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

"It seems that Mura and those disappeared elves are still somewhere in Lentiheim..."

"Of course, they could have been destroyed."

Although she had prepared for the worst, Laciel did not speak out this cruel possibility.

She just whispered:

"Where should we go next? Return to Lentiheim? Look for Mura and the missing elves? Or should we continue to find a way to meet the Archon first?"

But can Fuvenna, who was entrusted with killing the mistress, really escape the predation of the invisible creature?

She was worried like this, but got an unexpected answer from Charles.

"Please be patient," Charles whispered to her, "We don't need to go see the Archon. The Archon may come to see us in person."

Lacey frowned when she heard this.

She thought how could it be possible, Fuwenna didn't know...

No, Lacie realized, Fuvenna might really know where they were.

Charles then continued:

"We have successfully brought the other Lentiheim to a state of stagnation. This is one thing. In the real Lentiheim, elves have been disappearing for no reason one after another. This is another thing."

"If Ms. Fuwenna is really a competent governor, then she will definitely notice the occurrence of these two things, and then she will definitely think of us who are investigating the anomaly in the city-"

"She will definitely come to us to seek help."

There was no need for Charles to say the rest, as Lacie could figure it out herself.

If Fuwenna wanted to find them, she would definitely go to the place she arranged for them to live. Then, when she found out that they were not in the wooden house, she would definitely think of other ways.

Plus...the reason why Fuvenna let them investigate in the city without worrying about not being able to find them in the thick fog must be because she had some method that they didn't know about.

As Lacie thought about it, she suddenly turned her head and looked at the bronze lantern held high by the wizard.

"Is it this lantern?" she thought. "Could Fuvenna have a way to locate the lantern?"

Just as she had this thought, the sea of ​​fog not far from them was disturbed by something and began to surge violently.

Then, just as Ciel had expected, the Archon Lady of Lentiheim broke through the sea of ​​fog and appeared before them.

[To be continued]

-

18. Have a meeting

Almost all elves are natural spellcasters.

As the nominal leader of the elves, Fuvenna is naturally also a very experienced spellcaster.

With the help of another bronze lantern and the power of magic, she easily broke through the sea of ​​fog and arrived above Lentiheim.

The hero and the witch are waiting for her arrival here.

"Hello, Madam Archon." Charles greeted in a low voice.

But Rachel never liked this kind of red tape.

If you have something to say, why not just say it directly? Why do you still have to pretend to be so polite and ask each other what do you want to say? It's urgent!

So she was very unhappy and said directly to Fuwenna who came rushing over:

"Mura is missing."

Fuvenna, who was originally planning to return the gift to Charles, froze instantly.

Then, she subconsciously looked at the lantern next to Lacie that was held high by the wizard's hand.

Seeing this, Lacie planned to tell her that this lantern was the gold coin that dropped after Mula disappeared.

But before she could speak, Fuwenna nodded first:

"I see... I recognize this lantern. I gave it to Mura myself."

"?"

Lacee looked suspiciously at the lantern beside her, then stared at the lantern in Charles' hand for a while, but she couldn't tell any difference between the two lanterns.

But maybe Fuwenna has a special way of distinguishing?

Anyway, there is no need for them to understand the affairs of the elves so clearly, including the mistress and the fog in the city.

The Riddler always does this.

Although she was quite dissatisfied with Fuwenna, the Riddler, Laciel still controlled the wizard's hand and handed the bronze lantern, which was likely to have become a relic of Mula, to Fuwenna.

Fuwenna did not accept the lantern, but shook her head and said:

"Mura is missing. The lantern he left behind should be entrusted to someone who needs it more. If he were here, I'm afraid he would think so too."

As she spoke, she looked at Lacier with her emerald green eyes that were slightly worried:

"So, please keep this lantern for me for now, Miss Witch."

Lacie couldn't refuse her, so she controlled the wizard's hand and took the lantern back.

Then she saw Fuwenna smiling at her with gratitude.

"Thank you for your help," Fuwenna said softly, and turned to look at Charles, "But this is really not the place to talk. Please follow me."

She held up the third lantern, turned around, and slowly sank into the sea of ​​fog.

The hero and the witch looked at each other.

After a moment, perhaps they communicated with their eyes, they followed Fuwenna's footsteps and slowly sank into the sea of ​​fog.

Compared to the rapid ascent, the descent process appears to be much slower.

Three bronze lanterns dispersed a large amount of fog, forming a hole with a radius of about five meters. The brave man, the witch, and the archon of the elves floated in the center of the hole and slowly descended back to Lentiheim from the sky.

On the way, Fuwenna, who was at the front, suddenly said:

"Did you witness the disappearance of Mula?"

