Liya felt a wave of dizziness.
At that moment, Vanilla stepped forward and helped Henny up.
Watching Henny struggle to support herself on her legs, looking utterly dazed, Liya let out a sigh.
In this state, it was no wonder Henny had been absentminded while walking and ended up bumping into her.
Henny was standing there with her head lowered, swaying unsteadily.
Liya moved a little closer. Seeing how unstable Henny looked, she couldn't help but ask, "Henny, what did you lose?"
Hearing this, Henny's breathing stalled slightly.
She couldn't lift her head. She could only keep shaking it, trying to shake off the chaos in her heart.
"I don't know, I don't know…"
"I only know that it was something extremely important to me."
Henny took a deep breath and stared blankly at the ground.
"I… can't live without him…"
Her voice gradually faded, but Liya fell silent.
'Something important...'
'What could it be?'
Liya found it hard to understand.
Yet she kept thinking, could the "important thing" Henny mentioned have something to do with her?
At that thought, Liya froze in place.
It was as if a question suddenly flashed through her mind.
Why did she know Henny in the first place?
Liya remembered that Henny was a retainer in her household, a formal employee who had signed a contract.
But… why had Henny become a retainer of the Clavenna family?
Her memory felt like it was missing a piece.
She looked at Henny, wanting to ask about it.
"Henny…"
But seeing Henny's dazed condition, she closed her mouth again.
She waved a hand to the servants and instructed them, "Take her back and let her get some good res..."
Suddenly, Henny reached out with one hand and tightly grabbed the hem of Liya's coat.
Liya stared at Henny in a daze, feeling a bit disoriented.
The girl in front of her was still keeping her head down, but tears spilled uncontrollably from her eyes.
Like pearls falling from a broken string, they pattered down onto the ground.
"Please help me, Liya…"
"Help me… find him."
Looking at Henny in pain, Liya felt an overwhelming heaviness in her heart.
She took a deep breath and reached out to hold Henny's hand.
The moment she touched Henny's palm, Liya could feel it, that soft, gentle aura around Henny became even stronger.
At that instant, an inexplicable impulse surged up from her heart.
As if there was a wild urge to trample her, to bully Henny without restraint.
But she used her firm rationality to suppress that absurd thought.
She solemnly removed Henny's hand from herself, then nodded.
"I'll do my best."
"Get some good rest, Henny."
Hearing this, Henny's strength left her body.
Led away by the servants, she went back to rest.
But Henny's appearance left an inexplicable heaviness weighing on Liya's mood.
Liya didn't know what had actually happened.
After Henny said she had lost something important, Liya herself also felt as if something important had disappeared from her life.
That thought echoed endlessly in her mind, like a haunting chant.
But right now, she didn't have time to think about it.
Liya straightened her collar and lifted her head to look ahead.
Within the green rift, Cocotte Yard was lying on a cloud, slowly drifting out.
She yawned, then lifted her eyelids and lazily spotted Liya.
Then she froze.
"Uh, hi?"
Liya also froze, staring at Cocotte.
"Cocotte!?"
"Why are you coming out from, from…"
Then she saw Cocotte blink.
"Because… I'm the Elf Queen?"
"No… I know that."
Liya sighed, rubbed her temples, and asked with a slight headache, "What I mean is, why are you coming out from there?"
Liya felt utterly confused.
Although Cocotte was the Elf Queen, at the same time, she was also an employee of the Clavenna family.
As for Cocotte, Liya had always been very clear about her.
This lazy dog of an elf, if there was no order given, she wouldn't move at all.
Liya understood Cocotte's laziness all too well.
Hearing Liya say that, even Cocotte herself became confused.
"Eh? That's strange…"
In her memory, there really had been someone who told her to open a passage between the Elven Forest and the Yard Divine Tree.
So that the Elven Forest would directly connect to the backyard of the divine tree.
These past few days, Cocotte had been busy with exactly that task.
The passage had been opened, and the elves had all been notified…
But… who was it that told her to do this in the first place?
Cocotte was completely dumbfounded.
Oh no.
Could it be that she suddenly became diligent on her own?
No, that couldn't be it…
As a fifth-tier mage, Cocotte's perception was extremely sharp.
There had to be someone who instructed her to do something.
Her memory couldn't be wrong.
Then there was only one possibility... her memories had been altered.
