The Princess And The Lord-Chapter 1371: Black, White and Grey
Chapter 1371: Black, White and Grey
"Do you know her?" Zhao Li Xin suddenly asked as they got into the car.
"I’m not sure, but her name sounds familiar, she might be in the same class as me once," Lory answered casually as she reversed the car and drove away leaving the Cravenhall.
Lory didn’t really mind her little interaction with Alice, however, Zhao Li Xin thought otherwise. As someone who was always aware of Lory’s surroundings, he could feel the subtle change on Alicia’s face after she spoke to Lory, it wasn’t hostility but rather a bittersweet impression that almost felt like yearning.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Zhao Li Xin’s lips, he guessed that Alice might have had a brief interaction with Lory in the past even though Lory didn’t remember it but to Alice that interaction might have had a significant impact on her life.
Zhao Li Xin always found it amusing how Lory never realized the impact her words had on the people around her, whether in the cultivator world or this world.
while she drove, Lory pressed the screen of her car, then soon she heard a hoarse voice answer the phone, "Your Highness!"
"Hey Garrof, sorry I cut off your call earlier the location is not safe. So, how are you?" Lory waited.
"I’m fine, but I can’t say the same about Lloyd. I thought you already knew what happened to Serena," Garrof’s voice turned heavy.
"Tsk, how is Lloyd?" Lory could imagine Lloyd must be panicking right now, even though Lloyd kept denying his relationship with Serena, but Lory could see that Lloyd was not completely indifferent to Serena.
"As you might expect, he acts like a headless chicken, but he still stubbornly refuses to admit how worried he is about Serena, that guy is hopeless, only Serena is crazy enough to chassed a guy like him!" Garrof snorted loudly.
Lory listened with a chuckle. "People said love is blind, by the way, did you call me because you found a clue to where Serena might be?"
"Dear Princess, have you ever felt tired of being too smart!" Garrof teased.
"I can’t help it," Lory joked, "Okay, Tell me!"
Garrof’s voice was filled with excitement, "We did manage to find Serena’s trail, and guess where we found his last trace?"
"Are you trying to make me curious now, Garry?" Lory was impatient and Garrof’s excitement increased.
"Ha - ha, excuse me, Your Highness. Okay - okay, we found the last trace of Serena in Rodant City." Lory’s eyes widened. "Rodant City, as it the Rodant City I know?!" her voice rose.
"Yes, the same rotten city we know! Then again, it makes sense. If someone wanted to hide from any authority, Rodant City is the place to be," Garrof said.
Lory has to agree "Yeah, that’s true, Serena might be desperate... so how can I help?"
Garrof really enjoyed talking to Lory, she was intelligent, reliable and straight to the point, "After so much trouble, we found CCTV record of Serena’s whereabouts, but the problem is the footage we got was badly damaged, I mean the damage is beyond repair, like no way in he*l!"
"Got it! By the way, how did you get that recording? Either you used violence or you spent a lot of money to get it." Lory was curious because she knew enough about how Rodant worked, nothing was free and everything could be priced even dignity.
"No, not violence. It would be too messy and we cannot be sure if the information was real or not. Therefore I used my trump card to get the information from the only reliable source in that city."
"The night Owl..." Lory stunned.
"So you know him, huh? Why am I not surprised..." Garrof said in a comprehending tone.
After several months of interacting with Lory, he already expected someone like Lory would have a wide range of connections with various people in the world.
Lory knew what he meant, "It would be weird if I didn’t know him, right? But, I have to remind you that I don’t know if the Night Owl I know is the same person as now, it was a long time ago and he was quite old then."
"Oh yeah, I forgot you haven’t been around for a long time, anyway, the new Night Owl is his adopted son. He wields Gifted power and is also part of the former Ultima members, his name is Aidan, now you know what card I used to him right?!" Garrof divulged the most elusive person in Rodant City without the slightest hesitation.
Lory was perplexed not knowing whether she should be flattered by Garrof’s trust or worried about how big his mouth was, "So, you got the record from Aidan?"
"He gave me the CCTV footage before he almost destroyed it like the others. He seemed eager to erase all evidence of Serena’s presence in Rodant City. However, for the sake of old memories, he kindly gave me the last footage but as I said before, it was badly damaged but he told me to find a way to fix it myself and refused to provide any more help than that, can’t you believe it, what a good friend he was!" Garrof snorted angrily.
