The closer she got to Crow Candle Castle, the thicker the surrounding mist became.
The grayish-white fog slowly rolled in from the forest, swallowing the path and the dead trees ahead bit by bit.
If an ordinary person walked in here, they probably wouldn't even be able to discern the direction ten paces away.
Moon did not stop, however. The moment it stepped into the fog, the dense mist ahead seemed to recognize something and automatically parted to both sides.
A path leading to Crow Candle Castle silently revealed itself.
The towering castle in the distance remained hidden beneath the dim sky, its spires piercing the fog and its pitch-black outer walls covered in withered vines.
Dim yellow candlelight flickered behind the windows; even from afar, those quiet sparks of light were visible.
Without realizing it, Yu Lingye's shoulders and back relaxed.
No matter how much trouble there was outside, at least here, she could temporarily let down her guard.
This feeling was very foreign to her.
In her past life, she had been to many safe zones and joined various teams, but none of those places had ever truly belonged to her.
Crow Candle Castle was gloomy and dilapidated, and it still hid many unsolved secrets.
But as the thick fog parted for her, Yu Lingye realized clearly for the first time—she was home.
She had returned to a place that truly, completely belonged to her.
Moon seemed to sense her mood as well. Its steps were much lighter than before, and the golden hairband newly braided next to its ear swayed gently with its movements, making it look quite lively.
The castle's main gates had already been opened in advance.
Lia stood at the very front.
She wore a neat black-and-white maid dress with her hands folded in front of her. Behind her stood two neat rows of faceless servants, their featureless faces lowered as if they had been waiting for a long time.
The moment Moon reached the stone steps, all the faceless servants bowed in unison.
Lia also bowed to her.
“Welcome back, Master.”
Her calm voice drifted through the fog.
A hint of a smile appeared in Yu Lingye's eyes. The disguise covering her face quietly faded away, her features, skin tone, and hair gradually returning to Isolde's original appearance.
She dismounted, and Moon returned to its unicorn form, happily trotting off toward the backyard.
Isolde did not stop it, raising her hand to unfasten her cloak.
Lia took a step forward, naturally taking the cloak handed to her and carefully draping it over her arm.
“During your absence, My Lady, your room was cleaned daily.”
“Food and bathwater have also been prepared.”
Lia paused.
“Would My Lady like to dine first, or bathe?”
Isolde did not answer immediately.
She swept her gaze over the undamaged gates, then glanced at the faceless servants standing on either side.
“Did anyone break in while I was away?”
“Yes.”
Lia's reply came without hesitation.
“Three groups in total.”
“The first group consisted of four mercenaries, the second of two Descenders, and the third had five people whose identities cannot be confirmed for now.”
“After entering the castle, they attempted to steal valuables, open sealed rooms, and damage the structure, respectively.”
Lia's tone was calm, as if she were reporting a few trivial matters.
“In accordance with My Lady's orders before leaving, the greedy ones have all been judged.”
“The equipment, gold coins, and materials they left behind have all been categorized and stored in the warehouse by Goldie.”
“The detailed inventory has been placed on the table in My Lady's room.”
Isolde nodded. The castle's offline operation was even more stable than she had anticipated.
The Peeping Mural, Soul-Luring Candlestick, and Blood Banquet Signpost were already capable of autonomously guiding intruders.
As long as the intruders harbored a sufficiently obvious greed within the castle, there was no need for her to return and handle them personally.
In other words, even if she stayed outside for long periods in the future, Crow Candle Castle could continue to filter prey and gather resources on her behalf.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Lia lowered her head slightly.
“Lia never finds it hard to work for My Lady.”
She spoke calmly and earnestly. Isolde looked at her for a couple of seconds, suddenly remembering the small wooden box inside her cloak.
“Right.”
She reached in and took out the wooden box.
“This is for you.”
Lia looked up, her gaze first falling on the wooden box before slowly turning to Isolde, as if she did not quite understand the meaning of her words.
Isolde opened the wooden box. The silver-gray crow-feather hairpin lay quietly on the gray cloth, the dark-red glass at its tip catching the candlelight from the doorway and glinting slightly.
