"Aren't you leaving yet?"
Hestein slowly came to Ella's ear and whispered to her in a dry voice:
"Do you know that your maid risked being strangled to death by making up several lame lies for you?"
"Amy?"
Ella's body shook and she raised her head.
Click, click, click
Suddenly, a footsteps sounded from far to near. Unlike any other footsteps, that one sounded creepy for no reason. Everyone suddenly turned towards the direction where the footsteps came from——
A masked man wearing Seven Hills Empire-style armor was approaching them. Apart from his armor and a canteen, he carried no weapons.
But the sense of oppression emanating from him was no less than that of an army of tens of thousands!
"Who are you?" Bjorn asked cautiously, looking at the visitor.
no answer. The masked man just kept approaching them.
Bjorn couldn't help but want to raise his spear. But before the spear left the ground, the masked man suddenly raised his head slightly, his eyes piercing Bjorn like two sharp swords. Bjorn first felt a chill in his heart, and then all the muscles in his body began to tremble, and he couldn't lift the spear for a moment!
The masked man's forehead was covered with wrinkles.
The terrible footsteps became louder and louder. Except for Hestein and Bjorn, all the pirates were kneeling on the ground under the pressure of growing fear. Bjorn gritted his teeth and used all his strength to finally raise the spear. He knew that the person coming was evil, so he stabbed the masked man with all his strength.
When Hestein tried to stop it, it was already too late. You know, Bjorn's power once destroyed half of the city wall. Even if the masked man could take this attack, the aftermath would blow up the entire ship under his feet, and the surrounding navy would immediately discover them!
However, what he worried about did not happen.
Bjorn's hand was only halfway out before he froze in the air - the spear he was holding tightly in his hand had left his hand at some point, and instead appeared in the masked man's hand.
No one saw clearly what the masked man did.
Under Bjorn's livid face, the masked man waved his spear mockingly a few times, and then slowly stabbed Bjorn. Bjorn grabbed the thrusting spear and was about to snatch it away with all his strength. Unexpectedly, the slow spear had a strange force beyond Bjorn's imagination. The masked man let go of his hand. , the spear actually carried Bjorn and flew out. Just as Bjorn was about to be carried by the spear and fell into the sea, the spear suddenly sank again, and happened to nail Bjorn to the bow of the ship.
The speed and technique with which the masked man snatched away the spear, the strange strength with which Bjorn was pushed away, and the control with which Bjorn landed on the bow of the ship were all astonishing. Hestein's face darkened and he pulled out his sword, but he heard the masked man make a mocking sound: "You are seriously injured. I'm afraid even this boat had to be helped up, and you still want to Are you going to fight me?"
Is Hestein seriously injured? Ella was shocked again.
Then he...is still here?
However, the change of expression on Hestein's face told Ella that the masked man was not lying.
But Hestein was not a person who would give in easily. He still pointed his sword at the masked man and asked:
"What exactly do you want to do?"
"What I want to do depends on what she thinks."
The masked man continued walking forward, bypassing Hestein. During this period, Hestein's sword was always pointed at the masked man, but he did not dare to thrust out. The masked man walked all the way to Ella and squatted down.
"Okay, young girl, no one can force you now. You can make your own choice - follow the navy back to the Seven Hills Empire, or leave here with Hestein? Or, let me take you out of the Second World Rescue them all?"
No one dared to interrupt the masked man. The masked man stared at Ella, patiently waiting for her answer.
Ella was silent for a moment.
But being silent all the time is not enough.
Ella stood up, wiped away her tears, and took a deep breath.
"Hestein, even though I hate it, I still want to say thank you. At that moment, I really felt that being a prisoner was not bad."
——But that’s not possible. Because he is a prisoner, he doesn't have to worry about the life and death of the Qiqiu Empire? This is just self-deception.
"If I leave, the Seven Hills Empire will lose its navy. And if the navy stays here, the islanders of Antilia will also be plundered. So the answer is the only one - I will go back with the navy."
She is not Princess Tabatha.
She is Ella Cornelius Scipio, Baselisa of the Seven Hills Empire.
The masked man's eyes slowly narrowed.
"Do you think you have any chance of regaining power after you go back?"
"No."
"Then the Qiqiu Empire is a country that is hostile to you. Why do you want to reserve a navy for such a country?"
"You are wrong. I was born in the Seven Hills Empire. No matter I am a royal family or a peasant woman, a slave or a prostitute, the Seven Hills Empire is my country."
"Then why do you want to protect Antilia? It is not the land of the Seven Hills Empire, and the people are not the people of the Seven Hills Empire."
