Chapter 1076: 63. The Fish That Slipped Through the Net
“I understand now. Put those away.”
Anna withdrew her gaze.
At the end of the day, she wasn’t truly worried something would happen to Muen. No matter how wildly certain people caused trouble, Belrand was ultimately still that icy woman’s territory.
“Yes.”
Jinze let out a long sigh of relief and hurriedly stuffed the pornographic magazines back into his chest pocket.
He planned to continue digging later. Not because of the magazines themselves, but because he intended to gather and destroy as many of those harmful things as possible.
Some “great step forward for human civilization,” my ass.
He had nearly gotten a nosebleed from glancing at them for a moment. Absolutely evil!
“Keep watching Belrand. Contact me immediately if anything happens.”
Even now, Anna still refused to relax surveillance over Belrand. Caution had always been her style.
“Understood!”
As Jinze’s solemn response faded, the communication was finally severed.
The sacrificial grounds returned to silence.
Only that graceful figure remained standing motionless for a long time, lost in thought.
“Perhaps... I truly was being overly cautious.”
Even after reviewing everything again, she still found no problems.
That so-called “unease” might simply have been her overthinking.
“How many other cultist hideouts remain besides this one?”
“Three.”
One of the branch operatives following far behind Anna while cleaning the battlefield hurriedly answered.
“Three, hm? If we move quickly, it shouldn’t take long. Maybe two or three days at most. In that amount of time, certain people probably won’t have the chance to create any major disturbances.”
With her mind finally at ease, Anna became lazy once more.
She stretched languidly, perfectly displaying the elegant curves of her body.
Then, at the exact moment the cultists relaxed their guard—
She crooked a finger.
Heads began dropping one after another.
Consumed by shadows.
...
...
“Ten thousand pornographic magazines? So something that inte— no, something that evil happened in Belrand?”
Inside a medicine-scented room within a small town, Liya puffed out her cheeks angrily while violently grinding herbs as she listened to Lin’s report.
“What a shame I wasn’t there! Otherwise I definitely would’ve purified every last one of those magazines! How could something so filthy exist in this world? The Life Goddess Aimier absolutely would not wish to see Her followers corrupted by such things!”
“...Maybe purify the ones you secretly hid first.”
Lin answered helplessly from the side.
“Eh? Lin, you found them?”
Liya looked horrified.
“They’re practically overflowing from beneath your bed. How could I not find them?”
Lin held her forehead.
“Ah... Lin, listen to me. Those aren’t evil things anymore. I already purified them. I’m only storing them there to prevent them from circulating outside and corrupting others. I absolutely don’t secretly read them myself!”
Liya defended herself with a perfectly serious expression.
“...Let’s just go with that.”
Lin sighed helplessly.
Honestly, read them if you want. She had already given up resisting.
As long as the Saintess still maintained proper dignity in front of outsiders... then she was still a good Saintess.
“Lin’s the best.”
Liya giggled, increasing the speed of her work. With Lin assisting beside her, the potion was quickly completed.
“How is it? Will this work?”
“Of course.”
Liya snorted disdainfully.
“If I couldn’t cure something this ordinary, then wouldn’t all those books I read have been for nothing?”
“As expected of Her Highness the Saintess.”
Lin smiled.
See? Although she was slightly lustful, slightly secretly perverted, and slightly obsessed with men...
At least professionally, she fully deserved her status as Saintess.
“Even if the illness is easy to cure, I’m still angry!”
Liya remained puffed up with indignation.
“A so-called epidemic turned out to be mass mushroom poisoning? What exactly were those people passing information around doing? Is my time worth that little?”
“Well... you can’t entirely blame the church here.”
Lin soothed Liya while dividing the potion into multiple portions for the poisoned townspeople.
“Large numbers of townspeople were sleepwalking, muttering incoherently, and even suffering seizures. The symptoms genuinely resembled some terrifying contagious disease. Even low-level Holy Light healing had no effect, so all they could do was ask us for help.”
“But these mushrooms are only hallucinogenic. They wouldn’t even kill a kitten.”
Liya beckoned softly.
An adorable little cat trotted over and rubbed its fluffy head affectionately against her palm.
It really was an unfortunate coincidence.
A simple mushroom poisoning incident had somehow spread widely enough to attract even the Saintess herself.
Fortunately, the Church reacted quickly and immediately launched a reverse investigation into everyone involved. They confirmed there were no outside forces interfering and that the entire matter had simply resulted from a nun in the local church misjudging the situation.
Nothing more than a misunderstanding.
Otherwise, the entire town might already have been sealed off under suspicion of attempting to assassinate the Saintess.
Even so, for safety reasons, Liya’s movements as Saintess had still been temporarily restricted.
“Stop complaining, Your Highness. I know you’re worried about Muen Campbell, but that’s Belrand. What could possibly happen to him there?”
Lin rolled her eyes, inwardly wishing that yellow-haired pig would simply get locked up for ten or twenty years so he’d stop ruining every family’s prettiest cabbage.
Unfortunately, even she knew that was impossible.
The odds of that menace being imprisoned for twenty years were lower than the odds of the Empire’s Empress dragging him straight into marriage and preventing him from fooling around forever.
“Mm... so how much longer do I have to stay here?”
Liya pinched the cat’s face miserably.
“I still have extremely important things left unfinished!”
“If by ‘important things’ you mean dating that guy, then I think you should give up already. He’s currently locked up too.”
Lin sighed again.