“It's not any kind of magical equipment, nor does it have any special effects,” Isolde said as she took out the hairpin. “It's the gift I promised you. I thought it suited you, so I bought it.”
Lia remained standing in place, her eyes fixed on the hairpin. A very faint ripple seemed to pass through her hazy single eye.
Isolde waited for a moment. Seeing that she still didn't move, she simply took a step forward.
“Lower your head.”
Lia obediently lowered her head. Isolde brushed aside a lock of hair by her ear and clipped the crow-feather hairpin in place.
Lia's hair had been very dry and yellowed at first, but after upgrading, it had become much softer and smoother.
With the silver-gray crow feather nestled in her hair, that touch of dark red at the tip actually gave her entire being a hint of life.
The item wasn't particularly exquisite, and its craftsmanship was only average.
Yet, when worn by Lia, it looked surprisingly fitting.
Isolde took half a step back and looked at her carefully.
“Not bad. It suits you very well.”
Lia raised her hand, her fingertips gently touching the hairpin.
The expression on her face remained very faint, with almost no visible change.
However, her hazy eye had indeed softened slightly, and the corners of her mouth seemed to curve upward ever so slightly.
“Thank you, My Lady.”
She paused for a moment, as if searching for a word she rarely used in the past.
“I am... very happy.”
Isolde looked at her. “As long as you're happy.”
Just as she finished speaking, the castle chandelier overhead suddenly swayed.
The metal frames clinked gently, producing a series of crisp chiming sounds.
Immediately after, a prompt popped up before her eyes.
【Goldie's Mood: Envious】
Isolde looked up. The candles in the hall flickered twice in unison, as if deliberately trying to catch her attention.
“You have something too.”
The chandelier stopped swaying slightly.
Isolde took out a small piece of wood dropped by the Treant King from her ring and shook it in her palm.
The wood was deep in color, yet there was not a single trace of decay at the break, and extremely fine golden wood grain remained inside.
【Special Material: Immortal Hardwood】
【Effect: Highly resistant to water, fire, pests, and moisture. Possesses extremely high load-bearing capacity and mana conductivity. Under normal circumstances, it will not naturally rot for a thousand years.】
【Uses: High-tier architecture, puppet frames, magical mediums, mechanism cores.】
“I brought back quite a lot of Immortal Hardwood this time.”
Isolde looked up at the ceiling of the hall and said leisurely, “I'll use a portion of it to upgrade your internal structure and repair the areas that were damaged in the past.”
“The rest will be used to rebuild the old station outside.”
The chandelier swayed gently again, and the candlelight on the walls on both sides brightened by a few degrees.
【Goldie's Mood: Happy】
【Goldie believes it is more important than the old station.】
Isolde raised an eyebrow. “How much you get to use will have to wait until Lia finishes her inspection.”
The chandelier immediately stopped swaying, and the hall fell silent for two seconds.
【Goldie's Mood: Reluctantly Accepting】
Isolde chuckled and walked further inside. Even the portraits on the walls seemed to welcome her return.
Isolde first went to the bathroom to take a comfortable, hot bath.
The firelight was hazy, and the steam swirled around.
She leaned against the edge of the bath, letting the warm water submerge her shoulders as she enjoyed this rare moment of comfort. Yet, her mind couldn't help but replay the events of the past few days.
Zhou Yi's terror before his death, Xu Zhiheng's wretchedness driven by greed, and Su Xiaoman's realization.
It was often only when pushed into a corner that humans revealed their true nature.
But Reece and Ryan were different from them.
They weren't particularly noble people; they had hesitated, doubted, and acted out of self-preservation along the way.
But they had died at their most glorious moment.
At least at that moment, they were worthy of the wooden plates in their hands and their own “duties.”
Isolde slowly closed her eyes.
Though she respected them in her heart, if they had actually left the treant dungeon alive and seen the 【Radiant Ring】 on her, there was no telling what they would have done afterward.
A rare item was enough to change a person's core nature. No matter how firm one's principles were, they might not withstand the test when faced with true, immense benefits.