Cocotte narrowed her eyes and tried hard to think.
But at this moment, Liya had already sensed that something was wrong.
She raised her head and looked at the passage between the Yard Divine Tree and the Elven Forest.
The next second, ripples spread across the passage.
But before the ripples could fully settle, Liya suddenly kicked off the ground and sprinted toward the Clavenna estate.
The servants stared blankly at Liya as she ran off at full speed.
Even Cocotte, watching Liya leave, was completely confused.
Finally, the passage opened wide.
From within it, Vinia stepped out first.
She held a wooden scepter in both hands and lifted her head proudly, as graceful as a swan.
"Head of the Clavenna family."
"Thank you for welcoming our visi...t?"
She gradually opened her eyes and looked down.
On the grass below, aside from a group of servants and Cocotte sitting on a cloud doing nothing, where was there any sign of the Clavenna family head?
The elves behind Vinia, with nowhere to go after she stopped, crowded out of the passage.
They lay sprawled across the divine tree, looking at their elven high priestess with utterly baffled expressions.
"…Huh?"
———
[Royal Capital, Delin Estate]
A servant stood at the doorway holding a bowl of porridge, looking extremely worried.
Kefra walked over slowly and said softly to the servant, "Give it to me. You can go rest now."
After taking the porridge, the servant bowed slightly to Kefra and hurried away.
Kefra held the tray in one hand and knocked on the door with the other.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Gwen, it's me."
"You haven't eaten anything all day."
From inside the room came a stretch of silence.
Kefra looked at the door, her eyes full of concern.
"If something's wrong, you can talk to your sister."
But what answered her was still silence and no sound at all.
Kefra sighed.
She bent down, placed the porridge on the floor by the door, and called into the room, "Remember to eat. Don't starve yourself."
Then she turned and left.
Inside the bedroom, it was pitch black, with not a single ray of sunlight able to enter.
Listening to Kefra's footsteps gradually fade away, Gwen finally lifted her head.
Her long silver-white hair was a complete mess.
She was wearing simple sleepwear, one strap on her shoulder having slipped down, revealing snow-white skin.
Her face was utterly haggard.
One leg hung off the bed, the other bent and propped up. Her face rested against her knee, her expression full of melancholy.
In her arms, she was holding a longsword.
That fiery, scorching blade glowed red-hot, illuminating the dark room with a crimson light, like a warm sun.
What on earth had happened?
Gwen herself didn't know.
By the time she came back to her senses, she had already become like this.
She felt dazed, with no desire to move at all.
This was the first time in her life she had been this lazy, even forgetting a knight's daily morning training.
No motivation.
No motivation to do anything.
"Why…"
Her voice was hoarse.
Suddenly, as if she remembered something, Gwen pulled out a golden parchment from her clothes.
The parchment was slightly warm and emitted faint points of light.
But aside from the warmth, it didn't seem to have any other effect.
Yet Gwen had a strange feeling.
This thing was extremely important to her.
She had to keep it with her at all times.
At this moment, the magic crystal placed on the table began to glow with a soft blue light.
Bright, then dim.
Gwen's gaze was drawn to that flickering blue light.
A hint of confusion appeared in her tired eyes.
Who was trying to contact her?
Just as she was about to drag her body over to pick up the crystal, she suddenly saw, at some point, a black crow was standing on the table.
Gwen was startled and shrank back.
The crow's deep, solitary eye glanced at Gwen. Then, mysteriously, it flapped its wings and flew toward the window.
It didn't even part the curtain, flying straight ahead.
Gwen hurriedly tried to warn it, "The window isn't..."
Before she could finish, the crow's pitch-black body passed straight through the curtain.
It turned into a black shadow and slipped through the gap in the window.
"Open…"
Gwen blankly finished the last word.
She rushed to the window, pulled open the curtain, and stared in a daze in the direction the crow had flown.
But there was no sign of the crow anywhere.
She shook herself slightly and drew the curtain closed again.
In her daze, her attention was pulled back to the crystal on the table, still flashing blue.
Only then did Gwen remember that someone seemed to be looking for her.
She touched the blue crystal.
The next second, a woman's voice came from within.
It was Liya's voice.
But her tone sounded incredibly urgent, "Gwen! Right now! Tell me!"
"Who is your fiancé?"