Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

"Hey, listen, what a beautiful voice—"

The drunk man was supporting the people around him while trying to approach and strike up a conversation, pretending to reach out and grab Elsa's shoulder. This scene made Becky's eyes jump, and the way she looked at the man changed.

You are so brave, guy. I am really looking forward to what expression you will have later.

Becky couldn't help but look at him with sympathy.

"Listen, my beautiful lady, I think you must be in need of a..."

But just as the drunkard began to speak, a woman emerged from behind them. She was wearing heavy, vibrant makeup, red lips, dark eyebrows, and alluring eyes. A hint of intoxication lingered on her face, a blush that only made her more alluring. Even in the cold of winter, she wore only a thin waistcoat and a coarse shirt, which only highlighted her slender figure.

I have to say, she is a beauty, but this beauty always brings a subtle sense of incongruity to Elsa.

The woman seemed to have noticed what was happening here a long time ago. She walked directly behind the drunk man and slapped him in the face without saying a word, interrupting the drunk man before he could finish his words.

"Idiot, I told you to behave yourself!"

The woman yelled, grabbed the drunk's shoulder and pulled him back without any hesitation, causing the drunk to stagger and distance himself from Elsa.

The drunk turned around in pain, anger on his face: "Hey, what are you doing! I was the one who fell in love with this woman first... Eh? Boss!?"

It seems that they all know each other, and the woman is the "leader" of them.

"Shut your filthy mouth, idiot."

The woman increased the strength of her hands, and it was obvious that she was quite strong. The drunk man immediately grimaced and howled in pain. The severe pain also made his drunkenness fade a little, and when he looked up again, he didn't dare to speak anymore.

Elsa glanced at the woman in surprise. The woman also looked at Elsa, with a slightly tipsy look on her face. She smiled apologetically and said,

"I'm truly sorry, ma'am. He's my friend, but as you can see, he's a bit drunk. To be honest, he's a bit annoying—but I assure you he didn't mean to offend you. I hope you, my dear lady, can forgive his rudeness..."

The woman grabbed the drunk man with one hand and walked past Aisha, making way for her.

As the woman passed by Elsa, she keenly smelled a very faint but real familiar scent.

It was a unique smell that did not belong to human women. Elsa had smelled it just now, in the hotel room. It was the smell of Grace and Lacey. To be more precise, it was the smell of the fox race on Lacey - the smell of sub-humans was very unique. Compared with humans, that smell was like some special biological pheromone. Elsa believed that her nose would not be wrong.

The beautiful woman seemed completely unaware that Elsa's gaze had quietly changed. She twisted the drunk's neck and made him bend down and bow to Elsa.

"Apologize to this beautiful lady."

she ordered.

"S-Sorry... I'll treat you to a drink, and I'll pay for it!"

At this point, Elsa didn't care about anything, or rather, she found something more interesting - besides, Elsa didn't have the elegance to drink slowly with a strange man.

"No need to drink, I'm here to look for someone."

Aisha said, looking at the woman with a slight scrutiny in her eyes.

She was not sure where the smell on the woman came from, because the woman did not seem to have any subhuman characteristics at all. Her hair and her eyes looked no different from those of an ordinary human, so the smell might not have come from the woman, but no matter what, it was enough to attract Elsa's attention.

If Tricia were here, she would probably be able to easily detect the other party's identity - Tricia's magical vision is indeed a very convenient ability.

Or, just ask her directly?

Aisha thought about it and did not choose to do so immediately. She pretended to be casual and continued to ask:

"Have you seen a woman with gray hair? She has a child with her."

"Oh? Bringing a child to the tavern?" The beautiful woman looked very surprised.

"Yes, but I don't think she came here to drink - have you seen her?" Aisha continued to ask without further explanation.

"Although I'd love to help, unfortunately, I've never met such a person," the woman said with regret. Although she said regret, her expression actually gave people a sense of charm and allure. "By the way, what do you want to see her about? I'm an acquaintance of the boss here. If you need anything, I can give her a call."

"She stole something from me, something important, so I have to find her."

Aisha said calmly, but there was a hint of low hostility in her words.

Of course, this was all pretend, and the so-called stealing was nonsense - Elsa would not be so foolish as to make her relationship with Grace clear, but instead put her and Grace in a delicate position, so that even if the other party had any vigilance, it would be slightly dispelled.

"Is she a thief?" The woman stared into Elsa's eyes, as if trying to discern something. "If that's the case, perhaps finding the guards would be a better option..."

"I'm not going to get myself into trouble."

Elsa still maintained a polite smile, but her words revealed an intriguing meaning.

