Ch.197Iris’s Thread

After finishing Calliope’s interrogation, we returned to our lodgings and gathered around a table in one of the rooms to begin our strategy meeting.

“OK, let’s organize the information we got from Calliope.”

“That’s fine, but we didn’t get any of the most important information. If we don’t know where the dark elves’ base is, there’s nothing we can do, right?”

“Of course it would have been best to find that out, but if we don’t know, we just have to use our heads.”

The first piece of information we confirmed was that Phyllis’s older sister, Iris, was safe and would likely remain so.

If they had kidnapped her simply to use as a slave or to execute her as a political symbol, they wouldn’t have spent years having her perform magical training and preparing to create a dark sword.

She’s probably being treated as a talented individual with rare qualities in dark elf society, and as long as that assessment holds, the likelihood of her being harmed by the dark elves is low.

Next is the fact that the dark elves were hiding in a swamp area before fleeing when their hideout was attacked by a hydra.

I’m not sure if the hydra monster was incredibly strong, or if it just had a good matchup against the dark elves’ fighting style.

However, what’s important here is that the dark elf forces stationed at the hideout at that time weren’t sufficient to defeat the hydra.

And even the dark elves who managed to escape and resume their activities were no match for an A-rank adventurer party.

Forces that were insufficient from the start, possible stragglers during the evacuation, additional losses at the hands of A-rank adventurer parties.

After experiencing all this, I don’t think the dark elves’ base would have an overwhelming number of troops that we couldn’t handle.

Of course, this prediction only matters if we can actually find their base.

“This is just my guess, but… Calliope’s new base is probably much further west than the swamp area, maybe even further west than this city. We haven’t seen any A-rank adventurer parties on our way here.”

“That’s true. Since the captured Calliope was handed over to the Grand Caravan and then put up for auction here, the dark elves’ new base is likely somewhere between here and the 7th Western City.”

If Calliope had been captured at the western frontier, there would be no reason to bring her all the way to Moon Lake for auction, and if it had been east of here, she wouldn’t have been handed over to the Grand Caravan, which hasn’t even reached the Moon Lake area yet.

So as Jessica said, the dark elves’ new base—at least in terms of longitude, if not latitude—should exist somewhere between the 6th and 7th Western Cities.

Of course, another possibility is that the base itself is much further away, and Calliope was captured near the 7th Western City while on a long-distance expedition…

But it seems unlikely that remnants who lost their hideout to a monster attack and fled would undertake a risky expedition while leaving their base poorly defended.

“So the remaining question is exactly where between the 6th and 7th Western Cities.”

“We have no information about that. It would have been good if we’d at least gotten a general direction.”

“We’re not completely without hints. Think about what Calliope said when we first asked about the location of the base.”

When Phyllis asked where the new base was, Calliope answered like this:

‘A place we can never reach. No, a place we might reach but can never return from alive.’

Taken simply, this answer could sound like a taunt, saying ‘You will never find Phyllis’s Iris,’ but looking at it from a different perspective, it becomes a clue to deduce the location of the dark elves’ base.

“Judging from what happened in Atelier, the dark elves seem to have a pretty good understanding of the colonists’… or at least the adventurers’ range of activities, weapons, and tactics. When Calliope said ‘cannot reach,’ she might have unconsciously considered how long humans can survive within the black mana or how far adventurers can travel in a day.”

If she declared ‘cannot reach,’ it would mean the dark elves’ base is more than 6 days one-way from the Western City.

But since she said ‘might reach but cannot return alive,’ it suggests the dark elves’ base is within 5 days one-way but more than 6 days round-trip from the Western City.

And this distance concept is likely based on traveling on horseback, not on foot.

So, the location of the dark elves’ base is—

“Somewhere between the two Western Cities in terms of longitude, and about 4-5 days on horseback from either city. Therefore, a place that cannot be reached on foot, but can be reached on horseback though one cannot return alive… that’s what we can deduce.”

“That means it’s definitely in unexplored territory. Even if we’ve calculated the approximate distance, the problem is the direction…”

“Yes. Even saying it’s 4-5 days on horseback, the range is still too wide.”

“Hmm… maybe we can narrow it down a bit?”

“Do you have a good method, Mina?”

“Not exactly a method… but remember how Phyllis’s sister is preparing to make a dark sword? That weapon, though magically altered, has mythril alloy as the main material for the blade.”

Mina said this while taking out the dark elf weapon stored in her pouch.

The blade part of the weapon, with its handle and blade neatly separated, definitely had the distinctive color and luster of mythril.

“If the dark elves haven’t given up on producing these weapons, wouldn’t they have established their base near a mythril vein in the foothills?”

“…That’s a reasonable deduction. Additionally, elven metal smelting uses magically compressed charcoal as fuel. So to make weapons from mythril, they would need not only a vein but also easy access to timber.”

“So they need mountains and forests nearby. If we look through the Pioneer Department’s materials, they should have records of what terrain has been observed in unmapped areas.”

“Combining all this information should narrow down the range considerably. Even if it’s a place we can’t reach and return from within five days on horseback, Ancestor could certainly make the round trip if it moved 24 hours straight.”

If we could also find out the specific location where Calliope was captured, the accuracy of our information would improve even further.

Of course, even narrowing down the target area has its limits, so the chance of discovering the dark elves’ base in one go is low, but for the sake of Phyllis’s family reunion, we can endure some trial and error.

“So once we identify the dark elves’ base and find Phyllis’s sister, then what?”

“Beat them up and kidnap her?”

“That’s one way, but… we have the Stone House artifact, so let’s use that. I don’t want to treat Phyllis’s sister roughly.”

Of course, combat might be unavoidable during the capture, and if it came down to exchanging one of our comrades’ lives, then perhaps…

But I also genuinely don’t want to mistreat the future sister-in-law if possible.

“You mean put her in the Stone House and find a way to turn her back into an elf? Hmm~ We’ll need a way to extend the time we can keep her confined.”

“Is it a mana consumption issue, or a performance issue with the Stone House itself?”

“It’s more about mana… but if we could extract and supply mana from outside the Black Label, it might work somehow. I’ve been thinking about the design for a while, so I’ll complete it as quickly as possible.”

“…Ugh…”

“Phyllis?”

In the midst of our hopeful conversation, Phyllis suddenly started crying.

“I-I’m sorry. Just thinking that I might be able to meet my sister Iris, suddenly the tears…”

“It’s okay, we’ll definitely meet her. Let’s rescue her for sure.”

“Yes, it’s incredibly fortunate that she’s remained near the colonists’ cities even after being kidnapped 5 years ago. We can’t miss this opportunity.”

Since dark elves don’t die from black mana, they could live in places far beyond where colonists would dare to go if they wanted to.

If we raid the dark elves’ base and fail to rescue Iris, they might flee to a place much farther away, and if that place is beyond Ancestor’s round-trip capabilities, rescuing Iris would become virtually impossible.

So using the clues we’ve gathered to pinpoint the dark elves’ hideout, we need to secure Iris with a single surprise attack after thorough preparation.

“Then let’s move right away. The Pioneer Department, Adventurers’ Guild, Sheriff’s Office, auction officials, and so on… let’s gather as much information as possible to help find their base and narrow down the search area.”

“Got it.”

Phyllis’s desperate wish, which had tormented her for so long after the incident at the Willow Sanctuary.

The outline of Operation Rescue Iris Eidra was beginning to take shape.