So in the end, was Leonora just concerned about Karlen?
Shiya felt a dull ache in her chest.
She took a deep breath, trying to force a smile, but found she couldn’t do it no matter what.
If only Karlen would just die.
Shiya was startled by her own sudden thought, but in the end, she just chalked it up to feeling it was a shame that the young lady could like such an evil hypocrite.
Touching Shiya’s suddenly bloodshot pale golden eyes, Leonora’s hand trembled almost imperceptibly.
It’s just about pressing for a debt, scaring her a little.
Shiya’s eyes are red, looking like she’s about to cry any second.
The young lady thought the girl in front of her was feeling wronged and suddenly wanted to cry.
But as the young lady of a ducal house, Leonora had never yielded to anyone, let alone knew how to say comforting words to a girl.
Just then, the girl, with strength from who knows where, suddenly pushed Leonora away.
Leonora’s heart lurched.
Before she could react, a thorny vine shot down from above at incredible speed, barely grazing her cheek.
Shiya’s warning followed immediately:
“Be careful, young lady!”
In an instant, with Leonora no longer blocking the way, the thorny vine that had erupted from the wooden stall railing was about to pierce through Shiya’s abdomen.
A transparent flame barrier instantly formed, blocking the fatal strike for Shiya.
Leonora, holding her staff, had already entered combat mode.
Her gaze was cold as she yanked Shiya into her embrace.
With a crisp snap of her fingers, scorching flames, like crimson waves, engulfed the wooden stall that had begun to mutate and sprout thorns wildly.
Before Shiya could even catch her breath, she quickly pushed Leonora away, pointing behind her:
“Young lady, there’s a strange stone statue over there.”
Shiya remembered that when the two Student Council members reported to Elena earlier, they mentioned a weirdly missing stone statue.
Feeling the softness in her arms break free again, Leonora took a deep breath.
The moment she turned, two ferociously roaring fire dragons, one left and one right, charged fiercely towards the stone statue.
The seemingly heavy stone statue dodged the attacks with abnormal agility.
White dust fell rustling onto its carved armor.
Finally, it raised its incredibly stiff right hand and pointed at the two girls present.
Immediately, cracks split the soft soil, and seedlings sprouted from the ground, growing, budding, and blooming at a terrifying speed.
In the blink of an eye, dense flowers turned the ground beneath their feet into a dazzling sea of blossoms.
Elena’s earlier secret being revealed this way didn’t make Shiya happy at all.
And the colorful petals were swept into the sky by a fierce wind.
What followed wasn’t a beautiful scene of falling blossoms, but a dense, rain-like curtain of flowers, hard beyond imagination, continuously slicing against Leonora’s flame barrier.
An ear-piercing, chilling sound filled the air relentlessly.
Not only that, the surrounding wooden stalls also sprouted countless thorny vines.
The supports rose from the ground, like octopuses crawling and wriggling on the muddy earth, heading straight for Leonora.
Although fire magic was highly effective against these monsters, with so many of them, even Leonora found it hard to keep up.
And Shiya’s situation wasn’t any better.
The abnormal stone statue seemed particularly fixated on her.
After restraining Leonora, its pale, hard body charged forward with a violent impact.
Even though Shiya was already on guard and dodged aside, the terrifying force of the stone statue’s arm instantly shattered her flame barrier.
Her mana was almost depleted.
Even though she had summoned four circling fire dragons, she couldn’t clear the surrounding sea of flowers.
Leonora almost bit through her lip.
It was at this desperate moment that she noticed a long-handled sledgehammer on the ground.
“Shiya!”
The girl turned her head at the sound, only to see a large iron hammer flying straight at her face.
She flinched in fright, hastily jumping aside.
The hammer hit the ground with a loud thud, accompanied by the girl’s complaint.
“Young lady, you almost hit my foot!”
Leonora was almost furious enough to explode.
“Idiot, fool, moron! I meant for you to catch the hammer and smash the stone statue!”
But deep down, she also knew that expecting a non-combat major girl to instantly understand her intention was asking a bit much.
While the young lady was kindly greeting Shiya, Shiya had already rolled away again to dodge the statue’s charge.
She grabbed the sledgehammer from the ground and used all her strength to smash it against the statue’s leg.
Stone fragments flew.
The monster made of stone actually staggered for a moment.
Seeing her success, the previously timid Shiya instantly gained confidence.
Puffing out her cheeks with a light hah, she gripped the long handle with both hands and swung from below.
The enchanted sledgehammer, trailing afterimages of solidified flames, slammed into the statue’s head with a bang.
Exploding into a crimson flower of flames unique to Leonora.
As the shockwaves and explosion sounds dissipated, the sea of flowers and tentacle vines also withered.
Leonora, who had been struggling to hold on, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But when Leonora waved her hand to disperse the smoke from the high temperature, urgently wanting to see what had happened to Shiya, she suddenly saw that beneath the shattered stone statue head was a human head, its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose all stuffed with flower bouquets.
“Ahhhh— You? You killed my husband!”
The despairing scream of a middle-aged woman rang out right behind the two girls.
Even though the head was gradually crumbling, the woman recognized her husband at a glance and threw herself onto it, weeping uncontrollably.
Elena, Karlen, and the two Student Council members who arrived immediately after all had extremely grim expressions.
