Rise My Elementals!

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

Ten minutes passed, and suddenly Captain Enzo returned to where Elvis was while wearing an ugly expression on his face. It was pretty evident just from his face alone that something terrible had happened when he tried to fetch the two soldiers.

"What happened?" Elvis asked.

"They… they are gone, sir Elvis…." Captain Enzo replied.

"Explain to me what happened in full detail," Elvis said with a dark expression on his face. The disappearance of the two soldiers is undoubtedly bad news for them. 

"Okay, sir Elvis," Captain Enzo nodded his head. He started explaining, "When I got there, the soldiers I assigned to guard them were already dead. Well, not all of them, since there were still a few that were only unconscious. Anyways, after checking up on them and calling out other soldiers to assist me, we went inside the tent. As soon as we got inside, we discovered that they were no longer there,"

"Honestly, I was already expecting that they were gone when I saw the state of the soldiers guarding them. But just to fully confirm that they are indeed gone, we turn the tent upside down to search for their whereabouts. However, in the end, we found no traces, let alone any clues," 

"That's truly unfortunate," Elvis shook his head in regret. He added, "Have you already taken measures to find them?"

"Yes," Captain Enzo replied. He continued, "Currently, we have set up a perimeter in the respective entrances to each of the floors, and to the entrance to this place as well to prevent those two from escaping. We have also started searching for them by checking all the soldiers that are on standby,"

"Though, in my opinion, I believe that it is going to be next to impossible to find them, especially considering how they were able to sneak here without any of us noticing. Who knows? Maybe they are joining in with the search right now," 

Hearing Captain Enzo's words, Elvis also can't help but agree with the former. Now that no one knows the whereabouts of those two soldiers, there's nothing that's holding them back anymore from doing whatever they want. 

All of a sudden, both Elvis and Captain Enzo flinch as they hear a sound coming behind them.

"I didn't expect that the next time I would be seeing you, you'd be facing a huge trouble," 

Elvis and Captain Enzo took out their weapon and turned around to look at the person who suddenly spoke to them in one quick motion.

"Guild Leader Loki?" Elvis felt a bit surprised after seeing the owner of the voice.

"Guild Leader Loki…? Do you mean the Guild Leader of the Mischievous Lion Guild?! Hold on! What the heck is he doing in this place, and how did he get here?!" Captain Enzo expressed his shock.

"That's also what I want to know," Elvis rolled his eyes at Captain Enzo as he thought inwardly, "How the heck would I even know the answer to how Leo had gotten here when I didn't even inform the latter of the location of this secret place?"

"Don't worry, I have my ways of finding this place," Leo said casually, as if getting to this place was no big deal at all.

"Wait! How can we know that you are truly the Guild Leader of the Mischievous Lion Guild?" Captain Enzo tightened his guard as he moved his sword an inch closer to Guild Leader Loki's neck. He added, "Don't be mistaken, the timing of your arrival is just too suspicious for me,"

"The timing of my arrival?" Leo asked, wanting to know what exactly this person beside Elvis meant about.

"At this moment, two soldiers that are suspected to be members of the Naughty Elves Organization had disappeared and are currently in hiding. Considering how those two were able to sneak in this place unnoticed, we are suspecting the possibility that they are good in disguising themselves to be somebody else, including the Guild Leader of the Mischievous Lion Guild," Captain Enzo explained.

"Oh, you mean these two people?" Leo motioned his hand, quickly taking out two dead bodies from his Storage Ring. He continued, "I saw them when I was coming here. They attacked me all of a sudden when I asked them about Elvis, so I had no other choice but to kill them,"

"This…" Elvis and Captain Enzo were immediately rendered in disbelief.

Elvis motioned his hand to Captain Enzo. The latter quickly understood what Elvis was trying to tell him, so he didn't waste any time and approached the two corpses.

Captain Enzo was familiar with the two soldiers as he had been paying close attention to them. As such, as soon as he tilted their bodies to look at their faces, he was instantly able to confirm that they were indeed the two people they were looking for.

"Are they the soldiers you were looking for?" Leo asked with a mischievous smile on his face.

"I seriously don't like that smile of yours. It makes me suspect that you are into something bad," Captain Enzo muttered. But despite saying that, with the proof laid out in front of him, he has no other choice now but to believe Guild Leader Loki.

"Rest assured, this is just how I naturally look," Leo replied dismissively. Afterward, he turned to look at Elvis and said, "Can we talk alone? I have something I want to tell you in private,"

"I…" Elvis hesitated as he glimpses at Captain Enzo. Honestly, the real leader of this exploration team was the latter. The only real reason he believes that he was given this position was that King Elfin the Fourth had given Captain Enzo an instruction to listen to whatever he said. 

"It's alright," Captain Enzo heaved a sigh of helplessness. Knowing that Elvis is one of Guild Leader Loki's men, the latter naturally has every right to talk to Elvis privately. He bid farewell to Elvis before quickly leaving the place. Needless to say, he didn't forget to take the two corpses with him as he was still a bit suspicious of something.

After seeing Captain Enzo leaving, Leo waved his hand, quickly taking out a tent from his Storage Ring. He motioned his hand to Elvis as the two of them got inside. After getting inside, he activated the Isolation Magic Array installed in the tent to prevent anyone from eavesdropping in their conversation.

"Before we proceed with what you want to say, I want to ask you something first," Elvis prevented Leo from saying anything in the meantime. 

"Please," Leo didn't see any problem with that, so he agreed.

"I am very curious from the moment I saw you; how exactly did you find this place?" Elvis asked. He can't remember saying anything to Leo about the location of this place, let alone how to find it. So, he really wants to know the answer. 

"Simple, I can see something that other people couldn't. You could say that I am a Special Mage, and one of my abilities is to find people that are connected with me and the Mischievous Lion Guild," Leo vaguely explained.

"Let's say that I believe you. Then how do you explain finding the secret path under the blackboard?" Elvis asked another question.

"I saw traces of someone ransacking the bookshelf. From that clue, I thought that there was some kind of secret hidden behind the bookshelf, but in the end, I found nothing. But it made me think that maybe it wasn't behind the bookshelf but somewhere else. So, I searched everywhere until I eventually found the secret pathway hidden under the blackboard," Leo lied.

"For goodness' sake! I can't believe that you made a lot of effort just to find me," Elvis shook his head.

"Correction, it wasn't to find you but to find this secret place instead," Leo clarified. He continued, "I really can't believe that there was some kind of secret pathway hidden here. Is this the last place you need to explore to finish exploring this entire secret pathway?"

"Yes," Elvis nodded his head.

"So, how did you know that you are ninety percent close to exploring this place?" Leo asked in curiosity. 

"It's because only ten paths remain. But these paths are completely different from what we have explored before as they contain a lot of traps, and these traps constantly change with every passing minute. We basically don't have any exact clue as to where they would appear next. Hence, the only thing we could do is make a layout of the possible places they would be appearing," Elvis replied. After saying that, he quickly changed the topic and asked, "So, what were you going to say to me just now?"

"You said that those two people were from the Naughty Elves Organization, right?" Leo wanted to confirm first.

"Technically, yes. But we are still not completely sure yet, since we still haven't gotten any clue to prove their identities," Elvis muttered while feeling a bit strange as to why Leo had suddenly asked such a question, "Is there perhaps something wrong?"

"Yes," Leo nodded his head. He expressed his opinion, "I think those two soldiers weren't members of the Naughty Elves Organization,"

"Eh…"