While Christine was quickly rushing along the streets and alleys of Madeira, Sherry was following close behind her the entire time.

He wasn't doing this to monitor Christine. Instead, he was purely concerned for her safety. However, unbeknownst to Sherry, this seemingly wild and dangerous city was actually renowned for its exceptional maintenance of law and order.

Finally, Christine drew to a halt in front of a nondescript residential house. After knocking on the door a few times, the door was opened by a young man, and upon identifying Christine as the visitor, the young man gladly granted her entry.

Meanwhile, Sherry was watching from a street corner not far away, making no attempt to interfere with Christine's actions. He knew that Christine had to have some type of plan for coming out without explaining to anyone what she was going to do, and he was worried that he could foil her plan if he were to recklessly involve himself.

The contact point for the Lodais Organization in Madeira was different from the one in Tewadedan. The organization could no longer use a shop as a decoy as everyone in the city knew that all of the shops in the city belonged to Prince Yamoyan. If they were to set up a shop as a decoy, not only did they run the risk of irking Prince Yamoyan, that would be too ostentatious and conspicuous. Not only would a shop not help to keep the existence of the contact point a secret, it could easily have the opposite effect instead, and that was why the Lodais Organization's contact point in Madeira was a completely ordinary residential house.

The young man led Christine up to the second floor, where they entered a bedroom. The man then twisted a bottle of ink that was sitting on a table clockwise by a few degrees, and the wooden bed that was situated right next to the wall flipped over toward the wall, revealing a secret passageway beneath the bed.

After that, the young man stepped back with a polite smile, making an inviting hand gesture toward the secret passageway.

Christine nodded in response before making her way directly toward the passageway.

If Erwin were present, he would definitely be inclined to poke fun at the Lodais Organization. It seemed that the organization was intent on fitting with the stereotypical image of an underground organization with all these secret doors in their contact points.

After Christine entered the secret passageway, the young man turned the bottle of ink back to its original orientation, and the bed immediately returned to normal.

The underground passageway led to the neighboring house, so it was clear that the Lodais Organization held ownership of both these houses.

A small window opened up on the wooden door at the end of the secret passageway, and a pair of eyes peered through the window, examining the visitor using the light of the candle flames in the passageway. "Welcome, Christine. It's been a while."

After that, the wooden door was opened.

In contrast with the contact point in Tewadedan, the one who opened the door on this occasion was a thin middle-aged man with dry skin and a pair of bulging eyes. His appearance was extremely similar to that of a scholar who had once worked as a copywriter. The only thing missing was a pair of glasses. Of course, the reason why these elders at the Lodais Organization contact points all looked like this was due to the fact that they were always working indoors without any exposure to natural light. However, this elder had made an effort to groom his hair quite well, even though there was barely any of it left.

Christine nodded with a smile before entering the room.

"What can I help you with this time?" the thin middle-aged man asked after Christine had taken a seat on the sofa.

"Elder Nachi, I need you to help me track down a person. I need to know all of the latest news you have on him, and I need it as soon as possible," Christine said, cutting straight to the chase.

"Who is this person?" Elder Nachi asked in a curious voice, clearly rather intrigued by the completely undisguised urgency in Christine's voice. "As long as it's someone with some level of renown, our organization will definitely have records on him, regardless of whether he's on the northern or southern side of the Terarody Mountain Ranges."

Elder Nachi was clearly very confident as he spoke. When it came to news on all of the renowned figures in all of the nations on the continent, there was no organization with more comprehensive records than the Lodais Organization.

"Erwin Friar," Christine replied. "I'm sure your organization would have records on him."

"Let me think... I do recall hearing that name before," Nachi said as a thoughtful look appeared on his face. "Erwin Friar is the only son of Count Friar of the Effer Kingdom, right? Oh wait, it's no longer called the Effer Kingdom anymore, it's called the Atlas Empire now."

"Yes, that's him," Christine replied in an urgent voice.

"If I recall correctly, the latest records we have on him state that he last appeared in Tewadedan." Nachi didn't even bother to check through the files, so it was clear that he was very confident in his own memory. "Wasn't he with you at the time?"

"What about after that? Do you have any news on him after Tewadedan?" Christine asked as she stared intently at Nachi, and she was so panicked that she had even stood up from the sofa without her own realization. She was terrified that even the Lodais Organization wouldn't have any further news on Erwin.

"I don't think we've received any further news after that. I recall that the latest records we have on him state that he entered the Terarody Mountain Ranges with you on your airship," Nachi replied, then cast a rather surprised gaze toward Christine as he asked, "Could it be that you don't know what happened to him after that?"

"If I knew, then I wouldn't have come here to ask you," Christine sighed as she sat back down onto the sofa with a glum expression.

"It's alright, there's no need for distress. Take a seat and I'll go through the records for you. Maybe we received some new information that simply slipped my mind, Nachi consoled at the sight of Christine's dejected expression.

After that, Nachi went through the stack of the latest reports on his desk once again, and there really was no further news on Erwin.

Christine was looking at Nachi with hopeful eyes, only to have her hopes dashed by a shake of his head, and a sense of horror and despair welled up in her heart once again.

"If even your organization doesn't have any news on him, could it be that he's really..." Christine didn't dare to finish her own sentence, and she was rubbing her eyes vigorously, trying to fight back the despair that was threatening to overcome her.

"What happened, Christine? Did you encounter some magic beasts in the Terarody Mountain Ranges?" Nachi asked in a perplexed voice.

