A slender woman in a black hooded robe lay beneath a nearby bush. She looked seriously injured, and the intermittent cries for help had come from that direction.
I hadn't expected anyone to still be missing in the forest. Judging by her condition... had she been present when something happened at the ruins?
Sailin immediately led everyone over, then cried out in alarm, "An Apprentice Priest? What happened to you?"
Hugging Sandora-ball, I hurriedly squeezed through the crowd and discovered that the person on the ground was someone I'd met once before: Qing Ye! She was the elf I'd encountered at the tavern on our first day in town. I still remembered that she had been teammates with a muscular demon named Lie Ang... uh, a burly adventurer. I hadn't expected to meet her again under these circumstances.
The elven priest named Qing Ye was curled up in Sailin's arms. There were no visible wounds on her body, but her deathly pale face and constantly twitching lips made it clear that she was in terrible pain. Her long, pointed ears had turned an unnatural bluish white, and the strange coloration spread from her ears down her neck and across the lower half of her face, making her look poisoned. Sailin shook Qing Ye's shoulders hard. She clearly didn't know this foreign priestess, but she recognized her attire at a glance. "Wake up! Wake up! What happened?"
After Sailin called to her repeatedly, Qing Ye finally regained a little awareness. She narrowed her eyes at the scene around her, then suddenly grabbed Sailin's arm. "Lie Ang... Lie Ang is trapped in the Ancient Tower! Go save him! He's trapped underground in the Ancient Tower!"
"We're heading there now. But first, we need to make sure you're safe," Sailin said rapidly as