Investigators from the City

A Three-Masted Sailboat slowly descended from the clouds, its sails all lowered to the horizontal bar. A group of Half-Elf Warrior stood at the bow, constantly looking down at the ground. When they saw that some elves had noticed them, they waved vigorously with exaggerated expressions.

The Three-Masted Sailboat was steadily approaching the Plateau City.

Today, the City Wall of this Plateau City have been repaired, and even the City Hall, symbolizing the center of power, has been built at the highest point of the hill.

Thirty-two Roman columns, each over twenty meters tall, make this City Hall appear magnificent...

The hillside was crowded with buildings standing side by side. The biggest difference between this Plateau City and other Elf City was that it was not a forest city, which did not conform to the aesthetics of the elves.

Whether it's Darnassus, built on the World Tree by the Wood Elf, Inohaus, in the Eternal Night Forest by the Inohaus Dark Moon Elf, or Buenos City, inhabited by the Silver Moon Elf in the central region of the Elf Continent, the most obvious characteristic of these cities is that they are all forest cities.

In fact, not only these three Elf King, but all other Elf City are also built in the forest.

The most fundamental requirement for an Elf City is that there must be a Tree of Life in the center of the city.

These Plateau City don't actually exist; this place was originally just a barren hill.

Now a city has sprung up here, and the roadside trees on both sides of the street are all transplanted. After several months of careful cultivation, they have begun to sprout and grow rapidly.

Countless headhunting prisoners of war, carrying bricks and stones, raised their heads, gazing at the sky with expressions of horror in their eyes.

A colossal vessel floated silently in mid-air, its bow teeming with Half-Elf Warrior, casting a massive shadow over the hearts of every Highland Slavers.

Some of the headhunter prisoners of war were still itching to fight for their freedom, but now a massive mountain, almost invisible, loomed behind them, instantly sending chills down their spines.

When the Three-Masted Sailboat docked at the edge of the City Wall, a group of Half-Elf Warrior carried boxes of supplies off the ship. The headhunter prisoners of war, under the reprimands of some overseers, slowly withdrew their gazes and continued to carry the heavy Hollow Brick, one by one, up the hillside.

Recently, the Mine Guard Army stationed in the Plateau City has been only about seven thousand.

However, there are more than 13,000 headhunter prisoners of war serving in the Plateau City, which is almost twice the number of the Mine Guard Army.

Although these headhunters were unarmed, recently, seeing the defensive strength of the Plateau City, countless headhunters have developed the idea of escaping.

Headhunters have already begun to devise escape plans in private, and some even have the audacity to consider taking over the Plateau City altogether.

But when they saw the enormous vessel overhead, all their unrealistic ideas seemed to vanish in an instant...

The existence of such a Three-Masted Sailboat flying in the sky means that the Half-Elf Warrior can be invincible in battle.

As long as a group of Elf Archer stand on the ship and hurl arrows at the ground, these unarmed and unarmored headhunters will have no chance to resist!

The elves in the caravan all stood up, marveling at the Three-Masted Sailboat that flew silently overhead.

"A sailboat that can fly in the sky... I've heard that these magical sailboats are quite common on the Roland Continent, but they're very rare on our Elf Continent," the caravan leader explained to everyone.

A Half-Elf couldn't help but ask, "What is this magic sailing ship doing in the Plateau City?"

The caravan leader's face turned grim, and he couldn't help but say, "I guess it's all to open up the trade route between the Pagisto Plateau and the Padesto City. From now on, merchant groups like ours... will have an increasingly difficult time!"

The Half-Elf employees of the merchant guild looked distressed, worried about the future.

The caravan leader added, "However, there's no need to worry too much. The operating costs of such a magical sailing ship are certainly very high, which will always give caravans like ours some room to survive..."

Although he was comforting the other elves in this way, his own brow remained furrowed...

Several investigators sat resting by the river. They had disguised themselves as Silvermoon Elf Merchants and followed the caravan to this Plateau City. They also took the opportunity to inquire about ' Boss Roy ' along the way.

