When leaving the island, Lin Ye's heart was beating incessantly due to the fact that both Magallan's drone was gone and his most powerful trump card was now gone. If they encountered anything threatening on their way back, they were all done for.
Thankfully they didn't encounter anything dangerous on the way back. He wasn't sure if he had eliminated all of the strange things on the island or if they were just plain lucky.
Thinking about it more carefully, the strangest place on the island was the underground river. They didn't encounter anything else before the underground which was an unsettling coincidence. He also wondered if the river he destroyed was still there, or maybe there was nothing left on this island.
If we continue to investigate, will we be able to find Skadi?
Lin Ye had such thoughts in his mind following their uncertain encounters on the island, but he dismissed them in an instant.
He couldn't let the whole team follow along on the adventure just because of Skadi. Not to mention that there was no real evidence to indicate that Skadi was still on the island. Even if Skadi was really there, they still had to go back.
Lin Ye also knew that his performance tonight was not sufficient enough. In many cases he was very unreasonable, impatient, and he didn't know if it was because of his concern for Skadi's safety, or because he was being affected by the mysterious power on the island or maybe both.
In any case, he was sure that he would be unable to lead this team.
Their experience in the cave compared to their current progress back was unbelievably smooth. The small boat swayed on the sea as rain gradually fell.
They slowly returned to the town of Harlan. When they stopped the boat and stepped onto the land, Lin Ye felt like he was in a trance. It was obvious that they had only been out for a few hours, but they were unusually tired and wanted to sleep right away.
"It's only about one and a half hours before dawn," Blue Poison looked at the time and said "We made it just in time."
Lin Ye nodded to her.
"Then let's go back," Lin Ye replied, "It's about time for the others to wake up, and we won't be able to get any sleep. It's likely that the others will call us as soon as dawn breaks. Don't get found out, otherwise it's going to be hard to explain what we did when they wake up."
Everyone nodded and followed Lin Ye. They slowly tiptoed back to their tent. They were very cautious as they didn't want to be spotted.
Several of the Ursus's military's outposts were located at the entrances and exits of Harlan intercepting idlers. However they didn't bring many people as the coastline was naturally occurring here and couldn't be completely secured.
They successfully got back to their tent without being caught.
Back in the tent Lin Ye really wanted to find a sleeping bag and fall asleep in an instant, but he also knew that he didn't have the time to do that. He resisted the urge to sleep and said to the others "It's about to dawn soon. If nothing else, we'll take action at dawn", he stared at each of them "SilverSword also said yesterday that today we're going to the sea."
"What?" As soon as she got back in the tent, Matoimaru lied down and tilted her head "Going to the sea?"
"Didn't you attend yesterday's meeting?" Magallan said incredulously.
"Who would listen to that kind of thing?" Matoimaru said offhandedly, "But it doesn't matter, I just listen. What should we do next?"
"If it is a joint operation, the next investigation will be much easier, but we can't communicate as freely as before" Magallan explained, "So I suggest that we collate the information we got tonight before dawn, otherwise we would have gone for nothing last night."
Lin Ye thought he heard a little bit of resentment from Magallan's words. After all her precious drones were destroyed last night.
Regarding Magallan's proposal everyone agreed except for Frostleaf, who was not too fond of talking.
"This was the biggest piece of information we gained," Lin Ye was the first to speak while taking out Skadi's communicator and presenting it to everyone, "This proves that Skadi really lost contact on that very island."
Blue Poison confirmed what Lin Ye had said.
"It is very likely that like us, she was hypnotized by the same thing," She theorized, "This can be heard from the recording of Miss Skadi's conversation with Doctor Kal'tsit. Her last sentence before Miss Skadi lost contact was calling Doctor Lin Ye's name, and Doctor Lin Ye was in Kjerag at that time. That is to say, Skadi also saw Doctor Lin Ye while hypnotized."
"But after that? Is it possible that she rushed into the underground river like Doctor Lin Ye?" Matoimaru asked with some doubt, "But didn't you say before that Skadi was the most powerful Abyssal hunter, how could she be tricked like Doctor Lin Ye?"
Lin Ye also doubted Blue Poisons theory. Could she be tricked like him? As if sensing their concerns about her idea, Blue Poison quickly tried to alleviate them.
