Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

"Cerithir?"

Elsa and Charlie both looked at Tricia at the same time.

"Cerilihilda...Cerilihilda?" Charlie blinked. "--Does this have anything to do with your last name, Tricia?"

Tricia's full name is Patriculosia Celisilda.

"you caught me."

"Huh? Really?"

"This surname was given to me by the desolate god who guided me in my search for the World Tree," Tricia exhaled hot air, her gaze drifting off into the distance, as if recalling something. "In the North, or rather, in the legends of the Western Continent, once ruled by the elves, where the Utes originated, 'Serishil' is the cloak worn by the goddess Sabrina. It's so flexible and beautiful. It protected the goddess from sneak attacks by evil gods and accompanied her on her conquests. Wearing it, the goddess defeated powerful demons from beyond the realm and sealed the filth hidden deep beneath the earth. The word 'Serishil' comes from the Elvish language, meaning 'guardian'... Perhaps the one who gave me this name had expectations of me, but unfortunately, I didn't understand all that at the time. Although I was the guardian of the World Tree, I didn't grasp the authority given to me by the World Tree, nor did I fulfill my responsibilities. I simply inherited this surname."

There was a lot of information in Tricia's words, and Aisha and Charlie didn't know what to say for a moment.

"That's all in the past," Tricia smiled, seemingly unwilling to continue discussing the topic. She didn't want the atmosphere between the three of them to suddenly become awkward, so she continued, "'Cerithir' should be a rare sight here, but it seems we're really lucky. Perhaps the goddess is watching us."

……

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[I'll update this chapter first to prove I'm still alive, I really am. Things are almost done. Although I haven't found a new place to rent yet, I will try my best to resume updating.]

【By the way, I almost forgot my settings after not updating for ten days.】

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After investigation, Tricia marked the dead zone of the coast and snow-capped mountains on the map. She then compared the results with her previous investigations and drew a line running through the mountain ranges from north to south. It wasn't until late at night that the three of them returned to the Fisher Barony.

The wind and snow in Barony Fisher's territory had stopped, but the biting cold wind was still howling in the dark night. The once bustling streets had now become completely silent, with only a few taverns still occasionally seeing people coming in and out, leaving footprints in the thick snow.

In the center of the castle courtyard, a curtain of azure light slowly rose, pushing aside the snow. Tricia and Shirley emerged. Elsa then plummeted from the sky, landing firmly on the ground. The intense wind pressure whipped up the snowflakes.

"Well... we're finally back... wow, I feel dizzy..."

Charlie breathed a sigh of relief, the heat condensing into white mist in the night. Although she was a vampire, the repeated teleportation spells still made her feel dizzy. In comparison, Tricia, the spellcaster, looked very natural.

"Are you okay?" Tricia gave Charlie a quick wake-up call and said with a smile, "You'll get used to it after a few times."

"what happened?"

Aisha came over and asked with concern.

"It's nothing, I'm just a little bit uncomfortable..." Charlie shook her head for a while, then looked at Elsa, leaned in and complained seriously: "But it's much better than the first time you carried me away, Elsa - you almost broke my waist back then..."

"Why are you bringing up the past again... Everything is fine now."

Elsa laughed and gently touched Charlie's head, and tucked Charlie's hair that was messed up in the wind and snow behind her ears - Charlie's soft and shiny silver hair looked very beautiful against the moonlight, just like the snow on the branches, it was a kind of translucent and white beauty.

Tricia looked at Aisha and Charlie and laughed.

"Let's go in."

……

The footsteps of three people echoed in the silent corridor.

"I want to take a hot bath."

Aisha suddenly said.

"Sea water isn't very pleasant, especially when it's full of ice."

Despite saying that, Elsa looked like nothing had happened and didn't look "uncomfortable" at all.

Unlike Tricia and Charlie, Elsa actually soaked in the sea water for a long time. Now Elsa can smell the scent of sea water coming from her body, which can hardly be called pleasant - fortunately, the temperature in the north is very low, so it won't stink even after a day.

"Shower..." Charlie glanced at Tricia, then at Elsa, and stammered, "I, I want to take a shower too... I'm covered in mud from crawling around in the hole!"

"Me too."

Tricia didn't intend to make excuses at all, and she even suggested as a matter of course: "In that case, why don't we take a shower together?"

"Hey? Let's take a shower together?"

Charlie was startled.

"Is it okay? No, I, I mean... is this really okay... I..."

She had never exposed her body to anyone other than Aisha.

Charlie said, looking towards Elsa unconsciously.

Elsa just smiled.

"We are all women anyway, so it doesn't matter to me."

"That's it."

Tricia made the decision straightforwardly, and Charlie hesitated for a moment, unable to speak out the words - no matter what, she would not miss the opportunity to take a bath with Elsa.

