Lithanya and Yaithra were back in the academy and were in the same room with their senior investigators. The sisters were explaining everything about the teenagers that also included Norman and the jealousy that was happening in the workplace. Haoran and Samantha finished listening to the sisters’ explanation now they were thinking really hard about their next move.

  “We need to question Norman’s employees, just in case they might be involved in the teenagers’ disappearance.”, Samantha answered.

  Haoran nodded as well. “Then we must visit him tomorrow morning.”

  Lithanya joined in again. “Mr Norman said that we must send him a letter when we need to question his employees so he can arrange for all the employees to be questioned on the same day since not all the employees work on the same day.”, she explained.

  “Then send him a letter immediately so we can question the employees quickly. Our deadline is a year which seems far but it’s better to solve this case quickly so we can find these teenagers and stop more teenagers from going missing.”, Samantha said, looking at Haoran.

  “I’ll get the letter ready.”, he said and walked to the desk.

  Samantha looked back at the sisters. “Whenever there’s a permission letter to enter some places, search or question people, we must write the letters for you because the letters also need to be signed by a higher senior.”, she explained.

  “Okay.”, the sisters answered.

  “What do you think of the humming song? Should we spend a night on the island to listen to the song?”, Yaithra asked.

  “We can but I need to get permission from Emperor Huang.”, Samantha answered.

  Haoran finished writing the letter and showed it to Samantha since it was his first time writing a permission letter. Samantha took the paper and read it thoroughly making sure that there were no mistakes.

  “Excellent.”, she was impressed but showed no smile.

  Yaithra looked at sister. “Samantha can smile?”, Yaithra was surprised to see Samantha smiling.

  Lithanya stared at her younger sister blankly. “I think so.”

  A white owl appeared and landed on the table. Haoran slotted the paper into the royal purple envelope then handed it to the owl. The owl took the envelope with its mouth then flew out of the room. Haoran turned to the ladies with a confused look.

  “Has anyone heard of this Norman man before?”, he asked.

  They shook their heads. “No, first time I’m hearing that name.”, Samantha said.

  “He said that he does platinum. Have you heard of him?”, Lithanya asked.

  “Never heard of him either. I know everyone in the platinum industry since my family has been in that industry for years. For being in the industry for years, I've never heard of this guy.”, Haoran answered.

  They found that super strange considering that Haoran and Norman were part of the platinum business world. “Should we do some research on him just in case we aren’t dealing with someone dangerous?”, Yaithra suggested.

  “Okay. You and I’ll be finding out more background information about this man.”, Haoran said.

  “Then Lithanya and I’ll go to Emperor Huang’s office to get permission to stay for one night on The Golden Snake Island.”, Samantha looked at Lithanya.

  Every time Samantha glanced at Lithanya, Lithanya always flinched a little bit. Lithanya nodded in full agreement. “Okay.”

  Haoran and Yaithra walked out of the room but they were heading to The Tarot Library. While Samantha and Lithanya were heading to Shilin. There were some students walking in the passage. They were really stunned to see Lithanya working with Samantha. None of them thought that they would see Samantha working with a student considering how scary she could be.

  “Ignore them. We’ll have our fun while working together.”, Samantha said with a bright smile.

  Samantha actually knows the word ‘fun’.

  Lithanya found her mentor more interesting by the minute.

  Lithanya and Samantha were standing by Shilin’s office, waiting patiently for Shilin to finish having a meeting with some of the senior investigators. While they were waiting, Samantha was having a look at Lithanya’s body. Samantha was feeling so intimidated that Lithanya was taller than her and was slightly muscular.

  “How many hours do you and the kingdom train to build into that body?”, Samantha asked out of interest.

  “Two hours in the morning and afternoon.”, Lithanya answered.

  “More hours than here. I admire your kingdom for taking the training seriously. Unlike this place.”, Samantha snapped with frustration.

  Lithanya wasn't expecting that from Samantha. “Really?”

  Before she could answer, the door opened wide and the few investigators came out of the room one at a time. Samantha greeted them while walking into the room. On the other hand, Lithanya waited until the investigators were out of the room. Lithanya walked into the room, closing the door behind her. Samantha was already standing by Shilin’s desk and talking to him.

  “How long do you need to stay on The Golden Snake Island?”, Lithanya listened to Shilin’s question while stopping by the desk.

