Hearing Liyami ask the exact question she had anticipated, Eleanor couldn’t help but let out a slight sigh and said helplessly, “Let me say this first, I don’t know much either! Don’t think I’m deliberately keeping things from you!”
“Of course, of course. How could we possibly think that? We’re good friends! And as the Saintess, how could you possibly do something like deceive people? Right, Lavinia?”
“Exactly, exactly! Eleanor is the Saintess, how could she deceive ordinary citizens like us who have no status? That wouldn’t suit the Saintess’s identity at all! So Eleanor definitely~wouldn’t do that!”
Listening to these two’s somewhat sarcastic assurances, Eleanor forcefully suppressed the twitching corner of her mouth. After taking a deep breath, she selectively forgot their previous words and directly told them everything she knew.
“First, regarding that population disappearance incident, I only know it became known to the people on the island a little over a month ago. I don’t know the exact earliest occurrence time, and I’m also unclear about the details of the incident. I only heard from people who inquired that people on the island suddenly vanished for no reason, without any warning. This situation has persisted for at least a month, making the islanders anxious and fearful. Adding to that, many tourists who came to visit have also disappeared, causing the once-thriving tourism industry to nearly halt. To avoid becoming one of the missing, most people have started stocking up on food and staying home, trying not to go out until the incident is resolved. That’s all I know.”
After hearing Eleanor’s words, Liyami and Lavinia fell silent. Finally, Lavinia couldn’t hold back and asked somewhat desperately, “That’s it?! You only know this much?! Nothing else?!”
Seeing that the two still didn’t quite believe her, Eleanor could only shrug helplessly, indicating she truly knew nothing more.
“Oh, right. Although there’s no concrete evidence, I heard from the Shop Owner earlier that the vast majority of missing people are beautiful women. I don’t know what the reason behind that is.”
Eleanor added another sentence, but this only made Liyami and Lavinia, who already had no leads, even more clueless.
The vast majority of missing people are beautiful women? What could that possibly indicate? Could the culprit be a lecherous old man?! That would be quite peculiar indeed.
Seeing the two frown deeply, Eleanor also knew her little bit of information was practically useless. But she still looked at Lavinia with confusion.
“Speaking of which, shouldn’t you know more about this incident, Lavinia? Weren’t you the one who asked us to come to this island? And you mentioned the disappearance incident happening here before, why are you asking me?”
Seeing Eleanor’s puzzled expression, Lavinia immediately became somewhat embarrassed and fidgeted. Lavinia looked at Liyami, hoping she could provide an explanation that wouldn’t make Eleanor look down on her and could quickly clarify the situation. Seeing this, Liyami smiled, patted her chest, indicating she’d handle it.
“Ahem, simply put, she’s too dumb and didn’t think that far ahead, so don’t count on her.”
It must be said, Liyami’s words were indeed concise, so concise that Eleanor understood the situation immediately upon hearing them. And after learning the actual situation, Eleanor didn’t look down on Lavinia either, because now she was just speechless.
Thus, Liyami successfully achieved what Lavinia requested: not letting Eleanor look down on her and quickly explaining the situation. Although Lavinia’s expression looked a bit complicated.
“Alright, alright, let’s not dwell on this. Let’s think about what to do next?”
Lavinia quickly snapped out of her complicated mood, directly moving past this topic, ready to discuss the next course of action.
Seeing this, Liyami and Eleanor also snapped out of their respective thoughts, preparing to listen to Lavinia’s ideas.
And Lavinia, realizing both people in front of her were looking at her, was momentarily stunned and couldn’t help asking, “Why are you all looking at me?”
Hearing this, the corners of Liyami and Eleanor’s mouths twitched.
“Didn’t you just say we should discuss the next course of action?”
Liyami repeated what Lavinia had just said, hoping she would remember what she was actually here for.
And Lavinia, living up to expectations, said, “Ah, about that, you two discuss it. I’ll just listen and execute.”
After saying this, Lavinia used Elven Secret Arts to create a leaf-made stool and sat down, preparing to just listen to Liyami and Eleanor’s discussion.
Seeing this scene, Liyami and Eleanor were both speechless. They hadn’t expected Lavinia to give up so quickly, not even wanting to think, planning to just be an executor.
Seeing this, although they both wanted to lecture Lavinia, her level was much higher than theirs. Even if they wanted to lecture her, they couldn’t, so they could only let her be.
Although Lavinia didn’t need to be dealt with, the current predicament still mattered. What should they do next?
“…Should we contact the local Special Incident Handling Squad first? We need to know the relevant information about this disappearance incident, and besides, we haven’t obtained their investigation permission yet.”
After a moment of silence, Eleanor gave a very reasonable answer. Hearing this, Liyami immediately nodded, planning to just execute this plan. But unexpectedly, Lavinia suddenly chimed in.
“Um, actually, I already contacted them, but never got a reply. So that plan won’t work now, we can only think of other methods first.”
Hearing this, Liyami and Eleanor fell silent again.
This Lavinia, not mentioning such important information earlier! Eleanor thought angrily in her heart.
And Liyami felt an extreme headache. The current situation was: not to mention finding few people to ask for information, even if they found locals to ask, they couldn’t get any valuable intel. The local Special Incident Handling Squad, who actually knew important information, was now unreachable. Even Kolin, who went out to investigate first, was now who-knows-where. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were currently at a complete loss.
It seemed they really couldn’t do anything now. Besides continuing this aimless attempt to get mostly useless information from locals, they could only…
Thinking of this, Liyami hesitated. But after looking at Eleanor and Lavinia, and looking around, Liyami decided to voice this thought.
“Ahem, I have an idea. It’s probably the only actionable thing we can do right now. Do you want to hear it?”
Liyami coughed, making both of them look at her, then said this sentence. And the two’s responses were just as she predicted.
“Say it, why wouldn’t we listen? Don’t we have no ideas right now anyway?”
“Go ahead, I also want to know what the only actionable thing we can do right now is.”
Seeing both agreed, Liyami no longer hesitated and stated the only thing they could do now.
“My method is… let’s go back to the villa and wait! Since staying outside is useless anyway, we might as well go back to the villa, wait for Kolin to return, and then think about the next course of action! How about it?! Shall we go back or not?!”