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

But this news was not enough to shock Lacie. At most, it corrected her wrong ideas.

In a world with magic, nothing is impossible. If there is, it can only be said that the purity of the spellcaster is not enough.

If we have to say, in terms of technical content, Lao Deng's White Tower is in no way inferior to the creation of the giant tree called Lentiheim.

She usually chats and laughs with Lao Deng, so how could she be shocked by the origin of the giant tree?

So she quickly digested this information and began to look forward to Mla giving her and Charles some more explosive news.

Mulla did not disappoint Rachel. Soon, he said:

"But all of this has become a thing of the past that has been lost in the long river of history. At least now, the name Lentiheim no longer belongs only to the tree, it also belongs to our city-state on the tree."

Then he looked at the streets in the thick fog and at the exquisite and beautiful wooden houses.

"According to the legend, after the giant tree named Lentiheim matured, the mistress gave birth to more elves. She gave each of them a name and gave them new seeds."

"The elves sowed the seeds on the crowns of the giant trees, and when the seeds blossomed and bore fruit, they harvested everything they needed - a shelter from the wind and rain, food to fill their stomachs, and much-needed tools."

"Soon, a brand new civilization was established from scratch. Under the instructions of the mistress, it carefully hid itself and almost never came into contact with the outside world, living a self-sufficient, peaceful and harmonious life."

"This kind of life has lasted for thousands of years, and almost all elves believe that this kind of life will continue until..."

Mula looked past the witch and the hero and towards the seemingly endless thick fog behind them.

He didn't finish his words.

But Charles finished what he hadn't said yet:

"Until this thick fog enveloped Lentiheim, until these anomalies appeared in Lentiheim."

Mla's slightly dazed and trance-like expression was broken, as if he had just woken up from a long dream. His unfocused eyes regained focus and his gaze slowly moved to Charles' face.

"Yes," he whispered, "until this fog came."

After saying this, the elf gave Ciel a bitter smile:

"Mr. Charles, do you know that Lentiheim has always been a very stable city-state, even too stable?"

"As I told you and Miss Witch, my name is Mura, but besides this name, I also have another name - 09527. In Lentiheim, every elf has a similar name."

"My name is 09527, which means I am the 00134th child conceived by the Mistress. Your name is , which means she is one of the first elves."

"And every elf is given corresponding duties by the Matron right after birth. Just like me, I was given the duty of captain of the Lentiheim Guard right after I was born. So I was instilled with the corresponding knowledge and skills since I was a child. After I came of age, I directly became the captain of the Lentiheim Guard."

As Mula spoke, his eyes swept across the wooden houses on both sides of the street, and a complex expression that the witch and the hero could not understand appeared on his face again.

"And so are my compatriots."

"Some of them were born to be craftsmen, some were born to be merchants, some were born to be farmers - everyone had something to do, and everyone's destiny was determined from birth."

"And all this was arranged by the mistress."

"There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this arrangement. I once heard that the situation in the outside world is often turbulent, and even the most powerful empire can hardly maintain a thousand years of rule. But we in Lentiheim have done it, and even more than a thousand years. Three thousand years have passed since the first elf was born by the mistress. I don't know how many empires have collapsed and dynasties have changed in the outside world, but our city-state has always remained the same."

"but……"

A thick fog-like confusion suddenly appeared on the elf's face:

"But sometimes I wonder if the mistress has tailored duties for each of us elves, or... or maybe it's because Lentiheim lacks elves to do a certain job that she created us to do it?"

"I heard that there are things called 'machines' in the outside world, and some of the largest and most sophisticated ones are assembled from countless parts."

"Gears, pistons, levers..."

Mula lowered his head and looked at his strong and muscular body, which was almost flawless like those of other elves.

Then, he whispered to himself in a low voice, as if in a dream:

"——What's the difference between us and these parts?"

[To be continued]

-

15. Disappeared

As Lacie listened, her eyes widened unconsciously.

She thought to herself, brother, this, this, this, isn’t it right?

Although I had noticed it a long time ago, my subjective conjecture and the feeling I heard from Mla were completely different.

Breeding rooms, tailor-made responsibilities, and a single will to coordinate the operation of society.

Each element may not mean much, but if you add them together...

Laceel suddenly raised her head and looked in the direction where Mula had been looking in the thick fog.

She knew what stood there.

The tree - the huge tree called Lentiheim.

When she first came to this city-state, she thought that the giant tree was the legendary elven mother tree that gave birth to all the elves. Now she knows that the giant tree is what the outside world knows as Lentiheim.

The mistress nurtured it and the elves, and the elves obeyed the mistress's instructions and built a city-state on its crown.

Quite mythical, isn't it?

But if you pay attention to the details hidden in this legend, you will probably get a conclusion that is completely opposite to what it seems.

Beneath this magnificent and quaint elven city-state, there seems to be a rather advanced AI hidden...?

Rachel thought it was ridiculous.

Moreover, this hypothesis can hardly explain all the anomalies in Lentiheim.

The mistress's madness could be due to the AI's disrepair, but what about the thick fog? What was the thick fog that enveloped the entire city-state? The consul called the thick fog the mistress's dream, but AI...

Can AI really dream?

Or, does the Cybermistress dream of fantasy elves?

Lacey thought about it and sighed softly.

Although this conjecture is a bit sensational, it is not impossible. However, she has not found any evidence pointing to this conjecture yet, so she still has to investigate it first. What if the mistress of the elves is not an AI at all, but a powerful creature similar to a god?

After all, in this continent, although no one has ever actually seen a god with their own eyes, legends about gods are everywhere.

