Chapter 21: I Heard Mages Are All Very Smart

Chapter 21 They Say Mages Are Clever

“What do you want to ask? Hurry up—he looks like he’s about to die.”

Li Wei reminded her.

Leina finally snapped back to awareness, grabbed the orc by the collar, and shouted, “Where are the people you captured?”

The orc: “￥%……&”

Leina glanced at Li Wei. Li Wei stared back. Their eyes locked—wide, blank, uncomprehending.

Li Wei asked with a strange expression, “You don’t speak Orcish?”

Leina shot back, “You don’t?”

Li Wei: “….”

Leina turned back to the orc, attempting communication once more.

The orc’s head lolled sideways. Dead.

Li Wei looked at Leina, a dull ache pulsing in his temples. Did this woman ever think ahead before acting?

Leina dropped the corpse, pulled out a small notebook from her pocket.

After comparing entries for a long while, she said, “He said they never took any humans.”

Li Wei leaned over to glance at the notebook—a handwritten Orcish phrasebook, neatly penned.

Fine. He had misjudged her.

She’d actually put some thought into it.

“I think you should leave this matter to your family,” Li Wei suggested. “Let the Golden Shield Clan mobilize its resources to search for the missing. It’ll be far better than you running around alone like a headless fly.”

Leina tucked the notebook away and looked at him. “I already asked. My father refused.”

“Oh… well…”

Li Wei didn’t know what to say.

Leina said, “Aren’t mages supposed to be clever? That’s why I came to you for help.”

Li Wei felt the sentence brimming with flaws, yet couldn’t find words to retort.

“Solving crimes is a detective’s job. What does that have to do with me being a mage?”

Leina squinted, murmuring softly, “What did you say?”

“Nothing. The people from the escort team weren’t taken by orcs.”

“How can you be so sure?” she pressed.

Li Wei explained, “Master Guze said when they caught up with the escort, only the wagon and supplies remained. Everyone vanished. No footprints in the snow around—no trace of anyone leaving.”

“Unless orcs can fly, this wasn’t their doing.” He concluded firmly.

Leina nodded slowly.

Before, she’d only heard rumors of the escort’s mysterious disappearance, unaware of such eerie details.

So this was where the mystery lay.

She quickly asked, “Then what should we do now?”

“Go back.”

Leina shook her head. “I won’t return until I find Susan.”

“Hss!”

Li Wei sucked in a cold breath, clearing his mind.

“Let’s go see the site first. Though honestly, there probably won’t be much left—it’s been five or six days already.”

Leina nodded, placing her hope in him.

Li Wei searched the corpses. The most valuable things on either orc were their fur coats. Besides that, just a few strips of unidentifiable dried meat.

“Truly destitute!”

He scooped up a handful of snow to wash his hands, muttering bitterly.

Seeing this, Leina said, “If you help me find Susan, I’ll reward you handsomely!”

Li Wei glanced at her. “Why not hire someone with money instead? Why risk your life running around like this?”

“I didn’t think of it earlier,” she admitted.

“It’s not too late now,” Li Wei said.

Leina stayed silent. Li Wei gave up persuading her. “Let’s go.”

They left the maple forest and stepped onto the road.

Snow blanketed the path, crisscrossed with footprints, hoofprints, and wheel tracks.

Li Wei roughly traced Guze’s group’s route.

Following backward, it didn’t take long to spot a set of wheel marks veering off the road.

Nearby, countless hoofprints and footprints clustered around.

Looking at the thin dusting of snow atop the tracks, Li Wei said, “We’re lucky. No snowfall these past few days—wheel marks are still mostly visible.”

Leina hurried over, her warm breath nearly brushing Li Wei’s face. “Can you tell anything from this?”

Li Wei turned—almost bumped heads with her.

“Not much. Let’s keep moving.”

They advanced further.

Hearing Li Wei’s breathing, Leina asked, “Are you tired? Want me to carry you?”

Li Wei glanced at her, shaking his head. “No need.”

“You’ve got real stamina! Right after battle you were panting, but now after kilometers of walking, you’re fine.”

She smiled. “My master’s training is nothing like others’. Most knights focus only on cultivating battle aura and combat techniques. But mine demands I run at least three laps around Maple City’s walls every single day—to build endurance, strengthen my body.”

“He always said: A knight’s greatest asset is physical stamina and endurance. Even if your battle aura runs dry, as long as you have one breath left, you can still fight on!”

Li Wei was surprised. Curious, he asked, “Who is your master?”

Leina answered proudly, “Oren Korte—the sole Grand Knight, the War Knight of Maple City!”

Li Wei’s eyes widened.

Now he understood why Elder Mage Ai’er had gone so far as to *beg* for Leina’s master’s aid.

Her master was a Grand Knight.

At minimum, a fourth-rank professional.

In Maple City, such beings could be counted on one hand—even the city lord treated them with utmost respect.

Walking and talking, Li Wei soon came to a stop.

"We're here. This is it."

Leina gazed at the snowy ground ahead, puzzled. "How do you know?"

Li Wei explained, "Look at the footprints on the ground—starting right here, the tracks before and after are different. That means the escort team vanished precisely at this spot."

Leina followed his gaze. A few meters farther, the footprints grew scattered and irregular—indeed, something was off.

"No wonder they say mages are always clever!"

Hearing her remark, Li Wei remained silent.

He carefully examined the surroundings, confirming what Professor Guze had said—there were no traces of anyone leaving.

Now the biggest mystery remained: how had the guards disappeared?

Flown away? Impossible.

Li Wei crouched down, scrutinizing the snow, lost deep in thought.

Seeing this, Leina stood beside him, instinctively guarding their surroundings. It was a knight’s duty.

"First, rule out abduction. If someone had flown in to kidnap them, there’d at least be signs of struggle."

"A spatial teleportation spell? Hmm! Too grandiose—even archmages couldn’t pull that off."

Li Wei mentally eliminated every possibility until one truth emerged.

The escort team had left of their own will—not taken by force.

Only voluntary departure would leave no trace of battle.

"But how could over ten people vanish without a sound, evading countless mages and leaving no trace?"

He put himself in the guards’ shoes, imagining how one might escape without leaving footprints.

His first thought: retrace the path back.

But that was impossible—going back would mean meeting the approaching mages.

"Can't go back, can't leave footprints."

Li Wei stared at the wheel ruts and hoofprints beneath his feet—then suddenly, inspiration struck.

"What if those men hid inside the wagons, and the mages unknowingly carried them all the way back to Maple City?"

"The grain returns to the city… and the people simply vanish into thin air!"

A spark ignited in Li Wei’s eyes.

This theory felt overwhelmingly plausible.

Now he needed proof.

Bending down, he compared the tracks—the wheel marks in the latter half of the path were deeper than those in the first half. The wagon had grown heavier.

After a moment, he stood.

Turning toward the road leading back, a faint smile curled his lips.

"I've found them."

(End of Chapter)