It must be said that this Boss Roy has an extremely high reputation among the Half-Elf.

Almost every Half-Elf seems to know about Boss Roy on the Pagisto Plateau Pagisto Plateau, and that he controls the mines there.

To the investigators' surprise, although Roy was a Half-Elf, the Half-Elf spoke highly of Boss Roy, saying that he came to the Pagisto Plateau to rescue the Half-Elf from their suffering.

Almost every Half-Elf could tell some stories about Boss Roy on the plateau.

The merchant group, who traveled extensively, had collected many such rumors.

It is said that before the Silver Pegasus Legion arrived at the Pagisto Plateau, the headhunters on the plateau, at the instigation of the Mine Owners, began to hunt down Half-Elf throughout the Pagisto Plateau. Not only that, the headhunters also continued to destroy elven villages and squeeze the living space of the Half-Elf.

At that time, the Silver Pegasus Legion swept across the entire Pagisto Plateau with lightning speed, even reaching as far Gazan Ancestral Land the Northern Plateau.

The Half-Elf all thought that their hard times on the plateau were over, and that they could live peacefully there from now on.

But no one expected that the Silver Pegasus Legion would suddenly disappear without a trace from the Pagisto Plateau overnight.

For the Half-Elf on the plateau, the real suffering had just begun. The Highland Slavers returned to the Pagisto Plateau Pagisto Plateau, almost as a form of retaliatory slaughter of the Half-Elf.

It was at this time that Boss Roy, the owner of the mine, received an order from the Silver Pegasus Military Department to organize Mine Guard team on the Pagisto Plateau. Originally, this Mine Guard team was only guarding a few Gemstone Mine in the Southern Plateau. Later, as Boss Roy recaptured the Mithril Mine in the Sudaso Mountain Range and the Black Iron Mine in the Gaxi Mountain Range, he clashed with the headhunters several times in the process.

Finally, in the southern part of the Gaxi Mountain Range, they stopped the headhunters' southward advance.

Then, in just over half a year, they completely occupied the entire Pagisto Plateau.

More than 20,000 Half-Elf miners were rescued...

Listening to the caravan members talk about this young Half-Elf was like hearing about a legendary figure.

The Silver Moon Elf investigators, naturally, had no interest in hearing this. They waited until the caravan leader finished recounting Boss Roy's glorious deeds before finally asking:

"... I heard that Boss Roy hates those Mine Owners to the bone, and often harms some of Mine Owners without cause when he takes over the mines?"

The caravan leader paused slightly, his gaze falling once more on the three Silvermoon Elf Merchants, his expression becoming somewhat complicated.

"Those Mine Owners are a bunch of Slave Traders. They colluded with headhunters to persecute the Half-Elf on the plateau. It's not unreasonable for Boss Roy to hate them. But how could Boss Roy possibly harm the Mine Owners?"

"Actually, most of the Mine Owners were already captured when the Silver Pegasus Legion first stormed into the Pagisto Plateau. Most of Mine Owners were taken to the courthouse in Padesto City. I heard that some fled to avoid punishment, but I don't know much about those..."

After saying this, the caravan leader hesitated for a moment before saying:

"The Plateau City is just ahead. You've traveled with our merchant group all the way here, and it's time for you to part ways now!"

The three investigators glanced at the caravan leader, then exchanged glances. Since they couldn't get any information from the caravan, they decided to go into the city to take a look.

Ideally, one should blend in with the caravan, at least then one won't attract too much attention.

However, since the person in charge had already made his point, the three investigators had no choice but to separate from the caravan and venture into the Plateau City alone...

The caravan leader watched as the three Silver Moon Elf Merchants entered the Plateau City before finally letting out a slight sigh of relief.

He then instructed the Half-Elf employees in the caravan, "Let's pack our things and get ready to enter the city!"

The clean street is lined with two rows of houses made of Hollow Brick, arranged neatly and in a uniform style.

