The fairy maid cheers for her deceased master today.

The warehouse ruins under the sunlight looked as if they were on fire.

The black mud, exposed to direct sunlight, turned into charred smoke that slowly rose into the air. Axe stood before the pile of rubble, his dark coat fluttering in the wind.

"The clues are gone." Elena kicked away the pebbles at her feet, her long emerald hair fluttering in the wind. "All gone."

She had just escaped death... but she felt no joy at all.

Instead, she felt particularly down because the clue she had been pursuing had been interrupted.

This made X start to think: were fairies actually not afraid of death?

Angel also squatted down beside Ex's feet, her blue eyes fixed on the still-smoking ruins, and muttered softly, "Yeah, it was so hard to find..."

X patted her head, then turned and asked, "How exactly did the Swamp Species appear?"

He was asking Elena.

He had wanted to ask this question earlier, but the battle interrupted him.

Angel stood up and raised her hand: "I know, I know! It's written in the Epic of the Gods. The god of the swamp detested order and chanted a spell over the mud—"

"Let the mud grow sticky tentacles," Elena continued, her voice low. "Each tentacle has a breathing eye at its tip. I've read that book too."

Angel nodded vigorously: "Yeah, it's disgusting..."

"But the swamp monsters in reality aren't this exaggerated." Ex picked up a plank from the ground, examined it casually, and then tossed it aside. "So, where did those monsters come from?"

Elena had already begun to summarize: "The first possibility is that the aliens from the wild came along the pipes. The second possibility is that someone lured the swamp aliens into the warehouse beforehand."

Were they brought here?

The alien species have no rationality... It is indeed possible for them to do this... but it would be very difficult.

Ex shook his head, putting the topic aside for now.

"No, I want to ask... where did the mutants come from? How were they born?"

"Huh?" Elena was taken aback, instinctively showing her little fangs. "Isn't this a natural phenomenon? What? How is it born?"

Natural phenomenon?

Elena nodded: "They are creations of God, so of course they would be born naturally."

That's perfectly reasonable.

Ax immediately realized that he wouldn't get any more information from the imposter detective.

So let's get back to the main topic.

Ex asked, "So, someone lured the swamp monsters into the abandoned warehouse. What was their reason?"

Irene's gaze immediately fell upon them: "Eliminate those who are tracking the leads."

Ex shook his head: "I think we should eliminate the clues."

Irene seemed to understand something. She clearly understood immediately as well.

When the Swamp Xenomorph appears in the abandoned warehouse... it automatically begins to contaminate everything around it. This includes, of course... all the evidence left behind.

This is similar to how, in the world before the time travel, criminals liked to set fire to crime scenes, destroying all evidence with a single fire.

Here, an outbreak of alien disaster can automatically contaminate all traces, thus serving the same purpose of leaving no trace or clue.

So the perpetrator of the silver theft once again thoroughly erased all traces of himself.

Although this swamp alien disaster could also be a natural occurrence, the probability is too small, and neither X nor Elena can believe they are that unlucky.

So the only remaining clue is to start by investigating the source of the new pipeline...

However, Ax also had no hope.

Not only were those new pipes artificially aged, but the factory markings were also scraped off. Finding a trace of them would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

While I was pondering this, the alarm blared through the sky.

That's the nearby clock tower chiming.

Before long, three black carriages turned into the abandoned neighborhood.

The wheels screeched as they rolled over gravel. The doors opened, and a series of deacons in black robes, silver crosses hanging from their chests, filed out.

The other two carriages were filled with Templar Knights and Holy See fairies who disembarked.

"People from the Purification Department of the Holy Church." Elena frowned. "They arrived quickly."

The head deacon scanned the scene, looked up at Elena, and bowed slightly: "Miss Elena, thank you for your assistance in handling the anomaly incident."

Elena shrugged: "You guys reacted pretty quickly."

The black-robed deacon smiled: "You know better than I do that no one in London cares more about alien contamination than we do."

He turned to his men and ordered, "Set up a purification barrier, eliminate any remaining pollution, and recover any foreign residues."

The fairies worked together to activate the barrier.

The scorched ground began to purify, and the remaining black mud turned into specks of light and dissipated.

Elena tugged at X's sleeve: "We should go."

"Can we go now?"

"Yes. This happens occasionally in the city, with sudden outbreaks of alien contamination. It's dealt with once it's taken care of."

It turned out to be the case.

Xenogeneic contamination is often a natural phenomenon... therefore, it doesn't require a detailed investigation into what happened before and after, as is the case of a criminal incident.

It seems that Elena doesn't want to have much interaction with her former colleagues.

Ex, however, looked at the busy butlers and suddenly smiled at Irene: "In that case, why don't we relax for a bit?"

"Relax?" Irene was taken aback. "Now?"

"Now," Ex said, pulling Angel up, "let's go on a fern collection tour."

Angel immediately cheered, "Ferns! Ferns!"

Elena looked doubtful: "Sir, are you sure?"

"Yes, Miss Detective. Since we're stuck for now, why don't we take a break... Maybe inspiration will suddenly strike us later."

As he spoke, Ax pulled an invitation from his pocket. "It's a special event at the Royal Botanical Garden, open only to nobles. However, you can bring guests."

This invitation was found on the table in the workshop.

This shows that the original owner also intended to participate in that event.

Elena, who had initially shown little interest, suddenly brightened up: "The Royal Botanic Gardens?"

"And..." Ex lowered his voice, enticingly adding, "I've heard there will be some mysterious and special exhibits."

Irene's pointed ears twitched, clearly intrigued: "What special exhibit?"

X smiled mysteriously: "You'll find out when you get there."

Just kidding, I already said it was a mysterious exhibit, how would I know?

"But I'm not in the mood..." Elena shook her head and said.

"Oh, so you're not in the mood. Then we won't go," Ex said.

Then he saw Elena's ears droop immediately.

X thought for a moment, "...Why don't we go? I really want to go."

Irene's ears immediately perked up.

"But the clues we finally found... just vanished like that..." Elena said again.

"Okay, then I won't go."

Irene's ears immediately drooped.

"Let's go," X said again.

Then he saw Elena's ears perk up again.

X: "..."

Speechless.

"But..." Elena seemed conflicted, as if she was resisting.

But X had already figured it out. Perhaps it was the fairy's nature, or perhaps Elena simply liked to say things she didn't mean. In any case, X knew that she really wanted to go.

It's even easier to understand than Angel.

Indeed, fairies are still inferior to humans. In every sense of the word.

"Alright, enough talk, I'm in charge!"

Ex took Irene's hand and led her outside. "If you keep agonizing over this, it'll be dark soon."

He just didn't notice that when Elena was being led away, she stared blankly at the hand that was being held.

Although they had held hands before when they were hiding from the police, this time she felt a strange sensation.

Perhaps because they had gone through a life-or-death crisis together, she felt that all the previous barriers between her and the jazz had disappeared.

Then Elena cautiously looked at X's face.

I must say, Jazz is quite handsome and so smart, just like a real detective.

For some reason, she felt her ears starting to burn.