“Anyway, that’s the situation. Everyone, remember to be careful during the investigation. Tomorrow, we’ll meet up with the local Special Incident Handling Squad and try to share information with them as soon as possible.”
Seeing that the time was about right, Kolin simply announced the end of the discussion, telling everyone to return to their rooms and rest, and to continue their actions tomorrow.
No one objected. They all stood up, preparing to leave Kolin’s room. Liyami and Eleanor were both thinking about the clues Kolin had brought, while only Lavinia, as she walked towards the door, was muttering something under her breath.
“Honestly, the squad in charge of this area must be a bunch of bullies who pick on the weak! They were so enthusiastic with Kolin, but they won’t even reply to a single communication request from me. Is it just because Kolin is the squad leader and I’m just a regular member? They’re so snobbish!”
Lavinia’s quiet grumbling didn’t catch the attention of Liyami or Eleanor, as they had already heard Lavinia complain about this before. However, upon hearing this, Kolin suddenly frowned and turned to look at Lavinia, who was about to leave the room.
“What did you just say?”
Hearing Kolin’s words, Liyami and Eleanor, pulled from their own thoughts, also turned to look at Lavinia together. Feeling the pressure of three pairs of eyes on her, Lavinia immediately felt a huge weight and her expression began to turn flustered.
“W-what’s wrong? I-I was just complaining a bit, right? That shouldn’t be a problem, should it? It’s not like I said it to their faces, just a little gossip behind their backs. T-that’s not allowed either?”
Lavinia’s reply was a bit nervous. She hadn’t expected Kolin to suddenly care about this. But to avoid lowering her image in Kolin’s eyes, she made a slight effort.
However, this wasn’t what Kolin was truly concerned about. He shook his head and restated his question.
“That’s not what I’m asking. You just said you sent a communication request to the local squad?”
“Y-yes. Is there a problem with that?”
Although still a bit nervous, seeing Kolin’s increasingly serious expression, Lavinia also began to feel puzzled.
And Liyami and Eleanor, from Kolin’s question, gradually began to sense something was off.
“When did you send the communication request? They still haven’t replied to this day?”
Kolin continued his questioning, and Lavinia, no longer as tense, began to answer quickly and truthfully.
“About three or four hours ago, back when the three of us were still investigating on the street. At that time, to get permission for the local investigation, I tried to contact the local squad, but the other party didn’t… give me any response. So we said we’d come back and wait for you.”
By the end, even Lavinia began to see the problem.
Kolin had said earlier that as soon as he arrived on the island, in the morning, he had made contact with the local Special Incident Handling Squad and obtained their permission and relevant information. Later, in the afternoon, Lavinia had also sent a communication request to the local squad but received no reply.
Even if they might have been busy or for various other reasons and couldn’t reply immediately, several hours had passed now, and there was still no reply at all. Neither directly informing Lavinia, nor telling Kolin the message and having him notify Lavinia. No matter how you looked at it, this was too negligent.
After all, from Kolin’s words and the information he brought, the local squad was definitely very welcoming of Kolin and his team’s arrival. It was impossible for them to completely ignore a member of Kolin’s squad like this. Moreover, it was already evening; the sun had almost completely disappeared. Even if they were investigating, they should have wrapped up by now.
Unless they had obtained some important information? But that couldn’t be it either. If they really had important information, they should have communicated with Kolin, right? After all, Kolin had said that given the local squad’s strength, dealing with this incident would be very difficult, so they were relieved to have Kolin’s help.
And if that were the case, if they had any important information, they wouldn’t possibly fail to inform Kolin promptly, right? So what was the situation now? Why was there no news at all?
Thinking this, bad guesses began to surface in everyone’s minds.
Apart from reasons like being too busy to reply to Lavinia’s communication request, there was only one other possibility. They had encountered an unexpected situation that left them completely unable to spare a moment, not even time to contact Lavinia or Kolin. And the unexpected situation that could happen on this island now was only…
Thinking this, Liyami glanced at Kolin and found his expression had turned completely serious. Lavinia also spoke up at this moment, sounding somewhat hesitant. “…Should we try contacting them again?”
Kolin did not reject this suggestion. He directly took a scroll from his clothes. Liyami recognized what it was—a one-time Communication Magic Scroll, personally made by Hifny. Unless the other party’s Communication Restriction Level was absurdly high or the distance was truly too great, it would definitely project the communication directly in front of the other party, regardless of whether they agreed or not.
Liyami was very familiar with this magic. After all, right after she became a woman, Hifny often used this type of communication magic to contact her.
And now, Kolin was going to use this magic scroll to forcibly establish communication with the local squad. If it turned out to be just a misunderstanding, at worst, it would only waste one magic scroll. But if it wasn’t, then every second counted.
Kolin didn’t hesitate. He directly activated the scroll in his hand with magic power. But even after several minutes had passed, as the scroll in his hand gradually turned to dust and disappeared under the activation of magic power, Kolin did not see the circular light ring that would appear upon the successful establishment of communication magic.
This situation could only mean one thing: the communication magic had failed to establish. But this was a Communication Magic Scroll made by Hifny; failure was basically impossible. There were only two possibilities for failure.
One was that the distance was simply too great. However, as far as Kolin knew, Hifny’s communication magic could cover at least half the Kingdom’s map. Unless the local squad had suddenly Transferred to the other side of the Kingdom, it shouldn’t be possible for the establishment to fail.
The other possibility was that the other party’s Communication Restriction Level was too high, causing the establishment to fail. But this was also impossible. The other party was just the leader of an ordinary Special Incident Handling Squad; they shouldn’t have such a high Communication Restriction Level.
But since distance was unlikely to be the reason, it could only be a restriction level issue. Kolin clearly remembered that the Communication Restriction Level was actually a simplified magic defense mechanism, mainly used to prevent certain high-level figures from being disturbed at will.
From the current situation, it was impossible for the local squad leader to have such a high Communication Restriction Level. The only possibility was that they were currently in a place with similarly high-strength magic defense capabilities. For even a Communication Magic Scroll personally made by Hifny to be unable to penetrate it, the person who set up this magic defense must be very strong.
And on this island right now, aside from Kolin himself, the only one who could be that strong was the still-at-large member of the Demon Race.
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