The woman seemed to understand something and laughed.

"Sorry, I was too talkative."

"do not worry about it."

Elsa waved her hand nonchalantly.

After a few more words, the woman took the drunks away, and Elsa stood sideways in front of the door, which happened to be the blind spot of their sight. Elsa listened with her ears cocked. Even after they walked away, Elsa could still hear the woman rudely scolding the drunkard and hitting him on the head in frustration.

"I told you not to cause trouble here. Take care of your things, or I won't mind chopping them off for you! —Haha, what are you complaining about? You don't think those women look easy to bully, do you? Please, open your eyes, you idiot! No woman who can maintain such good looks in such cold weather is easy to mess with, do you understand?"

This seems to be a very simple truth, or experience?

"Okay, okay... Boss..."

The drunk man was timid and seemed really afraid of women.

Although they were very far away, Elsa could still hear their conversation clearly, but they did not mention anything that Elsa was more concerned about - so, where did the smell of that woman come from?

After thinking for a while, Aisha said to Becky:

"Becky, I'll leave this place to you. If I find Grace, you'll just wait here for me to come back."

After saying that, Elsa tapped the black sword at her waist.

"Come out to work."

Although Tricia is not around, Adele's mind-reading ability should come in handy.

……

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481. Mind Reading (3K3)

There were many people in front of the tavern, making it difficult to get around. So even though Elsa sensed a concerning scent from the beautiful woman, she didn't confront the woman immediately. Instead, she waited until they were far away before she and Adele chased after them.

From a distance, Elsa heard the beautiful woman lecturing the men.

"After you've had enough to eat and drink, you have to get back to work. Don't dawdle and don't cause me any trouble. You know, once the cold wave passes, this great opportunity will be hard to find again."

There were not many pedestrians on the streets in the early morning. Because of this, the vigilance of those people was not very strong - if someone followed them at this time, they would be easily discovered on the deserted streets. The streets in the morning were really too empty, and any figure would be very conspicuous, so Elsa and Adele stayed away.

"Of course, I'll listen to the boss!"

A few drunks responded happily, as if the lecture given by the beautiful woman just now had never happened and had been forgotten. It was hard to believe that they really listened to what she said.

Elsa thought about it and did not choose to go forward and stop those people directly. Instead, she said to Adele beside her: "Adele, you can read their minds directly, right? Read them and tell me what they are talking about and what opportunities they have."

"Oh, okay...but I need to get closer..."

"This distance is not enough?"

Adele hesitated and muttered, "Hmm...it's a bit too far..."

Elsa took a quick glance and found the distance between them and the drunks wasn't that far, around two hundred paces. At that distance, if it weren't for the strong wind, Elsa could clearly hear their conversation. Ordinary basic magic certainly couldn't work over a distance of a hundred meters. The transmission of magic power would rapidly decay with distance, after all, there was still a lot of magic in the air. It was like throwing a stone in water; it wouldn't be able to throw it very far. This was basic magical common sense.

But what makes Elsa feel strange is that Adele is a wild god after all. Could it be that her mind reading ability is only effective within a hundred meters?

In Elsa's impression, the power Adele displayed in the underground ruins seemed to be beyond this level.

"Your strength has declined? I remember you weren't like this when we were in the ruins."

Elsa turned her head and stared at Adele again and again, unable to make out what she was saying.

"Or perhaps your strength from that time hasn't recovered yet? Or perhaps the injuries sustained in 'that world' haven't healed yet—if you need it, I can give you a few more drops of blood."

Aisha said seriously.

If Adele was injured in the dream world, Elsa would feel a little guilty. Of course, another part of the reason was that Elsa had more plans for Adele, so she didn't want Adele to make any mistakes. After experiencing the dream world, Elsa had more ideas and a greater desire to delve into magic.

Because she wanted to figure out what the dream world was, and what the unknown power in Elsa's body was - this might be difficult to get an answer from others. The only person who understood and recognized the existence of that power was Elsa herself, which required Elsa to have a deeper understanding of the power structure of this world.

Just like if you want to understand a math equation, you must first have a solid understanding of basic math knowledge. In this world developed on the foundation of magic, magic is always an unavoidable hurdle. If Elsa's feelings about magic were limited to "reluctance" and "curiosity" before, then starting from last night, it became something that "must be done and understood."

But things don't seem to be what Aisha thought.

"No, no..."

Adele purred, feeling slightly flattered by Elsa's concern.

"Lady Aisha, things are not what you think... Well, actually, I can't extend my mind reading ability too far..."

"Is that right?"

"Uh-huh!"