Christine was still immersed in her own negative emotions, and only after a long while did she return to her senses, upon which she responded to Nachi's question with a slight nod.

"If that's the case, then how were you able to emerge safely from the mountain ranges?" Given how fearsome the magic beasts in the mountain ranges were, they could easily decimate an entire airship, so Nachi was wondering how Christine had managed to escape from that ordeal.

Christine clearly didn't want to recollect the painful memories from that day, and she was silent for a while before replying, "In order to save us, Brother Erwin attracted all of the magic beast's attacks."

"Christine, I'm afraid you'll have to give me a detailed recount of what happened at the time. Otherwise, I won't be able to help you." After listening to what Christine had to say, Nachi was even more confused about the situation. According to the records they had on Erwin, he was an extremely rare time and space magician, and judging from his performance on the Marrod Plain, he was clearly already a force to be reckoned with. As such, Nachi was struggling to imagine what kind of magic beast could've caused his disappearance.

However, before he could ask any further questions, a thought suddenly occurred to Christine, and she asked, "By the way, do you have any news on Princess Onean?"

"Could it be that the former princess of the Effer Kingdom also disappeared?" Nachi asked as he cast a surprised gaze toward Christine. He knew that Christine was also on the airship at the time, and it came as quite a surprise to him to hear that both she and Erwin had disappeared.

Christine nodded in response. 

In his memory, Princess Onean possessed immense magic power, and she was at least a grand magic mentor. At her level, the majority of magic beasts would be no match for her in battle.

Even with Erwin and Onean joining forces, they were unable to deal with that magic beast? Could it be that both of them were severely injured during the battle on the Marrod Plain? he thought to himself with tightly furrowed brows, and a series of questions were popping up in his mind.

"What kind of magic beast did you encounter in those mountain ranges?" Nachi was truly feeling very befuddled at this point.

Christine heaved a faint sigh before finally giving him a recount of the events that transpired on that day.

With the enormous amount of intel gathered by the Lodais Organization, Nachi had some understanding of time and space magic. After hearing Christine's recount of events, he made a bold assumption, which was that the ice dragon was also capable of wielding some type of time and space magic. Otherwise, how could the ice dragon have disappeared with Erwin and Onean at the same time? In his eyes, that would've only been possible in the aftermath of a clash between two time and space spells.

If Erwin knew that the people of the Lodais Organization could extrapolate so much using just the intel that they had gathered and the verbal account of events from Christine, then he would be truly impressed with this underground organization. It seemed that there really wasn't anything that they didn't know.

"I don't think you need to be too concerned, Christine," Nachi consoled.

"Why is that?" Christine asked as she cast an inquisitive gaze toward Nachi.

"Perhaps Erwin and Princess Onean have simply reappeared at some other set of spatial coordinates. In other words, they should be in a certain part of the world right now, it's just that we don't know exactly where they are," Nachi explained.

"Really?" Christine asked as an elated look appeared on her face.

Nachi nodded in response, then revealed his theory on time and space magic to Christine.

Christine didn't understand what time and space magic was, but she had heard Lanyon and the others mention it on multiple occasions in the past, stating that it was the type of magic that Erwin was most adept at using. In addition to that, she was a very intelligent girl, so it didn't take much explaining from Nachi for her to gain a rough understanding of the situation.

"In that case, could it be possible that they're still somewhere in the Terarody Mountain Ranges?" Christine asked.

"That's impossible to say," Nachi replied after a brief moment of contemplation. "What I just said is only my personal theory. If my theory is correct, then they could be anywhere in this world right now, so it really is impossible for me to speculate on their current location."

Christine nodded in response. At this point, she could only hope that Nachi's theory was correct.

"I wanted to recruit some people to gather a search party before returning to the mountain ranges right away, but it looks like I'll have to put that plan on hold for now. It's better for me to wait until further information is gathered before I decide on my next move," Christine said.

"That sounds like a good idea. If we get any further news on Mr. Erwin, I'll be sure to send someone to notify you right away," Nachi said in a reassuring voice.

A thought then occurred to him, and he asked, "But what if they adopt fake names and hide somewhere? As I'm sure you're aware, Onean is the former princess of the Effer Kingdom, and there are many people in the newly founded Atlas Empire searching for her. If the two of them are together, there's a decent chance that they would be using fake names."

"That's not a cause for concern, Elder Nachi. Even if the two of them aren't using real names, you'll definitely be able to track them down."

"Why is that?" Nachi asked with an intrigued expression.

"Brother Erwin is someone who loves to be under the spotlight. As long as he's made it out of the Terarody Mountain Ranges, news about him will inevitably pop up sooner or later. On top of that, Princess Onean is one of the most beautiful women in the land, so she'll be sure to attract a lot of attention wherever she goes." Christine pursed her lips with a slightly displeased expression as she continued, "Given Brother Erwin's personality, he'll take her along with him wherever he goes and flaunt her like a trophy."

"Oh, I see." An enlightened look appeared on Elder Nachi's face upon hearing this. At the same time, he was fighting back his amusement. It was very apparent to him that Christine was very envious of Onean.

"Alright, then let's leave things here for now. If you receive any news on Brother Erwin or Princess Onean, please notify me right away. I'm happy to pay whatever price you charge for the information."

"No problem, I'll have that arranged right away."

After emerging from the residential house, Christine swept her gaze over the city, and a relieved smile appeared on her face. She then stretched lazily, feeling as if a heavy load had been lifted from her shoulders.