Siervian deliberately kept the fact that harmin tea was poisonous from the Justice Guild. It wasn’t because she didn’t trust them, but because she was worried about inserting unnecessary bias.

“I can’t give you all the information right now. But something is definitely going on in the Duke’s household, and I would appreciate your help in uncovering it.”

She had already figured out that harmin tea was practically poison. But she wondered if she had missed any of its effects. That was why she wanted the Justice Guild to investigate and look at this situation as objectively as possible.

“I understand, Your Highness.”

Despite the gravity of the request, and the fact that she had kept information from him, the Guild Master accepted the task without complaint. Siervian was uneasy at his trusting behavior. So she handed him the magical artifact her father had given her and asked him earnestly,

“…I’m sorry to ask you to do this, but everyone must return safely.”

“We will do our best, Your Highness. And we will finish the mage Wilhelm’s case you entrusted us with soon.”

“Really?”

“Yes. It seems we have found a clue that may be connected to the Duke’s household. We may be able to solve both cases at once.”

Fortunately, the Justice Guild seemed to be investigating in the right direction. As if to lighten the heavy atmosphere, Guild Master Delphi smiled pleasantly as always. Siervian was so grateful that she clasped his large bear-like hands in her small ones.

“Please, everyone must return safely.”

Now, there was only one thing left to do to bring down the Duke’s household: gather enough evidence to mobilize the Imperial Guard.

* * *

“You idiots! You can’t even handle one simple task!”

“My apologies, Duke. But the target seemed to vanish into thin air…”

“Silence!”

In his frustration, the Duke slammed his fist on his desk after another failed attempt. This shouldn’t have been such a difficult task, but things had gotten strange.

“Why on earth?”

“Ugh.”

Unable to control his anger, Duke Pacour hurled a book from his desk. The knight was hit square in the face and swallowed a cry of pain, quickly bowing his head.

‘From the treasury to the grain deal, and even the mine issue. Every single one of them has been thwarted by that princess!’

At first, he thought it was just bad luck. The Duke’s household still had plenty of power, and he thought he could easily recover.

“Hmm…”

But the plans had gone awry and continued to spiral out of control. Naturally, the countermeasures he took to fix things became more and more reckless.

It was all because the Emperor had started to take an interest in the murders of those cursed with harmin tea allergies. Worried that his ‘great plan’ would be ruined, the Duke had hastily started a scheme at the mine.

‘It’s a shame, but I had been planning to do it anyway, to undermine the Emperor’s authority!’

But to his astonishment, the princess had shown up. The way she had solved the problem was so uncanny, it was as if she had seen the future.

‘I should have taken care of her back in the Kingdom of Mosae.’

Things had gotten even more complicated after the monster incident had failed. He needed an event to draw the Emperor’s attention elsewhere.

‘I ended up targeting the princess in a fit of pique, but I couldn’t let the harmin incident drag on any longer.’

But he had never thought it would end in such a miserable failure. He had sent so many assassins.

All the countermeasures he had prepared were now becoming huge pieces of evidence, threatening to hang around the Duke’s neck.

“Try again. Keep trying until you succeed!”

“Th, that– It will be difficult at the moment. As you know, ugh.”

The knight tried to object as another book flew at him, but he quickly bowed his head again.

This assassination attempt was much more reckless than the mine incident. The connection to the mages he had sent to the mine had been sufficiently severed, so there was little risk of the Duke’s household being implicated.

‘Damn it. I should have targeted the princess in a different way, not with assassination.’

But assassination was a different matter entirely. Originally, he had planned to frame the princess’ disappearance as a kidnapping, even if he had to kill her outright. He had intended to erase all traces of her while the Emperor was distracted by the incident.

“Damn it!”

But that had failed, too. He had waited for the perfect opportunity, when the princess was traveling with only a few guards. But the princess, who had just awakened and couldn’t even use spatial magic, had somehow managed to break through the assassins’ encirclement and escape. It was as if she was possessed by the spirits of Mana.

“This won’t do.”

After taking out his anger on the knight, the Duke finally calmed down and collapsed into his chair. Right now, he needed to escape the Emperor’s tightening noose.

“Destroy all evidence related to the assassination attempts. Silence everyone involved, even if you have to kill them.”

“…I shall do as you command.”

“There’s no time. We need to cut off the tail, starting with the guards at the harmin fields.”

It seemed that the Emperor had caught wind of the harmin issues, but there was nothing he could do about it.

‘He’s just poking around because his precious daughter is allergic to harmin.’

