No wonder she said Bastia was already unsafe.

But Lance isn’t the type influenced like Grendel, do you think he would believe it?

"You know very well who abandoned whom."

Lance suddenly threw out a sentence, leaving Sofia silent and a bit embarrassed, her expression quite awkward.

Lance watched her expression and silently shook his head.

The Knight took on the most dangerous part of her escape plan, do you think she has even a bit of concern for that knight’s safety?

There might be, but not much... Lance couldn’t quite say, in any case, Sofia’s reaction seemed like she lost an object.

Rather than concern, it was more a sense of unease; she knew very well what she had done, which is why she instinctively avoided it.

Even though everyone here believed the Knight had betrayed them, it was just an excuse for her actions.

Originally, I thought they were childhood sweethearts, some feelings must be there, but now it seems nobles see others as less than human.

Who knows if it was after experiencing those things that she became like this or if she was like this from the start?

But that Champion Knight is rather unlucky...

Wait a minute!

Parents deceased, childhood sweetheart, remarkably gifted, climbed to power step by step, only to be used and then abandoned by the one they trusted the most.

When you add up these elements, why does Lance feel something is off?

The next plot might be the Knight didn’t die but was severely injured and escaped, then recovered and embarked on an investigation, defeating the Eagle Flock, defeating Bruce, and ultimately defeating Count Bastia.

Chasing through the map to Hamlet, discovering an Evil Lord and his minions, controlling the people and distorting their beliefs.

Destroying the aristocratic system established for centuries, showing no respect for the Church, and what’s even more intolerable is that he dared to capture his Princess.

The Knight, wanting to save her, was defeated, fleeing into ancient and mysterious ruins where he received aid from a god and gained indomitable flesh.

Then, during the confrontation with the Evil Lord, he encountered different help at every turn of peril.

Facing the ugly and malevolent Plague Doctor under the Evil Lord, infected with a plague and on the brink of death, he is rescued by a charming Witch in the forest.

Facing the Evil Lord’s Ghost Ship, built from human bones and flesh, he falls into the sea unconscious, awakening to find himself saved by a stunningly gorgeous Mermaid Queen...

Confronting the twisted power of flesh wielded by the Evil Lord, it creates unhealable wounds on his body.

And when the Evil Lord is monologuing, a gentle and lovely Priest rescues him and heals the wounds.

At the same time, the Evil Lord constantly oppressed the neighbors around, who didn’t dare to resist, but now the Knight stood up, inspiring them.

The Witch brought the Treant Army, the mermaids brought the Mermaid Army, and finally, there were also the followers of the gods (fungus-infected, Deep Divers, Heretics).

With their help, they defeated the Evil Lord, who was the ultimate villain, rescuing Princess Sofia before ascending the throne and living a shamelessly happy life with the harem...

Lance was lost in thought, and his expression unconsciously became bizarre, yet his prolonged silence was hard for Sofia to endure, prompting her to speak an unexpected truth.

"He’s already dead..."

Lance lifted his head slightly, startled by the words, but his thoughts didn’t pause.

Dead, even better, straight to rebirth.

With a strong obsession, the Knight understood that his loyalty was a joke, kicking away the Malicious Princess, and seizing the opportunities of various great talents with his memory.

Going to some academy, organizing academy competitions to hide his strength, defeat geniuses, win over beautiful seniors, or use some hero-saving damsel-in-distress trope to rescue infatuated junior schoolmates.

Finally, have the Princess get jealous, create some heaven-defying drama to fiercely slap faces, conquer the Princess, play S&M to complete revenge.

At this moment, he accidentally discovers it was the Bullshit Emperor who killed his family, extracted his bloodline, and that’s why he became like this, previously being their dog.

Introducing the main storyline, fighting against the Evil Emperor and the Empire behind him...

Lance’s indifferent reaction was intolerable to Sofia, who slapped the table and stood up, shouting.

"I said he’s dead!"

"Why are you shouting so loud?" This finally woke Lance up, as he pursed his lips, looking quite speechless.

Dead is dead, what’s the big deal...

Lance suppressed his emotions and urged her to continue speaking.

According to Sofia, the Guardian Knight was not that simple; after the oath, she and the Knight shared a special bond.

But that day, the bond disappeared, and there was only one reason for it—the Knight had died.

Why didn’t she clarify this from the beginning?

Lance guessed that maybe she wished the Knight was alive too, or knew she was responsible for his death and didn’t want to acknowledge it, choosing to escape.

Aside from herself, no one knew the real reason, but Lance didn’t need to know either.

Soon after arriving in Hamlet, Lance also learned about Sofia’s actions.

"The Emperor harms you, the Eagle Flock harms you, but here, is there anyone trying to harm you?

Can’t you just find an honest job instead of causing so much trouble?"

"I also want to calm down, but it was Grendel who forced me, she exposed my identity, and I was forced to protect myself."

Sofia disagreed with this and rebuked immediately, but in response to her defense, Lance’s expression seemed a bit mocking.

"You might fool Grendel, but you can’t fool me."

Saying that Lance proactively got up and slowly approached her, getting close to Sofia’s side, softly murmuring with closed eyes as if savoring something, "Because I can smell the stench on you..."

Such an insult, even for Sofia, was unbearable, her anger inexplicably exploded, rushing to her head as she pushed the approaching Lance away and shouted.

"Get lost!"

"See, now you’re upset." Lance, pushed away, simply looked at her with a playful expression on his face.

"You’ve tried to get close to me more than once, but unfortunately, I’m not interested in you at all, and you can’t get to me, so you sought out Grendel instead.

I was gone for a few days, and you had Grendel completely fooled. If I came back any later, wouldn’t you be the Lord of Hamlet by now, Sofia?"

Only then did Sofia react, falling into silence as her expression grew tense.

But Lance continued to talk about her ultimate goal.

"I know you want to seize control of Hamlet, but do you know why I haven’t taken action against you, even previously I just assigned you to the distillery?"

Sofia had actually realized this problem, even if she didn’t want to admit it, but for now, everything was within his control, making her actions seem ridiculous like a Clown.

However, it was strange that this Lord hadn’t taken any action against her, with the worst being transferred to the distillery.

"Why?" Sofia’s stiff words carried a strong curiosity.

"It’s simple, because compared to what I’m doing, you’re not important at all." Lance shrugged indifferently, "Like for someone building a house, they’ll sweep away the construction debris but won’t care about an ant crawling in the corner."

Although Lance said so, it wasn’t entirely the case, the real reason he didn’t act on Sofia was to protect Grendel.

She appeared in Hamlet, being active as Grendel’s assistant.

Now she hadn’t done any clearly harmful actions against Hamlet, so Lance couldn’t directly make a move on her.

After all, you can’t say she’s influencing a lot of people with perfume, including Grendel, right?

This isn’t hitting Grendel’s bottom, it’s slapping the face of him as the Lord.

So ignoring it for now, detaching her from Grendel, and only acting after she’s forgotten to minimize the impact on Grendel.