At this time, the three of them came into the castle, and as soon as they walked out of the corridor, they saw Duke Chalblis coming towards them.

"Respected Lady Faris, Lord Sage, and Miss Bran."

Duke Chalbliss saluted the three men with apparent respect, at least on the surface. His thoughts were much more straightforward than Yaman's. He just wanted to finish things here quickly and leave the empire to return to his own territory.

He knew exactly what he should do.

After all, Tricia kept Duke Chalbris here just for the sake of the Duke's powerful, loyal and honest men - his strength declined a lot after being punched by Elsa, and now he is very low-key and cooperative, ordering his men to cooperate with Tricia's orders to start a large-scale search. At this time, he is indeed a good helper.

As long as he stayed out of trouble and did his job well, Tricia probably wouldn't make things too difficult for him.

Duke Chalblis glanced at Elsa and Charlie, then said to Tricia:

"Sage, the envoys from the Imperial delegation have been waiting in the castle for a long time."

"Emissaries from the Empire? What do they want so late at night?"

Aisha asked.

The Empire had already sent a team to Baron Fisher's territory and they had settled down in the castle. They were mainly responsible for investigating and mining the mithril mines here, and would gradually take over Baron Fisher's territorial governance. Elsa knew about this.

However, the reception of these people was mostly done by Duke Charlbris and his men. Tricia and Elsa had only met with those people a few times, and other than that they did not have much communication - after all, Elsa and Tricia were always busy and rarely stayed in the castle.

This is a tacit understanding between Queen Stikia and them.

As for other specific matters, they are all handled by Baron Fisher. As the "lord" here, no one knows this land better than him, and there is nothing wrong with entrusting this work to him.

"They said it was about the mithril mine, but they didn't tell me the details. Perhaps it's related to the recent discussions among the people."

said the Duke of Chalbliss.

"talk?"

"Some claim this place is safe and welcomes Imperial rule, but they're unwilling to pay the new land tax," Duke Chalbliss said slowly, chuckling at the end. "They have no idea what Baron Fisher is doing somewhere they don't know. Or perhaps, now that Baron Fisher has fallen and the Empire has taken over, some self-proclaimed smart folks want to at least get a piece of the action, which is why they're rebelling."

The Duke of Charlemagne did not care about these remarks at all, and in his opinion, they were even a little ridiculous.

When governing their territory, the vampires often use "blood tax" instead of imperial taxes. This does not mean that the vampires will not pay wealth to the empire, but that the vampires simply do not need much food and money. Their income is enough to pay the taxes on the territory, and they would rather exchange the excess for the blood of their subjects.

The people here are accustomed to exchanging part of their taxes with their own blood, and this seems to be a very good deal to them.

……

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449. The Brave Man's Return (4k)

The members of the dispatch team seemed to be still working at this time. Aisha just felt that they were quite dedicated - in her previous life, working overtime until this time was relatively rare.

However, this world cannot be explained by common sense. Because of convenient things like magic, people in this world generally have stronger physiques, and longer working hours are not difficult for people with strong mental strength. Many things that were originally unimaginable have become commonplace.

"Haha, those who complain and are suspicious probably underestimate us vampires. Or maybe they underestimate the Empire. These fools have been deceived by beautiful appearances for a long time. Maybe they still think Fisher is a good person."

The Duke of Chalbliss smiled indifferently.

Tricia glanced at Charlbris without commenting on his remarks—in fact, Tricia had anticipated this situation, or perhaps something similar had happened in her memory at some point in time.

"Governance of this land will return to the Empire. This is indisputable. Coordination is the responsibility of the dispatched mission, and they should make all the arrangements. I don't think the people sent by Queen Stygia herself will be helpless because of this matter - this should be a piece of cake for them."

Tricia didn't express much of her own opinion on this, because this was an internal affair of the empire and she didn't intend to interfere too much - besides, it would be ridiculous if the dispatched team couldn't even solve this problem.

After a moment's thought, Charlbliss added, "Speaking of which, in the evening, a cavalry of more than ten men arrived. They came from the direction of Kroros, claiming to be from the imperial capital. They had letters proving their identities, but those letters seemed to be disguises, and their true identities were unknown."

"Unidentified?"

"Yes, they were led by a knight, but he actually seemed to be taking orders from a woman, a beautiful young woman. She didn't have any arrogance about her, so I'm sure she wasn't a noble. The knights escorting them also didn't look like ordinary noble private soldiers or low-class adventurers, so I concluded that their identities must be disguised.

Anyway, the dispatched group had contact with them and temporarily housed them in the castle. I thought it was a bit strange, so I sent someone to monitor them. I suspect the dispatched group's sudden desire to see you might be related to those people."

"Someone is coming from the Imperial Capital... I haven't received any communication. It doesn't look like they are from the Empress."

Tricia thought to herself, thought for a moment, and whispered, "Raven."

