Hearing this, Furina slightly raised her head to look at the theater entrance at the top of the stairs, where three figures stood at the end of the steps.
One of them was a tall, silver-white figure. Because she had her back to the moonlight, Furina couldn't clearly see her face, but she could somewhat guess it was a woman.
"A woman who likes to wear silver-white clothes... Could it be that Executive?"
Furina turned her head to look at Yuto, who was smiling and waving at them, feeling a little surprised for a moment.
Although she was no longer afraid of Arlecchino now, still...
She still didn't understand why Yuto would invite her over, and for help?
Although the Northland Bank and Palais Mermonia were now highly intertwined in terms of interests, it shouldn't be to the extent that Arlecchino would help them again and again, right?
Furina gently shook her head, then shifted her gaze to the larger and smaller figures beside Arlecchino.
As for the other two... because she had been dealing with them for a while, Furina recognized their identities at a glance.
"It's the Traveler and Paimon? And in the theater? Could it be that..."
Furina pondered something while stroking her chin, shifting her gaze to the dilapidated stage behind her that had never been repaired, a hint of strangeness in her eyes.
"Could it be that they were invited by Yuto to investigate this matter? That would make sense, after all, Arlecchino is the leader of the House of the Hearth, and in terms of intelligence, she is naturally stronger than me and Yuto."
Thinking of this, Furina nodded in understanding, seemingly grasping something.
Meanwhile, Arlecchino and Traveler took advantage of Furina's thinking moment to approach them.
Looking at Furina, who seemed to still be deep in thought, Arlecchino smiled slightly, then said to Yuto:
"Mr. Yuto, Mr. Neuvillette told me you needed my extra help, so I came."
Hearing Arlecchino's words, Paimon quickly nodded, then said:
"Right, right, right! We also received Yuto's message from Katheryne a few days ago, which is why we rushed over at this time."
Paimon's words instantly reminded Furina. She narrowed her eyes slightly, looking suspiciously at the grinning Paimon and the smiling Traveler, and said somewhat oddly:
"I heard Mr. Claude say... weren't you always investigating who was secretly trying to harm us and the troupe? Why... a few days ago?"
Hearing this, Traveler and Paimon's expressions stiffened, and then they scratched their heads somewhat awkwardly.
"Well... actually, it's like this. We've been investigating here for a long time and couldn't find anything conclusive, so... we gave up..."
"And didn't Yuto also say at the time to do our best, and if it didn't work, he would find someone to help investigate the matter together?"
Furina raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms, and after sizing up Traveler and Paimon, she continued to ask:
"So... in these few free days, you did nothing?"
"It's not that we did nothing, but rather... we wanted to do something but couldn't."
Paimon spread her hands, a hint of anger immediately appearing on her small face, and then she said:
"After telling Yuto about the lack of progress in our investigation, this guy and I went to the Adventurers' Guild to take on some monster-clearing commissions."
"Perhaps because of The Prophecy disaster earlier, the only monsters left on the outskirts of Fontaine are those Oceanids, so we were on the road every day."
"But! Every time we arrived at the mission location, we would find one or two colored crystal blocks or colored crystal cores that had lost all value, making it impossible for us to complete the mission!"
"Hmph, I don't know which guy is so indifferent to mora. The monsters were clearly cleared by him, yet he didn't take the spoils to claim the reward."
"It's one thing not to take them, but he even took away the only distinguishing feature that could be used to identify if it was an Oceanid, truly troublesome!"
Paimon pouted angrily, causing Arlecchino, who stood beside them, to slightly curve her lips, as if she had seen something amusing.
Yuto's mouth twitched slightly, then he chuckled and said:
"Oh right, I also invited Ms. Arlecchino this time to confirm if there were any details we missed here."
"After all, neither of us comes from an intelligence background, so our sensitivity to clues is definitely not as good as Ms. Arlecchino's."
"Mr. Yuto exaggerates. Relatively speaking... I am just a bit more sensitive. If Mr. Yuto had undergone professional training, I'm sure he would do better than me."
Arlecchino said this as she lightly jumped onto the stage, walked around the hole, and then jumped down.
...
Arlecchino looked at the broken, inferior wooden board in front of her, a thoughtful look flashing in her eyes, and then she did something that shocked everyone present.
Boom—
A black and red flame erupted from Arlecchino's hand without warning, and the rampant tongues of fire instantly engulfed the broken wooden board.
"Eh? Why did she burn that wooden board?"
Furina tilted her head, seemingly not quite understanding Arlecchino's actions.
Traveler and Paimon also didn't understand why Arlecchino would suddenly set fire to this wooden board, as in their opinion... this wooden board had no investigative value.
Other than proving that the board had been replaced, there was nothing else worth discussing about it.
As the crackling sound of flames continuously rose from below, Yuto slightly frowned, then muttered to himself:
"Even the most inferior wood wouldn't make so many crackling sounds when burning, right?"
As if hearing Yuto's words, or perhaps because the inferior wooden board had already burned to ashes, Arlecchino leaped onto the stage.
She didn't speak, but simply placed a ball of ash, enveloped by Pyro energy, in front of Yuto, then softly said:
"Mr. Yuto, perhaps after you see this... you will understand why you haven't been able to discover where the problem lies until now."
Hearing this, Yuto slightly frowned, then leaned over to look at the ball of ash in front of him.
Unlike normal burnt ash, this ball of ash was not as... black as Yuto had imagined.
He didn't know if it was his illusion or something, but he always felt that the color of this ash was more purplish-black, and... there were also some white specks wriggling inside.
Yuto gently rubbed his eyes, and then realized that he hadn't been mistaken or seen things incorrectly.
Those white things were really wriggling.
He slightly frowned, and just as he was about to ask Arlecchino what it was... she spoke first:
"These are Icewood Worms, a type of insect from Snezhnaya."
"Although in a broad definition they are beneficial insects, capable of making Snezhnaya's hard permafrost layer looser by gnawing on wood."
"But if one is familiar enough with the true nature of these worms... one will realize a problem."
"These creatures can be used for assassination."
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