Chapter 219

"Deputy Director, there's a letter for you."

In between creations, the insiders of Maplestage passed the time by reading the reviews of their published works in Steambird Newspaper. Steambird Newspaper had a wide network of contacts, and when the whole of Maplestage was involved in this craze, it opened a separate page for the special authors to debate about "Waiting, and Hope in Your Heart".

That morning, when Fujimaru Ritsuka came to Teyvat as a Servant and took out the Steam Bird Post from the mailbox at the door, he found a letter from Sumi.

"Calculating the time, it should be about time." Lansemello put down the paper that Kirshtalia had revised countless times and looked at the date record in the Chaldea communicator. "I deliberately pushed back the release date of the last two volumes. I think tomorrow is a good time. Why don't we release the fourth volume tomorrow?"

The people lying on the restaurant table were slightly stunned.

"But isn't the content of the final fifth volume somewhat dangerous to the stability of this world?"

"The release date of the fifth volume will definitely be pushed back, but it's almost time... In other words -"

"The gears are starting to turn."

Before the letter was sent, the god Sumi received an audience with a golden-haired traveler.

"You mean... the Dreamless Tree King?"

"Yes, I already know that Sumi's current god is the Little Auspicious Grass King, but - when I was in Inazuma before, I heard the introduction of the Dreamless Tree King." The traveler touched his chin and explained to Nashida why he had doubts. "I want to know more about the Dreamless Tree King... Of course, I'll also ask you to take care of my sister's affairs."

Elhaisen, who brought the visitor to Nashida, sat on the dark green chair on the other side. After noticing Nashida's smiling gaze, he put down the book in his hand, sighed to the traveler, and said, "Then go to Maple Dan. There you will find the answer you need. The Great Sage will tell you about the Dreamless Tree King."

"Great Sage?"

"After the former Great Sage Azar stepped down, the Little King of the Auspicious Grass quickly filled the missing members of the Six Sages and appointed one of the new Six Sages as the Great Sage. Apart from this one, the other three are all temporary sages for a period of one year." Elhaisen explained the current situation of Sumi to the travelers, "They were not appointed to the position of acting Great Sage from the beginning."

"Ah! I get it! Sora!"

"Paimon!?"

"Since the position of acting Great Sage was not created because of Azar's resignation—" Paimon flew back and forth in the air, pointing at Elhaissen, "Then he is just like Jean, who was appointed as the acting leader by the leader of the Knights of Favonius who led the expedition—he was appointed by the new Great Sage!"

"Captain Falga is heading to the northern border of Teyvat... but why did the Great Sage leave Sumi?" Sora looked at Paimon and pointed out the current state of Sumi that they had seen along the way. "Although scholars are prohibited from publishing their research on their own initiative in Sumi now, the overall situation is better than what the Son of God described to us at the time."

"Haha, then this question... you can ask her in person." Nashida smiled at the two of them, and then signaled Elhaisen to leave the Jingshan Palace. "Please go back to the office and write a letter to greet her on behalf of the Traveler, Elhaisen - then, I will answer another question about the Traveler's blood relatives."

On the other side, Liyue is in the clouds.

"I didn't expect you two were old acquaintances."

When he accepted the invitation with the detective who had seen through his identity, Zhongli had no idea that the immortal servant who appeared out of nowhere would also show up at the gathering of the immortals in Jueyunjian. Although his friends all thought that Zhongli was always overly modest, and he himself did think that he still had a lot to learn, Zhongli had never thought that there might be something about the Liyue immortals that he was completely unaware of.

However, since Taigong Wang had no intention of harming Liyue or committing fraud like the guy Kong met, Zhongli did not return to investigate after their first meeting. However, he did not expect that Master Liuyunjiefeng would take the initiative to invite Taigong Wang to attend the gathering among the immortals.

"It's just an acquaintance. Those who are more familiar to me are not here." Tai Gongwang answered Zhong Li's question with a smile. At the same time, he apologized to the immortals and dragged Holmes to a place where no one would notice to talk. "But I have something to discuss with this gentleman, so I will leave for the time being."

"What are you doing in Jueyunjian?" Taigong Wang stared at Holmes with a rather unfriendly look while holding the magic whip, but soon returned to normal. "I heard that you returned to your old job as a detective. How did you get to Jueyunjian for a commission? Wait, you didn't see through the fake identity of the King of Rocks directly..."

