"Noah, take a good look and see if you recognize anyone among these living corpses."
Charlotte shifted her gaze from the Undead miners and looked over at Noah.
The young werewolf clearly had never seen such a scene before; he was either cold or frightened, as he was still shivering uncontrollably.
However, upon Charlotte’s request, he mustered the courage to peek out and look at the mining Undead.
And with that look, he froze almost instantly, nearly crying out in shock:
"Dor... That’s Uncle Dor! Oh my God! It’s him!"
"He’s still wearing his favorite Coria long coat!"
"He... He wasn’t eaten, he was turned into a living corpse!"
"Cooper! There’s Big Brother Cooper too, he’s here! He disappeared a month ago, and now he’s here!"
"It’s them... it really is them!"
"They are those missing miners! They are all here!"
"Resa, sister, they’ve all been turned into living corpses!"
In the darkness, werewolf Noah stared at the Undead with vacant gazes, his voice trembling slightly.
Charlotte sighed softly, thinking to herself that it was just as she feared.
"It seems this is the secret of the mine; the Secret Silver Mine hasn’t run dry, it has been deliberately sealed off, someone is actually transforming miners into Undead to extract Mithril!"
"Such a big matter can’t be easily concealed, Master; it seems... the Count Territory is deeper than we imagined."
Sebastian couldn’t help but comment, even his way of addressing had changed.
Werewolf Noah looked bewilderedly at Sebastian, no longer sure whether he should continue to look surprised.
Considering the attitudes of the territory nobles toward her, Charlotte nodded slightly:
"Indeed, it’s time to take action."
Nisi observed the Undead with dull gazes and after a moment, said:
"These Undead possess low spirituality and are quite slow; the Undead Mage who transformed them must not be high level, probably not surpassing Silver Moon."
"They can only do simple, mechanical tasks; it’s unlikely they can do much else."
"However, many of these Undead have been here for some time, quite a few even show tendencies toward Bone Spiritification, which means this operation has been running for many years."
Hearing Nisi’s remarks, Charlotte reflected thoughtfully.
She turned to Noah and asked once more:
"Noah, when was the Secret Silver Mine sealed off?"
"Seven years ago, it was sealed off seven years ago; that’s when the miners started to disappear too."
Noah replied, his face pale.
Charlotte matched this information with the records she had seen, suddenly recalling that the income Castel Manor had been receiving every month had significantly decreased starting seven years ago.
Incidentally, that cheap grandmother who had run Castel into the ground had also completely dispatched all the tier-entering Nobles who had followed the Castel family back to their own territories seven years ago.
Seven years ago, the Castel completely lost control over the territory nobles.
It was also seven years ago that the trouble with the Secret Silver Mine began.
Concealing news of the Secret Silver Mine and arranging for thousands of Undead miners to continue mining here couldn’t have happened without the collusion of the higher-ups in the Mining Workshop.
Clearly, Nobles were involved behind the scenes.
The Castel’s Secret Silver Mine represented the interests of many Nobles; hiding the truth of the mine was not a simple matter, and to keep such a large operation secret for so many years must mean there is a significant force behind it.
Or perhaps... someone who has brought all the related Nobles together!
Charlotte recollected the family records she had seen; among the local Nobles of Castel, there was no one influential enough.
In fact, since ancient times, the Lords of the Count Castel Domain had always been more powerful than the Nobles.
This caused Charlotte to fall into deep contemplation.
"Noah, the rumors of a giant dragon in the mine, did they also start seven years ago?"
Suddenly, Sebastian asked out of the blue.
Noah, still not recovered from his shock, had his blank gaze fixed on the horrifying living corpses and merely nodded mechanically:
"Yes, that’s when the rumors started, but... my brother said it had been here much earlier."
"No way? Sebastian, do you suspect it has something to do with that Black Dragon?"
Nisi’s eyes widened in disbelief, giving the Flame Elf a ludicrous look.
Sebastian nodded slightly:
"Although it seems far-fetched, it’s not impossible."
"I’ve heard that some powerful giant dragons can even take human form, and giant dragons have always been attracted to wealth; precious Mithril is irresistibly alluring to them too..."
"What if it’s a Black Dragon that’s manipulated Castel’s Nobles to help it mine?"
Nisi inhaled sharply:
"Goodness, you really dare to imagine; a Black Dragon infiltrating the human world... You really think of Black Dragons as Silver Dragons! Those Monsters, even if they possess the Transformation Technique, would disdain to disguise themselves as humans."
"Not to mention that Black Dragons are naturally magic-dumb, with their talents focused on magic resistance and physical strength. As far as I know, apart from those old immortals, the vast majority of Black Dragons won’t master the Transformation Technique."
"And for those old geezers, the little Castel Domain wouldn’t even be worth their notice."
Sebastian looked at Nisi unexpectedly:
"You seem to know quite a bit."
Nisi wore a proud expression:
"Hey, I’m not like some useless Elf with long hair and short experience. Master Cat here has had rich adventures! Back when you little Elves were still nursing on honeydew, I already had delightful conversations with Legendary giant dragons!"