the dock. Many stood on the deck, gazing curiously toward the camp, while several sailors came forward from the crowd, pushed out the gangplank, and laid it between the deck and the dock's walkway.

The crowd on the ship parted to either side. A squad of soldiers ran down the gangplank first and formed two ranks along the walkway; only then did three figures appear on the deck—a woman in priest's robes with an expressionless face; a middle-aged man in the uniform of a kingdom knight order officer who nonetheless looked refined rather than martial; and between them, a young lady in a plain white robe, with pale golden hair, a soft and serene beauty, and an air about her that left a deep impression.

One glance was enough for Gao Yang to be certain that the one standing in the middle was the legendary Saint Princess Viroday—he had seen her portrait back in the royal capital, after all...

"Mother of mine, she's gorgeous," Amber could not help muttering. "She looks even prettier in person than in the portrait... What was she raised on...?"

As she muttered, she glanced at Gao Cen—and saw that Gao Song's gaze had hardly rested on that impossibly beautiful Saint Princess at all. Instead he had been staring at the plain-faced woman beside the princess the whole time. That baffled her. "Hey—hey, hey, what are you looking at? Don't tell me... there's something wrong with your taste?"

Gao Cen snapped back to himself and looked at Amber, utterly bewildered. "Taste? What taste?"

"There's a princess over there so beautiful she doesn't look human, and you won't look at her—you just keep staring at the one beside her. What's that about?"

Gao Lan brushed it off. "Don't be silly. She just looks a bit like someone I knew in my past life, so I looked a couple more times."

As they spoke, the three who had come down from the ship had already reached level ground. Gao Yang promptly ended his conversation with Amber and stepped forward to greet them. "Welcome, welcome. Your arrival is the best news we've had in some time."

"To meet a legendary hero of seven hundred years past is likewise a great honor for me." Viroday inclined her head slightly, and the faint cadence, not quite human, that mingled in her ethereal, holy air and her tone made Gao Yi start slightly—but he recovered himself at once.

Then Viroday smiled. "Ought I to address you as one addresses an elder?"

With those words, the peculiar quality that had inadvertently leaked out of her swiftly withdrew, and she became more "alive" than before.

"No need to stand on ceremony. Talking with an old fellow like me who crawled out of a grave, if we really fussed over etiquette, we would both be bored to death," Gao Yang had by now grown quite used to his identity as a member of the "Xuanmai Sect, Risen from the Coffin." A few casual words were enough to bring the atmosphere into a rhythm he was familiar with. "Let us talk as equals. First, have everyone on the boat come ashore and rest. There is not much worth seeing here, but standing on flat ground is still more comfortable than standing on a boat. After that, I will show you around this camp..."

As he spoke, he casually swept his gaze across the plain-faced, short-haired woman standing beside Velodai.

The "acquaintance" he had mentioned earlier to Amber was of course a lie.

Because the true situation was something he could not explain to anyone at all.

In his eyes, what stood beside Velodai was not a woman in a high priestess's robes at all, but a half-transparent mass of light bearing human facial features!

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