Mystery: The Witch of Desire

Livre hesitated for a moment, then decided that this possibility was unlikely. If it really was Tracy's doing, her goal would definitely be to find Elaine; how could she possibly allow slave traders to capture her?

Just in case, Livre took out a mirror and performed a divination. Perhaps it was this familiar action that reminded Elaine of Tracy, for she suddenly became nervous and looked at Livre with some suspicion:

"You, you're a witch too?"

Livre ignored her and focused on the divination results, which showed that Elaine's ordeal was indeed an accident.

It seems you're just really unlucky...

Livre sighed, looked at Elaine's teary eyes, and calmly asked:

"What are your plans next?"

Elaine remained silent for a long while, then slowly said:

“I still want to go to the Southern Continent, to the Empire’s colony in West Bairan. There’s gold and opportunity everywhere. If I can make a fortune there, I can pay off the debts my father left behind and return to Intis. If not, I’ll have to stay in the Southern Continent for the rest of my life…”

Liviel raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. In any case, it was rather coincidental that Elaine was also planning to go to the Southern Continent.

Could it be that Ince Zangwell and his 0-08 have come to sea?

She was cautious and pretended to say:

"After we reach the next island, I will let you disembark, and you can find a suitable ship there to travel to the southern continent."

Elaine's eyes lit up, and she nodded repeatedly:

"Thank you, I will always remember your kindness..."

Then, she looked at Livre's beautiful face and asked hesitantly:

"You have the ability to change your appearance?"

"That's it."

Livre did not deny it.

Elaine confirmed this, and her expression became even more serious.

After a long pause, she cautiously asked again:

"So, all those strange questions you asked me last time were actually to find out the details of my appearance so you could impersonate me?"

Livre didn't speak this time, but looked at Elaine with a playful smile in her eyes.

Elaine swallowed hard, a hint of unease flashing across her brow:

"Why, why did you impersonate me?"

"I think you should know the answer to this question."

Livre didn't say much, but waited for Elaine to continue.

"You did this to get close to Tracy..." Elaine's voice was low, and the unease on her brow became more pronounced. "How is she now?"

Livre observed Elaine's subtle changes in expression with great interest, and said meaningfully:

"You seem to care about her a lot?"

"No, no!" Elaine quickly denied. "I just wanted to check on her current condition to prevent her from hunting me down again."

Livre smiled slightly, slowly picked up the knife from Elaine's hand, and said in a teasing tone:

“You don’t need to worry anymore, because she’s dead.” As she spoke, Livre made a throat-slitting gesture with a knife in Elaine’s astonished gaze. “You guessed right, I disguised myself as you and took her life when she was completely unprepared.”

Livre noticed that as she spoke, Elaine's astonished expression began to change, becoming tinged with a hint of pain.

She was slightly surprised, not expecting that Elaine still harbored some ulterior motives towards Tracy, who had imprisoned her.

Her smile widened, and she simply sat down next to Elaine, toying with the knife in her hand, and said slowly and deliberately:

"Back then, she and I were sitting on the bed like this, and I stabbed her hard with the knife..."

As she spoke, she stopped to observe Elaine's expression, only to see that the pain on her face had intensified, and she simply closed her eyes.

"What a pity, Tracy believed you killed her until her death, and she didn't even put up any decent resistance. A dignified pirate general, just like that, died."

Livre shook her head with feigned regret. Then, to her surprise, she discovered that her potion was showing signs of being digested.

It seems Elaine has quite deep feelings for Tracy... What kind of strange, torturous love is this? I've fallen in love with the pirate captain who kidnapped me?

Liviel glanced at Elaine, who was breathing slightly with her eyes closed, and teased her:

"Aren't you very grateful to me? For helping you get rid of the enemies who kidnapped and humiliated you?"

Elaine opened her light blue eyes, calmed herself slightly, and slowly said:

"Although she did something unforgivable to me, I don't hate her enough to want to kill her..."

Livre smiled with a hint of sarcasm:

"You really are a kind-hearted lady..."

