Morning had arrived
Several guards stood watch along the road leading to the Dark Elf Village
One of them stretched and yawned
"Why are we even guarding this place? Nobody ever comes here"
His partner sighed
"And the King's birthday festival is only two days away"
"We should've been preparing for the celebration instead of standing here all day"
"...Speaking of which"
He lowered his voice
"Why are they still holding the festival?"
"The King's still missing"
"The other guard shrugged
"I don't know"
"The Cardinals have been acting strangely lately"
Hidden behind the trees, Auel's group quietly watched them
They carefully stepped around fallen branches, making sure not to make a sound
"So you weren't kidding..." Rikka whispered
"There really are a lot of guards"
"See, told you" Sylffie replied
Helen looked toward the village beyond the checkpoint
"But why guard this place so heavily?"
"You told us before going here that the Dark Elf civilization is not as advance as the Elf Country, right?"
"You're not wrong, but the Cardinals still believe the Dark Elves are behind the King's disappearance"
Then he glanced at Sylffie
"By the way, why are you still following us anyway"
"Don't you have anything else to do, like going on patrol or something?"
Sylffie raised an eyebrow
"Hey, I'm doing my work here"
"I'm here so there nothing bad happened to our guests"
"You said the same thing yesterday"
"Why are you bothered anyways, the guests are not bothered by me, am I right?"
Helen smiled
"She not wrong Veyn, I think it's good to have a male and female tour guide"
Veyn just let a sigh
"By the way stop talking and watch your steps"
They continued their way to the Dark Elf Village while careful with their steps
After slipping past the guards, they finally reached the Dark Elf Village
There were no guards in front of the village
But the difference was immediate
Unlike the lush green forests surrounding the Elf Country... there wasn't a trace of green here
Dead trees stretched across the land
The soil had dried until it cracked beneath every step
The entire village looked washed in dull shades of yellow and gray
When the villagers noticed strangers entering... they quietly retreated into their homes
Most of the houses looked ready to collapse
Rotting wood barely held the walls together
Helen looked around in silence
"...I knew you said it'd be different, but..."
"I didn't expect it to be like this"
Veyn nodded
"The aura of Dark Elves slowly causes plants to wither"
"Over generations... the village became what you see today"
Rikka looked toward the houses
"But why's everyone hiding?"
"They're afraid," Sylffie answered quietly
"They've spent years being mistreated by Elf guards"
"Eventually..."
"They stopped trusting anyone wearing unfamiliar clothes"
"That's sound really bad" Ashsley frowned
Sylffie nodded
"The King was one of the few people who treated them fairly"
"He kept trying to improve their lives"
She looked around the silent village
"That's why I refuse to believe they're behind this"
"It just doesn't make sense"
They kept on walking deeper the village and then one of the Dark Elf came out and meet them
Short white hair
Pale purple skin
"Ahh, Tobari" Veyn greeted him
The Dark Elf looked at the group before stopping on the humans
His expression immediately stiffened
"Veyn what are you doing here?"
"There are people who want to help investigate the King's disappearance"
"They wanted to ask about the Dark Elves"
"Right now? You know it almost…"
He glanced toward the humans
"...You know the festival is only two days away"
"The guards have been increasing their patrol."
"I know about that, but I cannot say no to my guest here to go to this village"
Veyn just smiled at him
Tobari remained silent
For a moment... he looked like he wanted to say something
Instead... he simply sighed
"Fine, follow me, it's possible that the guards came inside the village and found you"
Then they went into his house
A small house, or couldn't really call it a house too
"You already heard my name from what Veyn said right, then I'm really sorry I cannot serve you anything"
"It's fine, you don't need to serve us anything" Gramm said
"So, what are you going to ask anyway" he said while crossing his arm
Everyone instinctively looked toward Auel
Auel talk first
"I want to ask about the poison"
"The one used on the librarian"
Tobari's eyes narrowed
"So, you're accusing us?"
