Sacred royal capital, temple of nature, archival space.

A long trestle bridge, under which endless rows of bookshelves sit like a long river, stretching to both sides until darkness, each of which is stacked with crystal plates and papers of different colors, which are the documents and reports accumulated by the temple for thousands of years.

There was no dust, but the pages were still yellowed and faded under the protection of magic, enough to tell how much time had passed.

On the trestle, two figures stood side by side.

One is an elderly old man, although tall but has bent down in time, and next to him is a double ten girl, although she can stand up straight, she also deliberately bends over, and comes to the old man, she is Minerma.

"Grandpa Oak, you can help me, and it won't cost you anything. She said sweetly, like a coquettish girl, if Marcus saw that her cold old lady could actually behave like such a lovely appearance, it is estimated that her eyes would have to fall off.

"Do you think of me every time you have something?" the old man glared and said, "I haven't seen you once in most of the year!"

"Isn't that busy, but you can't blame me," Minelma complained, "You don't know that Captain Raymond is using his team to death, and he has no time to spare, so I just had a little time to come and see you!"

"Look, I'm a full-fledged member!" she said, waving a ring on her hand.

The ring is emblazoned with a golden flaming sword, the symbol of the Holy Law Enforcement Corps.

"Oh, come and see me, okay, let's go, grandpa will take you to eat the best restaurant in the royal capital." Oak shook his hand, bent over and walked to the side of the trestle.

"Don't!" Minerma hurriedly stopped in front of the old man and raised her arms: "Grandpa Oak!

"I promise, next time I have time, I will come to see you! Next time I will fish out my father's blue-tailed kingfish to honor you!"

"Oh, that's what I said last time!" the old man sneered and snapped his fingers.

A magical image appeared on the pier, inside was Minelma, who had slightly immature eyebrows, wearing her original hideous heavy armor and carrying a blood-colored sword, only to hear her say sweetly in the video: I promise, next time I have time, I will come to see you! Next time I will fish out my father's blue-tailed kingfish to honor you!

"Hah...... Ha ......" Minerma's expression suddenly froze, as if it might not have changed a word, no wonder she said it so smoothly......

She hurriedly used her icy breath to freeze the beads of sweat that slid down her forehead.

"Where's the fish?!" Oak said with a bleached beard and glaring.

"Grandpa Oak! next time, you can help me, if you don't help me, I, I," I don't know how Minelma did it, and there was a hint of crying as she spoke, and her eyes turned red: "I'm being bullied! If you don't help me, I'll go to the forest to be a druid and never come out!"

"Yo, who is so bold, dare to bully our daughter!" said Oak angrily.

"Captain Raymond bullied me, and the Ed Card Master bullied me, the girl from the Illuvita School of Magic bullied me, and the mentor and partner from my last mission, the Ranger of the Temple, he bullied me! I was tired of being a reserve in the law enforcement team and being bullied by these people! You won't help me! I'm quitting! I'm going to be a druid!"

"Alright, well, alas. The old man shook his head helplessly: "Grandpa is to help you." ”

He smiled and walked to the middle of the trestle, closed his eyes, and stretched out his right hand.

The endless bookshelves under the bridge began to tremble slightly, every document was chirping, and every moment the old man's hand seemed to have countless papers of different colors whizzing by, appearing and disappearing like phantoms, and the documents flying under the trestle were like a turbulent river, and his hand gently stroked the surface of the splash but was not wet by the river at all.

Minelma pursed her lips and stood behind the old man, her frosty face no longer had the girlish posture she had just been coquettish.

These days, like her angry oath, she mobilized all her resources to track down the traces of Honorom's disappearance for a year, including the influence and connections of Grand Duke Maple Leaf, and even used her status as a member of the law enforcement team to do some outrageous things, if Captain Raymond knew about it, I am afraid that it would be light to demote her to a reserve again.

But it finally came to fruition, as the ranger himself often said - everything that passes through time will leave a trace.

She made a discovery.

It's just that the clues to follow up have not yet been determined, so she came here to look for it.

