The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death - Chapter 341

“Sylvia.”

Just like Sylvia expected, in the afternoon of the same day, when she failed to show up to her scheduled meeting with Lilith, Lilith waited for only ten extra minutes before realizing that something might have happened to her.

Sylvia was usually very punctual. She would never be too early or late to a meeting, typically arriving at the meeting venue only a few minutes ahead. Should she be late, she would also inform Lilith about her delay in advance. Being ten minutes late to a meeting without any prior notice was very unlike Sylvia, so Lilith promptly had her other subordinates investigate Lilith’s whereabouts.

Fortunately, Sylvia had considered the possibility that something bad might happen to her when she met with the person trying to investigate Lilith, so she didn’t hide her tracks when making her way to the Rosemary Bar. On the contrary, she deliberately walked under many surveillance cameras. Hence, in less than thirty minutes, Lilith already knew that Sylvia was last seen entering the inconspicuous Rosemary Bar.

What happened afterward was simple. Upon learning about Sylvia’s whereabouts, Lilith promptly made her way to the Rosemary Bar with Kurse and a group of warriors working under her. Then, under the bartenders’ and middle-aged customers’ frightful gazes, Lilith and her subordinates searched the entire bar and found Sylvia tied up and unconscious in one of the establishment’s private rooms.

In her anxiety, Lilith tried to enter the room as soon as she saw Sylvia tied up in the middle of the room. However, Kurse had stopped her before she could do so. Then, he entered the room, inspected it for traps, and only after verifying that the room was safe did he let Lilith enter.

The first thing Lilith did after entering the room was to try and undo the rope restraining Sylvia. Because Alice had drained the mana from the vine before she left, the vine restraining Sylvia had already become no different than an ordinary tree vine. Hence, Lilith only needed to use a little force to break it.

“Huh?”

However, the ease with which Lilith broke the vine surprised her little. Lilith knew Sylvia’s strength, so any rope capable of restraining Sylvia should be extraordinary. Logically, the rope should either be made of an incredibly tough material or enhanced by magic.

Yet, the rope had snapped with little effort on Lilith’s part. She didn’t even use mana to break the rope. This situation greatly confused her. If she hadn’t verified that Sylvia was unconscious right now, she would have thought Lilith was playing an inappropriate joke on her.

At this time, probably because of the commotion in the room, Sylvia had also gradually regained consciousness. Then, she dazedly opened her eyes and saw Lilith’s anxious face before her and Kurse and a group of warriors standing behind Lilith.

It took a moment for Sylvia to process this situation, but she quickly recalled what had happened “just a moment ago.” So, after massaging the bridge of her nose, she said to Lilith in a somewhat uncomfortable voice:

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I failed to uncover any information. I only remember walking into the bar, then… I don’t remember anything else.”

Originally, Alice had intended to erase Sylvia’s memories only up to the point where Sylvia had entered the private room. However, when Alice remembered that they had shared a short interaction on their way to the room, she decided to erase a little more of Sylvia’s memories.

From the looks of things, Alice was quite lucky, and she erased just enough memories to keep her identity hidden. Sylvia not only failed to remember any details regarding Alice’s appearance, but she didn’t even remember that a short, flat-chested, and blonde waitress had guided her to one of the bar’s private rooms.

“It’s fine. Let’s discuss this after we head back,” Lilith said, shaking her head. She was more concerned about Sylvia’s health right now. She also failed to consider the possibility that Sylvia might have been subjected to the effects of spirit magic. After all, she knew about the ability of the ring Sylvia wore. The ring’s defensive properties could basically protect Sylvia from any spirit magic under the taboo-level.

Meanwhile, it had already been many years since a magician capable of using spirit taboos had appeared. Of course, the Demon King, who had appeared in the Royal Magic Tower a few days ago, was an exception. The current Demon King appeared to be capable of using spirit taboos. However, Lilith did not think the Demon King would invite Sylvia for a meeting.

.

“Okay.”

Sylvia nodded. Then, she left the bar with Lilith’s assistance. However, Lilith did not continue following Sylvia after they exited the bar. Instead, she had several of her warriors escort Sylvia to the palace to get inspected by the palace’s medical personnel while she remained by the Rosemary Bar’s entrance.

After a while, Kurse walked out of the bar and stood next to Lilith. When Lilith saw him, she hurriedly asked, “How did it go? Did you find anything?”

Lilith had asked Kurse to inspect the Rosemary Bar’s surveillance footage just now. However, she didn’t expect Kurse to return to her side so soon.

“Nothing. The surveillance cameras were broken,” Kurse said, shaking his head. Then, with a confused expression, he continued, “The cameras didn’t capture anything, not even the person who had damaged them. It’s as if an invisible person had broken the cameras. This bar’s business is very normal, so nobody noticed that the cameras were broken until I asked to inspect the surveillance footage.”

“The other party is quite prudent… But an invisible person? Don’t current invisibility spells prohibit movement? Did someone develop a new kind of invisibility spell?”

Lilith rubbed her chin and frowned. Spells that turned the user invisible existed in this world, but these spells achieved invisibility by using mana to create a special optical illusion. Because of this, users could not make large movements under an invisibility spell. Otherwise, the mana fluctuations their movements created would cause the invisibility spell to lose effect.

Hence, invisibility spells would typically only be used by children to play hide-and-seek. After all, even if a person did not move after using an invisibility spell, the mana fluctuations their body naturally radiated would be very obvious to trained magicians.

As for launching an attack while staying invisible, that could be accomplished by modern invisibility spells. To achieve such an effect would require a ridiculous amount of control over mana from the user. In that case, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to consider such an invisibility spell a taboo.

This was why nobody had developed such an invisibility spell. It simply wasn’t worth the development cost. After all, it was impractical to use taboo-level mana to achieve an ordinary invisibility effect. At most, the invisibility taboo would allow users freedom of movement when invisible.

“How troublesome…”

Lilith sighed. Now that her only lead had come to a dead end, she had no choice but to set this strange incident aside. After all, compared to Sylvia’s bewildering encounter, the problem the Rhine Kingdom might face in the near future was a more concerning issue. If mishandled, it might lead to an all-out war between humans and demons.

After failing to reach any conclusions, Lilith and Kurse quickly left the area. Meanwhile, after the two left, Alice removed the robe she wore and walked out of the alley next to the Rosemary Bar.

It seems Lilith didn’t notice anything… I guess that’s for the best now that she is basically free from suspicion already. Moreover, Lilith is also investigating the person trying to collude with the demons. In a certain sense, I guess we are allies, Alice thought as she saw Lilith and Kurse off.

But it also looks like nobody noticed Sylvia going commando under her skirt… I guess they were so focused on Sylvia’s encounter that they didn’t notice what had happened under her skirt. Let’s hope Sylvia doesn’t get too frightened when she notices her missing panties.