A black shadow circled down from the night sky and landed on Tricia's shoulder. It was Tricia's familiar, Crow. It stepped firmly on Tricia's shoulder, flapped its wings a few times to sweep away the snowflakes on Tricia's shoulder, then cleverly raised its head towards Xia Li and flapped its wings, as if to show its presence, then twisted its neck to look at Elsa, but this time it neither flapped its wings nor raised its head. It just took a step back, made a hoarse cry, then shrank back into Tricia's neck and turned into a feather and disappeared.

"'Raven'...does it hate me?" Elsa pursed her lips helplessly, "It seems to be avoiding me every time it sees me..."

"Who can I blame? It really can't get close to you." Tricia chuckled, covering her mouth. "But, just now, it was just saying hello to you and Charlie - it's just a little scared of you, Aisha, don't mind it."

"fear me?"

"This isn't the first time you've bullied it, is it?"

Tricia teased.

Indeed, Crow had never gotten any good results at Elsa's hands. A long time ago, Tricia felt Crow's indescribable helplessness towards Elsa from his emotions.

"Huh? Can familiars also feel fear..." Charlie asked curiously.

"Of course, familiars are essentially little elves that have signed a contract with the wizard. These little elves are extremely weak, so weak that it is almost impossible to sense their existence with ordinary means. They are like tree spirits that live in ancient trees. Only after a long period of evolution can they take shape.

Signing a contract with us can greatly accelerate this process. Just like the tree spirits of the ancient forest, they too will give birth to their own spirit forms during this process. This is true of crows; their intelligence alone is comparable to that of a child, and they naturally possess human-like emotions.

Tricia said, gently plucking the feather from her shoulder with two fingers.

The crow's memories then poured into Tricia's mind, and Tricia successfully saw the people of unknown origin mentioned by Duke Chalblis through the crow's memories - it was before the sunset in the valley, and a carriage escorted by fully armed cavalry slowly drove up from the south. There were not many of them, only a dozen or so, but just looking at the mirror-like and sophisticated equipment on them, you could tell that these people were a group of elite soldiers with considerable strength.

They came to the foot of the castle and looked up in the direction of the crows - obviously, they knew that Tricia's crows were here, led by Duke Ryanfort's right-hand man, Kurt Theoford, deputy director of the Seventh Agency, deputy commander of the Ninth Infantry Division, and Ryanfort's adjutant.

Behind Theofeld, a young girl came down from a carriage that looked very valuable. The girl was wearing a smart coat with half of her face hidden under the hood.

Theofred looked up at the crow, then turned and said something to the girl.

The girl nodded and took off her hood, revealing her soft and shiny golden hair. The girl turned out to be the brave warrior who had been in the southern border some time ago: Madeleine Fismander.

Madeleine had abandoned her tall, sharp white military uniform and donned a hood, seemingly concealing her identity. Strangely, Madeleine's expression was odd, as if she were harboring something unspeakable. Theofred also wore a solemn expression.

Madeleine and Theofred, both wearing coats, bowed slightly toward the crow as a substitute for a salute. Even though Tricia herself was not there at the time, as a mystical sage, Tricia still deserved such courtesy from Theofred and Madeleine.

Tricia frowned slightly, withdrew her thoughts, and the memory from Crow was also interrupted.

What are you doing here, brave man?

Tricia confirmed again that she had not received any communication from Duke Ryanfort in the past two days.

She showed a hint of suspicion, but it quickly disappeared.

Chalblis and the others had never seen the hero, and Tricia had no intention of revealing Madeleine's identity. Since Madeleine came here, there must be a reason.

"Did the dispatch team say anything else?"

"Nothing."

"Those cavalry are with the dispatched regiment now?"

"Take me to them."

"Oh, well," said the Duke of Charlemagne, who hurried ahead, "the delegation is waiting in the reception room. If you wish to see them, please let me lead the way."

……

Led by Charlbris, the three of them walked into the castle.

"Speaking of which, where's Ruby?" Elsa looked up at the night sky, as if remembering something, and asked Duke Charlbris, "What was she doing while we were away? Did she get into any trouble?"

Elsa was not worried about what Duke Charlbris and Alman would do. After all, Tricia's crows were there - the crows strengthened by Tricia's magic were capable of "patrol" work here. The injured Duke Charlbris and the long-term "malnourished" Alman could not be the crows' opponents.

But the black dragon Ruby is different. Although strictly speaking Ruby is still an underage dragon, according to Tricia, Ruby seems to be born stronger than the average black dragon, and her strength is not weaker than that of the average adult dragon.

The black dragon is known for its powerful physical strength. Even though Ruby is now wearing a necklace that limits her magic power by Tricia, her potential threat should not be underestimated.

After all, Ruby came here for the dragon blood. Now that she can't find the dragon blood and is locked up here, Ruby must be in a bad mood and might even cause some trouble.