  “One night. We just want to hear the humming song and also watch what happens to the teenage children if they get possessed during the song. Then we’ll try to stop the next set of teenagers from disappearing.", Samantha explained.

  “Wouldn't you want to stop the next set of teenagers from disappearing?”, he asked.

  “That's the only way we can know where the teenagers are going.”, Samantha answered.

  Shilin nodded. “But you’ll need some junior investigators to accompany you to help you out to stop the teenagers from disappearing and also try to snatch the person humming that song. I know you said that you want to know where they go but that’s too much risk. We don't want lives to be at stake.”, he explained.

  Lithanya was perfectly fine with it considering that she still didn’t have her powers yet. Samantha was doubting Shilin’s decision. “But we're going to be there to observe. We’ll be in the same village where those teenagers lived. It seems like this mysterious person is going to a specific village each night.”

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “I understand what you mean. But there’s a chance the teenagers from another village might go missing. Rather have our junior investigators standing in different villages to protect the teenagers while the humming song is happening. Not to mention that Lithanya doesn’t have her powers yet so she’ll need extra help in case she encounters that mysterious person.”, he explained.

  Lithanya nodded firmly at Shilin. “Okay, I’ll choose the investigators that will accompany us.”, Samantha mentioned.

  “That’s fine.”, he smiled. “Lithanya, take your books with you so you can learn while waiting.”, he told her.

  “Okay.”, she agreed.

  “You ladies may leave.”

  “Thank you.”, Samantha appreciated it.

  She and Lithanya walked together to the door. Shilin placed his back on the chair while he was watching the women leave the room.

  Samantha and Lithanya came out of the room together. Samantha closed the door behind her then she walked to The Tarot Library to meet Haoran and Yaithra.

  Haoran and Yaithra were in the library, looking for a book that was related to the platinum merchants. Haoran was eager to know who this man was since he was also part of the platinum business and Haoran had never met him before. Yaithra slowly pulled out a thick book from the shelf that was the same height as her. Then she slammed the book hard on the counter in front of the shelves.

  Haoran didn’t get a shock but his ears hurt. “You do know that noises are forbidden in the library.”, he mentioned.

  “Well, I couldn’t help it if the book is heavy.”, she defended herself.

  She was still sulky about being forced to be part of the academy. Haoran shook his head and pulled the book towards him. In the book, it was written The History of Platinum Stones. “Do you think we’ll find information related to this man?”

  “Maybe. We can always try.”, she raised her palms by her shoulders.

  Haoran opened the book. Samantha and Lithanya appeared behind them. “Did you find anything?”, Samantha asked.

  “We found a book that’s related to platinum. Hopefully, we’ll find something that’s related to this man.”, Haoran answered.

  “I can also ask our father if he knows this man since he knows all the merchants from the four worlds.”, Lithanya suggested.

  Yaithra actually forgot to tell Haoran that. “That’s fine. In the meantime, we’ll try and find something in this book.”, Haoran said. “Just in case your father doesn’t know who this man is.”

  “I’ll send him a letter now.”, Lithanya walked to the table.

  Samantha followed her so she could see the letter before Lithanya could send it. Lithanya sat at the nearest table, grabbed the golden quill and started writing on the blue paper. Samantha appeared and was already impressed at how fast and neat Lithanya was writing.

  Father. I need your help urgently. Do you know this platinum merchant named Norman?

  Lithanya.

  Lithanya finished writing the letter and handed it to Samantha. “I’m really impressed with your writing.”, Samantha took the paper.

  Lithanya didn’t expect to hear a compliment from Samantha. “Thank you.”

  Samantha finished reading the letter. “I’ll send it by using a transportation spell. We need to solve this case quickly.”

  “But Norman doesn't seem like he is the type of person who’ll harm anyone.”

  “In front of you, he won’t seem harmful but behind the back doors, he could be. We don’t know who we’re dealing with so we’ve to be careful.”, Samantha said then the envelope disappeared to Vacanta.

  Lithanya nodded while looking at the other students. “Do we leave now?”

  “Yes.”, he said and walked to the door.

  Lithanya got up and walked at a fast pace to catch up with Samantha. All the other students were watching them walk together. They were still shocked that Samantha had a student working with her.

