This Dark Elf wants to see the clone research materials?
Charles looked at her with interest. "What do you want with that stuff? What, you planning to make a whole bunch of Dark Elf clones of yourself too?"
Hanni quickly shook her head. "No, no, of course not! I'm just a bit curious about how something like this is even possible, so I wanted to take a look. I'll give it right back after..."
Charles smiled faintly. "You seem awfully free. How much of those new spells have you copied into your spellbook? You've still got time to read for fun?"
Hanni hurried to explain, "I've already copied everything I know how to cast. As for the ones I don't know... even if you let me copy them, I can't cast them anyway!"
After a pause, she added eagerly, "Priest, those Dark Elves who tried to stop you—they were all members of the Baenre family, the number one house in Menzoberranzan. If they were guarding these secrets so desperately, I'm really interested!"
As she spoke, she blinked her eyes forcefully, her expression full of pleading. Beside her, Nymeria also looked at him pitifully. Who knew what Hanni had used to win her over, but they'd formed a united front.
Charles frowned slightly, then turned to look at Nymeria. "Nymeria, step outside. Hanni and I need to talk."
Nymeria opened her mouth but didn't think much of it, leaving somewhat reluctantly. Charles crossed his legs, staring at Hanni before him, his gaze slightly unfocused, then suddenly said, "Why don't you just come clean, Hanni. What exactly are you after, going through all this trouble to join us?"
Facing Charles, Hanni opened her mouth, dropping her pitiful pleading expression with a sigh. "Priest, even though I do have certain goals, I don't pose any threat to you, do I?"
Charles nodded. "But you want these materials, so I have to ask for more information, Hanni."
"You know how important what's behind these materials is, don't you?"
Hanni's throat worked for a moment, then she sighed again.
"Fine, I surrender." She said. "You know about the Baenre family, right? I'll skip the introduction. Anyway, everyone suspects they're up to something behind the Spider Queen's back."
"Of course, this kind of suspicion isn't new, um... anyway, our goal is to defend the Spider Queen's authority, absolutely not to take them down so we can rise to the top ourselves."
Charles nodded. Dark Elf infighting—very good, definitely worth encouraging.
He listened as Hanni continued, "Then, through divination, we found the safest method among many seemingly unrelated possibilities to reach the place hiding their family's secrets, so I came to join you guys."
Hearing this, Charles showed some surprise. "You're a divination wizard?"
Divination wizards—mages who specialized in divination school spells and possessed certain abilities to foresee or even alter the future. For example, you might swing your sword and normally be blocked by an enemy, but when a divination wizard exerts their power, the enemy might suddenly lose their footing and thrust their own throat onto your blade.
In short, divination wizards had extremely powerful support abilities, belonging to the top tier of mages.
"Mm." Hanni nodded, then sighed. "Priest Charles, we're really not enemies. I have no intention of opposing you at all. All I want are these materials as evidence."
Charles looked at her with interest. "Is that so? I'm curious, Hanni—how many of the words coming out of your mouth right now are actually true?"
Hanni said seriously, "All of them! Priest, I haven't told a single lie from start to finish, including being captured by orcs... uh... that's actually true too, because we really were ambushed, but divination told me it would go more smoothly this way, so I didn't let my mom come rescue me..."
Saying this, her attitude softened again, showing a pleading look. "Please, Priest, let me look at those materials? I promise you, I'll only copy a small portion for evidence. When we part ways, I'll immediately return them to you exactly as they were."
Charles looked at her, hesitating and weighing his options. After all, this was just a pile of research materials, not some kind of destructive weapon.
Taking it a step further, even if she really did learn something from them, any future consequences would just cause chaos among the Dark Elves and had nothing to do with him—or rather, if she really did stir something up, it might not necessarily be a bad thing for the entire material world.
Dark Elves didn't allow males to systematically study spells, so they were actually the weakest branch among all the elves. Their fearsome reputation came only from being too active, not from actually being that strong.
If they really did something that transgressed a true god's authority in pursuit of power, he wouldn't even need to intervene—Lolth herself would probably deal with them directly. After all, conflict between gods was an internal matter among deities; if any mortal dared to overstep, the gods would absolutely not tolerate it.
Considering also that this girl had indeed encouraged Malena to backstab Sulpharlo, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to deal with that fallen angel so smoothly...
