Chapter 404: Error

"Can I go with you?" Anastina perked up and quickly moved to Jilannis's side. "Lord, can I go with her?"

"I'll go to keep an eye on her, I promise!"

"No!"

Ron and Jilannis's simultaneous refusal made the Elf Mercenary shrink back. "Fine, no need to shout..."

"Anna, Ron didn't hire you to cause trouble," Aive said with a sigh. "You have to come with us. Otherwise, our group won't have anyone who knows about the Red Mould."

"As for you," Ron said, looking into Jilannis's lake-blue eyes, "I believe you have nothing to do with this whole affair, but I hope you don't do anything to change that."

"No matter who it is, if you find them first, don't act on your own. Wait for me to handle it, alright?"

"As you command, my lord." The Moon Elf adjusted the sword, Silence, at her waist. Floating in mid-air, she gave Ron an elegant bow before turning to leave, quickly disappearing over the horizon.

"Do you really think she's not the mastermind behind this?" Silvia asked, watching Jilannis's departure with some reluctance. "I have a bad feeling about this. Is my intuition wrong?"

"A woman's intuition?"

"Maybe it's a living dead person's intuition," Victoria retorted. "Aive and I don't see anything wrong."

"I don't think there's a problem either!" Sera quickly added.

"You don't use your brain, so you don't have intuition," Delaford said with his hands on his hips as Big White poked its head out of his collar, squeaking in agreement.

"I don't think she's the problem. I'm worried about someone connected to her," Ron mused. "Didn't you notice? Ever since she said those strange things to Sera, she's been constantly adjusting her sword."

"Maybe she just has OCD? After all, she's a researcher. They're all a little like that." Although Silvia was also suspicious of Jilannis, that didn't stop her from offering other perspectives.

"If that were the case, she should have made a smart Sword Chanting Belt instead of constantly adjusting it by hand," Aive said. "It's just to keep the sword level. Even Ron could make a Magic Item like that, let alone her."

"So, you really suspect it's an acquaintance of hers? And she's making these unnecessary movements because she's nervous?" Anastina looked at the others curiously. "Could it be that old superior of hers, Jilannis Galanord?"

The moment the words left her mouth, the Elf Great Swordsman startled herself. "Heavens, that old witch! If it's really that old woman, could Jilannis be in danger?! We have to move out, quickly!"

"Follow me! Let me see the direction these mycelia are growing... We should go this way!"

Ron and his companions looked at each other, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Should we just tell her the truth?" Victoria grimaced, not knowing what expression to make.

"Are you sure? A shock like that might make her go crazy!" Aive whispered, trying to dissuade her. "An old person like her can be mentally fragile..."

"Niece Aive, what are you saying?!" Anastina, who had suddenly become energetic, had sharp ears, but not *that* sharp. "I may be older than your mother, but I've still got several hundred years left to live! I'm far from old!"

"Follow me! Don't worry, I'm experienced!"

On the ground, the seven-person team moved out quickly. Perhaps Anastina's motivation for being so enthusiastic was a bit skewed, but the result was good. After confirming that the path she chose was correct, Ron and the others followed her pace without hesitation.

And all of this was witnessed by the Elf Grand Mage, hidden by invisibility high up in the sky.

'The upper and lower layers of Red Mould are affecting each other, causing the direction of the mycelia to deviate. The old pathfinding methods for the Red Mould Ruins are no longer effective...' The Moon Elf gazed at the ground below, her eyes glowing with a light that matched their color, as if she could see through everything on the surface.

'If I hadn't read the paper on this kind of induction pattern, even I would likely be led in the wrong direction.' Jilannis retracted her gaze. Her figure vanished in an instant, only to reappear in mid-air one hundred and fifty meters away before quickly slipping into the Ethereal Plane.

This method of continuously traveling between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane was neither efficient nor energy-conserving, but it was the only way to pierce through Illusion Magic and reach her destination directly. It was a "back door" left for her by a certain person back in the "old days" when she was still young.

'Is it you? After all these long years?' Jilannis's heart was heavy with worry. She had sensed something was amiss after encountering that Thorny Beast. Overthinking it had even caused her to drop her disguise. Thinking back, the words she had said to Ron and the others were classic "Hailan Remnants" rhetoric, but the Moon Elf couldn't be bothered with that anymore.

She desperately needed to see that person and confirm his identity.

'Or... is it some lucky person who 'inherited' your legacy?'

As she left the Ethereal Plane for the twelfth time, the scenery before her—a wilderness that had been empty save for the Fungal Mat—changed abruptly. A clear lake, a tranquil islet, and an old wooden cabin—the three scenes were crudely and suddenly stitched into the space-time of the Delusional Land, like projections from another world. The Sword-Singing Lion Armor on the Moon Elf's arm clanged, the lion head's eyes flared with a dazzling red light, and the surrounding mane of woven metal bristled, ready for battle!

To think, even when facing that Death Knight, this Lion Armor had never reacted so proactively!

"Shh, be quiet." Jilannis canceled the channeling of her Arcane Magic and set her feet on the edge of the islet, looking cautiously toward the half-open door of the wooden cabin.

It was silent, as if no living creature was here. But Jilannis knew that someone was most certainly here.

But she did not speak first, merely standing there, perfectly still.

Time trickled by, second by second. Just as Jilannis counted to five hundred and twelve in her head, a sound finally came from the wooden cabin. "Such a familiar feeling. Has an old friend come to visit me?"

It was a man's voice, but it had become thin and sharp with extreme age, slightly hoarse, with a whistling sound mixed in between certain tones.

This was a sign of significant tooth loss.

"You still sound the same," Jilannis said upon hearing the voice. She seemed to relax and tense up at the same time; or rather, even she hadn't decided how to face him. "Even the waiting time hasn't changed."

"When you get old, you don't like change." The cabin door was pulled open from the inside with a long CREAK, and a creature with a hunched body, about the height of a goblin, came shuffling out unsteadily.

Jilannis took one look at him and let out a bloodcurdling scream—a sound no one had heard from the Chief Imperial Mage in several hundred years!

"Teacher?! How could you— This is impossible! This is a mistake!"