"Well, that's it." Holmes coughed, but his expression soon became serious again. "After all, you know that a detective's curiosity is unquenchable - so I did a little research and deduced the result. But I came to Jueyunjian this time just to find you."

"…Looking for me?"

"The time has come." Holmes said to Tai Gongwang, "The notice of departure has come. We have to go to Maple Leaf and wait for the opportunity - I am still waiting for you to take me there. It will take too long to transfer to Maple Leaf by normal means. It will be more convenient to go there with you as a Rider."

"Maple... didn't they say there was a prophecy that a flood would engulf Maple?"

"Yes." Holmes nodded and told the other news mentioned in the notice. "The fairy of paradise said that what we have to wait for is the moment when the flood engulfs Maple Dan - didn't she tell us the reason why we couldn't leave before? Since we can't do it internally, we can only wait for external forces."

One day after the travelers arrived at Maplestage, Lansemello announced to everyone in the base—

"We're going to the Opical Theatre to see a magic show today."

"Magic show?"

An invitation to enjoy the magic show was also sent to Baisong Town. Edmund stared at the words "Fujimaru Ritsuka will also go to see it" written on the invitation for a long time. In the end, he greeted the people from the Thorn Rose Society and joined this collective action of Chaldea. Before Lu Jingquan, he met several other members.

"Heh... the detective is here too."

"Almost everyone has gathered at Maple Stage. All we have to do now is wait for the show to start." Lansemello looked at the setting sun and led everyone into the Opicele Opera House. "After all, it's like a bird breaking its shell - it's not a good thing to break the eggshell from the outside."

"At this time, it would be safer for everyone to be together."

"...I can probably understand why you don't like being here." After the escape water tank fell and smashed the wooden box, interrupting the magician's performance, Holmes, who was sitting in the last row, looked at the audience below and subconsciously began to reason, "No one realizes that a murder has occurred at this moment--"

"A murder has occurred... Then, Deputy Director——"

"I didn't bring you here to see a magic show." Lansemero admitted his purpose directly. "I want to tell you through what happened today that the story of Maple Leaf has officially begun. At the same time, I think we need to learn some things we didn't know by getting closer to the main story of this world."

"I rejected Kirsch's Maple Stage paper so many times because it lacked very important basic conditions to support its content - so although his argument was valid, it was wrong."

"But, Mr. Holmes, can you use your reasoning to unravel the truth of this incident for us?"

"It seems that you are not going to use your clairvoyance to reveal the spoilers this time." Holmes chuckled and watched as the members of the Shadow Chasers began to search the scene and control the entrances and exits of the entire theater. "Then please wait a moment. Let me see the direction of this case and how the Kingdom of Justice will deal with this emergency."

When the chief judge stood on the stage and judged this incident as a series of cases related to the missing girl case, causing an uproar from the audience in the theater, Holmes answered Lancer Mellor's question.

"As you said, our understanding of Maplestage is missing an important piece of the puzzle. I'm afraid the Maplestage people don't know about this either, which is why the missing girl case remains unsolved." Holmes looked at the scene on the stage with a steady tone. "At this moment, all I can be sure of is that even though the magician has some minor problems, he is definitely innocent in this case."

"He is just an unlucky person framed by the real culprit."

"What a traitor?" Ritsuka Fujimaru, who was sitting next to Edmund, blinked and looked at Holmes. "Why did you say that, Mr. Holmes?"

"To say that a guy with a questionable identity is a loser in the presence of the vengeful ghost..." Lansemello held back his laughter. "This is too hellish. But the count is probably just being unlucky, otherwise why would he handle the letter? But I can probably understand why Holmes said that."

"As a magician, his identity is already problematic. If the clues and the audience are unfavorable to him, basically according to Maple Stage's trial system, this crime will be directly confirmed."

"However, I am more concerned about the water god here than the case itself." Holmes glanced at Lansemero, then turned his gaze to Finnina who was sitting in the VIP seat high up. "People who pretend to be gods will eventually be exposed - but she persisted for five hundred years without being exposed. I guess this is the effect of 'playing the god that people want to see'."

"You see, although she loudly spoke out her own illogical reasoning, when the Supreme Judge asked her whether she could consider this speech as an accusation against the magician, she initially denied it in panic. But when the people expected her to personally administer justice, she accepted such expectations and personally designated the opponent with the attitude of a god."

"Although the world is different, the same magical 'miracle' will be born in different worlds - this is the power to deceive fate and shake the predetermined future."