The Temple of Nature monitors chaos, not only the tides of chaos outside the boundaries of order, but also the cultists and degenerates who dwell in the shadow of the flames of order. Therefore, the temple also has enough natural sacrifices and supernumeraries to do eyeliner in various places, and the collection and collation of various information will eventually come down to it.

As a member of the law enforcement team, although Minelma had the permission to come here to check the information, she was not strong enough to find the drop of water she wanted from the huge river, so she had to ask the old man for help.

"There you go!" said Oak suddenly.

At the same time, he reached forward with his right hand and pulled out a gray-white report from a phantom.

The surging river suddenly stopped, and all the documents returned to their original places.

"The information record you want," Oak handed the gray-white paper to Minelma, pretending to be very difficult to knock on the back of the bent half moon, and sighed: "Old, you have to look for something for a long time, the blue-tailed kingfish doesn't eat it, next time you have to hold a baby for me to see." ”

"What are you talking about, Grandpa Oak!" Minelma wanted to be coquettish, but a chill spread from her hand holding the paper.

"The old man's body can't stand the toss, so he won't accompany you. Seeing this, Oak shook his hand and left the trestle slowly, only to hear him sigh from afar: "Girl, you are too stubborn, you will inevitably have to suffer for it in the future, blame your father for giving you the name, what is the sky sword, how good is the sky cloud I take......

"Obviously the sword-wielder of the sky!" Minerma muttered.

Watching the old man leave, she looked at the paper in her hand.

The off-white report was supposed to be the least classified, and it didn't contain any important information, but since Grandpa Oak had taken it out and handed it to her, it meant that it had what she needed.

Sure enough, Minelma's sharp gaze swept across the page, and her face suddenly became gloomy, and a cold smile spread to the corners of her mouth.

"Caught your tail...... Honorom ......"

……

"Morin! Ask me again!"

In the common room, Equino looked at the teenager opposite with a nervous expression, while Marcas and the others sat around like an audience, not only that, but Tilna also specially invited a few middle and senior seniors with Aeno face to sit around as strange spectators.

They're simulating what tomorrow's hearing will look like.

Morin asks questions, Aeno answers and recounts his experiences, and the others watch.

It's just that it's been simulated three times, and the nervous Aeno is still not satisfied.

"It's okay," Morin put aside the paper in his hand: "You have answered all the questions that Councilor Yara asked us to prepare, just relax when the time comes, don't be nervous and don't be afraid, those dead Councilors don't dare to do anything to you." Besides, the seniors have other things to do, so you can't keep bothering them to help out here. ”

"Oh," said Aeno, getting up to see off the seniors, and then to Merlin, "do it again, or you can ask me a few questions that don't have on paper?

Marcas shook his head and said, "These are all difficult questions to answer selected by the councilors, and there is no need to be distracted to prepare for others now, it is better to familiarize yourself with Councillor Yara's proposal when you have time, maybe I will ask you what you think of some of the contents at that time." ”

"After all, this is a public hearing on Councillor Yara's proposal. ”

"Okay......" Aeno hesitated as she picked up a stack of papers:

"But my heart is always hairy, and I always feel that tomorrow will not be smooth......"

"Don't worry, although we can't be with you when you speak, we are all in the audience, and there is this!" Morin raised his hand and shook it, and a lilac pentagram rune flickered on his wrist.

"But in case tomorrow the questioner asks me some questions that I can't answer......

Then don't answer, find a way to skip that question. Just like we did when we simulated it, didn't we simulate this situation specifically, you've done a pretty good job!" said Morin.

A few days ago at the Treehouse Tavern, Aeno didn't hesitate to agree to Congressman Yara to speak at the hearing, and she was quite calm at the time, but in the past few days, she was almost so nervous that she lost half a circle - she was a powerful vampire, and she lost half a circle, so you can imagine how nervous she was.

According to Tilna, even when she was reading in bed at night, she still had words in her mouth, and sometimes she would ask and answer herself in two tones, as if she was going crazy.

In fact, everyone is trying their best to help her prepare these days.