Elaine blushed slightly, lowered her head, and said nothing more.

Having confirmed that Elaine was alright, Livre decided not to continue the conversation. She stretched lazily, then transformed into Pratt's likeness and pointed to the door:

"I'll have the pirates prepare a clean room for you. However, there might not be any women's clothes on the ship. If you don't mind, I can lend you my clothes."

Elaine thanked her repeatedly and got up to follow Livre, who was disguised as Pratt, out of the captain's cabin.

He had only taken a few steps when the drunken First Mate, Gisele, approached him and said with a mocking expression:

"Captain, how come this woman can still walk? Your skills have declined quite a bit."

Livre simply smiled coldly and said nothing more, but in her heart she had already scouted out her hungry prey for tomorrow.

Seeing that the 'captain' didn't say anything, Gisele pressed closer, even more aggressively.

"Captain, let her go to my place. According to the rules of the ship, it's time for me and my brothers to have some fun."

Livre, disguised as Pratt, shouted sharply:

"If you dare lay a finger on her, I promise I'll throw you into the sea to feed the fish!"

As she spoke, Livre's left hand shifted, switching from writhing hunger to the interrogator, activating the arbitrator's authority. Gison was taken aback, shrank back in fear, and slunk away.

After settling Elaine in an empty sailor's cabin, Livre took out a mirror and placed it on the table:

"You can use it as a dressing mirror. If you encounter any danger, just shout for me. Don't leave the room. Someone will bring you food and water every day."

"Thank you, thank you..."

Elaine let out a long sigh of relief, her furrowed brows relaxing like a fawn that had just escaped from the jaws of a wild beast.

Livre asked, somewhat amused:

"What, are you afraid I'll take your body like Tracy did?"

Elaine's cheeks flushed slightly, and she murmured in a very soft voice:

“Tracy is a woman, so what we did doesn’t count…”

Looking at her shy expression, Livre's mischievous side was awakened, and she narrowed her eyes and teased:

"Well, I'm a woman too. If I did something to you, does that mean it doesn't count?"

Elaine was startled, then clutched her chest in fear, her previously relaxed brows furrowing again.

"What...what do you want to do to me?!"

"It's nothing, just be careful."

Livr simply smiled jokingly and left Elaine's residence.

She went to the navigation room, changed the ship's course to the south, and anchored the coordinates to Short-tailed Island on the edge of the raging sea, where an altar for worshipping the Mother Tree of Desire still stands.

After doing all this, Livre returned to the captain's cabin and examined 'The Collector' Pratt's collection with great interest.

It must be said that this appraiser's collection is indeed quite extensive, including firearms and ammunition, nautical equipment, pornographic books, biological specimens, various basic extraordinary materials... and even a magical item with serious negative effects.

From Liviel's current perspective, these things were basically useless. However, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the appraiser's collection included several materials that could be used to make potions, such as the Shadow Worm needed for the Mystic Sequence 7 'Hermit' potion and the core of the Magma Sprite needed for the Arsonist potion.

Thus, combined with the materials that Livre had originally collected, the only material Xiaobai needed to advance to potion-making was 'an item that had desecrated a certain church'.

Why would a Mystic need such a strange thing for advancement? No wonder Klein called the True Creator the Fallen Creator; he certainly is quite depraved…

While grumbling to herself, Livre planned to find a church to properly blaspheme the next time she came ashore.

After tidying up Pratt's collection, Livre was about to go to bed to relax when she suddenly sensed a strange spiritual fluctuation.

She pricked up her ears warily, and soon heard the creaking sound of a door being broken down, followed by Elaine's terrified scream.

"It seems you need to eat earlier."

Livre glanced expressionlessly at the 'wriggling hunger' on her left hand, then concealed herself and left the captain's cabin.

Elaine's room door was wide open, and two pirates were standing at the door watching the commotion. Inside, First Mate Gissen was leering at Elaine, who had just changed her clothes.