Adele nodded vigorously and explained:

"It has no direct relationship to the strength of magical power. Ultimately, mind reading is just a form of mental magic and soul magic. Strictly speaking... there's actually no such thing as mind reading. I'm sure you understand this better than I do. True mind reading doesn't exist..."

"No, I don't understand."

Elsa said honestly, and the words made Adele choke.

She couldn't help but start to doubt again whether Elsa was teasing her or telling the truth - Adele had never seen any god possess such powerful power as Elsa, so every time Elsa was humble, she didn't quite believe it.

Adele didn't know whether to speak for a moment.

"I'm not good at magic, so you can explain it to me."

Aisha added.

Adele then grumbled.

"Well... but... my opinion is very shallow and means nothing to you..."

"Every profession has its own expertise. I'm not good at magic, and there's no need for me to lie to you about that."

Things had come to this point, and Adele had no way to refute anything anymore - whatever Elsa said was what it was, and she would not make herself uncomfortable.

She hesitated for a moment, glanced at Elsa, and began to explain:

"True 'mind reading' is actually 'reading' the soul itself. To achieve this, one must fully comprehend the soul's essence, or in other words, fully understand its structure. However, in reality, no soul in this world is exactly the same as another. Even within the same person, their soul can change from the previous second. This subtle difference is enough to cause ambiguity in any sophisticated magic. There is no permanent way to forcibly read the soul hidden deep within...

Even the most sophisticated hypnosis, in order to understand another person's inner thoughts, relies on the subject's 'confession'. This inevitably involves too much 'guidance', losing the original purpose of 'mind reading'. As far as I know, there is no way to unilaterally steal the subject's thoughts without subjective guidance. Spells that resist mind control actually utilize the essential step of guidance from the caster to set a subconscious trap.

Listening to Adele's narration, Elsa suddenly remembered that Count Ryanfort had taken the initiative to have someone hypnotize him to interrogate him about the information about the assassination of the former queen, but Stikia got nothing - Tricia said that hypnosis magic itself is not omnipotent. Could this be the case?

Adele continued, making a series of grunting noises.

"Similarly, I can't directly 'read minds'. What I 'read' is merely the resonance between the soul and the magical elements floating in the air, mixed with a few techniques of mental magic. Because of this, I can also read many other things, such as the trembling of the earth, the humming of the sky, the whispers of trees and animals, and even some murmurs whose source I can't even identify... I once suspected that they might be messages left by the Outsider."

"Outside Devil?"

"Hmm... Terrible evil gods. They dwell in the void and once brought profound disasters to this land... But those were legends from before I was born, and I haven't heard those voices in many, many years. Perhaps they've left."

This is something I've never heard of. Could it be a demon king or something like that? — Elsa pondered in her heart, but she didn't care much. After all, the Age of Gods alone was countless years away, and demons were even before that. It was too far away.

Adele sighed, and when Elsa didn't say anything, she continued to purr.

"So, when I'm too far away from the target of my mind reading, these 'sounds' inevitably dominate, making it difficult for me to distinguish them. Just like when the wind blows, even someone with the most sensitive hearing will ignore the voices of others a few steps away because of the din of the wind. But in my 'palace', those sounds have been blocked by my 'space', so I can extend my 'mind reading' to a very long distance."

Elsa nodded.

In this way, perhaps this is one of the few weaknesses of "mind reading". In comparison, Tricia's mystical magic does not have this problem - Adele took the initiative to tell Elsa these weaknesses, perhaps it can be regarded as a way of showing loyalty.

Although Elsa doesn't really need Adele's loyalty.

At this time, Elsa had already taken Adele through the side alley. Across the snow-covered woodshed, Elsa saw the beautiful woman leading a few people to a dilapidated, low hut. She knocked on the door, and an elderly man inside opened the door for them.

The old man held a short knife in his hand and scolded him rudely as he opened the door.

"Why are you here now?"

He had a sharp nose, thick lips, and deep, sunken eyes, yet they were particularly sharp. Although his slightly slender figure was slightly stooped, his posture hinted at his robust health. Unlike the drunken guys, the elderly man was very alert. He frowned, asked a few questions, then poked his head out to glance around before welcoming the woman and the drunk into the room.

However, he did not notice the presence of Elsa and Adele.

"They seemed to be planning to meet up with another group somewhere, but they were late for the appointment, so he was a little angry—but considering the good price this time, he decided to put up with it."

Adele purred beside Elsa.

"Look at how slovenly they are. A few insignificant drunkards can't accomplish anything great."

Adele said this in an awkward voice, and after she finished speaking, she stole a glance at Elsa and stammered.