Reborn as the Psycho Villainess Who Ate Her Slave Beasts' Contracts

Chapter 402: Chapter-402

"Elara gave him a flat look. "No. That would be too simple."

Demerti waited.

She leaned back again and looked up toward the ceiling, thinking.

"It can be that people did not search carefully enough," she said. "Or the mana may have been buried too deeply, which is why they gave up so easily. If there was something important there, it would not be found by shallow digging or lazy inspection."

Demerti said nothing for a moment.

Then he asked, "And the collapse?"

Elara’s eyes lowered slightly.

"That is the part that bothers me."

She tapped one finger against the armrest of her chair.

"If a mana mine collapsed suddenly, then there are only a few possible reasons. Natural instability. Overuse. Or something concealed underneath that caused the structure to fail."

Demerti listened carefully now.

Elara continued, "If it was natural instability, then the records should mention warning signs. If it was overuse, there should have been more signs of extraction damage. But the descriptions I found were vague. Too vague."

Demerti frowned. "So someone hid the details?"

"Most likely."

"Why would they do that?"

Elara looked at him. "Because people hide things that they do not want others to find."

Demerti gave a short, skeptical exhale. "That much I understood."

Elara ignored the remark.

"If there was something still buried there," she said, "then someone may have wanted to bury the entire matter with the mine itself. If the public believed the place had become useless, no one would bother looking too deeply."

Demerti thought about that for a moment, then said, "That would explain why the reports ended so quickly."

"Yes."

"But not why the sound and the voice were there."

"No," Elara agreed. "That part still needs to be checked."

She was quiet for a while after that.

The room around them had gone still again, the kind of stillness that came when two people were both thinking too much and neither wanted to admit it aloud. The sunlight from the window had shifted slightly, turning the edge of her desk a pale gold. Outside, the palace grounds remained busy with the ordinary rhythm of the day, but inside the study, everything felt paused.

Demerti studied her face, though there was very little to study. Elara had never been easy to read. Even now, seated in her chair with her posture relaxed and her expression unchanged, she looked less like a person weighing a mystery and more like a judge comparing evidence.

At last, Demerti said, "So your conclusion is that the place is not dangerous, but it is hiding something useful."

Elara gave a brief nod.

"And the voice?"

"Either a recorded message, a magical echo, or a trap meant to scare away anyone who found the place."

Demerti raised an eyebrow. "You say that so casually."

"What reason do I have to be dramatic?"

He looked at her for a few seconds and then gave a tired shake of his head.

"You really are not scared of anything, are you?"

Elara did not answer immediately.

Then she said, "That is not true."

Demerti blinked. That was unexpected enough to make him pay attention.

Elara’s voice remained calm, but there was a sharper edge to it now. "I am cautious of anything I do not understand. I do not call that fear. Fear makes people irrational. Caution keeps them alive."

Demerti slowly nodded.

She continued, "And right now, I do not understand that place. So I am not panicking. I am investigating."

That was the difference between her and other rulers. Other people reacted first and thought later. Elara thought first, then moved when she was sure. It made her seem cold to some, but it also kept her alive in situations where emotional reactions would have been a liability.

Demerti knew that better than anyone.

He moved a little closer to the desk and rested a hand on the back of a chair. "Then what do you want me to do?"

Elara glanced toward him. "You and Knight will go back and inspect the remains again. Carefully. Look for any abnormal stonework, hidden wards, or traces of mana flow. If it really was a mine, there should still be residual signs even after collapse."

"And if there is something else?"

"Then we report it."

Demerti waited a beat. "That is all?"

Elara’s expression stayed flat. "No. If there is a pattern, we trace it. If there is a source, we identify it. If there is a sealed chamber, we do not open it without knowing what is inside."

Demerti gave a slow nod. "That sounds more like your usual style."

"It is my only style."

A faint hint of amusement touched his expression, though it vanished quickly.

He looked at her for another moment and then asked, "Do you think the goddess or system has anything to do with this place too?"

Elara was silent.

That answer in itself was enough to make Demerti straighten a little.

Finally, she said, "I do not know yet."

He studied her face closely. "That is rare for you."

"Yes."

"And if it is connected?"

Elara looked toward the window again, her gaze distant but still alert. "Then the place matters more than it appears."

Demerti understood that much immediately.

If Elara was uncertain, then the matter was serious.

She leaned back once more, folding one hand over the other. "For now, we check the site, verify the old records, and compare what we find with what the witnesses remember. I want physical evidence, not guesses."

Demerti gave a short nod. "Understood."

Then he hesitated.

Elara noticed. "What?"

He looked at her carefully. "You really think this is only about mana?"

Elara remained still for a moment.

Then she answered, "No."

Demerti waited.

Her eyes drifted toward the desk, then to the wall beyond it, as though the room itself might be hiding the answer if she stared long enough.

"I think," she said at last, "someone buried a secret under the excuse of a collapsed mine. And I think that secret may have been useful enough to hide for a long time."

Demerti’s voice lowered. "And dangerous?"

Elara’s expression did not change.

"Possibly."

The word landed heavily.

Not because she said it with fear.

But because she did not.

She said it the way an executioner might say a blade was sharp, or a general might say the enemy had numbers. It was a fact, and facts were enough to make plans difficult.

After a long pause, Demerti straightened. "Then I will prepare Knight and the others."

"Do that."

He turned toward the door, then stopped. "And if the goddess really is involved?"

Elara looked at him with the same flat calm she always wore when she was already a step ahead.

"Then she will have to explain herself eventually."

Demerti opened the door and stepped out.

Elara remained in her chair for a moment longer, looking at the sealed records spread before her and the half-open file on the shelf beside the desk. There was still much to check, much to compare, and much that did not yet fit.

But she had time.

And if the place was hiding something beneath its collapse, then she would find it.

She always did.