He was worried, but the Emperor wouldn’t be able to directly attack the harmin issue right away. Due to the records of the first Emperor, the Imperial Family was practically shackled when it came to harmin. That was why the Emperor had been pressuring the Duke’s household with accusations of embezzlement instead of attacking the harmin fields directly.

‘For now, our top priority is to clear ourselves of the assassination attempts. If we can get rid of that evidence, they won’t be able to touch the Duke’s household so easily.’

He would also be able to bury the issue of the harmin allergy once and for all.

The Duke’s eyes gleamed sinisterly, unaware that he was already a step too late.

* * *

Summoned by the secret order of the princess, the Guild Master stealthily emerged from the ground.

All of the former guild members had been mobilized to secretly create an underground passage. It was a method they had barely managed to discover based on their experience infiltrating the dukedom in the past.

‘Hmm, the security isn’t as tight as I anticipated?’

Of course, they wouldn’t have dared to attempt this method without the magical items provided by the emperor.

After observing the situation outside the passage, the Guild Master carefully extricated himself. Thanks to his meticulous adjustment of direction, he was able to emerge in an area devoid of guards.

‘Let’s see, if that’s the Harmin storage facility over there… This must be the direction.’

The place he had infiltrated was the Harmin farm owned by the dukedom.

The princess had commissioned him to thoroughly investigate this place for a reason.

It was the most secretive of all the places owned by the duke.

‘It’s more spacious than I imagined.’

Furthermore, the testimony of Zecko’s parents had been decisive. They had stated that they had once gone to the duke’s residence after being told that they would be given Harmin.

The fact that they had then tried to move the location again meant that the duke’s residence, at the very least, did not house people with such a rare disease.

‘To think that they could manage such a vast expanse of land in the Imperial Capital with such strict security.’

At present, not only Delphi but also the most skilled members of the guild had infiltrated various parts of the farm.

‘Oops, here come some workers.’

Sensing an approaching presence, he hurriedly approached a cluster of trees and concealed himself.

The workers simply continued on their way, not even glancing at his hiding place.

‘That must be the workers’ quarters over there.’

Naturally, the Harmin farm required a great deal of labor.

The dukedom employed extremely drastic methods to control these workers. They directly managed several families who had worked on the Harmin farm for generations.

‘They’ve also had an exclusive contract with the mercenary guild for generations. They’re a very suspicious bunch.’

The same was true of the farm’s security. However, no matter how much they searched, they could not find any trace of other commissions that the mercenary guild should have had.

Based on the number of registered mercenary guild members, they should have had other work besides their contract with the dukedom.

‘But seriously, the security is so lax…’

Cautiously making his way through the grass of the farm, Delphi wondered. The sensation of the Harmin grass brushing against his skin felt strangely desolate.

As if in response to this thought, he suddenly sensed the approach of two guards.

“Where are you going? What’s the matter?”

“You’re the one who’s rushing. Let’s hurry up and go back.”

Unlike when he had encountered the workers earlier, there was nowhere to escape. However, Delphi calmly touched the bracelet he was wearing.

‘This should do it.’

To his astonishment, the guards who had come face to face with him walked right past him, chatting as if they couldn’t see him.

This bracelet was a concealment artifact that the emperor had personally lent him.

“Hmm?”

“What’s wrong?”

One of the guards suddenly picked up a bead attached to his belt and exclaimed in surprise.

As if testing it, the guard moved the bead around, but again, seemed to see nothing unusual.

“No, I thought I heard the detector go off, but it must have been my imagination.”

“Don’t be silly. Let’s go.”

Deplhi held his breath as they passed right by him.

‘As expected, it’s truly remarkable.’

This artifact from the Imperial Palace was an advanced item that allowed him to evade even such magical detection.

From what he had heard, it was able to help him blend into his surroundings by controlling his mana with extreme precision.

‘I want one.’

While using this item, he couldn’t move, and it took a considerable amount of time to recharge its mana, so he couldn’t use it consecutively.

Despite its limits, as the head of the information guild he couldn’t help but covet it.

‘The same goes for the item that created the underground tunnel here. It seems that his Majesty has been planning to infiltrate this place for a long time.’

His trained instincts told him his guess was not entirely wrong.

After encountering the two guards, the area became eerily deserted, just as he had thought.

From the guards’ conversation, he surmised that some of the security personnel had probably been temporarily deployed elsewhere.

‘I hope my subordinates haven’t been discovered.’

Despite the lack of visible guards, Delphi cautiously approached a building.

It was the building he had targeted before infiltrating. It was enormous, but its purpose was completely unknown.

—