Harrington.
The youngest daughter of Duke Dorian, the King's fiancée, and fresh out of her sixteenth birthday last month.
Sunlight filtered through the window, casting a warm glow on the floor between Adrian and the portrait. There, on the ground, lay a pearl earring. Clearly, it was a clue. Clearly, there was a trap waiting.
But whether it was a teleportation circle or Myriad Things, it wouldn't trap Adrian. He could summon elemental spirits.
At max level, a summoner could have up to six magical pets without any gear. Adrian's pets included Raven, a kudu, a hell ram, a skeletal knight, and the elemental spirits.
Having reached max level, Adrian had earned the final slot for a pet but hadn't yet had the chance to capture one.
The elemental spirit was the most sensitive to magic on the entire continent of Sisitrit. No bigger than a palm, it looked like a flower fairy, with natural lighting and two little wings behind it.
"Go, flutterbug," Adrian ordered.
No magical aura could escape the elemental spirit's senses, and it didn't rely on special attack spells—it just ate.
The flutterbug cheerfully darted toward the magical elements it sensed, swishing its shiny little rear end. With a "chomp," it bit down on the magic maintaining the teleportation circle, tearing a hole in it like pulling apart cotton candy.
If it had encountered an attack spell controlled by a master, it might've had a harder time, but these teleportation circles were fixed—solidified magic. So, naturally, it could devour them however it pleased.
Adrian followed right behind, unimpeded, and picked up the pearl earring. Checking his system panel, the clue read (1/3)—a perfect result. He couldn't help but feel a little smug. "Sharp tools don't slow down the work."
And if the remaining magic in this room really was Myriad Things, truly connected to the evil witch Alice, then…
Adrian scanned the room again. Finally, in a shadowy corner, he spotted a blood-red mark on the wall. It was a butterfly—Alice's signature mark. She was both powerful and insane. If she committed evil, she always left her mark.
Of course, there was the possibility that someone else was copying her crimes.
At this point, the clue had shifted to (2/3), making it easy to draw a conclusion: Alice had kidnapped Harrington as revenge for the White Knight family's imprisonment of her in the past.
The way she left was through those intricate teleportation circles, each leading to dangerous places, making it impossible to track her in time.
But would an SSSSS-level task really be this simple? Where was the final clue?
Adrian had practically turned the bedroom upside down. Without worrying about triggering any teleportation circles, he went full-on wrecking ball mode, knowing nothing could escape his search.
But there was nothing. Not a single thing that could trigger the final clue.
Where was the problem?
Could it be… the last clue was hidden in the destination of one of the teleportation circles, only to be found once he went there? But no, if Cosmos had completed this mission, there wouldn't have been enough time—half an hour at most. How could he have figured out the right teleportation circle, gone to the destination, found the clue, and then returned?
No matter how skilled he was, the timing wouldn't allow it.
Could Duke Dorian have given him a hint because of their mutual affection?
In a flash, Adrian's mind churned with countless possibilities, but he dismissed them all.
No, wait. The vast majority of players who enter this room wouldn't have the ability Adrian had—namely, to bypass all the teleportation circles and search the room thoroughly. If Adrian couldn't find a clue, then no one else could. The problem had to lie with the teleportation circles.
Standing in the middle of the room, Adrian scanned every corner. The pearl earring swayed with his movements, and his handsome face showed deep thought.
"It's the location!" Adrian suddenly had a breakthrough. His gaze quickly locked onto the flutterbug.
"Ah?" The flutterbug turned its head, blinking its little eyes, its belly round from the magic elements it had eaten.
It had to be remembered.
Adrian recalled the position where the flutterbug had eaten its first bite—two meters from the door. Then it moved south a little, then turned 45 degrees to the north, and traveled another three meters. Then...
The bedroom was large, and the flutterbug had eaten through thirteen teleportation circles in total. Adrian grabbed a bottle of ink from the desk and drew the positions of these circles on the floor, constantly recalling and correcting, until the locations were linked together, forming a map of the continent of Sisitrit.
Adrian then placed the pearl earring back at the spot where it had fallen. On the map, that place pointed to—
"Ebonreach, one of the five major cities."
As soon as he spoke, the system chimed in.
\[The King's Bride]
Main Quest: (1) Find Harrington
Investigate the scene, obtain clues (completed)
Head to Ebonreach, gather information on the Blood Butterfly
The pearl earring left behind was a deliberate clue.
And then there's the West Tower!
Adrian turned and left the bedroom. He looked left and right but didn't spot the bounty hunter. Instead, he noticed a player who had been pacing outside the bedroom before he entered. Adrian approached him and asked, "Hey, did you see the bounty hunter who just came out? He had two knives—one dagger and one longsword."
"He just left, maybe half a minute before you did," the player instinctively answered, then suddenly froze and asked in shock, "How are you all so fast? Faster than Cosmos?! You were only in there for about twenty minutes—was this quest that easy? You didn't step on any teleportation circles?"
"Uh…" Adrian was momentarily stunned, scratching his head. "Were there teleportation circles in there?"
The player's voice went up an octave. "You didn't notice any?!"
Adrian shrugged. "I guess... I got lucky?"
The player stared at him, speechless.
"I'm gonna head out now," Adrian said, waving as he walked away.
The player watched him go, still dumbfounded. He had been hesitating for ages, trying to figure out how to deal with those damn teleportation circles inside, worried about getting sent to a dangerous place and facing an ambush the moment he opened the door.
But here was someone who, by sheer luck, didn't get caught by any of them?
What the player didn't know was that Adrian was regretting his decision.
He should've asked the bounty hunter if he had found something in the West Tower. Cosmos' decision to go to the tower made sense. He had likely discovered the Blood Butterfly Alice left behind. So, even though the quest didn't require it, Cosmos went to check the tower where Alice had been imprisoned.
But the bounty hunter was strange. His sequence of actions was reversed. He had gone to the West Tower first, then came to the bedroom for clues.
That didn't make sense.
Adrian thought it over carefully and decided he had to check out the West Tower. The guards who had been distracted earlier should have scattered by now, so it was the perfect time to go.
However, as Adrian reached the bottom of the stairs, a thunderous explosion rang out from outside. He rushed to the window, sticking his head out, and his pupils went wide at the sight of the billowing smoke not far away.
The West Tower had completely collapsed!