Inside the spire, the wind was a lot less fierce.

The top of the spire was connected to the bottom of the spire by a ring-shaped staircase, and the material used to construct the staircase was large slabs of top-grade green noshain stone. Regardless of which staircase one took to reach the top of the spire from the aerial port, they could take this green noshain stone staircase to reach the bottom of the spire.

There were expensive oil paintings hung up one every few steps along the wall that was facing the staircase, and after walking down the staircase for a while, the expensive oil paintings were replaced by a series of intricately crafted gold-plated artifacts, which were placed inside display windows that were embedded into the wall. There were also Nightglow Stones situated in the interior of the display windows, and their light was reflected off the colorful gemstones on the artifacts, successfully drawing the attention of all of the guests who visit Madeira.

Christine was already accustomed to this sight. After all, this wasn't the first time that she had visited Madeira to shop for goods.

As their group emerged from the long staircase into the spire, a tall and thin man with a hunched back immediately approached them before giving Christine an enthusiastic greeting.

The hunch-backed man walked along in front of Christine, and the two of them were discussing the purpose of her visit, while Lanyon and the others trailed along behind the two of them.

"Are you here to shop for more goods this time, Christine? Prince Yamoyan recently got his hands on a huge batch of good stuff. Do you want to go and take a look?"

"Definitely," Christine said with an eager smile. "But for now, you have to take us somewhere to rest, Brother Tolk. It's been a hard journey getting here, and we haven't had a good rest for quite a few days now."

Tolk smiled as he nodded in response, then glanced at Sherry and the others before leaning in close to Christine as he said in a low voice, "This doesn't look like the same group of people that came here with you last time."

"Well... Do I really have to explain this to you, Brother Tolk? When you're going back and forth north and south of the Terarody Mountain Ranges like me, there's bound to be some 'staff turnover'," Christine said with a faint smile. The way in which she was speaking clearly indicated that she was already accustomed to the fragile nature of life, and that was something that was very rare in girls her age. "I ran into a bunch of Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries this time, and I almost didn't make it out of that ordeal alive."

"Jeez, you really do have to be more careful," Tolk sighed as a concerned look appeared on his face. "To be honest, my old pals and I can't help but admire you sometimes. You're such a young little lass, but you already have the courage to travel across these continents for business. On top of that, you have to bring that idiot of a father along with you. He's absolutely useless! He can't do anything in a fight, and he's definitely not a smart businessman. Not only that, but he's always running his mouth all the time as well. If you ask me, he's nothing but dead weight!"

Christine's father was trudging along in the crowd with Lanyon and the others, and Tolk wasn't holding back at all in his criticism toward him. In fact, he made sure to raise his voice slightly as he spoke to ensure that Christine's father could hear him.

Christine's father had perhaps already guessed that Tolk was going to do this, so he intentionally slowed down his pace a little so that he could hide in the crowd of Four Winds mercenaries. Unfortunately for him, Tolk was still unwilling to let him off the hook.

"You're always badmouthing my father like this! If you keep this up, I'm not going to talk to you anymore," Christine said with a displeased pout, putting on an angry expression to stand up for her father.

"Alright, I won't talk about him anymore then," Tolk said as he raised his hands in surrender. "Did you encounter anything fun during your trip to the south? I always look forward to hearing your stories whenever you visit."

"Oh, there was definitely some 'fun' stuff. There was a war between the Effer Kingdom and the Skycourt Kingdom, and countless people died in the process. That's why I was saying that I almost didn't make it out alive."

"So a war really did break out between those two kingdoms?" Tolk was very intrigued to hear this, and he began to ask about how the war went.

Thus, Christine gave him a brief recount of the battle that took place on the Marrod Plain. She had already heard accounts of the war on many occasions from the likes of Sherry, Kaiba, and Lanyon, but as the thought of the most attention-grabbing man on that battlefield sprang into her mind, she couldn't help but be struck by a sense of sorrow, particularly because she didn't whether he was dead or alive.

"Does that mean the Effer Kingdom is about to fall into the hands of Lazaar?" Tolk seemed to be asking a question, but he also seemed to be talking to himself.

Looking at the absentminded expression on his face, Christine didn't know how to reply.

At this point, they had already reached the hall at the bottom of the spire.

Once again, Sherry, Lanyon, and the others couldn't help but marvel at how extravagant and luxurious this place was. There was a ring of sofas made from walnut wood all around the hall, and an intricately embroidered red sheep wool rug stretched all the way from the front desk to the entrance of the spire. The inksmoke stone flower pots on either side of the rug contained green plants that were unfamiliar to the group, so they could only assume that these were plants that could only be found in this desert.

Tolk quickly counted the number of people in the group, then led them out of the spire, where they were awaited by four horse-drawn carriages.

Once Christine and the others had all gotten into the carriages, Tolk turned to Christine with a smile as he said, "I'll be sending carriages to pick you up later tonight to attend Prince Yamoyan's dinner banquet. Is that alright?"

Christine nodded with a smile in response.

...

Christine intentionally indicated for Sherry and Lanyon to take the same carriage as her, and she even asked her father to take one of the other carriages instead of accompanying her.

Sherry and Lanyon knew that Christine had to be doing this because she had something to say to them. However, the coach driver was one of Tolk's subordinates, so she couldn't be too blunt and direct with her words. Thus, she gave them a brief introduction of how this city had come into existence, and she also introduced Prince Yamoyan to them, making sure to embellish her description with plenty of praise and flattery.

Neither Sherry nor Lanyon were idiots, and they could tell what type of person this Prince Yamoyan was from the subtle hints that Christine was dropping during her description of him. They were also made aware of the fact that they had to tread with caution in this city. After all, if they were to incur the wrath of Prince Yamoyan, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Even though both of them were filled with curiosity about this exotic city that was situated in the desert, neither of them asked any questions, and they listened to whatever Christine decided to tell them.