“As for how long you’ll stay here... not long. Once another two or three days pass, the townspeople’s poisoning symptoms completely disappear, and the higher-ups are one hundred percent certain this was all just a misunderstanding, Your Highness should regain your freedom.”
“Really?”
Liya flattened herself across the table with a pitiful expression.
“That sounds unbearably long...”
...
...
“Two or three days?”
An turned her head in surprise toward the former Head Maid beside her.
“That’s fast. I thought the preparations would take much longer. I heard the young miss’s birth wasn’t easy, so I assumed Madam would place greater importance on something like this.”
“It isn’t some grand banquet. Two or three days is enough.”
The elderly former Head Maid smiled gently.
“In truth, the Empire doesn’t even have a tradition of celebrating a child’s hundredth day after birth. It’s only because Madam treasures and adores the young miss so deeply—so much that she wants to show her off to the entire world—that this hundred-day banquet exists at all.”
“No wonder...”
An nodded.
A sudden banquet added at the last minute naturally required additional manpower.
Still...
“I just didn’t expect you to write directly to me. Given House Campbell’s influence, temporarily recruiting more people shouldn’t have been difficult, right?”
“Of course.”
The former Head Maid nodded.
“Finding people isn’t difficult. It’s just that... I don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Her voice trembled slightly.
“Previously, the young master nearly died because of me. If something happened to the young miss as well, then I... I truly wouldn’t have the face to face the Master and Madam anymore.”
An fell silent.
Of course she knew exactly which incident the former Head Maid meant.
The infiltration incident where cultists disguised themselves as maids and nearly caused the young master’s death.
Although the former Head Maid avoided punishment thanks to the Duke’s mercy, she voluntarily stepped down afterward, which was how An herself became Head Maid of the Ducal Estate.
Of course, the former Head Maid also didn’t know that An herself had quietly participated in that incident to a certain extent.
Her objective simply failed.
“I understand. I’ll do my best to help you.”
A trace of guilt surfaced within An as she spoke.
“Thank you, An.”
The wrinkles on the former Head Maid’s face relaxed into a warm smile, the corners of her lips curving into a strange expression.
“If you weren’t helping me, I truly wouldn’t know what to do...”
...
...
“It seems everything is proceeding even more smoothly than expected.”
On the familiar balcony, a silver-haired figure stood with her hands behind her back, cold eyes reflecting the endless movement of the Imperial Palace below.
White doves beat their wings through the sky as message after message arrived from distant places.
All of them were good news.
—Every delaying tactic she prepared had worked perfectly. Those shameless little harlots capable of interfering with the ceremony had all been successfully trapped far away.
And even the most troublesome one of all had failed to notice the truth hidden beneath the currents now sweeping through Belrand, thanks to the efforts of someone who was usually unreliable.
“It seems Pink Bear’s intelligence organization wasn’t entirely used for collecting pornographic magazines after all. Compared to him, a certain bitch still lacks a bit of experience.”
“Isn’t that the truth? Damn it, I’m starting to feel like some old villainess from a story now, bullying the hero bringing light and hope to humanity! Seriously, since when did burying a few porn magazines turn someone into a hero?”
Phyllis suddenly appeared, grabbed the coffee pot, and gulped down several huge mouthfuls.
“My reputation from this entire lifetime is ruined!”
“One year of paid vacation.”
“I AM HER MAJESTY’S MOST LOYAL DOG AND SOMETHING THIS SMALL THAT DAMAGES MY REPUTATION IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WATCH ME GO VICIOUSLY ATTACK MUEN CAMPBELL RIGHT NOW I ABSOLUTELY WON’T LET OUTSIDERS CONNECT THIS TO A WEDDING!”
Phyllis vanished again just as abruptly as she arrived.
Celicia casually lifted a hand, summoning the documents Phyllis had left behind.
They, too, were filled almost entirely with good news.
For example, Muen’s formal attire might still require slightly more time, but her wedding dress had already been perfectly completed after dozens of master tailors worked around the clock without rest.
The documents described it as beautiful.
She believed it would be beautiful as well.
After all, she had personally envisioned that wedding dress for two entire months.
Yet no matter how detailed her imagination had been, it could never compare to the moment she truly wore it.
Fortunately...
That moment was close.
“Excellent. Very excellent.”
One piece of good news after another continued arriving. Even someone as cold and detached as Celicia could not suppress the ripples of excitement spreading through her heart.
It was going to succeed.
Very soon, it would succeed.
The plans laid in advance.
The targeted schemes designed specifically for those shameless women surrounding Muen.
And the overwhelming organizational force she wielded through Imperial authority itself.
At this point, the ceremony no longer possessed any possibility of failure.
“At most two or three more days...”
Celicia gazed toward the distance.
“Everything will be settled. And now... no one can stop me.”
...
...
Cough! Cough!
Violent coughing echoed through the smoke and dust.
Only after quite some time did a small hand finally emerge from a crater, dragging the rest of its owner out little by little.
“Damn it, I nearly got crushed into meat paste by those spatial fluctuations! Teacher, where exactly did you throw me?!”
“Sigh, I already told you space magic without precise coordinates is dangerous, but you insisted on trying it anyway. Were you really in that much of a hurry? That brat wasn’t about to drop dead immediately.”
A graceful figure floated slowly upward. After sighing helplessly, Peles looked around.
“As for where this is, how would I kno— hm?”
Seeing the familiar architectural style surrounding them, Peles suddenly clapped excitedly and turned toward Ariel, who was still shaking her head dizzily.
“I told you, your luck really is as absurd as ever.”
She grinned brightly.
“As you can see... we’ve arrived in Belrand.”