Suspicious

"My Lady, I am sure you must have tasted a variety of tea leaves, but I assure you, you will find this one— carefully brewed using the leaves created through grafting— far more flavourful than any tea you've ever tasted!"

Elder Greenwood boasted as he poured a steaming hot, chartreuse liquid from the teapot and into the ceramic cups.

"Here, My Lady," he gestured for Celestia to take a sip and did the same for his other guests.

"Hmm, I must say, this is definitely unique from the teas I have had before."

Celestia sipped and found the tanginess of the tea to be a bit too overbearing. As people would say, it wasn't her cup of tea.

But for the sake of humouring Elder Greenwood, Celestia forced herself to drink, though rather slowly.

"Haha, I am glad you liked it, My Lady. I am going to add this to the menu after next week."

Celestia rolled her eyes. He owned a chain of tea shops called The Evergreen Tea Shops, which was established in almost all of the villages in the eastern region of the Continent. There were so many different options already that it would take weeks to try out all the different flavours of teas, yet this man was eager to introduce even more.

She wouldn't be surprised if one day the customers complained because there were too many options to choose from.

You could probably drink half a gallon of tea before you finish reading the entire menu.

"Elder Greenwood, if you keep adding more to the menu you're going to scare off customers," joked Elder Clearmoon from beside Celestia.

At least, someone shared her feelings.

"Hmph. What do you mean by that, Jelena? There is never enough tea to drink! No one would complain if there is more to choose from."

"Alright, you are the businessman here. I won't argue with you about how to run your business. Thanks for the tea though. It's good."

Elder Clearmoon was clearly an energy-saving individual as she cut off the roots for any further arguments. Instead, she focused on enjoying the tea that she seemed to really like— judging by the way her eyes lit up with every sip she gulped.

"Elder Greenwood, as much as I like to enjoy this tea, the dismal news I received from Elder Ronan has dampened my mood. I am afraid I won't be able to appreciate this tea aptly under the circumstances."

"What worries you so much, First Lady?" Elder Silvershade, who was quietly observing everything until now, finally spoke up.

"I had a meeting with Elder Ronan where he revealed a rather disturbing piece of information. While strolling in the forest near Cloud Village, he chanced upon the grotesque remains of what he believes is a fully grown Puppet Maker."

Celestia activated her ability and her eyes shone for a split second which went unnoticed by the elders as they were too shocked by the news and were busy processing it.

"T-that's impossible!" Elder Greenwood was the first to shriek in horror followed by an audible gasp let out by Elder Clearmoon.

Elder Silvershade, for his part, remained calm, though his eyes appeared to be quite shaken.

Celestia observed them each carefully, to see if there was something other than shock and fear in their expression. None of them were faking any emotions– that Celestia could deduce from their behaviour.

Her ability wasn't omnipotent. If the target was in full control of his emotions and was good at controlling his thoughts, it would be difficult to gather any useful information from them. The more distressed or excited they were the easier it was for her to use her seer abilities.

"No, Elder Greenwood. It has already happened," Celestia said solemnly. "Elder Ronan is currently investigating the matter."

"First Lady, do you want me to mobilise the troops?" Elder Silvershade asked. "I can spare a few hundred archers and scouts specifically for this purpose. We can search the whole forest within a few weeks if you want."

"Think about it, Elder Silvershade. Whoever the culprit is, he is clearly good at hiding himself. Not only did he create a Puppet Maker, he even managed to mature it before anyone could notice.

"Elder Ronan suspects that there is more than one Puppet Maker in our domain. I suggest that our troops focus on finding and exterminating them. They are pretty hard to identify in dense vegetation such as ours, don't you think so, Elder Greenwood?"

"Uhm, if you say so, My Lady. Personally, I have never seen one before, I can only trust your judgement on this matter," chuckled Elder Greenwood nervously.

Celestia narrowed her eyes. Elder Greenwood was not at all happy about the area-wide search operation.