After passing through a lively and bustling market, the carriage traveled onward for a while longer, traversing through the neatly organized blocks of houses before finally drawing to a halt in front of a small courtyard.

This was the place where Christine stayed almost every time she came to Madeira, and of course, this was special treatment reserved for her due to the large sums of goods she had purchased from Prince Yamoyan in the past.

Prince Yamoyan was very generous toward important clients like Christine. All of those clients were assigned to stay in comfortable and spacious mansions, and they didn't have to pay any rent during their stay.

After passing through the small garden at the front of the courtyard, everyone arrived at the mansion. It wasn't as luxurious and elegant as Erwin's past home, but it was still a very well-constructed place for lodging.

Even though there was no need to pay any rent, Christine still issued a handsome tip in Loonies to Tolk's subordinates. After the departure of Tolk's subordinates, she heaved a long sigh, then quietly laid down on the spacious sofa in the guest hall, pondering what she was going to do next.

It's all my fault, Brother Erwin. If I hadn't dragged you to the north, you wouldn't have encountered that ice dragon and ended up getting lost, Christine thought to herself as she heaved an internal sigh while massaging her own glabella, and it was clear that she was feeling quite weary. During the past few days, everyone on the airship had been under a cloud of despair and depression, leading to a loss of appetite and terrible sleep quality.

Unbeknownst to Christine, her self-criticism was actually completely unfounded. Even if she hadn't brought Erwin to the north with her, he would've come here anyway.

Meanwhile, Lanyon and Sherry were standing off to the side, and neither of them said anything. At this point, Georgina had arrived as well, and they were all waiting for Christine to say something.

As for Christine's father, he had been instructed by her to go and rest in the room.

She had done this in order to avoid any potential conflict between her father and Erwin's subordinates. After all, her father couldn't care less whether Erwin lived or died, and Erwin had publicly insulted him before, she definitely wouldn't be inclined to help Erwin.

Thus, when Christine promised everyone that they were going to return to the Terarody Mountain Ranges to search for Erwin, she had done so behind her father's back.

Lanyon was also aware of the sensitivity of the situation, and he instructed all of the Four Winds mercenaries to stay in their rooms for now. The presence of too many voices and opinions in one place could often prove to be detrimental to decision-making.

"This is the closest dukedom to the Terarody Mountain Ranges, and it's also the place where we'll be able to most easily find people for a search party. That's why I brought everyone here," Christine explained. "So long as we have enough Loonies, we'll definitely be able to find Brother Erwin."

Lanyon and the others nodded in response.

However, the Terarody Mountain Ranges were extremely vast, stretching for tens of thousands of kilometers. Where were they supposed to even start?

This was the question on everyone's mind.

Furthermore, how large was their search party supposed to be? Were they supposed to recruit a few dozen people? A few hundred people? Perhaps even a few thousand people? Even if they did gather a search party with thousands of people, filling a fleet of airships before entering the mountain ranges, there was still no guarantee that they'd be able to find Erwin.

This was the point that was most distressing to everyone. The more time passed by, the less confident they felt in their chances. After all, from a realistic point of view, searching for someone in the Terarody Mountain Ranges was no different from searching for a needle in a haystack.

"There's no need to be so glum, everyone. Perhaps Brother Erwin has already emerged from the mountain ranges," Christine said with an encouraging smile to try and lift everyone's mood.

"That's true. My mother told me that Master Erwin is someone who's destined for great things in the future. Someone like him will definitely be blessed by fortune." Among the group, Georgina was the most optimistic one.

A wry smile appeared on Lanyon's face upon hearing this. "I suppose. Given how resourceful and courageous Master Erwin is, there's no way he'd fall to the magic beasts in the mountain ranges. Don't forget that he also has Princess Onean by his side. Both of them are extremely powerful magicians, so I'm sure they'll be fine."

"But even if both of them are still alive, we still don't know where to find them. We don't have any leads on their whereabouts at all," Sherry sighed.

"That's the main problem, isn't it?" Lanyon sighed in a resigned voice.

Thus, the atmosphere became quite glum and despondent again.

"Leads... Leads..." Christine was murmuring this single word to herself over and over again. Indeed, it was essential for them to secure leads on Erwin's whereabouts. Otherwise, their search was almost certain to prove fruitless.

"I have to go somewhere!" A thought suddenly occurred to Christine, and she stood up from the sofa with a bright gleam in her eyes.

"Where are you going?" Sherry and the others were quite surprised by the sudden shift in her mood.

Christine offered no explanation and rushed out of the manor without any hesitation.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Sherry decided to follow her, leaving Lanyon and Georgina to look on with slightly dumbfounded expressions.

The conversation between Lanyon's trio had alerted Christine to the fact that information was going to be imperative if they wanted to track down Erwin, and when it came to information, there was only one place where the latest and most comprehensive information could be bought, and that was the Lodais Organization. 

As opposed to leading a search party into the Terarody Mountain Ranges without any direction or clues, it was much better to go to the Lodais Organization and see if they had any valuable information. While rushing out of the courtyard, Christine was cursing her own idiocy for not thinking of this earlier. What she failed to realize was that it was her special feelings toward Erwin that had prevented her from being as sound in her decision-making as she normally was.

It was mentioned earlier that the only one who could earn money in Madeira was Prince Yamoyan, but that wasn't actually the case. Instead, the Lodais Organization was also selling its services here.

Prince Yamoyan was the ruler of this desert, yet even he didn't want to get on the Lodais Organization's bad side and had allowed the organization to set up one of its contact points in Madeira.