"No, it's nothing like that" Auel answered "Veyn told me that the poison used can only be found inside the Dark Elf village"
"But then I was thinking why? How come this poison can only be found in this village"
Without saying another word... Tobari walked to the corner of the room
He crouched down before returning with a strange little mushroom
He placed it on the table
"That is one kind of mushroom used for that poison"
"One kind? What do you mean?" Gramm asked
Tobari nodded
"It doesn't naturally grow in the forest"
"It grows because of our aura"
Everyone froze
"What!?"
"The environment around us rot, and after a while they slowly grew these kind mushrooms"
Veyn pointed at it
"And the kind of mushroom used to poison the librarian is the Purple's Tongue" Veyn added
"It still small and probably still not poisonous"
"It needs a long time for them to grow until they are poisonous"
Ashley tilted her head
"Purple's Tongue?"
"This poison is slowly attacks the muscle, and the first part is their tongue, that's why it's called Purple's Tongue" Veyn explained
Tobari continued
"Our aura creates many kinds of poisonous mushrooms"
"Some can kill"
"Some only paralyze"
"There are dozens of them"
Gramm carefully inspect it
"But I didn't saw it during our way here"
Tobari took the mushroom with his hand
"That's because we always destroy it before it could grow poisonous"
Then he smashed the mushroom on his hand
"We didn't want the animals in the forest harmed because of us"
Auel quietly stared at the crumbled mushroom on the ground
A poison that attacks the tongue first?
The Elves already have the cure for the poison
Are they specifically use this mushroom because they don't really care about the librarian's life and just wanted to shut her up?
But why don't they poison the king instead?
"Veyn did you know if the King resistant to this kind of poison?" Auel asked
Veyn scratched his cheek
"Hmm… I've never known about that"
"But maybe the crown blessing might improve his resistance against poison"
"The King never get poisoned to, so… yeah, I don't know"
Gramm crossed his arms
"What about the ingredients?"
"Are they inspected before cooking?"
"Yes, the chef always picked the best ingredients"
"Then how come the librarian food got poisoned?" Rikka asked
"Maybe the culprit poisoned the food in the last second" Helen said
"Well, nobody knows" Veyn added
After several moments of silence... Auel looked back at Tobari
"Did the King visit this village often?"
Tobari fell silent, then he answered carefully
"Yes, he came here whenever he could"
"Does, anyone else come here often?"
"Well, it's either the Cardinals or the guards"
"No, I mean citizens, are there any citizens came here often?"
Tobari fell silent again
"No, no one came"
"Why are you asking anyway?" Rikka asked
"Have you realized something?" Gramm followed with a grin
"I don't know, but I have an assumption"
"What is it?" Veyn said
Before Auel could answer
Voices echoed from outside
"Search every house!"
Everyone froze
Erin's face turned pale "...Guards?"
Tobari quietly walked toward the window
He peeked outside
"...They've entered the village"
Rikka immediately stood
"Then let's fight them"
"No" Tobari stopped him without hesitation
"There doesn't need to be a fight"
He pointed toward the back door
"Just get to that door and get out from this village, I can handle it"
"Wait are you sure?"
"Just go"
His tone left no room for argument
The group exchanged glances before quietly slipping out through the back
Once they were safely outside the village... Helen looked back
"Hey are you sure they are going to be fine?"
"I don't know" Veyn answered "I'll go back and help them; you guys just go back and wait for me"
"Alone?"
"It's fine"
Before anyone could stop him... Veyn ran back toward the village
The others returned to the inn
They got back safely to the inn without being noticed by the guards
Gramm looked at Auel
"So, what was that idea you almost mentioned?"
Auel thought for a while
"No, never mind"
"I just thought about something, and when I think about it again it's just really weird"
"But we didn't get a lot of information from there" Gill said
"Yeah, you're right" Gramm said "There is still a lot of things that we didn't get"
"Like, if the mushroom can only grow from the Dark Elf aura, that's mean the culprit must be near the Dark Elf, right? Because he said that it needs a while for the Aura to grow that mushroom"
"Yeah, you're right" Helen answered
Ashley stretched
"Well..."
"We've been thinking about this all day"
"Let's give our brains a break before we drive ourselves crazy and help prepare the festival"