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*I know where the drug came from.*

Crim received that message from Lawran shortly after their meeting, just after she left the building.

He did not want to cause unnecessary friction amongst the other elves of the traditional faction, so he was going to look into the matter on his own, and Crim decided to go with him in case things went south.

“I’m sorry for dragging you around because of our own issues like this.”
“Don’t worry about it. I have my own reasons to look into this matter.”
“…Thank you.”

He was still a bit hesitant, but he appreciated Crim’s help.

…The alchemist girl, Selena, who was also working on producing the drug had given out the information she knew surprisingly quickly.

She had met a traveler on the outskirts of Weisswald who had told her about the drug.

He had also occupied an empty house around there for his own research, and was really enthusiastic to teach Selena the recipe of the drug he knew.

After their first meeting, she had constantly gone back there to learn more from him.

Then, when Selena told him that she was hoping the drug would help her people fight better, he became even more enthusiastic and told her to freely use everything he taught her to accomplish that… And now things were looking bleak again.

She had appeared rather mortified when Lawran requested to be taken to meet that traveler, but agreed in the end.

“Still, I find it somewhat unexpected. I wouldst have thought thou might be more displeased to learn she hath been visiting a foreign alchemist all this while.”
“Well, I’ll admit it’s not something I like, but…”

He looked back at the scared girl following in a distance, then sighed and continued talking.

“You see… Selena has a younger brother who’s rather sickly and doesn’t get to go out much. She decided to learn alchemy to heal her brother, so I’m sure she was also hoping to learn something that would help him. I don’t really want to blame her for that.”

Crim’s eyes widened in surprise, realizing that Lawran was more tolerant than she expected.

“…Is something wrong?”
“No… I was merely a little taken aback, realizing that thou art far kinder than I had expected.”
“Wha- Don’t say weird things like that!”

For some reason, Lawran’s face went red as he sped up to rush on ahead. Crim grimaced a little seeing that and followed him.

…And then they reached a small hut, located a distance away from the road.

“Umm, this is the place.”
“I see… It feels eerily silent.”

Lawran appeared suspicious of the atelier that was dead silent, approaching it and opening the door. It was not locked, allowing them to enter without issue.

“It’s completely empty…”
“Hmm, maybe he realized we were onto him and decided to escape.”

The interior of the hut looked ransacked, with papers and everything else scattered around the floor. Or maybe that was the result of whoever was there gathering all his things as fast as possible to leave.

“Let’s keep looking, maybe there’s something worth looking into further in.”

Lawran continued on, and Crim followed him while being careful to not step on any of the papers scattered on the floor.

“Take heed lest thou step upon any traps. Thou art the leader of one of the two factions that divide the elven village, should aught befall thee…”

Crim suddenly stopped, realizing what she had just said.

…A distressing idea had just taken root in her mind.

If something happened to Lawran here, the leader of the traditional faction, the prime suspect would be Crim.

“…I’m probably overthinking things.”

Then she shook her head while muttering to herself. Only for her hairs to stand on end…feeling something behind her.

When she turned around…she saw Selena, her face pale as a ghost while holding a knife, her eyes filled with murderous intent. She was heading straight for Lawran’s exposed back, as he was too busy searching through the mess.

“Wai-?!”

Crim tried to instantly intervene before the girl caused a tragedy, but when she stepped on one of the scattered pages, she felt like a bolt of lightning passed through her body, paralyzing her.

But she still tried to push herself forward, managing to send her body tumbling between the knife and Lawran’s unprotected back.

Then…she felt a burning sensation across her abdomen.

“Ack..?!”
“…Crim?!”

Lawran caught Crim’s collapsing body.

The pain mitigation system kicked in right away, so Crim did not feel any actual pain…but she could clearly see the girl’s knife stuck into her stomach. The place where it remained felt like it was on fire, and she could not move her body.

Then white smoke began to rise from the cut, and she could see her HP bar gradually decreasing in her peripheral vision. That meant…

“Silver, huh…!”

Then she looked at the floor again, realizing that some of the papers on the floor were actually pages ripped out of a book. Those were likely…pages out of a bible, scattered all over the floor. It was clearly a trap set to target Crim.

“…Selena, why would you…”
“I’m sorry I didn’t want to, I had no choice…I had to do it, I had to do everything I was told, otherwise I wouldn’t get my brother’s cure…!”

Her face was ghastly pale and her hands shook violently, her gaze wavering and moving all over the place…but her eyes were still filled with firm murderous intent.
She took out a second knife from her belt and slowly approached Lawran, who held the immobile Crim.

“…I knew…I was right…to take preventive measures…”
“…Huh?”

Beads of sweat formed on Crim’s brow as she struggled to get the words out, and Selena froze in place, doubting her ears, and then…

*Thock!*

A kunai struck the floor next to her feet…and the tag tied to it exploded loudly.

“Master!”
“Crim, are you okay?!”
“Crim!!”

Then the door was kicked open as the other members of Lua Cheia rushed in.

Crim had requested Setsuna’s assistance as she left the meeting with Lawran earlier, and sent messages to Hinagiku, Frey, and Freya too, just in case.

“Now then… Would you mind explaining what you’re trying to do to my master…?!”
“I…no…”

Saying that, Setsuna appeared from the shadows of the hut and stood in front of Crim and Lawran to protect them.

She could no longer reach her target, and her escape route was blocked too…realizing she had no chance left, the girl dropped the knife and fell on her knees…