"Now then," Veyn said as he pulled out a chair. "Let's talk about the quest"
"Hold on"
Sylffie crossed her arms
"What quest are you talking about, and why did you bring these outsiders here in the first place?"
"Of course, it's because of the Elf King"
Veyn answered as if it were obvious
"I requested help from outside the Elf Country"
Sylffie's eyes widened
"What!?"
"I asked for help"
"Are you serious?" she snapped "The Cardinals specifically ordered us not to let anyone outside know about the King's disappearance"
"Of course, I remember"
"Then why would you-"
"But the King has been missing for almost 2 month and the cardinals have not shown any sign of the King to return"
The room fell silent
Veyn's usually relaxed expression became serious
"That's why I make a request to help us find the King"
"For two months the King has been missing"
"For two months the Cardinals have promised us everything is under control"
"And for two months we still have no information of the King"
Sylffie frowned
"And you pick outsiders to help us?"
"Hey, in a lot of experiment, unexpected object can help to find the answer, and maybe the answer of our missing King is the outsider"
Veyn leaned back
"We've searched everywhere we could think of"
"So maybe the answer isn't something an elf would notice"
"Maybe an outsider will"
Sylffie looked unconvinced
"But that's risky what if these people spread that information and let people raid the Elf Country?"
While the 2 elves argued, Erin slowly approached Auel and whispered
"Umm, may I ask a question?"
Auel nodded a little
"What is a Cardinal?"
"You know that the Elf King is the ruler of this Country, right?" Auel whispered
She nodded
"To make sure that the King doesn't make any weird policy, they choose some elves to become Cardinals"
"So, if the Elf King makes a policy that is not appropriate, the cardinals can reject it"
"And the Cardinals can propose some policies to the Elf King too"
"Hey can you two stops arguing" Gill finally interrupted
The two finally stopped after hearing that, but Sylffie still pouting
"I'm sorry that you have to hear all that"
"Anyway," Veyn said "you already know your objective. You're here to help find the missing Elf King"
They all nodded
"Now, let me tell you the chronologies of the last time the Elf King was ever seen"
He took a deep breath
"So around two months ago, it was night time, the cardinals wanted to hold a meeting with the Elf King"
"They asked a messenger to inform the Elf King about the meeting"
"What happened?" Gramm asked
"When they already gathered in the meeting room the messenger came back and told them that the Elf King won't attend the meeting"
"The messenger also said that the Elf King was going to the royal library"
"The Cardinals was confused and went to the library immediately"
Veyn folded his hands
"To their surprise the Elf King was not there, even more surprising the library was empty"
"Empty?" Helen questioned
"Yes, there is no one was there, even the librarian was not present"
Rikka immediately raised a hand
"Then the librarian is the first suspect, right?"
"Well, the Cardinals thought the same thing too" Veyn nodded "they started searching for the librarian all over the palace and they finally found her"
"They found her in the royal kitchen"
"Unfortunately, they found her dead"
The room became quiet
Ashley leaned forward
"What? Did she kill herself after kidnapped the king?" Ashley asked
"Nope" Sylffie answered "She poisoned"
Everyone was shocked
"Did she poisoned or attacked with poison?" Gramm asked
"Well, looking at the scene, it seems she was poison because she was eating a cake"
"After that the Cardinals checked the cake whether it was poisonous or no"
"And yes, it was poisonous"
Auel finally spoke
"If the librarian was silenced, then whoever did this didn't want her talking"
"That's one possibility"
Veyn nodded
"Or she simply got in the way"
Auel remained silent
"Then why don't we investigate the library first" Gramm suggested
"Umm… I don't think you can easily get inside the royal library"
"Why?"
"Let me guess"
Auel sighed
"We need permission"
"Correct"
"Not everyone can enter the royal library, only the high-ranking officials of the elf country can enter"
"Well, you can enter the royal library with the approval of the cardinals"
"That's right, but for not that's almost impossible" Sylffie cut "You know that the cardinals really busy right now"
"Busy?"