The streets were built on gently sloping hills, with several main roads leading vertically to the top. Every so often, steps appeared along these main roads. These main roads were only suitable for pedestrians; carriages had to travel along the winding streets that circled the hills.

Some headhunting prisoners of war hauled flatbed carts loaded with Hollow Brick to the construction site.

Three Silver Moon Elf investigators, disguised as merchants, followed the headhunter prisoners of war into the Plateau City. Surrounded by walls and square buildings, the city had very few trees and shrubs. For the Silver Moon Elf, it was too oppressive, and everywhere was filled with dust.

The investigators could only take out clean white silk handkerchiefs to cover their mouths and noses, and slowly move into the city from the shade of the street.

They saw the Free Market near the edge of the City Wall, but that area was even more chaotic. The market was bustling with people, and some merchants had set up their stalls on the ground. The investigators originally wanted to wander around the market, but when they saw a row of bloody cow legs hanging at the edge of the market, they immediately stopped.

The fact that the market here even sells fresh meat made the three investigators' faces almost freeze.

'Why are they killing animals here?'

The investigators couldn't help but exchange bewildered glances.

'Do the Half-Elf here eat beast meat?'

Then, they finally saw some headhunter prisoners of war with their feet chained up appear in the market, and they even pulled out a stack of Kole from their pockets and readily bought a thick cow leg.

'How can headhunters and prisoners of war here freely enter and leave the market?'

They stood at the city's Cross Street Intersection, looking around at everything, and everything seemed so new and exciting.

Seeing some Half-Elf looking in their direction, the three investigators immediately retreated to a street corner and stopped where there were few pedestrians.

Looking again at the Magic Airship moored at the edge of the City Wall, one of the investigators couldn't help but complain, "He actually built a Magic Airship here! This shameful Half-Elf probably doesn't know anything about elven history. How could he bring goblin culture to the Elven World!"

"Hey, hey, hey... We're here to investigate Abel's accidental death. Everything here is completely contrary to Elven. Let's ignore the Magic Airship for now and pay no attention to what's going on in the city. Our current task is to investigate this matter thoroughly."

Another investigator immediately offered a reminder.

"That's right, that Magic Airship isn't within our jurisdiction. We should investigate Abel's death first!" the third investigator quickly chimed in.

"The Half-Elf in the city are almost all warriors of the Mine Guard Regiment. We'll be easily noticed wherever we go, so... what should we do?"

"Then let's inquire around to see if there are any Elf Slaves in the city who have returned from the Nikoba Mountain Range. I bet some elves have escaped from the Nikoba Mountain Range, and we need to find out the truth from them."

"I don't think those Half-Elf slaves will necessarily tell the truth. We need to broaden the scope of our investigation."

"I heard that many families of Mine Owners remained on the Pagisto Plateau. If we can find these elves, we can find the answer closest to the truth from them."

"Yes, we can ask around."

"..."

On a watchtower near the Magic Airship on the City Wall, Roy and Kaka stood beside the battlements, watching the three Silver Moon Elf hiding in the street corner outside the market. Although they were dressed as merchants, they didn't look like merchants at all.

"Roy, what do you think those three are whispering about over there?" Kaka leaned against the wall with one hand, peering down.

Who knows!

Roy watched as supplies were continuously transported from the Magic Airship to the foot of the City Wall and casually remarked.

He saw some Half-Elf Warrior trying to move the crates full of arrows off the deck and quickly stopped them, saying, "Hey, don't move those crates, they're going to Sun Island..."

Wearing a full set of standard battle armor, Mulin slowly walked to Roy and Kaka's side. "What should we do? Should I step in and find a way to drive them out of the city?"

Roy then turned his gaze to the streets below the city, a meaningful smile on his face, and said:

"Let them wander around the city as they please. Since they've come here to investigate the death of Mine Owner Abel, they should find something to satisfy them..."

Kaka and Mulin were a little confused about what Roy was up to.

But since he said that, I didn't say anything more...