Isolde could not be sure, so she would not assume they possessed an unverified loyalty just because they died respectably.
Water droplets slowly slid down the edge of the bath.
Isolde opened her eyes, her gaze falling on the candlelight blurred by the steam.
In the next instant, that massive entity lurking deep in the darkness flashed through her mind without warning.
Countless tangled black roots, and the dark-red light seeping through the cracks.
And that gaze that fell upon her, as if it had been waiting for a very long time.
Isolde's breath caught. She abruptly scooped up some hot water and splashed it on her face, the droplets trickling down her hairline and cheeks.
She kept her eyes closed for a moment, waiting until that sensation of being watched completely faded before leaning back against the edge of the bath again.
The Decayed Residual Root.
Isolde's residual consciousness.
The trade route around Crow Candle Castle that was about to be reopened.
And the long-declined Rosalind family in the Red Kite City-States.
There were too many things laid out before her.
If any of them were handled poorly, it could bring new trouble.
Isolde slowly exhaled.
There was no use in rushing.
Things had to be done one by one, and the path had to be walked step by step.
She raised her hand to push away a floating petal in front of her, her eyes returning to a calm state.
At least for now, she had returned to Crow Candle Castle.
There was still plenty of time here for her to slowly sort out all the clues.
Half an hour later, Isolde changed into a soft loungewear dress.
Her hair was still slightly damp, cascading over her shoulders.
When she returned to her room, the food on the table was still warm, and beside it lay the inventory Lia had prepared in advance.
Isolde first ate some food before leaning back in her chair to flip through the inventory.
The items brought by the intruders who broke into the castle were even more miscellaneous than she had expected.
The gold coins weren't particularly plentiful, and most of the weapons were of ordinary quality.
Shortswords, scimitars, low-tier staves, leather armor, bracers commonly used by mercenaries, and several pieces of completely damaged equipment.
Most likely Lia's doing.
What truly caught her attention, however, were the materials listed at the end.
【Wolf Pelt × 9】
【Rat Nail × 17】
【Fire-Leaf Grass × 6】
【Bitter-Mist Vine Root × 3】
【Swamp Frog Sac × 5】
【Green-Shell Pod × 12】
【Corrosive Acid Fruit × 4】
【Low-Tier Magical Beast Blood × 7 bottles】
【Moon-Spotted Lizard Tail × 2】
...
A hodgepodge of everything.
Isolde's gaze paused on a few of the materials.
In her past life, when she was with her team, one of the things she did most was collect materials.
Because of this, she recognized most of these items.
Green-Shell Pods and Swamp Frog Sacs could be used to brew low-tier transformation potions.
Bitter-Mist Vine Roots, on the other hand, could suppress their lingering effects.
Combined with a bit of purifying material, she might actually be able to concoct an antidote to reverse the frog bean's transformation effect.
She had originally been wondering where to find all the antidote ingredients, but she hadn't expected that the groups who broke into Crow Candle Castle would deliver more than half of them right to her.
Isolde gently tapped the inventory with her fingertip. It seemed those three frog-heads indeed had quite good luck.
After reviewing all the items, she had a general idea of the spoils the castle had confiscated during this period.
Ordinary equipment could be saved for peripheral personnel she might recruit in the future. The materials would be categorized, and those suitable for brewing potions would be kept first.
Unusable equipment and surplus items could be sold through various channels later to exchange for more practical resources.
However, an inventory was just an inventory after all. She would only know what was truly valuable after seeing it with her own eyes.
Isolde put down the paper, stood up, and walked out of her room.
Lia was already waiting outside the door, the crow-feather hairpin still clipped to the side of her head.
“Is My Lady going to the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
A trace of anticipation re-emerged in Isolde's eyes.
The goods left behind by the treants, the scrolls obtained from the abandoned watermill, plus the spoils the castle had gathered on its own during this time.
Although most of them were already listed on the inventory, some chests had yet to be opened one by one.
When it came to opening chests, she could never have too many.
“Let's go.”
Isolde led Lia down the corridor.
Another round of surprise-filled chest opening was about to begin.
Rate on N.U.