"Doctor Lin Ye, I don't know if you've seen Miss Skadi's file. Have you?" She asked.
"No, I just heard all my information about her from Amiya," Lin Ye shook his head, "What about it?"
"... How do I put it?" Blue Poison hesitated a little, "Miss Skadi is actually not very good at Arts techniques."
"Arts techniques?" Dread slowly creeped into him, "What?"
Blue Poison sighed softly. It seemed like she didn't want to continue but she also knew that concealing this kind of information was not good for Skadi or their operation.
"You should know that because of the particulars of Miss Skadi's body, she doesn't know any Arts skills and she lacks knowledge on most of them. Although the hypnosis we encountered last night may not be of the same type as the ones that are created by Arts, I think Miss Skadi could not adapt and deal with it. What she believes in is her way of fighting, if there's something that can't be solved with one sword, then she'll use two."
This was the first time Lin Ye heard such information .
Matoimaru wanted to confirm.
"What you want to say is that when faced with such an Arts technique or magic spell, Skadi would only have the same resistance as an ordinary person?"
"It should be said that she is not as good as an ordinary person." Blue Poison smiled awkwardly, "it's normal for the technique to hypnotize us, therefore it's not impossible for it to hypnotize Miss Skadi."
"In other words, you think Skadi has been hypnotized?" Magallan asked.
Blue Poison nodded in reply "And she was alone at the time, so no one could help her."
Lin Ye didn't know what to say.
Since she was weak in that aspect, why did she need to act alone? Was she not worried at all? Now we don't know where she is now.
Matoimaru looked at Lin Ye, then at Blue Poison, and then slowly sat up straight. She slowly said "You may not have wanted to hear it, but I think it's better to say it now."
"Go on," Lin Ye guessed what she wanted to say.
"Skadi was very likely caught by the spell," Matoimaru stated, "Then what do you think the probability is that she's still alive?"
After she had finished speaking, everyone became silent.
Originally Lin Ye thought that Skadi could never be defeated and had no weaknesses. Even if she had disappeared, he still subconsciously thought she was safe. But now he knew what Skadi's greatest weakness was, and also knew that her weakness was exploited before she went missing.
She was obviously hypnotized, and the time the hypnotization happened was a week ago. If she was tricked into going into the river, no matter how strong she was, she would just be bones sinking in the underground river. A week was more than enough time for unknown danger to appear. No matter how he thought about it, he still felt that Skadi had been...
Lin Ye felt that he needed some small hope.
At this time, Magellan coughed twice and then shyly spoke, "I don't think we should be so pessimistic. After all, we didn't find Miss Skadi, right?"
"The corpses," Lin Ye sighed, "She may be one of them".
"... I understand, I just don't want everyone to be so pessimistic," Magallan said, "Moreover, we didn't find Miss Skadi's cell phone, right? I think that phone should explain the situation".
Everyone looked at Magallan.
"You think so? But when Doctor Lin Ye was hypnotized, he was going to run into the underground river. If it wasn't for Matoimaru stopping him, Doctor Lin Ye would have probably drowned in the underground river and become a skeleton at the bottom of the river, right?" Frostleaf questioned.
Lin Ye nodded. He couldn't deny what she just said.
It still hurts though.
"So if Miss Skadi was hypnotized like Doctor Lin Ye, she should have died in the underground river seven days ago" The Vulpo concluded.
Magallan explained, "But if this was the case, Miss Skadi's phone should have soaked in the river, right? It's impossible for her to deliberately dispose of the phone before she was hypnotized and cast into the river".
Lin Ye's eyes lit up and then murmured.
"This doesn't make sense."
"With a communicator, Miss Skadi will definitely not use it now. The Mobile phone should still be fine and with her at this current moment," Magallan says, "So if Miss Skadi's cell phone is still in good condition, it's enough proof that she did not die that night."
Magallan's explanation reassured everyone.
"I think we should trust Miss Skadi," Magallan said.
At this time, Frostleaf who was sitting at the exit of the tent glanced outside the tent and frowned, "Stop. Someone's coming."
"Are they the Ursus soldiers? Isn't the sky still dark?" Lin Ye raised his brow.
"No," Frostleaf said with some confusion in her tone, "It Is the woman named Skyfire."
{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}
Draft by Jaq
Proofread by SM
Edit by Jaq