Lacier, who had a lot of questions in her mind and couldn't wait to ask them, answered immediately after hearing this:

"No, originally Mula was investigating with us where all the missing elves in the vicinity had gone, but suddenly, he seemed to have seen something in the thick fog, so he chased after them alone."

"Charles and I were a step behind him. By the time we caught up with him, he had already disappeared. He only left us this bronze lantern and a pocket watch."

After saying this, Lacele nudged Charles and signaled him to take out the pocket watch.

Charles did as he was told, took out the pocket watch he had carefully put away, and handed it to Fuvenna.

But just like facing the lantern left by Mulla, Fuwenna shook her head at Charles:

"Since you found this pocket watch, please keep it for Mula temporarily."

Rachel noticed the word "temporarily" and asked:

"You mean, M'La is safe now? It won't be long before he reappears?"

But Fuwenna shook her head and said firmly:

"I don't know where Mula is now, or whether he's alright, but as long as he's still in Lentiheim, we'll always be able to find him—and of course, those compatriots who disappeared with him."

Lacie thought to herself, I don’t know where you get your confidence from. You dare to speak so arrogantly without even understanding the situation.

Even though she and Charles witnessed almost the entire process of Mla's disappearance, they could not guarantee that they could find Mla safely.

——After all, maybe Mura has been destroyed by the mistress by now.

Of course, Lacier would not say such a thing. In fact, she just agreed with Fuwenna and changed the subject:

"So, there are also elves in other parts of Lentiheim who have mysteriously disappeared?"

Fuwenna's expression quickly became serious:

"That's right. In addition to Mura, there are two other people who noticed the missing elves. Throughout the city-state, news of missing elves has spread everywhere."

"Has anything like this ever happened before?"

"Never had."

"That means there is a deep connection between the disappearance of the elves, the thick fog, and the mad mistress?"

"...Probably so."

After answering, Fuwenna paused and shook her head:

"But so far, we have not found a necessary connection between the three."

Lacey raised her eyebrows:

"How can you not find the necessary connection? I don't need to explain more about the situation of your elves - don't you suspect that those missing elves disappeared after they doubted the mistress?"

"You mean..." Fuwenna frowned, "The culprit for the disappearance of those elves is mother? Because they doubted her, so she captured them?"

"Yes."

"But..." Fuwenna showed an expression of disbelief, "But some elves have expressed their dissatisfaction with mother a long time ago."

"But your mistress wasn't crazy at that time," Lacier sighed. "Anyone who goes crazy will do something against common sense, and your mistress should be no exception."

This is just nonsense that Lacie made up.

Mad people do things that go against common sense, but what about crazy AI? Who can imagine what an AI will do after it goes crazy?

Anyway, Lacie couldn't imagine it.

So she could only treat the elves' mistress as a "human" for the time being.

But what she didn't expect was that after listening to her analysis, Fuwenna still shook her head firmly.

"No," said Fuwena, "not only before, but also now."

As she spoke, Fuwenna smiled bitterly:

"Miss Witch, have you forgotten that if Mother really wants to punish those who are disloyal to Her, how could I be spared?"

As she spoke, her voice slowly lowered:

"After all, there won't be any fellow countryman in all of Lentiheim who would be more unfaithful to my mother than I am."

A bitter smile appeared on the face of the lady consul, with a hint of sarcasm in it.

Lacey thought so too.

If the Elves' Matron really intended to destroy all abnormal parts that might affect the normal operation of Lentiheim, then why didn't she destroy Fuwenna first?

When other elves were still questioning the mistress, the Archon had already found Charles and commissioned him to kill the mistress.

She was the most disobedient of the disobedient, the most disloyal of the disloyal—if Laceline was the mistress, she would have been polite not to grind her to dust.

But unfortunately, even Mura, who just had doubts about the mistress, disappeared, but Fuwenna was still standing in front of them.

Rachel began to waver in her own reasoning.

At this time, Fuwenna stabbed her again:

"And from what I know, among the missing elves, there are also 'good children' who were born almost in the same batch as me and are extremely loyal to their mothers."

"So, I think that the missing elves were not necessarily captured by the mother. In other words, even if the mother captured them, it was not necessarily to punish them."

"What was the purpose of that?" Lacele asked subconsciously, "And if the mistress didn't capture those elves, who planned all this?"

Fuwenna shook her head:

"I don't know any more about this than you do."

"..."

Lacie suddenly didn't know what to say.

Clearly, she and Charles had just found a path to the truth, but before they could set off, Fuvenna suddenly jumped out and nailed a huge sign in front of them that read "No Road, No Passage".

There is solid evidence that the disappeared elves were not captured by the mistress.

Who could that be? Could it be that, just like the absurd idea that she had accidentally thought of before, the abnormality in Lentiheim now was not entirely caused by the internal mistress, but there were also external forces taking advantage of the opportunity to fish in troubled waters?