Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

Anyway, Lacie doesn't think it's possible.

If they really had this ability... what were they doing earlier? Why didn't they step forward to save the situation when the Madam was on the verge of madness? Even if we take a step back and assume that the elves really obtained advanced technology from the legacy left by the Madam to rebuild the starship, technology is technology, and actual production and manufacturing is another matter -

Elves are not green skinned. If they encounter any difficult problem, they just need to shout waagh and then think about it, and they can achieve their goal immediately.

The implementation of technology requires huge trial and error costs and cannot be accomplished just by thinking about it.

So Laciel thought it would be better for them to question first and then doubt.

She said to Charles:

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! The technology contained in the starship of the elves' mistress is too advanced for both us and the elves. It is difficult to analyze. Even for the elves who have inherited the mistress's legacy, it will probably take dozens or even hundreds of years to fully understand it..."

Facing her doubts, Charles shook his head:

"I don't understand what you said, but the Consul did reply to us like this..."

He paused, and with his good memory, repeated Fuwenna's reply almost exactly:

"The reconstruction of our mother has reached a critical stage, so I'm sorry, Mr. Charles, we have no time to pay attention to the changes in the outside world. Even the threat from the Slender Man that our mother revealed to us would not make us give up the work at hand..."

After saying this, he looked at Lacier and told her:

"——This is probably the current situation of the elves in Lentiheim."

Upon hearing this, Lacie couldn't help but raise her hand and gently bit her fingers.

"We all know that Archon," she said, as if she was talking to herself, or as if she was discussing with Ciel, "Given her personality, would she really make a decision to rebuild the starship at all costs?"

Suddenly, she seemed to have thought of something, and her expression suddenly changed:

"No! Those damned black shadows - before, we were all wondering why the mistress of the elves went crazy for no reason. But after experiencing the abnormal incident in Diesel, we learned about the existence of the thin and tall ghost, and we witnessed the fall of Diesel..."

The witch subconsciously turned over and rode on the hero's waist. She lowered her head, stared into his eyes, and asked for his opinion:

"Could it be possible that the Slender Man was the culprit who caused the Madam to go crazy? Could it be possible that the Slender Man who left Diesel in the past thirty years was accidentally awakened? Could it be possible that the awakened Slender Man happened to enter Lentiheim?"

The hero was stunned.

Relying on the tacit understanding with the witch, he quickly understood the subtext of the witch's words, and like the witch, his expression became much worse.

"You mean..." he asked in a deep voice, "Lentiheim has been polluted as early as the past thirty years?"

"It's possible, not already," the witch corrected him, "If Lentiheim was really polluted by those damned shadows, when we first arrived in Lentiheim, I'm afraid what we saw would not just be thick fog."

And there is the black shadow - a crazy and chaotic black shadow that can assimilate all intelligent creatures.

If the facts are as the witch said, then indeed, the elves polluted by the slender ghost may have left Lentiheim long ago, just like those shadows who couldn't wait to leave Diesel and tried to spread the pollution to the entire Pangaea.

But they didn't.

Does this mean that Lentiheim is still safe and the elves are not corrupted?

Lacie bit her fingertips, then suddenly remembered something and asked hurriedly:

"What about the investigator? Is he okay?"

Charles was stunned for a moment, and quickly realized that the investigator that Laciel was referring to was the investigator who was assigned to Lentiheim to pass on the message to the elves.

So he immediately answered:

"I'm not sure. In fact, I have never seen the investigator in person. All the information about Lentiheim was passed on to me by Ms. Verliden."

"Then I'm afraid we'll have to contact Lao Deng immediately."

As Lacie said this, she took out her wand with a serious expression and used the communication spell, while Charles, in tacit understanding, deactivated the forbidden spell at the same time.

Fortunately, the two did not have to wait long before the communication spell was connected, and Lao Deng's kind and gentle voice sounded:

"What's wrong, my dear student? Why don't you make out with your little boyfriend but come to me, an old man? Is there something wrong?"

