“……”
Wendy furrowed her delicate willow-leaf brows as she walked ahead of Enya, holding a lantern.
Having the boss lead the way was clearly not something a proper maid should do, so she had volunteered to walk in front.
But the moment she pushed open the door to the underground chamber, she immediately regretted it.
There was no other reason—it was simply because the smell in the basement was utterly foul and nauseating. Moreover, this stench wasn’t just something perceived by the nose; it was also a filthy curse of suffering and despair.
This was a cursed, blood-soaked underground cellar. Right beneath that inn existed such a terrifying place.
If it were the Dark Season and no incense or candles were lit here, demons would likely breed, turning it into a breeding ground for evil.
Wendy glanced back at Enya, but Enya didn’t seem to have any intention of giving up on entering. So, Wendy could only steel herself and step onto the downward staircase.
She also closed her mouth and stopped breathing through her nose to reduce the mental damage her overly sensitive sense of smell might inflict.
It had some effect, but it wasn’t very obvious.
When Wendy was halfway down the stairs, the choking, disgusting smell made her face turn pale. She stopped and looked back at Enya, only for Enya to glare fiercely at her.
Aren’t you a Cleric from the Forest Elves?
After sensing the meaning in Enya’s eyes, Wendy scratched her head awkwardly, a blush of embarrassment appearing on her face.
She had forgotten…
Remembering that she was actually a Forest Elf Cleric, Wendy endured the filthy aura and began chanting a Purification Spell in the ancient Faerie Language.
Enya looked at this Forest Elf Nun with her light cyan, extremely long hair. After she began chanting the prayer, a gentle, pale blue-green light emanated from her body.
The pale blue-green light gradually transformed into a faint gold after spreading a certain distance, and finally became as pure white as the sun in the sky.
This power of nature spread out from Wendy.
Its appearance caused the thick darkness within the cellar-turned-dungeon to begin melting away, like black snow under the warm sun, gradually retreating into the depths.
Enya looked down at her feet.
The steps were originally made of hard-packed earth, but now, under that holy light, a thin layer of green had actually grown, and its growth was quite vigorous.
The effect is surprisingly good.
However, Wendy wasn’t quite up to the task. Her Order of Magic was ultimately still too low.
Purifying this cellar that had been steeped in curses for so long by herself, while having some effect, was only a slight one.
Beads of sweat already dotted Wendy’s smooth forehead.
The excessive consumption caused her body to suddenly go limp.
Fortunately, Enya caught her from behind in time, preventing her from sitting down on the ground and dirtying her maid outfit.
Enya told her to rest and then took the lantern from her hand.
Deep within the cellar, in the cages, two young people accustomed to the darkness tensed up as the light from the stairwell corner grew larger and larger until it was fully exposed to their view.
They both held their breath.
The emaciated boy glanced at the girl.
Compared to her, there was a bit more courage in his eyes, but no less despair.
Who is it?
This was the only question on their minds at this moment.
In fact, they also had an anticipated answer—the person who had told them to wait here but had never come to find them.
If it’s her, then they would be saved.
The lantern’s flame made it impossible for their dark-adapted eyes to immediately see who the newcomer was.
Both their hearts began to race, and as the lantern gradually approached, their heartbeats reached a crescendo.
They could hear their own frantic heartbeats and the prayers in their hearts.
Clink!
The chain on the prison cage abruptly snapped, followed by the severely rusted black iron bars being sliced apart in a clean, uniform cut.
It’s her!
In that instant, the two people in the cage finally saw the newcomer clearly.
Enya only said lightly,
“Let’s go.”
“……”
The boy and girl looked at each other, quickly stood up from the ground, and by then, Enya was already walking outside.
She didn’t like this dirty, smelly, gloomy place either.
Watching the lamplight gradually recede, the boy and girl, ignoring the various pains in their bodies, stepped out of the cage and followed behind Enya.
The cellar was located in a side room of the warehouse, originally covered with several bags of rice. Now it was open.
A figure emerged from inside—light cyan mixed with black and white. The first one to run out was Wendy, who couldn’t wait any longer.
Enya walked elegantly up the stairs without stopping, casually tossing the lantern aside. She reached the doorway just as the boy and girl emerged.
Wendy looked at them and immediately widened her eyes because she had seen these two faces before, but now their Soul Scent was different.
This made a strange feeling rise in her heart.
What’s going on?
Before Wendy could ask, Enya, standing at the doorway, slightly tilted her head and cast a sidelong glance at the mutually astonished pair and the elf.
“Wendy, give them those two masks I had you hold earlier.”
