The professor looked proud of having made Layla say all this so she would not have to rain on his parade. Instead, she quickly bid the professors farewell and exited the school.

Mary was waiting for her right outside the school, and Kyle was annoyed when he saw her.

"Your maid came here to get you? I wanted to walk alone with you, but that won't happen today."

Kyle looked grumpy as he followed after Layla.

"I asked Mary to take me somewhere else today, so I won't return home now. You take care of yourself, and I will see you once I return."

Kyle looked disappointed by Layla's answer but did not press her for more and gracefully left to head back home.

Mary saw all this and smiled cheekily at Layla for her efforts.

"Young Master Kyle is an easy target to manipulate and use. I am sure the young Miss was well aware of this, so she approached the young master.

I am sure no other feeling is involved in all this…right?"

Mary asked teasingly, but Layla did not even blink at her teasing.

"You have a habit of unnecessary babbling. Now, if you are done, come with me and help me find where we need to go…. where is Raziel? He was supposed to be here with you.

Layla asked as she looked around for her second retainer.

It was not like Raziel not to be present when Layla called for him. He was often even more punctual (maybe because of the controlling mark) and kept himself in check to never overstep his boundaries.

Not having him here felt off, and Layla's heart said something must have happened.

"Ah, you don't have to worry about him for some time, Miss. Cardinal Bishop came and grabbed our dear Raziel for some training. He said that he would keep Raziel and train him for the duration of our journey.

I also thought leaving my dear apprentice behind this time was a good idea. This way, he can develop his 'Divine power' and be useful to us in the future.

Mary pointed out, and Layla almost cursed at her stupidity.

'Ah, Raziel is a divine magic user. Of course, we cannot bring him during our first meeting with the Dark Elves. What was I thinking all this time?'

Layla sighed before she quickly came back to her senses.

It was a good thing that Mary remembered this detail. It will make dealing with the Dark Elves easier for me this time.

The maid knew she had done well, so she smiled. Layla did not say anything when she saw Mary's delighted face. It was clear that the older knew she had done well this time.

Finally, the preparations were made, and the pair left quickly to find the dark elves.

It was a long way for their journey to conclude, and they only had about a week left before school started again.

Layla did not want to alert anyone about what she was doing, so she planned to return within a week and leave Mary behind to negotiate if necessary.

'Now that I think about it, the original book mentioned a problem in the elf's territory. It was a disease that killed more than half of them, right? It had something to do with the local water contamination…'

Layla remembered that detail in time and knew it was a great opportunity to make a good impression on the elves during their first meeting.

"Mary, we need to stop at the next big village. There are some tools that I need to grab that will help us with the Dark Elves."

Layla spoke with certainty, and Mary did not question her even once.

The older demon only smiled in her knowing way before she quickly navigated so they would reach the next village early.

Layla's head felt dizzy when the carriage finally stopped, but she pulled herself together and decided to look around first. There was a lot that she needed to find.

Fortunately, all she needed to find was fairly common, and in a village this big, it was easy to grab off the merchant store.

'It's a pity that there is no multi-purpose store in this world that sells a variety of things. I should establish one once I have more funds for it.'

Layla wanted to implement many modern ideas, but all required capital, research, and time.

It was all Layla lacked, so her plans needed to be put on hold.

She could only grab what she could get her hands on for now, and then the journey began again.

It was one more day ride before they reached the entrance to the Dark Elves' territory, and Layl finally felt a little nervous about all this.

She had a plan but was unsure how effective it would be.

Once they finally reached the forest, Layla kneeled to check the soil and water quality.

It was not bad, but since she knew what would happen, Layla could see the signs of rot spreading around the small pond before her.

"Oh! This looks like poison. It seems this water source has been contaminated for some time now. Is that why my lady stopped at the merchant store? You got water purifying potion from them, right?"

Mary asked excitedly as she watched Layla open the lid of the potion and drop its contents into the water.

The water bubbled and frothed as it came in contact with the potion.

It would take about ten minutes before the potion started working its magic, but the elves who felt threatened did not have that much time.

One of the younger elves hiding in the brushes around here decided he could not take this anymore. Their water source had already been contaminated, and he needed to seek revenge.

He jumped Layla (or tried to) with a sharp knife in his hand.

"Die! For the sake of our tribe's revenge, your life needs to end here-"

The elf tried to get close to Layla, but Mary grabbed him halfway and decided to subdue him.