The Martial Unity

Chapter 3334: Unimaginable Possibility

Enough time had passed since Rui’s battle that many began to lose hope as to whether they would even find him at all. They had hoped to find him the very day that he had been kidnapped.

If not the very day, then they hoped to find him within forty-eight hours.

Then, within three days.

Then, within a week.

Then, within ten days.

And now, two weeks had passed since his battle, and Rui was nowhere to be found.

”We have completed a rigorous surveillance sweep through data gathered through the backdoors in the light elven flora network,” she replied with a more measured tone as she made her report to Emperor Rael. ”We have not yet found any trace of Prince Rui Quarrier. However, we are confident that the light elves are also in the exact same position and have yet to discover him despite searching for him for two weeks themselves.”

Emperor Rael frowned with clear displeasure. ”I must confess, I’m rather bewildered. I thought you elves had absolute control over your own land. How could he possibly be missing for all this time?”

Especially when the Emperor knew that Rui was undoubtedly unconscious after Gigabrain.

Mother Alicia shook her head with a mystified expression.

”I have no answer to that. However, I am increasingly certain about whether he is acting on his own and of his own merit. In particular, I don’t think it is possible to hide from us in our own homeland for this long, especially for someone like Rui, who reeks of death and illness. We elves can easily smell him even if he isn’t right in front of us. I just can’t conceive of how he can avoid us like that in the middle of East Genora,” she continued with a skeptical tone. ”I suspect... that he has managed to gain the help of a powerful party within East Genora that is helping him hide from the light elves.”

Emperor Rael’s eyebrows rose. ”Oh? Isn’t that fascinating? But who in East Genora would help Rui in those circumstances? Isn’t that just as absurd as Rui successfully avoiding the light elves for two weeks within East Genora?”

”...Maybe,” she admitted. ”It is indeed also a difficult-to-conceive possibility. But it is not as logistically impossible as successfully hiding in East Genora for two weeks without being found. Not all light elves agree with what the majority thinks. Not all of them believe in nature primacy or that the ’demon of death’ has done anything wrong.”

”...so you think he might have run into an elven tribe that decided to help him out of empathy?” Emperor Rael raised an eyebrow. ”That’s a fascinating possibility.”

”No.” She shook her head. ”An elven tribe would not be able to hide him for this long. The Mothers of Nature have gone above and beyond to locate him within their territory, no matter, including scanning the tree homes of all light elven tribes within the East Genora, as have we, and we have not found anything. Not even a trace of his presence. Which means that...”

Her sapphire eyes grew hazy with thought.

”...it will have to be a Mother of Nature hiding him.”

Emperor Rael’s eyes widened at those words. ”A Mother of Nature? The kind that Rui killed? The ones who have been hunting for him alive for the past fourteen days?”

”Yes,” she replied with a musing tone. ”Officially, all ninety-eight Mothers of Nature in East Genora have been searching for Rui with all their power. But I think the likeliest explanation is that one of them is helping him secretly to hide from the rest.”

”...But why?”

”I can’t say.” She shook her head. ”This is just conjecture. So I could be totally wrong. Your son has performed some incredible feats, so perhaps he truly can completely negate the omnipresent surveillance that exists in Genora.”

”No, I think you’re correct.” Emperor Rael fell into thought as he stroked his chin. ”It does sound more plausible now that you mention it.”

This was especially since he knew that Rui was unconscious. Given that he had apparently teleported away at the last moment and hadn’t been seen since, the Emperor of Harmony realized that it was likely the case that he had managed to get himself some help before falling unconscious.

The air grew heavy as the implications of this dawned on the two of them.

”...So, what do you dark elves plan to do now that you have completed a whole sweep of East Genora?” Emperor Rael raised an eyebrow. ”Do you intend to continue sweeping, hoping that you will eventually find him?”

She shook her head. ”There’s no point in sweeping through data from across East Genora anymore. It is unchanged and static. He isn’t on the move. He isn’t leaving anything that we can work with. He is likely in a static state. What we plan to do is begin approaching Mothers of Nature in East Genora and try to see which one of them possibly has Rui. Then we can negotiate an exchange.”

”I have a better idea.” Emperor Rael remarked with a knowing smile. ”Rather than approaching all Mothers of Nature, why don’t you start with the ones who you aren’t certain would kill Rui?”

She nodded. ”That makes more sense. There are some Mothers of Nature who would kill him the very second they got their hands on him. There is no point in approaching them in the hopes that they have him because they wouldn’t keep him alive or hide him. We can start with the more mellowed out and less intense Mothers of Nature in East Genora.”

”I would recommend faking data,” Emperor Rael remarked. ”Pretend like you have obtained some scrap of information that proves that they have him and that you will threaten to reveal it to the other Mothers of Nature. If you’re wrong, they will deny it vehemently and know that it is fake, but when you approach the one who does have him, it is very difficult for them to think that you’re simply fibbing.”