"Seriously, what is Asta doing right now? If he's sleeping, I'll definitely beat him to death tomorrow!" Noelle thought angrily. However, she then felt it was better to sleep; at least sleeping wouldn't involve any bad intentions. It was just a pity that she had to keep watch in the middle of the night!
"Is Noelle awake too? But why is Noelle not moving in response to the emergency? This is way too relaxed, right? Is she really that obsessed with my room..." Asta helplessly covered his face with his hand, then moved like a ghost, directly leaping onto the roof where Noelle was.
"What was that sound?" Noelle's little ears immediately perked up the moment Asta jumped onto the roof.
Of course, this was something Asta intentionally let Noelle hear; otherwise, with Asta's current strength, he could have landed on the roof completely silently.
"Shh, Noelle, it's me!" Asta stood with his feet on the top of the window frame, hanging upside down like a bat.
"Ahhh, Asta!" Noelle was startled, looking as if she had seen a ghost.
"Is there a need to be so scared of me?" Asta rolled his eyes, then released the Chakra from his feet and flipped into the room quite easily and naturally.
"You, you, you! How can you just barge into a girl's bedroom like that!" Noelle instinctively wrapped the blanket tighter around herself. In reality, she hadn't taken anything off; she was still wearing her outer clothes, but she just couldn't help feeling shy!
"Vanessa is sleeping!" Asta glanced at Vanessa's inappropriate sleeping posture and raised an eyebrow.
"Do! Not! Look!" Noelle rushed in front of Asta, spreading her arms to try and block Asta's view, but she completely failed to notice that she had opened her chest up.
"Noelle, actually, you're not small?" Asta stared for a moment and said.
"Idiot Asta, what kind of stupid things are you saying!" Noelle immediately realized her goal was undefended and quickly hugged her arms around herself again, looking aggrieved.
"Thump!" Seeing the girl's immensely shy appearance, a certain spot in Asta's chest skipped a beat. However, Asta quickly returned to his normal expression, sat down, poured himself a cup of water, and smiled, "Noelle, something bad has happened!"
"Is that the expression for something bad?" Noelle said, speechless.
"Because the situation is still under control. As long as we want to stop it, we still have time!" Asta said.
"Are you talking about those children?" Noelle's eyes lit up.
"That's right. They are all being controlled by a white-haired mage and are heading up the mountain. My preliminary guess is that it's through Snow Magic." Asta looked at the abnormal snowfall outside the window.
"I was wondering, it's not even winter, so why is it snowing? It turns out it's artificial. But since you discovered something fishy, why didn't you stop it?" Noelle asked, puzzled.
"Right now, the enemy is exposed and we are hidden. They don't know we are on vacation here. It's the perfect opportunity to follow the trail and round them all up, leaving no future trouble. But if we act now, the situation will immediately reverse to the enemy being hidden and us being exposed. Even if we capture the white-haired boy, if he has accomplices, they will flee, and it will be difficult to catch them again," Asta explained.
"That... that makes sense!" Noelle looked at Asta, shocked. Was this kind of decision-making ability really something Asta came up with?
Noelle reviewed the past and was stunned to discover that Asta was never just about brute force. Whether it was raiding the Magic Palace or the ancient battlefield, Asta had always demonstrated excellent strategic ability.
This kind of strategy was even better than that of the Magic Knight Squad captains, so... Is it really possible for Asta to become the Magic Emperor!
At least for now, Noelle believed it!
"I was wondering why I smelled a man; so it was Asta who barged in." After yawning, Vanessa looked lazily at Asta, "Little brother, you're not being good!"
"Ha... haha, Big Sister Vanessa, something sudden happened. This place has been attacked by an unknown force, and the children have all been taken away!" Asta only glanced at the just-woken-up Vanessa before averting his gaze.
"You're really not being good, but since it's an emergency, I'll forgive you!" Vanessa said as she stood up and walked to the window. At this moment, she could only vaguely see a small figure being swallowed by the night as it headed up the mountain. It seemed Asta was right; someone had indeed attacked this place.
"Asta, what should we do now?" Noelle had unknowingly developed a mindset of relying on Asta.
"The safest method is for us to follow them, see what the purpose of this group is, and how many people there are, while simultaneously reporting to the Magic Knights Headquarters, just in case," Asta said simply.
"Mm, that's a good idea!" Vanessa nodded.
"It is indeed safe; it prevents almost all unexpected accidents!" Noelle also nodded in agreement.
"But before that, calming down the townspeople here will also be troublesome," Asta said.
"How were these children taken away?" Vanessa frowned.
"A type of hypnosis magic that seems to only be effective on children. These children under the spell will walk out of their rooms on their own and follow the white-haired boy's guidance, heading up the mountain in an orderly fashion." Asta shared the information he knew, wanting to see if Vanessa knew what kind of magic this was.
"I see. Although this magic is ineffective on adults, it's impossible for every adult to be sleeping soundly. Therefore, someone will inevitably discover their child is missing and come out to search. Once someone comes out to search, the people in the town will soon hear the commotion and wake up. At that point, calming these people down will indeed take some effort." Vanessa looked at Asta with admiration. Asta really planned five steps ahead for every single step he took; he was simply meticulous and had calculated everything.
Such an outstanding mind was truly very charming!
"Kryss!"
"Yoana!" As expected, soon enough, parents had already rushed out anxiously, starting to call for their children.
"Is your child missing too?"
"Indeed, what is going on? Why would perfectly fine children just disappear?"
As these parents communicated, they quickly realized it wasn't just their own children who were missing; it was as if all the children in the entire town had vanished!
"Asta! Luca! Marco! Where are you?"
Rebecca soon ran out, looking distraught. She absolutely wasn't unable to sleep because she wanted to sneak into Asta's room at night; rather, she had gotten up to tuck in her younger siblings, only to discover they were missing!
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