With the others gone, Elsby ended up taking off her hood and removing the mask, revealing her face and jet-black hair.

”…”

She squinted her eyes and started looking around, clearly looking for something.

”Zoemi – you were watching everything, didn’t you? I mean no harm and just came to talk!”

”!!!!”

The black-haired boy, hidden within hearing distance almost tripped and fell after hearing that…

|How the hell does she knows that I’m here?!|

She sounded like she knows that you were watching, not that you were here in person though. Just be ready to teleport and go see what she wants.

”…!”

Zoemi gritted his teeth, activating his enchantments, but ended up flinching after hearing Ludier’s shadow’s comment that for once was right on the mark.

”Zoemi…? Eh…? was my instinct off the mark…?”

While the black-haired boy was planning his next move, Elsby furrowed her brows and muttered to herself in concern.

The one good thing was that the cheerful member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora wasn’t actually trying to search for the black-haired boy.

Although it might have been a sneaky ploy, Zoemi’s curiosity ended up winning as he stepped forward to meet with probably the only member of the Ghosts of Bellcephora that he didn’t want to kill on the spot.

…which played a major part in him deciding to check what was her deal…

”Yo. You gave me quite a scare, what does a member of the Ghosts want with me?”

”…!”

Zoemi called out after making sure that his enchantments are active and that he can use the teleportation spell without any delay, and funnily enough, he made Elsby flinch.

”Eh?! Whoa! You were actually here?! Not just watching?! Ha! My intuition was on the spot!”

The young woman’s eyes widened once she located the boy’s position, but her first reaction was still a proud cheer.

”Ehem… I mean… Good morning, Zoemi! I have been looking for you!”

Then, all of a sudden she flinched and straightened her back before clearing her throat and speaking in a polite voice.

”…why…?”

Zoemi furrowed his brows, tensing up prepared for at least one other member of the Ghosts of Bellcpehora to show up at any moment.

”I wanted to talk. When we talked before you

seemed like a reasonable kid… even though you ate my dog…”

Elsby explained – and pouted while mumbling the last part under her breath, but since Zoemi had his enchantments active, he ended up hearing it anyway.

”Excuse me? I did not – ate – your dog!”

Zoemi frowned and shook his head taken by surprise, but didn’t drop his guard at all.

”Yes, you did! One of those guys!”

In response to his denial, the short-haired young woman furrowed her brows and scoffed, snapping her fingers which caused a large wolf-like shadow beast to emerge from her shadow and sat by her feet wagging its tail.

”Oh… right… I guess you could call it eating… So, that’s how you track me down… You were still connected with your summon and came here to avenge it?”

The black-haired boy shrugged his shoulders and scoffed, silently activating shadow connect and sending out Ludier’s shadow to attack the jet-black-haired young woman from behind.

”…no? I lost the connection the moment you abducted them, and I found you thanks to my intuition. I do not want to fight.”

Elsby shook her head and declared, raising her hands as if she was surrendering.

”Intuition…?”

”Intuition, instinct, both names work honestly. I just know stuff.”

Zoemi asked, raising his brow and Elsby answered immediately shrugging her shoulders with an innocent smirk.

”What do you want?”

The black-haired boy didn’t allow himself to get swept into the young woman’s peace and asked while silently conjuring sentinels to patrol the area for any threats.

”Just to talk and confirm a few suspicions. Do not worry, I am not connected with the rest at the moment.”

Elsby shook her head and assured him waving her hand again, but her words certainly did not convince the cautious Zoemi.

”What is that supposed to mean? How are you all connected in the first place?”

Since they were talking, the black-haired boy decided to try and get the best of it while he could, although he was getting anxious.

Should he even talk with her?

”Ah. Sorry, You just look like a darkness magician so I forgot that you wield a different attribute.”

Elsby raised her brows and breathed out making an embarrassed expression.

”You see, the biggest concern with the darkness magic isn’t just that it can kill its user.”

”…”

She then proceeded to answer the surprised boy’s question without holding back.

”The real problem starts when the darkness magician’s mana reservoir achieves the size of the average water magician. As it turns out at that point the darkness mana forcibly connects everyone who is at that level creating an awful amalgamation of consciences with multiple bodies but a single will. There is no privacy, no hidden thoughts, everything is exposed. Every secret, every dream, every flaw. It’s horrible. When in that state, it’s not possible for a unit to oppose the majority. NO matter how much they hate the decision, all of the bodies will act upon the command given by the joint consciousness. The only way to escape that is to enlarge the mana reservoir of one’s original body to at least ten times the size of an average light magician’s capacity, which is easier said than done. And even afterward, once disconnected, it’s still possible to connect back… the amount of mana required to have peace of mind in one’s own body is on a level of a sage – so we are talking of hundreds of times more mana than an average light magician could possess. Now you get what I mean when I say I am not connected at the moment?”

Elsby explained and her smile became somber.

”What I get from that is you are trying to convince me that you didn’t actually want to betray the Bellcephora kingdom.”

”…because I didn’t…”

Zoemi scoffed and shook his head while Elsby’s smile got replaced by a bitter expression.

”Alright, I answered your question, now you answer mine.”

The jet-black-haired young woman shook her head and looked back at the black-haired boy.

”You were the one who killed Raseriat, weren’t you?”

”…?”

She asked, but Zoemi merely furrowed his brows and tilted his head.

”I have no idea who are you talking about.”

”…”

The black-haired boy lied without batting an eye, making Elsby furrow her brows.

”The others are certain that the ice magician guy had killed her because she was stupid and let herself be trapped, but the last image she sent out together with all of her mana was too strange. The scruffy pale-blue-haired man looked far too surprised to be the one to deliver the final blow, and it definitely wasn’t a face that someone who simply couldn’t believe their spell would work would make. To further back up my claim – you already showed us that you can use ice magic powerful enough to hider a sage when you punched our commander and encased him in ice while getting away with acquiring a large amount of mana from his darkness blade… And right now there is a strong ice mana source behind me.”

”…”

Elsby pointed out and it was Zoemi’s turn to furrow his brows at her.