But speaking of it...

Lacier looked at Mura and asked curiously:

"But no matter what, the mistress is still your mother who has raised you for more than three thousand years. Even if something might have gone wrong with her, even if you are dissatisfied with her arrangements, you shouldn't be planning how to kill your mother, right?"

Mla's expression suddenly froze when he heard this.

Then, he suddenly raised his head, frowned, and his green eyes revealed complete confusion and bewilderment:

"What did you say? We are... planning how to kill our mother?"

Lacey reacted after hearing this:

"You do not know?"

The captain of the Lentiheim Guard didn't even know that the commission given to her and Charles by Fuvenna was to kill the mistress?

Why is that?

In an instant, the witch thought of many possibilities.

But before she could think of any sensational conspiracy theories, she heard Mura muttering to herself:

"So the Archon asked you two to come to Lentiheim in order to kill my mother? But why... Could it be that, as those people said, the abnormality in the city was really caused by my mother?"

As he spoke, his expression changed repeatedly, and it was obvious that his thoughts were churning violently.

After a long struggle between his conscience and desire, he regained his composure and whispered to Lacier:

"I don't know about this. I just heard from the Archon that this thick fog might be related to my mother. But even so, the situation is not serious enough to... to rebel against my mother. Maybe there are other reasons... No, there must be other reasons. I want to talk to the Archon!"

Mula spoke faster and faster.

It seems that his heart is far from being as calm as it appears.

But Lacie didn't care about that.

On the contrary, she is afraid that the world will not be in chaos.

It's a good thing that Mla is going to confront Fuvenna. The more they quarrel, the more key information may be exposed. Laceel doesn't believe that Fuvenna, who commissioned them to kill the mistress, would know nothing like Mla. She even suspects that Fuvenna is the real culprit behind everything.

That's why she deliberately told Mula the truth.

It would be fine if Mla knew the truth, but if he didn't, then things would become interesting.

And the fact was just as she expected. After Mla learned the truth, he immediately rushed to confront Fuvenna.

Maybe the Riddler would be seen sweating profusely later, and Lacie wanted to applaud, but at least on the surface, she still acted harmless.

"Mr. Murrah," she asked in a mock casual tone, "I heard you say 'those people'? Who were 'those people'? Did they say anything?"

Mula, who had already turned around and started to hurry on his way, was silent for a moment before he whispered:

"Miss Witch, you should understand that not everyone wants their lives to be stable and unchanging. In fact, even among us elves, there are some people who are tired of such a dull life."

"When I say 'those people', I mean this group of people."

"At first, they were just like everyone else, following the arrangements of the mistress and engaging in occupations they were good at. But even elves like us who can live for hundreds or even thousands of years will get tired of the monotonous days."

At this point he paused and shook his head:

"No, perhaps it's because our lifespans are too long. For example, I have been the captain of the Lentiheim Guard for three hundred years. And it is foreseeable that, if nothing unexpected happens, I will continue to hold this position until one day I can no longer get up from the bed, complete the patrol, and protect our city-state."

"On that day, the mistress will choose... or give birth to an elf who can replace me and make him the new captain of the guard."

"It's the same for me, and for the other elves in Lentiheim. We are like countless gears in a big machine. In order to keep the machine running, we have to stay at our posts and rotate day and night until one day we are worn out and can't complete the work, or simply break down, and then we will be replaced..."

"Or rather, liberation."

As the elf spoke, he slowly lowered his head and took out the pocket watch that the witch and the hero had seen from his pocket.

He wrapped the watch chain around his hand, held the pocket watch in his palm, opened the watch cover, looked at the slowly turning hands on the dial, lowered his eyes, and lowered his voice:

"I've told you before, Miss Witch, that my dream is to become a watchmaker, and the others... the other elves are more or less the same as me, with dreams that are very different from our jobs, but we all know that throughout our lives, we may not have the opportunity to fulfill our dreams, even though it..."

“Despite it, it seems pretty well accomplished.”

The man gently closed the watch face, carefully put it back into his pocket, and then looked up.

The confusion on his face had disappeared without a trace, and he became determined again, just like when he first met Rachel and Charles.

Somehow, Lacie realized that M'La had turned back into the reliable captain of the guard he once was.

So, he was probably not one of “those people” he was talking about.

What about Fuwenna?

Which faction does the Archon lady who commissioned her and Charles to kill the Elves' Matron belong to?

Thinking of this, Lacie suddenly scratched her head.

Her head felt itchy, as if it was going to grow a brain.

Detective games are interesting, but if they involve the internal struggles of the elves, they become boring instantly.

Lacele didn't want to care about such troubles at all. She just wanted to capture the mother of the elves as soon as possible, complete the commission of the Archon, and then let the damn Riddler give her a lot of gold coins.

As for the internal struggles among the elves...it was none of her business and she was not interested.

"Why don't we just give Ciel a headache?"

She hid behind Charles, tugged at the corner of the man's clothes, and thought sinisterly in her heart.

But at this moment, Charles seemed to have noticed her thoughts and suddenly said:

"There is one more thing - Mr. Mula, after we got lost, my master and I checked the nearby wooden houses and found that all the elves inside had disappeared - do you know about this?"

Mla, who was leading the way for them, suddenly stopped when he heard this, and then he turned his head sharply.

"What did you say?" He raised his voice involuntarily. "You said... all the elves in the nearby wooden houses disappeared?"

Charles nodded:

"Yes, although there are still traces of life in those wooden houses not long ago, the residents inside have all disappeared."