From the most basic etiquette of the hearing, to the answering language and facial expressions of each question, to some psychological skills of speaking in public, and even to asking a strange senior to act as an audience to simulate the whole process just now, it can be said that everything that can be thought of has been done and everything that can be done has been done well.

Aeno was still nervous.

Of course, not only Emino was nervous, but Morin was also quite nervous, but they just didn't dare to show it in front of her.

After all, now with the approval of Councilor Yara, it has been basically determined that Augustus has a close relationship with the deceased, and wants to loosen the military restrictions on the country of the dead, and what they want to do is equivalent to helping Councilor Yara win neutral parliamentarians, so that more people are wary of the dead.

It is precisely on the opposite side of the Speaker.

It was the Speaker of the Holy Council of the Holy Alliance, elected under the watchful eye of High Priest Eudora, who held the scepter that was supposed to symbolize peace and unity. In the years when the alliance was at its most influential, the Speaker's status was much higher than that of the Imperial King.

And now I'm going to go against him!

It's exciting to think about.

Even if it is not directly opposed, it is enough for the teenagers' heartbeats to be about to go out of a level at any time.

Maureen is fine, but his palms are often sweaty, and he will look around vigilantly from time to time in public.

But Marcus was much more miserable, and he was more restless than Aejunor in the back.

Thinking that he was an ordinary aristocratic kid who liked magic machinery, and that he was going to go against the one in the Alliance Council, Marcas just wanted to use the impact hammer made in the [Elementary Machinery Making] course to hammer himself on the head and knock himself out, and it was best to wait for Merlin and them to beat the big demon king to himself before waking up.

Or Morin, if they are defeated, at least he can help them take care of the aftermath......

Even for several nights in a row, he was nervously talking in his sleep.

Something like "It's miserable, it's miserable, Speaker Speaker, let me go...... My father has removed me, I'm not from the Maple Leaf family, don't come to me...... Don't chase me, don't chase me, my sister is in front of ......" and the like, and what is "bullshit Speaker is so shameless...... Watch Barron crack your skull with a hammer...... Let you collude with the kingdom of the dead!I will step on me, trample on you!" and so on.

Even Xiao Hei was so noisy that he couldn't sleep well at night, and he looked sluggish all day long.

Only Barron remained fearless and didn't seem to have given up on finding someone to smash the speaker's skull.

However, watching him wipe the heavy black hammer from time to time, Morin felt a drum in his heart, thinking that he must be optimistic about this guy. Don't run into the Speaker in the Holy King's Capital at that time, and several of them were saluting, but Barron's head was hot, and he went straight up with his hammer.

That's really going to be famous forever and be remembered in the "Iluvita Academy Memorabilia"** for future generations.

"Rest early, we'll leave early tomorrow morning. Tilna looked at the time and motioned for everyone to leave.

There is a corridor in the library that leads directly to the Holy Capital, but they are not currently qualified to pass through it, and they need to take a flying carriage to the Holy Capital.

Merlin looked out the window, the light of the moon god was obscured by a cloud, and the scythe in the middle of the starry sky was silent in the night.

I sighed slightly in my heart, I just hope that everything will go well tomorrow......

……

Under the dark scythe, the commercial district of the Holy Royal Capital is still lively, because as the New Year approaches, people are especially willing to spill the gold coins in their pockets, and the shops of all sizes are also lit up, and various seemingly preferential discount activities are continuous.

But most of the administrative districts were deserted by this time.

The administrative staff who worked here during the day had left, except for the guards who were still on patrol, there were hardly any people in the whole area, and the roads were naturally empty and not congested at all, and it was not far from the archives of the Temple of Nature to the law enforcement team next to the parliament building, but Minelma dragged her hesitant steps to the present.

She still paused.

Although she has a clear clue, it will take more time to follow the trail, and she must ask the captain for a leave of absence to act freely, or report the clues she finds to the captain for a formal manhunt - in which case she will need to explain the previous unauthorized investigation.

And Captain Raymond's temper ...... There was a solemnity in her eyes.