Thinking this way, he took out the Bag of Holding and handed it to her. "Go ahead and look. Since you're trying to take down the Baenre family, well, I wish you all the best."
No matter what, Dark Elf infighting was definitely something worth encouraging.
Hanni's face lit up. "Great, thank you, Priest!"
She took it and quickly left. Charles collected himself and continued focusing his energy on studying the Eldritch Invocation called "Eldritch Smite."
...
Several days later, at night, on the ship, in the main lounge.
Willo and Adele sat there, holding two huge maps and comparing them to see what they'd missed.
Their main task on this trip was to draw maps of the Underdark connected below Ridgecrest Plateau. Although they hadn't actually set foot in many places, with Lotuen's maps as reference, much of the information could still be confirmed.
It was already late, and everyone else had gone to rest, leaving only the mother and daughter still working.
After a moment, Adele stood up, yawned long and wide, then said, "Mom, I'm tired. I'm going to sleep."
Willo didn't look up, just gave a soft "Mm," so Adele quickly left, heading back to her room on this level.
Willo sat in place, looked at the maps a bit longer, then suddenly stood, rolled the maps into a scroll, put them in her Bag of Holding, then turned and went upstairs, heading straight for the top floor, toward Charles's room.
As a druid, she should have followed a normal, regular sleep schedule and shouldn't have stayed up this late.
She was actually waiting for Adele to get tired, waiting for her to leave on her own and go to sleep. That way, she could begin enjoying her own nightlife.
As soon as she reached the top floor of the cabin—where the ship captain's bedroom used to be—before she even got close, faint moaning and murmuring sounds drifted over, along with some kind of crisp collision sounds.
This floor housed Charles and several of the nuns' rooms. Unfortunately, there weren't enough rooms to let Willo stay here too, or she definitely would have moved to the top floor voluntarily.
But then again, it was fortunate there weren't enough rooms on this floor, so she and Adele could only find a room on the middle level. Otherwise, all the things about to happen tonight, those embarrassing sounds, wouldn't her daughter hear them all?
With this sense of relief, Willo walked to the door of Charles's bedroom. Leaning close to the doorway, the pleasant panting sounds and crisp collision sounds became even clearer. Obviously, the man and woman in this room were doing something.
Willo showed no signs of blushing. Under the ethereal druid's state of mind, she was very clear about what she wanted to do and what she should do, her heart completely at peace.
She raised her hand and gently knocked on the door.
Knock knock knock—
The crisp knocking sound rang out, and that rhythmic moaning and flesh-on-flesh collision sound suddenly stopped. Then, a series of light footsteps sounded—there seemed to be a third person in this room, coming over to open the door for her.
Click—
The room door opened. Sophia, still wearing her thick black nun's habit, appeared in the doorway, looking at Willo with a smile, seemingly unsurprised by her arrival. "Adele finally went to rest?"
Willo smiled. "Yes, young people have abundant energy. It wasn't until just now that she finally got tired and went to rest."
Finishing this sentence, she stepped forward, walked into the room, turned her head slightly, and her vision fell on the room's interior, on the only large bed.
There, Charles and Hattie lay on the bed, obviously embracing each other, with only a thin blanket covering them.
Hattie's ink-green hair was disheveled, her eyes hazy, and she was craning her neck to look at the newcomer in the doorway. Her cheeks bore an alluring rosy flush, clearly indicating that before Willo entered, she'd been receiving Charles's caresses and nourishment.
If Willo hadn't come in and interrupted this process, she might have already reached a peak of pleasure by now.
Charles was holding her from behind, also just looking up toward Willo's direction. At the foot of the bed, Theresa sat there with her nun's habit half undone, revealing half of her snowy ample breasts, her face slightly red but smiling as she looked at Willo in the doorway. "You're here? Come, sit down."
Willo's expression was calm as she nodded gently. "Mm."
Behind her, Sophia closed the door again and locked it. Then, the satyr matriarch took steps forward, walking gracefully to the bedside. As she walked, she silently chanted an incantation, and the emerald-green mage's robe symbolizing spring slowly fell away, revealing the flawless, full delicate body beneath.
In a sense, Willo was actually also constantly in a state of going commando. It was just that her magically imbued robe could intelligently recognize and protect her body, preventing any accidental exposure.
Of course, actively removing her robe like now, baring her body—that was another matter entirely.
~~~
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