A Villainess Should Be Strong

"Start walking now," Liviera clicked her tongue, going on her own and leading the path. The other three quickly followed into the formation Liviera mentioned.

They began walking and searching the forest with great caution, meeting several pesky rats on their way to the center of this Northern area.

Their kill count was snugly sitting on sixteen bodies after ten minutes of walking. Since they have came so far, they sat down and had a short rest.

The enemies were pretty much the same, very stealthy, and they had a 'second life'. Once killed, they would then undergo this strange process of being revived, although their essence wouldn't be the same. Only once they are completely obliterated would they stop moving.

Thus, the way the group cleaned them up was also the same. Attacks came from various direction, so the formation Liviera made truly came in handy. They could focus on their own side, repel the attacks, and group up efficiently once the enemies were spotted.

The strange thing was their enemies' power. Although none of them could beat any of the group members, understandably, they were all elite warriors that were worth quite a lot. If they applied in a battalion, they would certainly earn quite the high rank with their proficiency.

One also wouldn't recklessly scatter these folks without much thought.

This led the group to speculate just how massive Noir was. To be able to afford throwing these kind of soldiers, which were fodders to them but poison to many.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that this entire thing is a set up, but we still need to clean up anyway," Liviera spoke up, drinking clear water from her bottle.

"A set up for what?" Aleksei frowned.

"A bigger plan... Whether it is in Alfheim, or the entire world. They don't seem to be satisfied after causing a havoc in Alynthi. I'm sure that the Duke's daughter have heard of it somehow? I'm quite curious on where you 'disappeared' to. I assume that the entire thing was a cover up, but after that.. unfortunately, we did not track your actions. Who knew that you would be here someday, meeting me in such a way," Liviera said.

"Wait, Alynthi? Noir caused a havoc in Alynthi, you say? This group, could it be that they have a connection with the mutating monsters? Where the monsters got infected with Black Magic and possessed.. strange evolutions?"

"..Indeed, we have discovered those traits. Those are.. perhaps the work of Noir, but could also be the work of another organization under Noir. Since their discoveries were so groundbreaking, it suits the characteristic of Noir. They are quite the strange organization. They are able to continuously pump out so much great inventions and new sides to everything," Liviera confirmed.

"However, the biggest scheme they are pulling on Alynthi is surrounding the Royal family. It is about the King's newest offspring, haven't you heard of it?" Liviera added.

"Newest offspring.. I seem to recall that, yeah," Estelle slowly nodded, recalling that one visit she paid to Duke Miller, where he told her that there was a ruckus about this. Minerva also added to that story, but Estelle was not that keen on news.

Most of the knowledge she possessed belonged to her 'former colleagues' since they had an extensive reach of deep information.

"The third prince, Allen, born from a Count's daughter, Adina Irving. At first, it was just a simple case of the King having a mistress. If that was all, then it would be great. However.. Adina turned out to be quite the troublesome figure. We have concluded that she is related to Noir and their plans.. and the child the King is currently fixated upon is definitely holding something," Liviera said.

"..Is it okay to tell all these to us?" Estelle questioned, hearing dark secrets being spilled out like nothing.

"What, it's not that big of a news. Strange rumors have already begun to surround the King, and the country is certainly falling apart with how he is coping with the changes. Sooner or later.. we don't know yet, but Noir might be planning for something bigger. Bigger than just placing Adina Irving and Allen Riefenstahl,"

"Is the third prince receiving a lot of favor from that King?" Estelle asked.

"He is, to the point where everybody thinks that the King has gone mad. Allen Riefenstahl turned five recently, and he was directly granted the title of Crown Prince. Who knows what tricks they used, but that braindead King was definitely turned even stupider," Liviera answered.

Estelle flashed back to when she entered an audience with the King. The King was simply a mediocre Ruler and person as a whole, with how he struggled to contain even the slightest twinge of emotions.

Thinking back to it, she shook her head and felt distressed over the useless King.

"Now then.. shall we end our rest here?" Frey stood up, stretching her body. "The chatting time is over!" she declared.

The group agreed, standing up consecutively and getting back to the formation they used. It was very impenetrable, with all sides covered to the extreme degree.

"Even so, this is going to take forever. We also have to consider the fact that.. these enemies might flee to a farther area. If that is the case, then this search will be rendered quite useless since they can just mobilize and switch up the positions within the forest," Aleksei brought up his concern.

They were all aware of this fact, but no one could really formulate a credible solution better than this manual searching.

That was, excluding Estelle and her ideas.

"Ah.. I can probably use a long range radar to cover the entire forest, but I need time," Estelle raised her hand, drawing the attention of the rest.

"...The entire forest, you say?" Liviera furrowed her brows. Even to her, who held a major standing in the Elysium Order, hearing such a thing was too much of a shocker.

"En, I can afford to do that," Estelle readily replied.

All of them could use radar sensory magic, but there was one negative character that made them unusable in this situation. Radar magic took a lot of focus, and could only be done with a high level of attention towards the thing they sought. In a fight, maintaining a radar and moving about was impractical because they would be charged with a drawback.

Not to mention, the range they could cover would heavily depend on the caster's ability, and it was hard to maintain an effective radar sensory without a really capable person in charge.

Thus, Estelle's statement was quite shocking.

"And after that, what? You lose all of your mana and is deemed unable to fight? It's not worth it. It's better to just go through the entire thing. Mana depletion can bring you a lot of risks, and your mana pool itself might even collapse or deteriorate. We wouldn't want to think about that," Liviera refused Estelle's suggestion straight away.

Estelle pursed her lips, as she knew that she had an infinite supply of mana. However, these three did not know that in detail. Aleksei must've known that she had an abnormally large supply due to her repeatedly training nonstop in front of him, but thinking that one's mana was infinite would be too far of a stretch.

"I can manage, it's not an impossible thing. I will still be able to fight. My fighting style doesn't require me to wield much mana anyway," Estelle casually lied.

"..Come to think of it, what's your magic again? Wind? I remember that you used Fire, too," Liviera questioned.

"Uhh.. it's," Estelle hesitated, quickly forming up another lie inside her brain. "Wind and Fire, yeah. I can also use some Unique Magic,"

"Hmm.. Is that so," Liviera hummed. "Then so be it. If you are confident, then do it. You will save us a lot of time and effort,"

Estelle heaved a sigh, thinking that she had successfully escaped.

"But.." Liviera dragged out her words. "I thought I saw you operate Water Magic inside the turtle ship,"

"When you cleaned the place and yourself... It was Water Magic, right?"

"And the Earth element, too, since I felt your mana coming from the turtle ship's body. Which meant that you probably fortified it with Earth Magic, even if the core materials aren't purely Earth based. There are several shields and defenses that covered that thing, and I even sensed the Arcana Witch's traces on the sigils. Did Yulia Eire help you?" Liviera calmly stated.

Her deductions and observations were all correct.

[Why.. did I meet such a person?] Estelle sweated bullets internally, not expecting her every move to be watched.

She forgot that she was traveling in a group, and that one of them could potentially scrutinize her.

She wasn't careful enough.

She fiddled with her fingers, anxious and nervous.

After a lot of consideration, where Liviera's stares kept poking at her conscience, Estelle finally relented.