In front of you is a palace-like building, the black outer walls are decorated with gold and iron weapons, and the towering dome is topped with spires that stretch from the ground to the endless night sky.

This is where the Holy Law Enforcement Team is stationed.

In addition to the White Tower, it is the holiest place in the entire royal capital, alongside the Parliament Building and the Temple of the Four Gods.

It is also the most ruthless place in this royal capital.

Although the targets of the law enforcement team are depraved professionals and crazed cultists, when they have the advantage of power, they will capture and send their targets back to the trial, and of course, these guilty people are often sentenced to death—the punishment of taking their name.

In most people's eyes, this is more brutal than the death penalty, but at least in the vast majority of cases, those who deserve it. The prisoner will be reduced to a nameless, deprived of the past body, and in order to atone for his sins, he will often be sent to the frontier of the front line to fight to the death, and even after death, the soul will not return to the embrace of the moon god, and can only wander in the void forever without rest.

The place of execution was in front of this temple, at the foot of Minelma.

Even she had always felt that the nights here were a little colder.

Looking at the swarthy door that had been closed and the dazzling flaming sword that had joined together, and glancing at the gray pages in her hand, she finally stepped forward.

In the bright hall of the hall, the hanging crystal lamps cast heavy shadows on the ground, and on the wide seats, Raymond, who was as strong as a bear, grinned at Minelma who pushed the door in.

"Captain. Minelma bowed.

Although she had just counted down the captain in front of Grandpa Oak, and occasionally argued with the captain on weekdays, she actually had a high respect for Raymond. Not only because the other party is the captain of the law enforcement team, her immediate boss, but more importantly, the existence of this nicknamed Stupid Bear is the most powerful warrior she has ever seen.

Far more powerful than the best combat instructors in the Royal Academy.

Sitting in this throne-like position, it was originally necessary to mix in the various forces to check and balance the council and the temple, but Captain Raymond was not good at words, and he would never say a word more about what could be solved with his fists, and no one dared to let him say a word more.

Minelma knew that even now that she had crossed the line of earth, she was no match for Raymond.

Pursing her lips, she hid the report in her hand behind her and said, "Captain, I hope to take a vacation." ”

Raymond looked at her with white teeth, "Vacation?"

Minelma's momentum froze, and finally handed over the gray-and-white report in his hand, and said bluntly: "I want to officially track down Honorom Winderwalker, I think he has something to hide in the report, and speculate that something may have gone wrong in the process of carrying out his mission." ”

"That's right. Raymond's loud voice reverberated through the halls.

He waved his hand, not even looking at the report.

"Huh?" Minelma was momentarily stunned.

She had prepared countless rhetoric to persuade the captain to approve her action, but she didn't expect the other party to agree so simply, without even looking at the report, this is really Captain Raymond? I'm afraid it's not someone impersonating, right?!

If it weren't for the fact that the other party still exuded an aura that was difficult to match, I'm afraid she would have to draw her sword and face each other.

She felt a little stiff in her body. "Don't you need to read the report, I've found a clear clue. ”

"No, I don't. There's nothing I haven't used you lately, so if you have a clue to track it down, go and check it out. Raymond said simply: "In addition, there is no need to set up a formal project, who knows if the former Eye Organization has infiltrated our law enforcement team, and you are responsible for everything." ”

"Oh, yes. Minerma was still a little stunned, clutching the gray page, her knuckles white:

"Then I, then, went to investigate. ”

She made another junior salute, saw that there was no unusual look on Raymond's rough face, and hurried away.

"By the way, your armor is ready, since you are here, you can stop by and get it. Raymond's knuckles tapped on the wide seat, and there was a sound of gold and iron: "It's better than your original one, but try not to rely on that armor when fighting, so as not to delay your swordsmanship practice." ”

"Thank you, Captain, for your advice. Minelma paused.

"And ......" Raymond's thunderous voice suddenly became hoarse, and he said very embarrassedly, "Don't wear that armor to Iluvita and hang around, if Ed's soft bastard sees it, he will definitely come to me to collect debts......"

"I don't have any money......"