(?) Hehe! Her idea really worked!
The morning after Isidro left, Schierke spent a long time asking around and following up on leads before finally finding her student at the Knights of the Silver Hand barracks outside the City of Holy Light. The girl looked incredibly suspicious, had spent the entire night in the barracks without going home, and who knew what she was up to.
"Elektra?"
Schierke called out to her from a distance.
"Yikes!"
"T-Teacher?!"
"!!"
When Schierke spotted Elektra and called to her, Elektra had obviously noticed her too. But after her startled exclamation, she actually spun around and tried to duck into the barracks!
"??"
"Stop right there!"
"Elektra!"
"Come here!"
Seeing this, Schierke didn't hesitate to bark at her. She stared at the girl expressionlessly, raising the great wand in her hand. Only when Elektra couldn't take it anymore and stopped, then turned around and walked over to her, looking dejected and utterly obedient, did Schierke's expression soften a little. She asked coldly,
"Answer me!"
"You didn't go home all night. What were you doing hiding here?"
"Well?"
"Speak!"
Yesterday evening, the strange behavior of a certain troublesome little girl, along with a few clues, had only made Schierke somewhat suspicious. But now, faced with Elektra's abnormal behavior, she was nearly certain: her student and that troublesome little girl were definitely hiding something from her!
Or perhaps they were hiding it from everyone?!
She still had no idea what it was and couldn't even begin to guess. That was why she had come here first thing in the morning—and successfully caught Elektra, who had still been trying to avoid her, red-handed.
"I..."
"I wasn't hiding! I just, just..."
After fidgeting and stammering for a while, Elektra suddenly had a flash of inspiration and quickly caught