[Vol. 7] Chapter 87: The Missing Ones
After checking the entire area and confirming that not a single living soul could be found, [Tree Bow] was left completely baffled.
With no other choice, he decided to leave the village for now and regroup with the rest of their team, who had been camping outside to monitor the situation.
However, when they reached their planned meeting spot...
"Wait! Something’s not right, Sophie!"
All of a sudden, [Tree Wall], who was walking ahead of them in the forest outside the village, stopped in her tracks and raised her shield defensively.
As a dryad with sharp senses, she had already sensed the problem.
Since their other teammates needed to be ready to provide support at any time, they had camped not too far from the village. But to avoid drawing attention from the villagers, they wouldn’t have openly set up tents, let alone lit a large bonfire at night. Instead, they would have kept watch in shifts and rested in sleeping bags to remain as discreet as possible.
This method left very few traces of their presence, making it hard for outsiders to detect their camp.
But even so… the area was far too clean.
Too clean, like no one had ever been here at all.
[Tree Bow] exchanged a look with his two teammates. Then, with Sophie covering him, he stepped forward and took out a special wooden whistle. He blew a series of short, bird-like chirping sounds into the air.
"Tweet~ Tweet~"
The whistle’s melody echoed through the forest. To an outsider, it would sound like nothing more than a bird’s call, but to those familiar with it, this was their pre-arranged signal to reveal themselves.
Yet, even after ten whole seconds, there was no response.
Enrique’s expression darkened.
Enrique was about to try something else, but Violet calmly shook her head at him.
“No need to bother. There’s not a single person within hundreds of meters around us. They’re already gone.”
“Damn it!”
Frustrated, Enrique slammed his fist against a nearby tree, causing a shower of leaves to fall. His green hair trembled slightly as he muttered angrily, unable to hide his irritation.
“How the hell did this happen…? Did they get ambushed by some powerful enemy? But when I met up with [Tree Monkey] and the others last night, they were perfectly fine!”
“Big brother, calm down! Maybe they just… um, they just…”
Sophie had instinctively tried to comfort her brother, but halfway through, she hesitated. In the end, she couldn’t even bring herself to finish the sentence. It was clear, she had no explanation either.
Everything had been normal just last night. Yet, within a single night, their teammates had vanished into thin air. And these weren’t just any adventurers. They were high-level elites with vast experience.
“Suddenly disappeared… A missing persons case…”
Violet observed the undisturbed ground, noting that there were no signs of struggle or interference. Then, her gaze shifted to a large, old tree nearby. She walked over and lightly ran her fingers along its rough bark, murmuring softly to herself.
“…Nothing.”
“Miss Violet? Did you find something?”
Glancing at her two legendary-ranked companions, who had quickly regained their composure and joined her, the black-haired priestess nodded slightly.
“Do you remember what that Astrologer, Miss Qionghua, mentioned last night while we were still in the mountains?”
[Tree Bow] immediately nodded.
“Of course. She said that the entire night sky in this area was completely abnormal, as if it had been flipped upside down. But what exactly does that mean? Miss Violet, have you figured it out?”
“I wouldn’t say I fully understand, but I do have a theory…”
Violet pointed to the old tree beside her, then gestured toward her gem-like silver-blue eyes.
“I’ve mentioned this before. I can see faint traces of light left behind on the paths people take. That’s how we were able to track our way here. To put it simply, it looks like a thin golden line, almost as if someone had painted it on the ground.”
“But something very strange happened. Ever since we entered this remote mountain area last night, those traces suddenly disappeared. I tried using a certain method to search from a distance, and I found new traces. But they were outside of Adelaide Village 192, in a completely different location. It didn’t stop me from tracking, but it was clearly unusual and illogical.”
“Because of that, I decided to be cautious. Before entering the village last night, I secretly carved a small mark on this tree, but I didn’t tell anyone about it. Now, look…”
She tapped a specific spot on the tree trunk with her pale fingers. There was no sign of the mark, no carving at all.
A subtle, unreadable smile curved at the corner of Violet’s lips, as if she were talking to herself.
“Same place. Same tree. A mark that only I knew about… Yet, after just one night, it’s completely gone. What does that mean?”
“This…”
Enrique and Sophie exchanged glances. With their keen instincts as legendary adventurers and vast experience, they quickly realized the most likely explanation.
“Wait… Are we actually in the same place as last night? Or… are we somewhere else entirely?”
Sophie blurted out the thought almost instinctively.
Violet nodded approvingly.
“Exactly! That’s the most reasonable explanation so far. But if that’s the case, then… there are still some things that don’t quite add up…”
“I see… What Miss Violet wants to figure out is why these two different spaces exist, what defines the boundary between them, and why only we managed to return to this side… right?”
After analyzing the situation, Enrique had completely calmed down, shifting into a mode of careful reasoning.
“If we assume this theory is correct, there’s something I’d like to confirm. Earlier, you said that the unique traces left behind by Miss Light had been disrupted in this area. What about now? Have those broken trails reappeared?”
“Oh?”
Not bad. A legendary adventurer really is different from the average nobody. Most people wouldn’t catch on to the key point this quickly…
Of course, Violet wasn’t about to say that out loud. Instead, she simply turned her head toward the rugged village path ahead.
Under the [Yin-Yang Eyes], the golden trail, which hadn’t existed there last night, was now glowing faintly, stretching forward and forming a continuous line leading into the distance.
“Now I can say for certain, this is where they actually passed through.”
Some time later…
After thorough discussion and reasoning, [Tree Bow] and [Tree Wall] had mostly accepted Violet’s interpretation of the situation. However, to be completely sure, they decided to search the village and the surrounding forest one more time.
No matter what defined the boundary between these two spaces, and no matter what made them different, there was very little they could do right now, besides wait.
Since it was possible that the others might return to this side at some point, and given that the area didn’t seem dangerous, the three of them made a decision.
Violet, who's lazy, ahem, claimed to be a frail priestess with weak physical endurance, would stay at the camp to rest and keep watch. While Enrique and Sophie would search the village together, gathering as much information as possible.