  ___________

  Lithanya, Samantha and five junior investigators were walking on the bridge that was connected to The Golden Snake Island. Samantha had an envelope in her hand to get permission from Christopher to stay in his village for the evening.

  Samantha came closer to Lithanya. “You must show me this merchant’s mansion.”, she whispered.

  “Okay.”

  The group entered the dark island. The investigators pulled out their swords and they started glowing in the dark to bring brightness. But it wasn’t for long when the mountains started glowing bringing more brightness in the pathway. There was no need to use the map because Lithanya remembered the direction to the village.

  “How tall is this mountain?”, Samantha asked.

  “It’s really tall. The highest mountain on this island.”, Lithanya answered. “You aren’t afraid of heights?”, she asked.

  Samantha found that slightly insulting. “No, I’m never afraid of heights.”, she answered firmly.

  Lithanya could sense some tension in Samantha’s words but Lithanya didn’t want to question Samantha right now. As it was, she was offended with Lithanya’s question just now. The investigators behind the ladies had never been on this island. Now they fully understood why most of the students would come here for their winter holidays. It was the beauty of the island that struck them the most.

  The group had arrived at the highest mountain. Lithanya was already walking up the stairs along with the investigators. On the other hand, Samantha was examining the height of the mountain.

  “Where are the villagers? In the middle of the mountain?”, she asked.

  “No, right on top of the mountain.”, Lithanya answered.

  Samantha gulped her salvia while looking at the height of the mountain. “Is there another way to get up the mountain?”

  “No.”

  Samantha was feeling so nervous to walk up the mountain. Even the stairs were making it look worse for her. Lithanya stopped when she noticed Samantha was still standing on the same spot.

  “Come on, it takes half an hour to get up the mountains.”, Lithanya mentioned.

  “Are you sure there’s no other way up than walking up those damaged stairs?”, Samantha protested.

  Lithanya shook her head out of disbelief. Eventually, Lithanya had done something that she never thought she would do to her senior investigator. She grabbed Samantha on her legs then placed Samantha on Lithanya’s shoulder.

  “PRINCESS LITHANYA NANITHA MANRAYAR, PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!!!”, Samantha’s voice echoed across the pathway.

  “No, this is the only way I can get you up the mountains.”, Lithanya fought back.

  The investigators’ eyes were wide open. They weren’t expecting at all that a student would carry their senior investigator. What surprised them more was that Lithanya was so strong to carry someone. Lithanya walked up the stairs while comfortably holding Samantha. Samantha was so embarrassed that she was getting carried by a student.

  The group had arrived on the top of the mountain. When Samantha saw that she was above the clouds, she grabbed Lithanya and throttled her body.

  “Ah!”, Lithanya cried.

  “Take me back to the academy!”, Samantha moaned like a baby. The investigators were trying really hard not to laugh but they couldn’t help it at all. “Oh shut up!”, Samantha snapped.

  Lithanya placed Samantha on her feet to not embarrass her in front of the villagers. Samantha dusted her clothes and made herself look well presentable. Christian got up from the ground when he saw Lithanya coming in his direction.

  “Good afternoon, your majesty.”, he smiled.

  “Good afternoon, Christian. We’re here to stay for the night. We came to observe that humming song and see what happens to the teenagers.”, she explained.

  “We've got more of our junior investigators scattered around the island just in case three teenagers from another village disappear.”, Samantha explained.

  Christina nodded. “Okay, we’ll arrange two houses for you.”, he said then turned to his people.

  The group waited for the villagers to sort out the houses. Samantha grabbed Lithanya’s arm and gripped it tightly since she was scared that she was standing on the highest mountains. What also made it worse that she was going to throw up. Samantha ran to one corner and violently threw up.

  Lithanya looked at the investigators. “Altitude sickness.”, she answered.

  Lithanya walked to Samantha to pat her back and to make her breath properly.

  After throwing up for five minutes, Samantha was lying on the bed with a wet towel over her forehead. Christian came into the room with a cup of strong ginger tea.

  “Here you go, your majesty.”

  Lithanya took the cup, sat on the edge of the bed then started feeding Samantha some tea. “Thank you for allowing us to stay here.”

  “No problem.”, Christian sat on the edge of the bed.

  Lithanya continued feeding Samantha until she refused to drink more tea. Two investigators came into the room to check on Samantha.