-----------------

Today is really too lively.

Giles was filled with reluctance when he heard the door of his wizard tower being knocked again.

It's fine if he's been busy these past few days, but he also has a meeting of elders waiting for his detailed report. He really doesn't want to take on any more burdens right now.

Unfortunately, some of his students and subordinates were injured or recuperating due to the boiling spring accident. At this moment, he was the only mage left in the entire mage tower.

But a centuries-old man wasn't naive enough to think things would just go away on their own. He could only sigh and ask the information transmission pipe, "Who's at the door?"

A familiar voice rang out: "Hello, Elder! Do you remember me? I came to the Inspection Department a few days ago to report..."

Before she could finish her words, Giles had already teleported to the gate of the Mage Tower through a portal, and slowly opened the gate to the servant's somewhat astonished expression.

Outside the door was the source of all this chaos—the woman who had reported the Serabi family for their sacrifices.

"...Of course I remember you." Giles frowned. "Do you think you've been threatened or at risk of retaliation?"

At this time, even letting her stay in the Mage Tower temporarily would be worth it.

"...Huh? Uh, um." The whistleblower, a young woman in her thirties, said with some surprise, "...I was originally just concerned about the progress, but I thought the Inspection Department was being retaliated against, so I'm worried about myself too."

"That's right. According to our current investigation, the Serapi family has likely fled to Mount Taras and won't dare return to Haligard for at least a month. By the time everything settles down in a month, their return will be pointless." Although it was a partial misunderstanding, it wasn't entirely wrong. Giles asked, "So... Miss Nancy, do you need shelter? Where are you living now?"

Hearing this, the woman felt relieved and said, "I live in a residential area, and the relationship between neighbors is pretty good..."

Settlement. Giles frowned slightly at the name and shook his head.

That place was where a group of victims, affected by the Arcane Blight, gathered for warmth. Even in Halruaa, not everyone was a high-ranking wizard. When even wizards struggled financially, their traditional lifestyle became unsustainable. However, in a place like Haligard, with its countless wizard towers, the most abundant thing was space. Haligard's wizards were unwilling to risk their unstable magic to rebuild ruins. Instead, they tacitly occupied those wizard towers that had been abandoned for a long time... or had recently become abandoned.

Then, they turned a blind eye to ordinary people using building materials from the ruins to rebuild their settlements.

Being born in a settlement is synonymous with being of humble origin in Haligad.

Giles frowned. "Are you sure? Your report has been confirmed. I was planning to give you the reward tomorrow, but protecting your personal safety is the most basic of all. If you have any difficulties, you can tell me now."

"No, no, I really don't, I promise." The woman named Nancy nodded without hesitation. "But I still want the reward."

"I can't give you the official reward from Haligad right now," Elder Giles said. "After all, the funds for the inspection department aren't in my own household... But there's an opportunity now. The day after tomorrow, Haligad will hold a meeting of elders to report on the progress of the Serabbi family's investigation. The bounty and funds for repairs will also need to be approved at that meeting. The meeting itself has already been notified to the nearby elders, including Halayach. If you're willing to attend, I can personally advance you some funds."

"Prepayment? How much?"

"500 gold coins isn't much... After all, this isn't actually my personal business." Giles said, pulling out a rather heavy purse from his waist. "Don't tell anyone else about taking the bounty early."

"That's enough! I'll definitely be there!"

This figure was obviously a huge one for Nancy, and she immediately beamed with joy: "Can I just come to the conference room the day after tomorrow?"

"No, if you're interested, you can live in my mage tower now. I'll take good care of you these days."

Nancy looked embarrassed. "I have always been taken care of by my neighbors. I should at least let them know if I stay out all night."

"That's fine," Giles said. "I can even accompany you to the settlement to explain it myself."

"...Let's not do this. The patrol department doesn't have a very good reputation in the settlement." Nancy said.

The settlement was truly xenophobic. Giles was, after all, a powerful elder, not to mention a naturally short temper. After being repeatedly rejected, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Then, see you tomorrow. We'll discuss the Elders' Council in detail in the Mage Tower."

"Goodbye." Nancy waved goodbye, seemingly unaware of his dissatisfaction.

"Goodbye."

The ghetto is an exclusive place—or rather, a place of exclusion.

Halruaa's overall atmosphere is quite uplifting, but it's not quite paradise on earth. Mages here aren't allowed to experiment on ordinary people, but that doesn't mean ordinary people without any talent for spellcasting can truly stand on equal footing with mages.

The ghetto is where people who are clearly excluded from the circle, but still live within the city, live.

Nancy hadn't lied—the people here had been really nice to her.

Nancy's residence is located inside the settlement. It is a neat, clean but unpretentious longhouse.

They are called neighbors, but in fact they are a large group of people living in adjacent houses.

If the inspection department had paid more attention to the settlement, they would have discovered the abnormality here long ago.

But then again, it is precisely because they realize that the Inspection Department does not care about this place that they gather here.