Lacier didn't bother to fight back. She quickly summarized her guess in the simplest language, repeated it to Lao Deng, and then warned her:

"That investigator might be suspicious! If he returns to the White Tower, please pay attention to his every move. It would be best to isolate him temporarily like you did to us and observe him for a while!"

After a brief silence, Lao Deng replied in a serious tone:

"Well, I see."

After a pause, she continued:

"But you can rest assured. The investigator has not returned to the White Tower yet. She is still in Lentiheim, acting as a liaison between us and the elves."

"And the investigation team that the White Tower sent to Lentiheim," Charles beside Rachel suddenly reminded, "Have they returned to the White Tower?"

"No," Old Deng answered without hesitation, "They are still staying in Lentiheim, helping the elves to receive the inheritance left to them by the Matron."

"Then let them stay in Lentiheim for the time being," Rachel suggested. "As for the reason..."

"In fact, they don't need any reason to stay in Lentiheim," Old Deng interrupted her softly, "For those researchers and scholars, technology and knowledge themselves are the most tempting rewards."

"If the White Tower hadn't ordered them to leave Lentiheim, they would probably be more willing than anyone else to stay there. After all, Lentiheim is probably like heaven to them," she added.

Lacey heaved a sigh of relief when she heard this:

"That's good. This actually makes things a lot easier. If we rashly tell them the truth, it might cause unnecessary panic and lead to uncontrollable consequences..."

But Lao Deng denied her:

"No, although they are willing to stay in Lentiheim, I still think that they should be told the truth."

"……Why?"

"because……"

Old Deng paused and answered in his usual calm tone:

"Everyone has the right to know the truth, right?"

[To be continued]

-

18. Yesterday’s Cause

"..."

After a brief silence, Lacie nodded.

"If you feel it's necessary, I have no problem with that," she said, adding, "but I suggest you be prepared for... changes."

She clearly remembered that she had discussed with Lao Deng at the beginning -

The Emperor of Diesel, Lonkin Sol, wanted to cut off all contact between his real country and the outside world, not allowing any news about the black shadow to be transmitted to the outside world, because he was worried that the information itself would become a carrier of pollution.

Where there is cognition, there is pollution.

But later they proved that even if they learned the truth of that year, even if they saw Diesel's miserable appearance today, they would not be affected by it.

But they are who they are, and the investigation team sent by the White Tower to Lentiheim is a different story.

If she and Charles guessed correctly, then the current Lentiheim was like a den of dragons and tigers, and the investigation team that had been in Lentiheim for nearly a month...

The witch suddenly had a bad idea, so her expression quickly became serious.

"Also," she continued, "please be prepared in advance...be prepared to face the annihilation of the investigation team."

Lao Deng was silent for a moment after hearing this.

But she was obviously much more optimistic than Rachel thought, and she quickly replied in her usual relaxed and kind tone:

"Prepared? Oh, I... of course we were prepared a long time ago. Before the investigation team went on their visit, every scholar, researcher, and investigator was mentally prepared to never come back. Weren't you one of them? Then you should know that those who were willing to join the investigation team might have already 'died' when they joined the investigation team."

"Then what are they that were able to leave the White Tower alive and well and head to Diesel? Are they zombies?"

Rachel wanted to say something like this to change the atmosphere, but the heavy emotions weighing on her heart and throat made her unable to utter a word.

So she had to choose to remain silent wisely and listen to Lao Deng:

"To describe it with what you said to me a long time ago: 'Investigator is really a high-risk job', and that's exactly the case, so those who volunteer to become investigators are all good kids picked from a hundred... no, one in a thousand. They carry out dangerous missions that ordinary people can hardly imagine in every corner of the Pangaea, but they do not ask for anything in return. For them, the smile on other people's faces may be the best reward..."

Lao Deng paused, and her voice suddenly became much softer, as if whispering, she whispered:

"How could they not be prepared in advance?"