Elaine huddled in the corner, clutching the kitchen knife, still shouting for help.

"Even if you scream your lungs out, no one will come to save you. Do you know how far it is from here to the captain's cabin?"

Gissen grinned from ear to ear; he wasn't actually afraid that the 'captain' would find out about this.

In front of the crew, Captain Pratt repeatedly disrespected the first mate, and if he didn't do something, the prestige he had built up would be completely wiped out.

He believed that the shrewd Pratt wouldn't clash with him over a woman, and if it came to a fight, he wouldn't be afraid of Pratt.

However, to his surprise, the next second, 'Platte' appeared out of nowhere and blocked his way.

Gissen was startled, but his experience quickly gave him a smirk:

"Captain, you've eaten your fill, but the brothers are still starving..."

Whoosh!

A cold glint flashed, and Gisen suddenly felt as if he were hallucinating; his captain's fierce face seemed to have transformed into that of a charming woman.

However, he no longer had the strength to care about such things. He felt a wave of weakness wash over him and staggered to the ground.

The two pirates on guard at the door rushed into the house and saw that the first mate, Gisson, had been decapitated, and his headless body was kneeling in front of 'Plat'.

Before the two could recover from their shock, two more flashes of cold light appeared, and their heads fell to the ground together, rolling around on the floor and piling up with Gissen's head.

Livre didn't sit idly by; she immediately woke up several trusted confidants and launched a major purge of the first mate's faction on the ship.

After isolating and investigating all crew members who had close ties with the first mate, Livre kept those who could be reformed and assigned other crew members to supervise them.

Those die-hard loyalists were all locked in solitary confinement cells in the lower decks, left to feed the writhing hunger.

And so, under Liviel's overwhelming power, the entire Treasure Ship united in purpose and resolutely continued its journey toward the Southern Continent.

Elaine was deeply grateful to Livre for saving her life once again. She found herself seemingly dependent on this beautiful and powerful witch, who was just like Tracy. On the vast ocean, surrounded by wolves and in perilous circumstances, one's heart becomes vulnerable, yearning for someone to rely on.

Livre didn't pay much attention to the changes Elaine had shown. She only wanted to send Elaine away after reaching the next island, and what Elaine's fate would be afterward was not within her consideration.

……

They sailed on the vast ocean for several days.

During this time, Livre received a letter from Edwina's messenger, which recorded her observations after the Golden Dream sailed into the waters east of the Gargas Islands.

They witnessed the eerie aurora borealis, heard the mysterious song of mermaids, and entered those dreamlike, enormous ruins...

Edwina also salvaged some wine glasses and pottery from the seabed that were far larger than what a normal person could use, which convinced her that the Golden Dream was getting closer and closer to the ruins of the Giants' Court.

In this letter, Edwina also thoughtfully used ritual magic to replicate the shapes of several mirrors, which were located in Nassau, the capital of the Gargas Islands, and various islands along the way.

Her intention was clear: to mark the mirrors along the way for Liviel, so that Liviel could use her mirror-traveling ability to get there whenever she wanted.

However, Edwina didn't admit it, only saying that she wanted to test her newly mastered ritual magic.

Madam, can't you just openly admit that you miss me?

Liviel put away the letter in a good mood. Even if she didn't plan to go to Edwina, it would be good to open a few more 'teleportation points'.

Over the course of the past few days, the Treasure sailed south, leaving the waters of the Rothschild Islands and arriving at Denapu Island.

This is an island on the route to the southern continent, where many ships stop to resupply.

The Treasure was no exception. Livre directed the helmsman to dock at a private port south of Denape Island, preparing for a final resupply before reaching the southern continent.

In addition, she plans to go to the island to do two things: send Elaine away; and get an item that has been 'desecrated' the church, to use in making potions for Little White.

Denape Island is small, with only one church belonging to the Church of Storms, making it perfect for Livia to commit blasphemy.

Liviel considered carefully what items and methods to use for the desecration. She couldn't use inorganic materials like metals, as these were inconvenient to mix into potions.