He was definitely hiding something and was afraid of being found out. Celestia decided to put some pressure in hopes of making him flustered.

"Elder Ronan thinks that this is an inside job. He has made it clear that one of our own is at least partly involved in this criminal activity."

"What? That's absurd!" Elder Clearmoon, surprisingly, voiced her protest. "We have served the Tribe with all our hearts. Why would we ever do something that harms our people?"

"I am of the same opinion, Elder. But you know Elder Ronan, he won't rest until he finds the culprit," said Celestia while keeping her eyes on Elder Greenwood.

There was a nagging feeling in her mind that Elder Greenwood was hiding something and Celestia wanted to dig deeper.

"Elder Greenwood, would you care to join Elder Ronan in his quest? It would ease his stress if he had an extra pair of hands."

"My Lady, I…uh…I…ahem! I would want nothing more than to help Elder Ronan in this troubling matter, but I am afraid the latest project I am working on takes much of my time," Elder Greenwood was quick to make excuses. "You will have to forgive me this time, My Lady."

"No worries, Elder Greenwood."

That's it, Elder Greenwood was up to something!

"Hmm?" Elder Silvedshade frowned, gathering everyone's attention.

"First Lady, can you sense what's happening outside this house?"

Elder Silvershade was always vigilant and kept an eye on his surroundings no matter where he was. Even inside the safety of his house, he wouldn't relax his guard.

He would expand his senses now and then to make sure there wasn't anyone spying or preparing an ambush.

He was an advocate of Constant Vigilance.

"Let me see…" Celestia tried to sense the world around her, but she could only extend it up to the boundaries of this house.

Beyond that, there was nothing but dense fog that obstructed her senses. She tried to feel her connection with the World Tree but to no avail.

"You're right, Elder! There is a fog covering us from all sides."

Elder Silvershade solemnly nodded at her words and stood up.

"First Lady, allow me to take a look. My fellow elders, protect the First Lady if anything goes wrong!"

Though the chance of someone attacking them on their home turf was slim, Elder Silvershade didn't fancy taking any risks— not when the First Lady's safety was in question.

***

"Wow, this guy must be loaded!" Raymond scrunched his nose in disgust and carefully slid off the spatial ring from Elder Barhawk's finger.

Barhawk's brain matter was splattered across the grassy floor along with shrapnels of bones, making Raymond retch at the gruesome scenery.

He should really look into methods of killing people without making a mess, Raymond decided.

Next, he picked up all the metallic discs, now lying on the ground motionless, and examined them curiously.

Each disc was made of different, rare metals and was worth a fortune on its own, but nothing could beat the disc made of Darkmoon metal when it came to market value.

People had even bought the status of nobility back in the days by gifting artefacts made of Darkmoon metal to the Royal family.

Probably, the only thing that couldn't be exchanged with the precious metal was Royalty, Raymond mused.

After stashing everything into his pendant, Raymond stretched his legs and slowly stood up.

"Huh? When did so many of you get here?" Raymond asked quizzically. He was surrounded by the horde of elven soldiers with no way out.

They were bristling in anger and brandishing their weapons in his direction.

Raymond was engrossed in looting the corpse and had ignored the commotion around him for a moment and that was enough for these people to turn into an angry mob and encircle him.

These elves were quick on their feet.

"You killed Elder Barhawk! Don't expect to walk freely after today!" threatened one of the elves.

"Why? Are you going to pay me for walking?" Raymond retorted.

"Hmph. Truly an arrogant human," the elf sneered. "Elder Snowfang, we will cut off his escape path for you. Please make sure that he dies a painful death!"

"Ugh, I don't think that's a good idea."

Elder Snowfang coughed awkwardly and refused to meet their furious eyes.

It's not that he was scared of death. He just wanted his death to be meaningful. What was the point of getting killed while serving no purpose?

He wasn't exactly fond of Elder Barhawk to avenge his death.