A Villainess Should Be Strong

Whilst Liviera and Heine was having a standoff, Estelle had already flown over half of their required distance using the ship's highest setting in speed. They were set for the royal castle, to which they would reach in just about several minutes.

Looking over the grand land from above, Estelle thought deeply about her situation. After getting her recognition in Alfheim, she would go to Vaitral. However, one thing that she remembered bugged her. And that was the arrival of Minerva Eire in Alfheim, along with Heine. Why would they chase her if not for forceful measures? What had changed during the time that she unlocked parts of her memories?

While she was thinking about that, the ship kept going and soon entered the premises of the royal castle, from which they jumped out and went into the Queen Shirley's chamber and was allowed entry upon sight. It hadn't been long since their last visit, and the guards keeping the place safe were already informed that this group of people went to the disaster sight to work on the trouble. However, how come they returned so fast? Although they raised a brow at this fact, they still let the three people in without obstruction.

They went to Shirley's work room, where she was allegedly in. Notifying the royal guard, they came inside and saw the Queen sitting by a table and working on her documents. Her eyes darted over to the intruding group. Acknowledging their presences, she stopped her writing movements and turned her full attention at the group.

"We are back," Estelle announced their presence and stepped inside the room, the other two following closely behind her.

"Oh? You guys.. left with four, but came back with three. Where is the last person?" Shirley's eyes swept through the group's figures and raised a brow at one missing person. "If I remember correctly, that person was.."

"Liviera, hm? She separated from us purposely. In the first place, her intention was not just to help Alfheim with this matter, but rather to resolve her own problem. So.. she went and wanted to do her own thing, while we came back here and left her on the site," Frey replied to the question.

Shirley let out a light chuckle, nodding lightly and accepting the explanation.

"Since you are calling her by her real name directly, then Estelle must've gotten to know her personally. That's good. Now, come and sit down right here. Report to me about your findings in that place," Shirley snapped her fingers, and within seconds, the two personal attendants Neil and Niki appeared. They brought chairs with them and went to prepare for the three people's seats because the confidential matters wouldn't only consist of several sentences' worth of information. "How was the trip? Tell me about it. Did you have a lot of trouble?"

The three sat down and were served beverages as they moved from Liviera's work table to another spare wide table.

"Well.. First of all, Liviera's involvement in this matter wasn't just a fluke. Her arrival was based on the fact that the Order had suspicions on this incident being caused by Noir, and once we arrived there and confirmed our enemies.. Liviera said that it should really be done by the anonymous organization Noir. Apparently, her Order has been trying to garner more information about this group, but they repeatedly failed to find concrete clues except for the fact that they are in indirect cohorts with another organization named Lichte." Frey started explaining. "The reports we received were about bandits destroying the area and property around it, but in truth, the enemies we met that circulated the area weren't the bandits. There were some small bandits here and there, but they seemed to be plunderers looking to take a bite out of this destruction and not the real culprit. The enemies we met.. Estelle, you explain from now on. You were the one who discovered them,"

Having been passed the baton to explain, Estelle nodded.

"Yes.. When I went off from the group for a while, I was surrounded by men in black that all had expert skills. I fought them and defeated them, but the fight unexpectedly did not end there. Instead, the fallen enemies began to get up and showed signs of being manipulated out of their will to fight. Their bodies were being pushed to the limits, and they no longer cared about being afflicted with injuries or anything of that sort. Every time they were attacked, they just kept getting back up. In the end, we had to resort to burning them until they were reduced to nothing but ashes before we were able to declare that the fight was over,"  Estelle explained, recalling the events of that time.

"...That's eerie. And by your words, you mean to say that this incident, and the men you encountered were all caused by this organization you call.. Noir?" Shirley asked, forming a deep frown.

"It should be so. Have you ever heard of this organization? If it rings any bells, then we might be able to seek some deeper information," Aleksei interjected. "I personally.. have heard of some things about it, but not in detail. An organization I encountered in the recent past might have been the Noir Liviera spoke about, but I didn't recognize it when I interacted with them," he added.

"There is no way that they decided to attack that specific are without having a motive. Having something they need, or in line with their purpose. Have you searched the location deeply? And what did you find?"  Shirley let out a long breath as she continued giving out questions.

"First of all, I used a large scaled radar, stretching across the entirety of the forest to locate each enemy down. Aleksei and me gave coordinates to the enemies' locations while Liviera and Frey worked to take these enemies down. However, when it got to the last batch of enemies, the two were detained and the connection was lost. We rushed there, and in the middle of the travel, I collapsed down out of nowhere. When I woke up, Heine was taking care of me and Liviera and Frey was completely safe. I'm actually also curious about this part. During the period of time where the connection was lost, what happened to you two?" Estelle turned to Frey and questioned.

When she woke up, everything had been fixed to normal as if nothing had ever happened.

"We were.. detained, sort of. It's hard to understand why, but they didn't actually hurt us. It was as if they were just luring time out for unknown reasons. In the end, seconds before Aleksei arrived followed by your unconscious figure and Heine, these guys left," Frey recounted.

"Heine? Heine as in, the former Fae King Heine?" Shirley tilted her head as her eyes widened with interest with the mention of the man's name.

"Yes, it is that Heine. As for the reason why he is here, he said that he had separate purposes in Alfheim but he isn't connected to the disaster. Whether or not this confession is correct.. I personally think it's not, but I can't prove it otherwise. He also opted to stay back, so we left those two in the area,"

"...Exactly what are they planning to do?" Shirley contemplated. "Haa.. Noir, was it? I will have to investigate on this matter further. Neil, Niki, try your hardest to dig up information. We cannot let our lands be tainted by an outsider's force just like that,"

The two siblings nodded and noted her request down.

"Who knows what they are up to? All I know is that within the men, only the ones that detained us got away whereas the rest were properly eradicated. After the incident, Estelle ran a thorough check up one more time but didn't find anything, not even a single anomaly," Frey sighed, wondering why this matter turned out to be so strange.

"..Alright. Then, on to the next subject. This is regarding Estelle. My grandniece, what did you come here for? Obviously, it wouldn't be just to see me, right? A mystical identity like yours.. I don't think you would just coincidentally visit by to seek familial relations," Shirley's eyes twinkled with amusement as she turned her head towards Estelle and questioned.

Estelle gulped a mouthful of saliva upon being faced with that question. Of course, the only reason she came here was to meet Shirley, but her purpose was something behind that.

"I.. wanted to step inside the place where the Moon Goddess' magic is supposedly most concentrated at. Only direct elven royals could go there, right? Thus, I wanted to prove my identity and took up Neil's challenges. Will that be possible in the first place?" Estelle inquired, nervous about the upcoming answer.

Whether it was allowed or not, she was meant to go there. It was her task. To progress further in her journey, there was no other way but to 'prove her worth' using something in that particular place. She didn't know what it was, and she wanted to find out.