Yarin's POV:
In addition to this, I also learned some important information from Mom.
"Many years ago, the missing opera singer, Tilly, was a spy. Even before she had her body
taken over by Linda, she was working for another organization. This is something we've only discovered recently. Her past experiences seemed flawless, except for one letter that exposed her.
"That letter was addressed to a foreign location, and Tilly claimed to be acquainted with a playwright. However, there were spelling mistakes in the mentioned work, and it took a long time to decode it as a secret message."
"Tilly isn't a native-born werewolf, right?" I felt surprised. "She was compromised?"
"It's more like her birth was a deliberate arrangement. Tilly is indeed a werewolf, but she's a hybrid. Going back several generations, one of her female ancestors was an undocumented wanderer from a foreign land, recorded as a banished witch. However, it appears now that she wasn't banished but had a premeditated plan to infiltrate the werewolves, and her descendants became spies for some organization."
"An organization?"
"Yes, Tilly's coded letter hinted at that, but she was cautious and didn't reveal any information about this organization. What's known now is that this organization casts a wide net across various races, and there are members of it in almost every community. Furthermore, our intelligence department suspects that Tilly's body being taken over was not an accident; this organization likely has some connection with the Lily of the Valley."
"Why?"
Mom took out a photo from a drawer and handed it to me. It was a candid photo of Tilly, seemingly taken at a party.
I looked at it but didn't notice anything special.
Mom pointed to a corner of the table in the photo, with a picture frame. Inside the frame was a picture of an elderly woman with graying hair. The picture was a bit blurry, but I noticed a pattern on her clothing upon closer inspection.
"Is that a garland?" The design looked familiar, more and more like a garland. "It seems a bit different from the Lily of the Valley's."
"Yes, because this is the 'original garland.""
"The original?"
Things were becoming increasingly mysterious, and there was so much I didn't know.
So Mom started talking about her experiences when she was young in the Elf Forest.
"Because of the legend of the Goddess of Nature, in the northern border of the Elf Forest, there's a city called Garland City, and it uses a garland as its emblem. Even now, the garland, originating from the Goddess of Nature, is still kept in the city's treasury.
"And in that legend, that witch and her descendants followed Azazel, becoming minions of the evil god. In the records of Garland City, there was a mention of a witch, and the garland symbol was found on her clothing.
"Let's call this family the 'Garland Family' for now. Clearly, Tilly is part of the Garland Family, which follows Azazel and has every reason to align with the Lily of the Valley. So there's a good chance Tilly wasn't taken over; she willingly revealed herself."
If the Goddess of Nature knew that the child she raised had caused this much trouble due to infidelity, would she regret not getting rid of the unfaithful person back then?
Anyway, I thought Mom would gladly assist the Goddess of Nature, considering that the werewolf pack is currently dealing with the aftermath of a situation caused by an unfaithful man from thousands of years ago.
But unlike the Lily of the Valley's aggressive style, the Garland Family hadn't been that radical. During the years Azazel was sealed away, they had even gone completely silent, to the point that hardly anyone remembered them centuries later.
However, this wasn't a reason to take things lightly. They persisted in establishing roots in various races through generations, suggesting that this family wasn't just idly playing a familial game.
Summer arrived, and the days of summer vacation came.
A few 'little' friends came to visit me, Thirussis and Rica, the fairies. They still looked adorable and small. Thirussis's evening primroses had spread into a large area near Pearl Lake, and Rica's camellias flourished. The research institute even requested some seeds from them for research.
What surprised me was that they had actually become friends with Emery, and their relationship was very good. They even planted two flowers on Emery's balcony.
They were still tirelessly explaining Emery's fairy lineage, although Emery hadn't given any response to the matter so far.
The students' natural tendencies were multiplied during the summer vacation. We played wildly in the palace for an entire afternoon, running everywhere. If the etiquette teacher saw us, she would probably sigh and exclaim, "This is improper."
Unbeknownst to us, the sky had grown dark, and it was time for us to return for dinner. However, something else caught our attention more than dinner-the abandoned building in front of us.
"Where is this?" I didn't remember this place in my memories of the palace.
Cynthia answered, "This was originally a tower. It underwent continuous renovations and reinforcement and became a mobile, independent villa. The person living inside is someone you know-Adele."