"If you have questions, ask them now. He looks like he's about to die."
Li Wei prompted.
Only then did Reina react. She quickly hauled the Beastman up from the ground and shouted, "Where are the people you took?"
The Beastman: "￥%...&"
Reina looked at Li Wei. Li Wei looked back at her. They just stared at each other blankly.
Li Wei asked with a strange look, "You don't speak the Beastman Language?"
Reina shot back, "You don't?"
Li Wei: "..."
Reina turned to the Beastman and tried to communicate.
The Beastman's head lolled to one side, and he breathed his last.
Li Wei watched Reina, a headache coming on. 'Does she ever think before she acts?'
Reina dropped the corpse and pulled a small notebook from her pocket.
After studying it for a good while, she said, "He said they haven't captured any humans."
Li Wei craned his neck to look at the little notebook in her hand. It was a handwritten guide to the Beastman Language.
'Alright, maybe I misjudged Reina.'
'She did put some thought into this after all.'
Li Wei said, "I still think you should leave this to your family. Mobilizing the power of the Golden Shield Clan to find the missing people is better than you running around like a headless chicken."
Reina put away her little notebook and looked at him. "I did ask, but my father wouldn't allow it."
"Oh..."
Li Wei was at a loss for what to say.
Reina said, "Aren't all Mages supposed to be smart? That's why I came to you for help."
Li Wei felt there was so much wrong with that statement he didn't even know where to begin.
'Solving mysteries is a detective's job. What does that have to do with me being a Mage?'
Reina saw him muttering under his breath but couldn't make it out. "What did you say?"
"Nothing," Li Wei said with conviction. "The missing members of the Guard Team definitely weren't kidnapped by Beastmen."
Reina stared at him. "Why?"
Li Wei explained it to her.
"Teacher Gu Ze said that when they reached the Guard Team's last known location, they only found the carriage and the grain. Everyone had vanished, and there were no footprints in the surrounding snow leading away from the site."
"Unless Beastmen can fly, there's no way they could have done this," Li Wei stated definitively.
Reina nodded after hearing his explanation.
She had only heard that the Guard Team had mysteriously disappeared, but she didn't know the specifics.
'So that's what was so strange about it.'
Reina quickly asked, "Then what do we do now?"
Li Wei said, "Go back."
Reina shook her head. "I'm not going back until I find Susan."
HISS!
Li Wei sucked in a sharp breath, the cold air clearing his head for a moment.
"Fine. Let's go to the scene first. I doubt we'll find much, though. It's already been five or six days."
Reina nodded, pinning all her hopes on Li Wei.
Li Wei looted the bodies, discovering the most valuable items on the two Beastmen were their animal-hide coats.
Other than that, there were only a few strips of unidentifiable jerky.
"Pathetic."
Li Wei grabbed a handful of snow to wash his hands and muttered a curse.
Seeing this, Reina said, "If you help me find Susan, I'll pay you a handsome reward!"
Li Wei glanced at her. "You have money. Wouldn't it be better to hire someone? Why insist on running out here to risk your life?"
Reina said, "I didn't think of that before."
"It's not too late now," Li Wei said.
Reina said nothing. Li Wei gave up trying to convince her to go back. "Let's go."
The two of them left the Maple Forest and got back on the road.
The road was covered in snow, littered with footprints, hoofprints, and wheel tracks.
Li Wei had a general idea of the route Gu Ze and his people had taken.
By backtracking, it didn't take him long to find a set of wheel tracks that veered off the road.
There were many hoofprints and footprints near the tracks.
Looking at the thin layer of white snow covering the tracks, Li Wei said, "We're lucky. It hasn't snowed for the past few days, so the tracks are still mostly visible."
Reina hurried over, her warm breath nearly fogging up in front of Li Wei's face. "What can you tell from this?" she asked.
Li Wei turned to look at her, their heads nearly colliding.
"Nothing yet. Let's keep going."
The two continued onward.
Hearing Li Wei panting, Reina asked, "Are you getting tired? Do you want me to carry you?"
Li Wei glanced at her and shook his head. "No, thanks."
"You've got great stamina! You were gasping for breath right after the fight, but now you've walked for several kilometers and you're not even winded."
Reina said with a smile, "My master's training methods are completely different from others. Most Knights are only required to practice their Fighting Spirit and Combat Skills. But in addition to that, my master makes me run at least three laps around the walls of Maple City every day to build up my physical strength."
"My master always says that the most important things for a Knight are stamina and endurance. Even if your Fighting Spirit is completely depleted, as long as you have a shred of physical energy left, you can keep fighting!"
Li Wei was a little surprised and asked out of curiosity, "Who's your master?"
Reina said proudly, "The one and only Great Knight in Maple City, the War Knight, Orn Kote!"
Li Wei's expression filled with surprise.
Now he understood why Mage Aier had to "beg" Reina's master for help.
'So Reina's master is a Great Knight.'
'A Tier Four Professional, at the very least.'
You could count the number of Tier Four Professionals in Maple City on one hand. Even the City Lord had to show them the utmost respect.
They continued walking and talking, and before long, Li Wei came to a halt.
"We're here. This is the spot."
Reina looked at the snowy ground ahead and asked, confused, "How do you know?"
Li Wei explained, "Look at the footprints. The pattern of tracks changes right here. This is where the Guard Team vanished."
Reina looked where he was pointing. A few meters ahead, the footprints became jumbled and chaotic. They were definitely different.
"Mages really are smart!"
Hearing her remark, Li Wei didn't feel like responding.
He carefully scanned the area and confirmed what Teacher Gu Ze had said: there were no footprints leading away from the site.
The biggest question now was, how did the Guard Team members vanish?
'Flew away? Impossible.'
Li Wei crouched down, observing intently as he focused his thoughts.
Seeing this, Reina stood beside him and began to scan their surroundings, instinctively standing guard to protect him.
It was a Knight's duty.
'First, rule out kidnapping. Even if the kidnappers could fly, there would at least be some signs of a struggle.'
'A Space Transfer Spell... Ugh, no. That's way too advanced. Not even a Grand Mage could pull that off.'
Li Wei ran through the possibilities in his mind, eventually settling on one conclusion.
The Guard Team members left of their own accord; they weren't kidnapped.
Only if they left willingly would there be no signs of a struggle.
'But how could more than a dozen people sneak away from a group of Mages without leaving any tracks?'
Li Wei put himself in the shoes of a Guard Team member, wondering how he would leave this spot without leaving any footprints.
His first thought was to go back the way they came.
'Going back the way they came is impossible. They would have run into the Mages who were coming to meet them.'
'So they couldn't go back, and they couldn't leave footprints in the snow.'
Li Wei looked down at the wheel tracks and hoofprints, and an idea suddenly struck him.
'What if they hid in the carriage? The Mages would have unknowingly transported them right back to Maple City.'
'The grain arrives in the city, but the people have vanished into thin air!'
A glint appeared in Li Wei's eyes.
He felt it was a very strong possibility.
Now all that was left was to find proof.
Li Wei bent down to examine the ground more closely. He discovered that the wheel tracks on the latter part of the path were deeper than those on the first part. The carriage had gotten heavier.
After a moment, he stood up.
He turned, looking back the way they had come, a slight smile touching the corners of his mouth.
"I've found them!"