“Huh? Yes, Mistress!”
Wendy pulled two face skins, crumpled into balls, from her skirt pocket.
She first smoothed out the wrinkled human-face masks, matched them to the correct genders, and then handed them to the boy and girl respectively.
After receiving the face skins, they didn’t quite understand.
Seeing their confusion, Wendy stepped forward and directly peeled off their current faces, revealing their original appearances—which looked exactly like the face skins they each held.
Having their face skins removed, the self-conflict in their minds instantly disappeared. Lucia knew she was actually Lucia, and the extra memories in her mind began to fade.
The originally emaciated girl’s body suddenly became plump and fair, and her hair, which had been like weeds, returned to its former smoothness and straightness.
“Ah?”
She let out a startled cry.
Lucia naturally put on her own mask from her hand. The sense of incompleteness in her soul was finally made whole at this moment.
The same happened to Parit beside her, except they also gained some additional memories—memories of what the other two individuals had done over the past few days using their faces and identities.
Not much joy showed in Lucia’s eyes; instead, there was more complex emotion.
Others might hate the person who stole their identity, but Lucia, having experienced that girl’s life, could understand that pain and longing.
Of course, she wasn’t about to forgive or, like a Saint, treat the wrongdoer with tolerant love. Lucia was simply sad.
A glistening bead hung at the corner of the black-haired girl’s eye.
With a slight tremble of her eyelashes, it slid down her exquisitely delicate cheek, lingered on her chin for a moment, and then fell into the dust on the ground.
“Lucia?”
Parit wanted to comfort the girl who had survived the ordeal, but he wasn’t a particularly sensitive person and didn’t know how to console her at a time like this.
Lucia shook her head, saying she was fine.
Wendy only saw Lucia crying, Parit saying something, and then Lucia replying, as if she was comforting him?
She could understand that much.
She turned and ran behind Enya, following her boss out the door.
Then she was ordered to bring the carriage out; they were preparing to leave.
After recovering from the strong emotional fluctuations, Lucia and Parit also arrived outside the empty inn.
It was empty outside too…
They might have just thought there was no one, but Wendy’s small mouth formed a perfect circle.
“Mistress, the people are gone?”
They had gone into the cellar to find people, and in just this short while, all those people outside were gone.
The street was empty of everything!
If it weren’t for the traces of the earlier battle still present, with bloodstains everywhere, Wendy would have thought it was all an illusion.
Enya’s gaze swept around. She turned and glanced at Parit and Lucia, then spoke to Wendy, who had moved closer to her.
“I told you to get the car. Didn’t you hear me? Want me to dock your pay?”
“Ugh……”
Wendy had naturally heard, but with such a big situation right before her eyes, wasn’t it inappropriate for her to go get the car? But then again, thinking about it, she probably wasn’t really needed.
Being a quiet vase was pretty good too.
Having figured it out, Wendy straightened up, gave a salute, and then quickly ran toward the direction of the stable.
Parit and Lucia, standing a bit further back, had nothing to do.
They were also waiting for Enya to give some instruction, but it never came until Enya disappeared before their eyes.
Yes, Enya vanished in the blink of an eye right in front of them.
Lucia was startled, thinking Enya had abandoned them just like that.
But by then, Wendy had already brought the carriage over.
Wendy saw that Enya was gone but was already quite accustomed to it. She parked the carriage in place and sat on it, waiting slowly.
Seeing that Wendy, the maid who appeared to be an elf, showed no signs of abnormality, Parit and Lucia felt slightly more at ease—but only slightly.
Aorco Street—this was the place the people of this town dreamed of most.
The houses on this street were the most luxurious and spacious in the entire town, a place the lowest class wouldn’t dare to dream of.
Number fifteen, on the third floor of this five-story mansion, in a study facing the street, a gaunt man in a gray vest and white shirt was hunched over a desk.
In his right hand was a black fountain pen, his left hand pressed against white paper, writing something rapidly.
The study was in utter chaos, littered with manuscript papers covered in writing, half-written papers, and papers crumpled into balls.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!”
“What’s the rush? Rushing me to my death?”
“Bastard, bitch, trash…”
The gaunt man cursed someone while writing.
The veins on the back of his hand and neck bulged, his face was as pale as a corpse’s, and his eyes were filled with crimson blood vessels.
Despite this, the man kept writing.
But just as he was about to finish the page he was on, an Accident suddenly occurred.
The fountain pen ran out of ink, and his hand, out of control, directly tore through the paper.
His eyes widened, and his breathing became rapid.
Just as the man was about to go mad, the study door was kicked open!