"He sounded spooked" Lory mutter.
Despite how upset he felt about Aidan he had to agree with Lory’s opinion, "Yeah, I think so too, truthfully it was quite unsettling cause the Aidan I know is not easily scared otherwise how could he control Rodant City"
"Whatever, first thing first, you need me to recover the record, right?" Lory already understood what Garrof wanted but she was confused why not ask Jason for help, "Don’t you have Jason to do this work?"
"It’s beyond Jason’s expertise, the record was utterly destroyed. Of the twenty records that have been destroyed, this is the only one left, we are lucky Aidan has not destroyed the last record" Garrof scratched his head in frustration.
"Since this is a sensitive matter so I will send my own agent to retrieve the footage. We can’t take any risks because whatever scared Night Owl must be no ordinary thing, did Aidan say anything else?" Lory was getting more and more curious.
"He said The juice is not worth the squeeze," Garrof assumed Aidan didn’t think the risk was worth the money, no matter how much the money he got. Funnily enough, for the first time in corrupt Rodant City, there was something that couldn’t be valued with money.
"Huh, that’s a first" Lory was amazed.
"You and I both, Your Highness" Garrof chimed in.
Lory massaged her forehead as she spoke, "Oh well, we focus on Serena’s safety first, My gut told me if we found Serena we would know who scared the elusive Night Owl, Okay, you wait for Noxcra agent contacting you, I will let you know if I get anything"
"Your help is greatly appreciated, Princess. Because right now I can’t rely on Lloyd," Garrof said sincerely.
"No problem. Tell Lloyd to stay calm and focused, only then can we find Serena quickly." Lory could only offer comforting words for now.
"Thank you again, Your Highness." Garrof’s voice couldn’t hide his relief.
Meanwhile, Zhao Li Xin had been listening to Lory and Garrof’s conversation. Zhao Li Xin did not dare to interrupt so as not to disturb Lory, only after Lory hung up the phone did Zhao Li Xin ask.
"What is Night Owl?"
Lory was startled by Zhao Li Xin’s curious expression. "Night Owl is the code name of the person who controls Rodant City. Night Owl has power over the governor and all officials who govern the city. He also controls the surveillance system throughout the city. Obviously, Night Owl is the true ruler of Rodant City, and he oversees everything that happens in Rodant City; that’s why he is named Night Owl," Lory explained.
"He seems to be a dangerous person" Zhao Li Xin narrowed his eyes.
Lory laughed inwardly because the most dangerous person he had ever known was Zhao Li Xin. Night Owl only controlled one city while Zhao Li Xin controlled almost the entire continent in his world, it was clear that the scale was far different, but the person himself seemed unaware.
"Doesn’t the central government of their country have a say about such a city?"
Zhao Li Xin asked. Lory smiled cynically. "Rodant City is part of a small country called Oshela and is located on an island that can only be reached by an eighteen-mile-long bridge, so the entire existence of the city is completely isolated from the rest of the city, making it hard to control by the central government." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
"Out of sight, out of mind" Zhao Li Xin smirked.
"That’s right, besides, Rodant City contributes ten percent of Oshela’s entire economy, not to mention they organize the money laundering of many powerful people in the world, therefore no one dares to mess with Rodant City, at least that’s what I know about Rodant City in the past, but I don’t know the scale of their work right now."
"Did you visit that place often?" Zhao Li Xin frowns.
"More than I wanted, but you gotta do what you gotta do," Lory shrugged nonchalantly before her car slowly stopped at a traffic light.
From the way Lory and Garoff described the city, that place didn’t sound like a place worth visiting, especially for an honorable royal family like Lory, but why would his family allow her to go to such a place, "Why did you go there, does your family know about this?"
While waiting for the red light, Lory explained, "They know, you could say it’s part of my training. They involved me and Lucas with Royal affairs from a young age, Guessed they wanted to show us not only the glittering and beautiful side of the world but also the dirtiest and ugliest parts that were hidden from ordinary people’s eyes. They want to make us understand that the world is not always black and white, not even gray so that in the future we can make wise decisions...hard decisions" Lory let out a calm meaningful smile.
"Is that normal for the royal family?" Zhao Li Xin asked.
The traffic light had turned green she hit the gas pedal and answered casually "Nope"