Perhaps because she realized that the atmosphere had become too heavy, Lao Deng's tone changed from sad to light-hearted again. She quickly changed the subject and said:

"But no matter what, we will be prepared and have measures in place - for example, telling every member of the investigation team the truth and ordering them to stay in Lentiheim temporarily. Meanwhile..."

Suddenly, she asked a completely unrelated question:

"If I remember correctly, you are going to Victoria in a while, right?"

"?"

Lacie looked at the communication spell that was flashing with fluorescent light, then turned her head and looked at Charles.

They both looked at each other.

Finally, it was Charles who stood up and answered Lao Deng:

"Yes, that's right. Probably in a few days, when all the affairs in the White Tower are settled and settled, Laceline and I will set off - but we plan to go back to Kangkel first."

"Konker?" Lao Deng was a little surprised. "Where are you going..."

At this point she also reacted:

"Are you going to gather your former teammates? Yeah, I haven't heard from the Brave Team for a long time. I actually miss them a little bit."

They are a brave team that is victorious in every battle and brings light and hope to people. Almost everyone in the Pan-Continent knows about them.

They had accomplished many great feats that even a behemoth as the White Tower could not help but be moved by. Therefore, even Old Deng, the lord of the White Tower, had heard legends about them more than once.

But a few months ago, after a sudden assassination, the priest in the brave team unfortunately died. The brave leader became disheartened and the entire brave team disappeared. There have been no rumors about them in the Pan-Continent for a long time.

Thinking of this, Ms. Veridon couldn't help but look at the bright blue communication spell in front of her, trying to see through it the culprit on the other end who directly led to the disbandment of the brave team.

Then, she asked quietly:

"My dear student, Miss Twilight Witch, who claims to be extremely smart, what do you think about the disbanding of the Hero Team?"

"Well!"

When her name was called, Lacie immediately let out a slight strange cry, then turned her head away guiltily - although the current communication magic was not yet perfect and could not transmit the images, she clearly felt Lao Deng's gaze.

But she...what could she think?

Although it was indeed her fault, but...

"Who could have expected an assassin to come?" she muttered softly. "Besides, I was actually stabbed by a sword and almost died."

"Huh?!"×2

Lao Deng and Charles were both slightly surprised.

The former frowned, but soon relaxed his brows as he remembered something.

"Is it the resurrection spell I gave you before? No - you are a witch, are you so stupid as to let that assassin stab the sword into your chest?"

Upon hearing this, Lacier immediately retorted:

"What did our witch do to you? Besides, you know that all mages are like this. They have high attack and low defense. Once they lose the advantage of magic, they are no better than mortals. Even witches are no exception..."

For some reason, her voice became quieter and quieter as she spoke, until in the end she simply shut her mouth and stopped defending herself.

Perhaps she realized it herself, but even so, as a witch, she should have taken out her staff and fought back fiercely as soon as she spotted the assassin.

But she didn't do it, why?

She had her reasons, but she did not want to tell them--or, at least, she did not want to tell them in front of Charles.

Things don't always go as planned, and Lao Deng seems to be determined to get to the bottom of it today:

"But you also said that that was based on the premise that you lost your magic advantage. In fact, even if you had very little magic power left, you should have been able to deal with a mortal assassin, unless he was equipped with a forbidden force field like those tin cans from Victoria."

Rachel subconsciously retorted:

"How is that possible! The assassin's target was Ciel, not me. Even if he seemed to be from Victoria, there was no need for him to carry a forbidden force field with him, right?"

She thought about it carefully and added:

"That assassin...seems to be just a mortal, with almost no magical fluctuations. But that's right. If he dares to assassinate the hero, he must have made sufficient preparations in advance and must have taken into account the forbidden spells mastered by the heroes of past generations."

"Who would send a wizard to assassinate the hero? That's like throwing meat buns at a dog. So it really has to be a mortal. When the hero is exhausted and has almost lost all his fighting ability, he can be attacked from behind. Only in this way can he succeed."

As she spoke, Lacie was proud of her excellent skill in changing the subject.