The Church of Shar has no trust in outsiders, but is always extremely friendly to those within.

After all, the core concept of the Church of Shar is that the church is everything to its believers.

If you have other ties, the church will help you destroy them.

When she returned to her residence, she was greeted with a warm hug: "-Welcome back! Nancy, did you have a smooth journey? How are things going?"

It was an elderly human woman wearing a black veil, almost completely shrouded in shadows.

Nancy took him back without hesitation and said, "Mammy! You wouldn't have guessed it was the Inspection Department that was destroyed by the boiling spring not long ago! Now the Inspection Department has been razed to the ground! I had to find Elder Arafat's mage tower to contact him! I don't know what caused the boiling spring, it's horrible."

Nancy spilled the beans about everything that had happened since she arrived at the Mage Tower. The nun in front of her listened carefully to every detail. Only when she heard Nancy's final words, saying she would testify before the Elders' Council, did she breathe a sigh of relief, her face filled with a smile. "...Yes, it was horrible. Fortunately, it happened after you left, otherwise I can't imagine what would have happened."

Mammy smiled and patted her head. "I'm proud of you, child. After the hearing, we won't have to worry about anyone stealing babies anymore."

"Of course!" Nancy touched her belly, "...This is also for my child."

Mammy glanced at Nancy's belly and a warm smile appeared on her face again. "Well, Nancy, the day after tomorrow you'll be facing maybe ten or even dozens of elders... Are you nervous?"

Nancy was stunned, her face pale. "...Dozens of elders?"

Mammy shook her head and carefully took out a strange necklace from the small bag at her waist. She waved it in front of Nancy. "This is Mammy's most precious amulet. It can bring peace of mind... Do you want it?"

This necklace is unremarkable and doesn't even fit the traditional definition of a necklace—small stones with no magical reaction are tied together by some kind of tendon, connected into a string, and finally connected into a ring.

However, these small stones seem to be filled with different dark lights.

Nancy's eyes lit up: "Can I??"

"Of course, but not now." Mammy quickly and carefully stuffed the necklace back into Abel's air, as if she didn't want it to stay in Abel's air for even a second longer. "I'll give it to you tomorrow when you leave for the Mage Tower."

"It's a deal?"

"It's a deal." The nanny smiled brightly.

The Greatest Elders' Meeting (Part 1)

While Haligard was busy, Emiya and his group were more concerned about the little tail left behind by the Gods and Non-Gods, Mr. Aenata.

This frustrated mage was a pure and honest person compared to the other members of the Gods Not Gods Society Emia and the others had met. The Gods Not Gods Society they had encountered before either operated in secret or wore multiple layers of disguise. The fact that someone like him could actually be framed was truly eye-opening for Emia.

...Or, in other words, if the Gods Are Not Gods Society had truly followed its original doctrine, perhaps its members would have been more like Aenata. As for now, the Gods Are Not Gods Society has essentially become a pawn of the devil.

While they were traveling in Abel, the devil's tentacles might be spreading throughout the interior of the Harpers, and they would inevitably encounter various difficulties on their way back.

But even if Emiya had this guess, it would be useless to stay in Faerun - questioning the identity of the gods was obviously the highest level of blasphemy. The so-called Mystra who claimed to be omniscient and unique had countless reasons to openly attack Emiya and his party.

As for the lurking internal struggle?

Do you want to fight with the devil within the rules, even on their home turf?

That might be the most ridiculous joke Emya has heard since coming to Faerun.

Aenata, who was originally in the process of sharing the details of the Mage Tower, looked at Emiya and asked, "...Mr. Emiya?"

"Sorry, I got distracted. Let's continue with the results of your Mage Tower's external exploration."

Aenata then continued, "Our Mage Tower began its first external exploration approximately ten years ago. Since we have never encountered an enemy, and have only observed dragons in the distance, the scope of our expeditions has expanded year by year."

Theoretically, given the average flying height of dragons, as long as the expedition team can maintain various illusions, they will not be discovered on the ground - but this is Abel after all.

It would be fine if they weren't discovered, but if they really encountered danger, a conflict with the dragon would bring devastating losses to Halrua.

What's even more fatal is that Halrua's wealth does not match his strength. If Halrua's existence were to be leaked, it would be hard to imagine what chain reaction would follow.

——Against this background, the Serabi Mage Tower in Haligad has actually been organizing foreign expeditions for ten years!

Elastrid said softly, "I'm not against taking risks—but if something unexpected happens, what are you going to do?"

Aenata was silent for a long time before answering, "I have not participated in the expedition... I don't know their true intentions."

Emiya wanted to scold them, but now that the magic network was about to be restored and a formal external expedition might be organized, she could only say weakly: "...Well, you've already done it anyway. Tell me, you should have achieved some results in the past ten years, right?"

"...Yes." Aenata took a deep breath and said, "When they were exploring outside, they often found some unnatural piles of corpses."

"What do you mean? Whose body?"

