Something felt slightly off.
Why had she suddenly returned to the entrance of the village? Moreover, this village entrance seemed a bit different from the one in her memory.
The silver-haired girl scratched her head and took a deep breath. Speaking of which, had she forgotten something?
‘What did I forget?’
‘Forget… forget…’
Ah—
Her head started to throb for no apparent reason, and her thoughts felt sluggish. After a long while, the silver-haired girl suddenly seemed to remember something and slapped her forehead!
“Right, right! I think I really did forget the most important person.”
“Lynn… Lynn, ugh…”
‘Where did my enemy go?!’
Keti looked around in a panic. No, this wasn’t right. It was very wrong. She couldn’t see him anywhere. If she had been teleported back to the village entrance, then Lynn hadn’t been teleported back with her.
*Crack…*
‘Could it… could it be…’
In an instant, Keti thought of the possibility she was most reluctant to admit. ‘Ugh… No, it couldn’t be that I failed to get the Temple’s approval, but Lynn did?’
‘Gulp…’
‘That fellow… After passing the trial of willpower, he’ll suddenly realize I’ve vanished into thin air. He’ll search for me in a panic, and finally… after leaving the Temple, he’ll find me and laugh at me?!’
‘Ugh, I absolutely, positively cannot allow that to happen!’
‘That’s right. I have to get back quickly. Argh, first I’ll find that fellow Celthina and demand to know why I was sent out. Then I’ll hurry back before my enemy finishes his trial and pretend that I completed it early.’
‘That should work, right? Yeah.’
“Hehehe, you’re so useless, taking this long. *Tsk, tsk, tsk.* Mr. Lynn, your speed is truly that of a small fry. Such a total loser~”
“Goo-hehehe…”
Imagining her clever scheme succeeding, Keti let out a cute laugh right then and there. Unfortunately for her, she failed to notice that someone was standing behind her.
“Hmm? What kind of strange practice is my little cat doing? Are you trying to be a bratty girl? That might come in handy for the second trial, but it seems useless this time.”
“Ha?!”
Hearing the familiar voice, the silver-haired girl’s eyes widened instantly. She turned around to see Lynn standing behind her with a mischievous smirk.
*Hiss—*
‘How does this person manage a surprise attack every single time? Does he know some kind of invisibility magic?’
‘Ugh… if that’s the case, wouldn’t things be really bad when I take a bath in the future?’
‘Wait, wait, wait, what kind of nonsense am I thinking? The point is…’
“Why are you here too?”
“Eh? What kind of question is that? Didn’t we trigger the first trial together? Of course we’d be together!”
Lynn blinked. Keti, on the other hand, was even more confused.
“No, no, but… wasn’t I teleported back to the village entrance? Your mental power is clearly so much stronger than mine. Well… at least your pressure resistance is definitely stronger. Why would you be…”
The silver-haired girl scratched her head awkwardly as she explained. After listening, Lynn couldn’t help but chuckle before ruffling the girl’s hair.
“So that’s what you thought. Hmm… it seems my little cat has a fairly clear understanding of her own mental power. However, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we were teleported back to the village entrance. We have actually entered the first trial.”
“Eh? What… what do you mean?”
Keti blinked in total confusion. She looked at the plaque not far away and then at the little elf girl in front of them before scratching her head again.
“But isn’t this the village entrance? Look, I saw this little one just now. Hey, little girl, you remember me, right?”
“I’m so sorry, I wanted to give you some candy earlier, but you ran away. Then I was taken away by your Lord Azu, so we didn’t get to keep chatting.”
Clearly, Keti still cared quite a bit about the little elf girl she had met when they first entered the village. As she spoke, she pulled a piece of candy from her pocket and placed it in the girl’s palm. She then said with a smile:
“Go ahead, eat up~ Oh, by the way, where is your Lord Azu right now? Is she back? If not, she might still be over at the Temple…”
“Ooh! Candy… it’s candy!” The moment the little elf girl saw the candy in the young lady’s hand, a kind light instantly erupted in her eyes!
She snatched the candy away and shoved the lollipop into her mouth… Well, for some reason, describing the scene this way felt a little exciting. *Cough, cough.*
“Thank you! You’re such a good person. Mm… if I eat your candy, I have to help you. That’s what my mommy and daddy taught me!”
The little elf girl spoke happily with the candy still in her mouth. Uh… though Keti wanted to complain about that statement.
Generally speaking, shouldn’t parents teach their children not to eat candy from strangers? How did it turn into something so strange?
However, this did make things easier. The little elf girl was clearly willing to tell Keti something. She seemed to think for a moment and then shook her head with a look of distress.
“But this is the first time I’ve ever seen you. I really don’t understand what you’re saying. And… speaking of which, who is… Lord Azu? I’ve never heard that name before.”
“Are you… oh, you’re a human, right? So is this… ah, is it a foreign language I don’t understand? *Whine…* It looks like I still have to study hard to catch up to my sister.”
“No, no, didn’t you just tell me about Lord Azu? What kind of foreign language is that? Isn’t our language the same? Didn’t you tell me that name yourself? *Gasp…*”
Keti was a little speechless. Why was it so difficult to find someone? She wasn’t familiar with the roads here, so it would be a real problem if she couldn’t find Celthina.
Besides, this girl claimed it was her first time seeing Keti. How was that possible? Were all members of the elf Tribe this forgetful?
They had clearly just met. Could it be… that the secret behind this race’s longevity was actually a bad memory?
Because they couldn’t remember how long they had lived, they just thought they were long-lived?
*Cough, cough…* ‘No, that’s too philosophical.’ But if that were the case, it would explain why the elf Tribe’s physical appearance changed slowly, yet their mental maturity progressed just as slowly.
While the silver-haired girl was deep in her brainstorm, Lynn suddenly spoke up to remind her.
“Uh… little cat, I know you’re thinking about a lot of things, but stop for a second. I get the feeling that this isn’t our timeline…”
“Hmm?”
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