Isabel in the living room still had the golden hair and blue eyes Leilin was familiar with, but her beautiful face now seemed coated in frost, her gaze cold and sharp, her entire being radiating an air of danger and a warning to all strangers to stay away.
She wore tight leather and light armor, a black sheathed longsword hanging at her waist, forming a graceful arc along with her slender thighs.
From his cousin, Leilin could clearly sense an aura of coldness and despair, as well as a deeply hidden flame of revenge and a trace of… evil!
"It's been a long time, Cousin Leilin! I'm glad you're still safe and sound!"
Isabel spoke slowly, her voice hoarse and dry. Only when her gaze fell upon Leilin did those eyes like solid ice show the faintest sign of melting, revealing a trace of warmth.
"Aunt, I'll take my leave now!"
Isabel bid Sarah farewell and departed, while Sarah's eyes had already turned red.
"What exactly happened?" After Isabel left, Leilin's expression turned dark.
"Oh… my poor sister…" Lady Sarah began to weep, and Leilin could only helplessly stay by her side.
Through his mother's fragmented account, Leilin managed to piece together the general situation.
His cousin Isabel's family had suffered a catastrophic upheaval several months ago — they had been brutally slaughtered. The scene bore many traces of demons and devils, suggesting it was connected to some kind of evil deity ritual.
Almost none of the family members present had survived. Only Isabel, who had been at the Temple of the Goddess of Agriculture, had escaped by sheer luck.
Although Isabel's father was not a proper noble, he had been granted a temporary knight title — albeit a lifelong one. This act immediately provoked the fury of the nobility and the Church, and the city government declared they would leave no stone unturned in finding the perpetrators.
But there was another issue: her family had always been the Faolan Family's agents in the Danbress Kingdom on the mainland. The consequence of their annihilation was that the Faolan Family had completely lost its intelligence and information channels on the mainland, to say nothing of a series of other troubles that needed to be dealt with — regardless, being entangled with an evil deity was always extremely troublesome, and Leilin's father in this life had immediately set sail upon receiving the news, heading to the mainland to resolve these matters.
"You must comfort Cousin Isabel well. She only has us as relatives now. I heard she was even assassinated recently — oh! My poor child…"
Lady Sarah wept, while Leilin nodded with a grave expression.
That cousin Isabel just now clearly did not carry the temperament a priest should have. Obviously, the blood feud of her family — and perhaps a series of subsequent provocations — had set her on the path of bloody revenge. She might have even secretly conducted some kind of ritual or sacrifice.
"Hm? At this point, wouldn't Bishop Tabulis have known already?"
Leilin suddenly realized. With the Temple's information channels, the bishop could indeed have received the news before he did, which made this invitation all the more thought-provoking.
"The storm is gathering!"
Leilin walked out of the living room, looking at the somewhat overcast sky, his expression equally dark as water.
"Something feels off…" Leilin slowly stroked his chin. "Cousin's family could even be considered a branch of our Faolan Family in the Danbress Kingdom. This kind of action doesn't seem directed at them at all — it seems specifically aimed at our family…"
"Perhaps Faolan Island, this newly established kingdom territory, has attracted the covetous eyes of other great nobles? Or perhaps it's the aftereffects of the previous pirate eradication campaigns?"
Numerous possibilities slowly surfaced before Leilin's eyes. By the time he came back to his senses, he was already standing in front of Ernest's room.
"Leilin? I still have very important experiments to conduct…"
From inside the room came Ernest's somewhat displeased voice.
"Sorry, Master, but I think we need to have a long talk!" Leilin's face wore a smile, as if he were completely unfazed by the other's attitude.
"Fine! Thirty minutes only!" The door swung open, revealing Ernest's exhausted face, his hair disheveled, with deep dark circles and bags under his eyes.
After entering the room, dirty clothes and other clutter were everywhere — aside from the laboratory, there was hardly a single clean or tidy spot.
Leilin swept aside a grey shirt that had been tossed on the sofa and sat down directly.
At this point, Ernest seemed to have realized something. He wiped his face and looked at his genius student.
"Leilin! It looks like you've run into some trouble… Is it about the Temple of Knowledge you mentioned this morning? That alone doesn't seem worth this level of concern — or is it something else?"
Ernest was quite concerned about Leilin, this student with such a promising future ahead of him.
"Yes! A big trouble…" Leilin wore a bitter smile on his face and began to narrate slowly.