The middle-aged woman, eyes red and swollen, glared with hatred-filled eyes and tried to rush forward to claw at Shiya’s face.
But Leonora, quick as lightning, struck her calf with her staff, causing her to kneel in pain.
“You two murderers! It must have been you who killed my husband, and now you want to destroy the evidence!”
Leonora just watched coldly, not even deigning to respond to this slander.
Shiya, who had been frightened, finally snapped back to her senses.
She hefted the long hammer in her hand, hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward and swung the hammer at the stone statue’s body.
A loud clang echoed.
The stone statue didn’t budge.
Instead, Shiya was jolted by the recoil, her body trembling.
The hammer flew from her hands, almost hitting her pink toes.
Everyone looked at the blushing girl, whose sense of shame had exploded, with pitying, caring gazes.
Finally, Leonora couldn’t help but let out a soft pfft, covering her mouth with a light laugh.
She casually waved her staff, re-enchanting the hammer with magic.
Elena also couldn’t help but sigh for this troublesome younger sister.
Of course, she didn’t believe the woman’s story.
But for Shiya to destroy the statue and damage the corpse right in front of the deceased’s family was going too far.
But just as she reached out to grab Shiya’s slender arm, Shiya had already swung the second hammer, completely shattering the statue’s surface and exposing the man’s corpse inside.
“Heaven strike you down, you heartless monsters!!”
The middle-aged woman, pinned down by Leonora’s fierce gaze and unable to move, cried even more heart-wrenchingly.
But Shiya let out a breath, staring steadily at the resentful woman.
Her pale golden eyes held not a trace of pity anymore:
“She’s lying.”
This shocked everyone present.
One of the Student Council members couldn’t hold back and questioned first:
“What evidence did you find? What gives you the right to say that?”
Shiya didn’t answer directly.
Instead, she asked a question:
“Earlier, I noticed that the workers constructing at the Flower God Festival site were all wearing professional construction uniforms, right?”
A light flashed in Elena’s eyes, as if she had also noticed something:
“That’s right. For safety during long construction hours and to prevent excessive dust from damaging their lungs, the Student Council uniformly issues a full-body work suit and requires them to wear it.”
Shiya nodded in understanding, pointing at the male corpse:
“The answer is obvious. He’s wearing a set of home pajamas. The situation this woman described—her husband not returning home all night—simply doesn’t exist with this.”
Hearing this explanation, the middle-aged woman’s face instantly turned deathly pale.
For a moment, even her crying stopped.
This abnormal scene immediately caught the attention of the several perceptive people present.
Leonora raised an eyebrow, habitually lifting her staff as if to tap something.
Finding the surroundings cleared by her fires, she simply pinched the soft flesh on Shiya’s cheek.
After eliciting a dissatisfied protest from the girl, she felt satisfied and spoke calmly:
“In that case, take both the person and the corpse to the security team.”
Since Shiya had found a suspicious point, they could just leave it to the professional interrogation and investigation personnel.
Running around for unrelated people was never this young lady’s style.
Elena’s expression was grave.
In the end, she nodded.
Disappearance and murder were completely different in nature, so she could only agree with Leonora’s decision.
“President Elena, since this is a matter of Flower God Village, let us Flower God Villagers resolve it ourselves.”
Just then, an old yet powerful voice rang out.
The village chief of Flower God Village, hands clasped behind his back, had somehow arrived at the scene without anyone noticing.
The middle-aged woman’s hope instantly flared.
She looked up and cried, “Chief, I—”
But facing the woman’s pleading gaze, the Flower God Village chief just lowered his eyes, his face showing no sympathy:
“Take your own life, Flo. You’ve messed everything up. Before the divine lord descends in wrath, atone for your sins quickly.”
The middle-aged woman’s lips trembled a few times.
She wanted to say that everything had been going smoothly, but for some reason, the stone statue hiding her husband’s corpse suddenly started attacking the two girls.
But…
“Chief… my husband, my daughter… they both dedicated themselves to the divine lord. They will surely go to the divine realm, right?”
The chief didn’t answer, just glanced at her coldly.
But the middle-aged woman seemed to find some solace in this.
With trembling lips, she smiled, then pulled a dagger from her bosom.
“Don’t be rash!” Elena shouted sharply, trying to stop her.
But it was all too late.
The closest Student Council member, frightened, instinctively took a step back, missing the final chance to save her.
With the muffled sound of the blade piercing flesh, the middle-aged woman fell straight down like a rag doll, silent forever.
“Chief Edwen, I need an explanation.”
Elena stepped forward, staring intently at him.
But the Flower God Village chief just met her gaze without flinching, looking directly at this princess without a trace of fear on his face.
“President Elena, we will not hold this Flower God Festival.”
Elena’s expression changed drastically:
“What do you mean by that? If my father, the Emperor, finds fault—”
But the old chief didn’t even glance at her again, instructing the villagers to properly collect the two bodies on the ground.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, this Flower God Village chief, who hadn’t given anyone face since his appearance, actually spoke to Shiya with a kind and pleasant expression.
His tone even held a hint of the kindness an elder shows a junior, a father to a daughter.
“Young lady, if you are willing, you are welcome to visit Flower God Village anytime to taste the flower wine I brew with my own hands.”
“Our divine lord is very interested in you, young lady.”
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