The queen who was taken to the Sunset Castle was not Yavid's biological mother. She was just the concubine of King Jilang. She did not originally have the status of a queen. It was Bahawa who forcibly put her on the throne of the queen in order to control Itamen.
The former queen and Yavid's biological mother died of illness many years ago. Yavid and the young prince Itamen are half-brothers.
From the perspective of his family, Yavid did not want Itamen and the Queen to continue to be coerced by Bahawa.
From the national level, taking away Itamen and the Queen can deny Bahawa's rights from the source, and completely lose the trump card of Bahawa, who has been criticized for poisoning and regicide.
When Lu Xiao left the palace and returned home, Aloy was already fully armed and ready to go.
"...What are you doing?"
Aloy said in a matter-of-fact tone: "Let's go with you."
Lu Xiao slapped his forehead with a headache: "Did I say I would take you with me? Next, I plan to sneak into Shadow Calgar's base camp, you..."
"I'm going too!"
Aloy stressed stubbornly: "Since we can't find Sirius' whereabouts for the time being, we will find a way to force him out."
"Bahawa is Sirius' only ally. Sirius will definitely not sit back and watch Bahawa fall."
"I promise not to interfere with your mission. I will stay in Sunset Castle and wait for Sirius' reinforcements to arrive."
'Brainless girl...'
Aloy's firm eyes told Lu Xiao that she would never change her mind easily.
"Okay, you and Yongzhen will stay in Sunset Castle and wait and see what happens. It's best to make some noise and help me divert Bahawa's attention."
You can guess with your buttocks that as Bahawa's most important trump card, Itamen and the Queen will definitely be strictly "protected" in the strongest castle of Sunset Castle, and may even be arranged so that some of them will not be affected by external factors.
Influenced mechanical beasts guard.
Lu Xiao can force his way in, but if Bahawa decides that he can no longer use the influence of the Queen and Itamen, he may order the mechanical beast to kill them as a last resort to avoid exposing the two after they are taken away.
The Secret of Shadow Calgar.
The key to this operation is to be stealthy. Try to sneak into the palace and take away the two poor puppet royals without Bahawa noticing.
Lu Xiao originally planned to let Yongzhen create some commotion in Sunset Castle to attract Bahawa's attention. Since Aloy volunteered to go with him, he simply handed over this task to the young and energetic Aloy.
…
Sunset Castle is located in the desert northwest of Ziwu City. It was originally the forward base for the Kingdom of Calgar to open up the border. During the period when the Mad King was in power, Sunset Castle built a special "entertainment" venue - the Grand Arena.
The territory of the Kingdom of Calgar spread with Meridian City as the center, occupying most of the land in the North American continent.
The vast territory also means that the landscape is changeable. The southwest of Meridian City is a tropical rain forest, the southeast is an endless desert and mountains of snow-capped mountains, and the northwest is a large desert known as the forbidden zone for human life.
Lu Xiao and Aloy each used overclocking parts to control a Walker and accelerated towards Sunset Castle.
The wind and sand that gradually became fierce along the way caused considerable obstacles to the three of them.
Lu Xiao and Yong Zhen were well prepared. They put on hoods and veils to block the sand and dust. Aloy, who entered the desert for the first time, was caught off guard and ate a mouthful of sand.
"Pooh!"
Lu Xiao looked at Aloy with his head down and spit out sand in a funny way. Yongzhen, who was riding with Aloy, handed her his spare hood and veil, which saved her from the sand.
"The world is very vast, and the desert is just one of many terrains. Let's take this as a lesson learned."
After hurriedly equipping the hood and veil, Aloy angrily complained to Lu Xiao: "You don't need to preach! I will learn my lesson."
As a mechanical beast, the Strider weighs much more than a real horse, does not need to breathe, and can run stably in sandstorms with weak winds.
Under Lu Xiao's instructions, the three of them lowered their center of gravity on the back of the "horse" and used the strider's head as a shield to avoid being directly affected by the wind and sand as much as possible.
This sudden sandstorm not only caused trouble for Lu Xiao and the others, Sunset Fort was also covered in the sandstorm, and the visibility with the naked eye in the desert became very bad.
This made it easier for Lu Xiao and his group to ride the mechanical beasts to approach the Sunset Castle. When they were only one kilometer away from the Sunset Castle, Lu Xiao, who used his eagle eyes to see from a distance, gave the order to stop.
Ordering the two Walkers to find a cave to hide in, Lu Xiao led Aloy and Yongzhen to move forward with difficulty in the increasingly strong wind and sand.
The bad weather caused Sunset Castle to close the gate to the city early. In this weather, of course there would be no soldiers patrolling the city wall. Lu Xiao climbed up the city wall easily, lowered the rope and pulled up Aloy and Yongzhen one by one.
"It's time for us to split up."
There were no people on the streets in Sunset Castle, and the doors and windows of every house were closed. At least until the sandstorm dissipated, the three of them could move around the city unimpeded.
"Aloy, you and Yongzhen find a hotel to stay temporarily. According to Focus (Aletheia)'s calculations, the sandstorm will end in about an hour."
"In this last moment, I will go to the palace to check the situation and try to see if I can sneak inside to rescue Itamen and the queen."
Lu Xiao clicked the Focus hanging on his ear: "Once the mission is successful, I will use the teleportation device to send the two of them directly back to Ziwu City, and keep an eye on Focus' information at all times."
Facing the sky full of wind and sand, Lu Xiao gradually disappeared from the sight of Yongzhen and Aloy.
Aloy sighed: "That's easy to say. Where can I find a hotel in this damn weather?"
With the help of Aletheia, Yongzhen located a large house with a large number of life reactions through Focus.
"This way."
"Yongzhen wait."
Just when Yongzhen was about to go to the hotel for temporary refuge, Aletheia suddenly reminded him.
She marked a special red symbol on Yongzhen Focus: "I discovered an ancient ruins, near the east wall section of the palace wall."
Yongzhen paused for a moment, and Aloy turned around in confusion: "Sister Yongzhen?"
"nothing."
Keeping this information in his heart for the time being, Yongzhen said to Aletheia, who was temporarily residing in his body, through mental waves: "Don't tell Lu Xiao this information for the time being, let him concentrate on performing the current mission."
"When the sandstorm dissipates, I will take Aloy to the ruins to explore the situation. Maybe this will be a perfect opportunity to divert Bahawa's attention."
…
Deep inside the Sunset Castle, there is the palace of the puppet king Itamen.
Itamen, who was less than ten years old, was wearing a king's attire similar to Yavid's. He shrank in his mother's arms in fear and did not dare to look up.
In front of Itamen stood a man in dark red sacrificial robes, his hawk-like eyes under the priest's hood staring straight at Itamen.
"Your Majesty, it's time to make up your mind."
"Sooner or later, those regicide rebels will attack us. Instead of passively fighting them, it's better for us to strike first."
"Your loyal soldiers will definitely capture Meridian City and bring the kingdom that has been distorted by the false king Yavid back on track."
With her age and experience, Itamen could not understand Bahawa's long speech. She had just taken office not long ago and she was just an ordinary woman who unfortunately lost her husband and lacked a sense of the overall situation.
Unable to get support from his mother, Itamen could only order tremblingly: "High Priest Bahawa, authorized in the name of the Sun King, you are fully responsible for this war."
An unsurprising smile appeared on Bahawa's lips, and on the surface he bowed politely to Itamen: "As you command, Your Majesty."