"Yes, the cardinals must keep calm the elves and other races inside the country after they knew about the Elf King gone missing" she continued
"Other, race? But wasn't the Elf country closed for almost two months?" Rikka said
"Yeah, you're right" Veyn answered "But there are still some races that are still trapped inside the country, and the cardinals cannot kick them out because they don't want this incident to be known by outsider"
"But I'll try to talk with them so you can investigate the royal library, or even the entire palace" he continued
"Wait, you can talk to them, who are you?" Auel asked
"Oh, I forgot to mention, I also worked at the royal library, but the accident happened when it was not my work time"
Everyone stared
"You forgot to mention that?"
"Yes"
"How do you forget something that important?"
"Happens all the time"
"That's concerning"
"According to Sylffie, yes"
"It is concerning!"
Sylffie immediately answered
Veyn ignored her
"Anyway, you're probably exhausted from the trip"
"Yeah, kinda" Gill answered "But isn't your place too small to fit all of us"
"Of course you're not going to rest here, I know a place, come follow me"
Then all of them went outside of Veyn house
The El Country looked very lively with green color that filled the entire part
Towering trees stretched endlessly into the sky
Bridges connected homes built among the branches
Soft green light glowed from countless flowers
The entire place felt alive
They walked very casually following Veyn
As they walked through the streets, many elves glanced at them
Fortunately, nobody seemed to realize they were outsiders
"Hey, is it really okay for us to walk outside" Helen asked
"Of course," Veyn waved a hand "nobody knows that you're from outside yet, so it should be fine"
"By the way" he looked toward Sylffie "Why are you following us, you really don't have anything else to do?"
"What? Is it my fault that I came along?" She answered
"Besides, you clearly brought outsiders into the country"
Veyn just sighed and kept walking
Eventually they arrived at an inn
"Here we are"
"Finally" Ashley muttered
They approached the receptionist table; there stood the owner of the inn
"Ohh, Veyn what brought you here?" said the owner
"Hi, do you still have rooms available?" he answered
The owner stared at the group
"You brought another group?"
Veyn laughed awkwardly
"Well, it's kinda important you know"
"I don't want to know the reason anyway, so how many rooms do you guys need?" he continued
"I think 3 rooms enough right" Helen answered "We girls can take 1 room, and you boys split into 2 rooms"
"Can you fit all four of you in 1 room?" the owner asked
"I'm not staying here" Sylffie answered
"So, what are you doing here?"
"I just want to make sure nothing bad happen to them"
The owner then gave them the keys to their rooms
"Here takes the key"
"Wait how about the money?" Gramm said
"It's fine I'll pay, just take a rest for today, I'll talk with the cardinals first, then tomorrow we could talk with them here"
They nodded, took the key, and went to their respective room
They boys got a room with 2 beds, while the girls were having a master bed
Auel and Rikka went to their room, and the moment they got there, Auel threw his body to the bed
"Hey do you think Veyn suspicious?" Rikka asked "I mean, the way he talked, he conveniently works at the royal library, he's the one who contacted outsiders, and now he's helping us investigate"
Auel sighed and closed his eyes
"I don't know, let's talk about that tomorrow"
"You really look in bad mood since we take this quest, why?"
"I hate this kind of quest; it took to much brain power"
"Hmm… if you could take a anyone as a suspect, who would it be?"
Auel silence for a moment
"Maybe the cardinals, I don't know"
"The cardinals? Well, we haven't saw them yet, but I just felt something off with Veyn"
"Whatever, I'm tired"
"I'll go outside and talk with the other, I'll wake you up on dinner"
Then Rikka went outside, and left Auel alone in the room
Not long after, the door slowly opened
Someone stepped inside, an elf
It was Sylffie
She carefully approached Auel's bed
Then she crouched beside it
For several seconds she simply stared at his face
Sylffie gently brushed a strand of hair away from his face
"Yes, it's him" She tilted her head "But he looks gloomy, none of them ever looks gloomy"
Muttering to herself, she quietly left the room and closed the door
When the door closed, Auel opened his eyes
"That elf really weird"
Then he rolled over and immediately went back to sleep