"Not the people of the Seven Hills Empire? Then let me ask you, what is the Seven Hills Empire?"
Ella asked suddenly.
"Is it passed down from generation to generation of the royal family? But it was Caesar and Augustus of the Julius family who established the Seven Hills Empire, but now the crown is held by our Scipio family."
"Is it a geographical division? The Seven Hills Empire was originally established by the residents of the seven nearby hills. However, with its external expansion, its territory has far exceeded ten times the size at that time. On the contrary, it was the original seven hills. This hill has been occupied by people from the Alemannic Federation."
"Is it the inheritance of culture? The Seven Hills Empire didn't care that the ruler was named Baselisa at the beginning. That was the name of the people near Constantiniya. It is called that now because they are now the mainstream ethnic group in the Seven Hills Empire. , and the people who originally lived near those seven hills can no longer be seen.”
"——You said that Antilia is not the territory of the Seven Hills Empire, but what exactly is the Seven Hills Empire?"
The sun slowly moved across the sky and came above Ella. The masked man only felt that the light was a bit dazzling.
"Appreciate further details."
"The Qiqiu Empire is not a country of a certain ethnic group, nor a country of a certain region, nor a country of a certain family."
“It embraces all kinds of rivers and embraces all kinds of nationalities and cultures.”
“It unites all the peoples on the shores of the sea under one banner, replacing narrow civil laws with a law of nations applicable to all peoples.”
"This is the soul of the Seven Hills Empire. As long as this soul remains, no matter how the regime changes, no matter how the region changes, without the inland sea, without the strait, without the Seven Hills, or even without Constantiniya, the Seven Hills Empire will , it’s still the Seven Hills Empire.”
"Of course, the Seven Hills Empire has lost its homeland in the west for too long. The people living in those lands no longer call themselves people of the Seven Hills Empire. But -"
Ella raised her head, with determination in her eyes
"At least in my eyes, they are still the people of the Seven Hills Empire. If I don't believe so, how can I let the people in the occupied areas believe so?"
Everyone - the masked man, Hestein, Bjorn, and the other pirates were shocked by Ayla's words.
One after another other soldiers came onto the ship. The time appointed by Gregory was almost up. Aulus hurried over with his adjutant and shouted from a distance: "Pour water on her head! Otherwise we won't be able to go back!"
The enemy's general appeared in front of them. This was a good opportunity for the pirates to take action, but with the masked man around, no one dared to act rashly. Fortunately, the masked man didn't seem to have any intention of exposing Hestein and the others. Before Aulus approached, he replied: "Okay, water it right away!"
After speaking, he took off the kettle from his waist and opened the lid.
"Since you have made such a decision on your own, you won't have any regrets, right?"
Ella nodded and closed her eyes. A stream of cool water poured down from her head.
The soldiers in the distance shouted: "Look over there, the magic circle! It's the magic circle!"
As if to mark a range for the soldiers, a huge and gorgeous magic circle appeared on the sea. The soldiers all used their boats to squeeze towards the center of the magic circle, for fear of being left behind by the magic circle. Bjorn and the others didn't know what this was, and they thought it was something bad, so they jumped off the boat and tried to run out of the magic circle. In the panic, no one paid attention to these deserters.
The magic circle emitted a fierce light, and starting from the center, one ship after another disappeared from the sea.
It's time. Ella pushed aside the crowd and walked to the edge, casting her gaze towards the sea in the distance. The water under the sun sparkled like gold. Ella fixed her gaze there, hoping to preserve this moment forever.
At this time, a voice suddenly came from behind:
"However, I am suddenly curious, how long can you stick to your own ideas like this?"
One hand held Ella's left hand, it was the masked man. Ella was feeling confused when she suddenly felt someone holding her shoulders from the other side. At a glance, she saw that it was Hestein - he didn't jump off the ship with the pirates.
It happened in a blink of an eye: the boat under their feet disappeared together with all the soldiers on it, except for the three of them. Ella suddenly fell into the sea. She was not good at water. She choked on her water several times and almost sank. Fortunately, Hestein caught her and pulled her up. Ella violently coughed up the water in Hestein's arms, and then shouted like crazy: "What happened! Where did the navy go!"
But he saw the masked man floating on the sea like a leaf, slowly floating in front of Ella.
"Don't worry, they have been transferred back. The magician noticed that you poured water, so he cast the magic with peace of mind. What a joke, how can it be so easy to take things away from my hands?"
"who are you!"
"Haven't you discovered it yet?" Hestein stared at the man and said with great displeasure, "He is the owner of Antilia Island."
The masked man pulled off the black cloth covering his face - it was none other than Hunter Mistertin, who had drunk Basilik's venom before.