"I only heard the people who came back boasting." Aenata pressed his brows together and tried to recall. "The corpses of giant dragons, and the corpses of other creatures, a large number of corpses... This flesh and blood was piled up in a circle without any order, and many parts of it were even irregularly damaged..."

At this point, he shook his head again. "Or perhaps a part of the body was absorbed? In short, the outcome of this bloody ritual is naturally unknown—it must have been taken away by the person who performed the ritual."

Emiya was silent for a moment. "...Just like the sacrificial ritual found in the Serabi Mage Tower? Are you really wronged?"

If the members of this family had already gone out on adventures without regard for Halrua's safety, then it's not inconceivable that they would do even more ruthless things for further research.

Aenata shuddered and suddenly shouted, "This really has nothing to do with me! Maybe the Mage Tower is really doing this kind of thing, but I have no right to participate in it! I really don't have any say in the Mage Tower!"

"..."

Now, Emiya was thinking about other things. He turned to Miss Mustafa's Goddess Hand and asked, "Elise, when you came to Haligard in recent years, have you heard of any unexpected natural disasters here? Floods, earthquakes, lightning strikes, storms, fires?"

"Hmm?" Eliser blinked, then nodded vigorously. "A lot. The Secret Fire Knights have a branch in Haligard, and I often hear them complaining about the poorly built settlements and the constant accidents. They're constantly running around. I even helped put out a lightning fire myself."

However, densely populated areas are more prone to various problems. This doesn't mean anything.

"Even so, they still insist on living together?" Sig asked in astonishment. "We Baldur people in the outer city may be poor, but we live together to get to the busy coastal road and the harbor at Baldur's Gate. Now that Halruaa is vast and sparsely populated, what's the reason for us to live together?"

Elise could only shake her head—she didn't know the answer.

"Regarding this question..." Emiya replied, "Speaking of which, Elder Giles told me that the informant of this case is from the settlement. She will come to the elders' meeting tomorrow and personally inform the elders of the whole story of this major incident."

As he said this, he unconsciously squeezed his dimensional bag.

There, there is also sleeping a strange stone of unknown origin.

After realizing its unusualness, Emiya tried to analyze it.

And his reaction was similar to when Yin overdrew the magic network to control magic power - he almost fainted on the spot.

Inside, the instantaneous condensation of some extremely violent reaction was revealed, and Emiya had no idea how to properly invoke its power.

The weight of this stone seems to be getting heavier.

-----------------

When Elder Giles saw Nancy visiting, he was a little overwhelmed.

He was already several hundred years old, and of course he wouldn't be unable to walk because of a woman's dress. However, he just realized that he had underestimated the importance of attending the elders' meeting for a young resident of the settlement.

He thought Nancy was just going there as a witness, but Nancy might have thought she was going to some grand ball or ceremony.

Yesterday she was only wearing her everyday skirt, but today she had changed into a silk dress that was not suitable for a commoner like her to wear, and her whole body was covered with jewelry.

However, from the perspective of an old elder like Giles, although her dress was intended to be closer to the upper class, there were obviously many problems in various details.

The most outrageous thing was the necklace on her chest—according to Halruaan tradition, such necklaces should be hung with enchanted gemstones. Even if it wasn't the most luxurious gem, it should at least be agate or even amber of some ornamental value.

And what was she hanging now? Some stones mixed with a few colors? These stones were even carefully tied together!

This incongruous dress made an elderly Halrua man like Giles feel a little hesitant to speak.

As an elder in charge of patrolling, he was not actually very good at this, but Nancy made too many big and small mistakes in her dressing.

It's like a hen with peacock tail feathers all over its body!

He hesitated for a moment and couldn't help but sigh: "...Child, do you need my help adjusting your clothes?"

He really couldn't imagine how his colleagues would look at him when he called out such a witness.

Nancy was completely unaware, her eyes filled with surprise: "...You know this?"

"My daughters didn't have any talent for arcane magic, so I had to put more thought into it. Thankfully, my granddaughters are all very capable... but none of them have lived longer than I have." The old wizard sighed. "I think there are still some clothes my daughters once wore in my wizard tower. But first, you have to give me your..."

After a moment's hesitation, Giles was forced to insult the word "necklace": "Change your necklace. That necklace is really not good."

"This is the only thing that won't work!" Nancy objected even more firmly, "This is the amulet my nanny gave me..."

Giles was silent for a moment, then an idea struck him: "...Since it's a protective amulet, it doesn't have to be exposed, right? Wear it next to your skin and change into fine clothes. That way, you won't have to remove the necklace that protects you."

Of course, the most important thing is not to be seen by others... He is old and really doesn't want to lose face in front of everyone.

Nancy looked embarrassed and hesitated for a long time before finally saying reluctantly, "...That's fine."

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"What is Haligad Mustafa doing?! Haligad has been the capital of Halrua for thousands of years! Are they just going to allow a group of evil-minded people to act freely under their noses?!"

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