Chapter 65: It is a secret, alright!
After the ball, security got tightened so much that Eli could see knights patrolling even the streets outside the castle and academy from dawn to dusk.
Eli wanted to help, but even when she was technically a member of the FBI and CIA, she was an assassin, not a spy. Her job was to kill people, not gather intel. And so, she asked Alicia once again. Alas, even Alicia couldn’t help her.
“Huh? What do you mean you don’t know? You knew who our enemies are, right? It’s the reaper. You know what’s going to happen, right?” Eli interrogated Alicia inside the cafeteria.
“The attack on the prince’s carriage didn’t exist within the novel. But the novel did say that Althemer, or more specifically Shadowstep, was going to be invaded by its neighboring country from the west,” Alicia said. Then, from the deep recess of her single brain cell, she remembered reapers had infiltrated the castle even in the novels.
“And you don’t know who or when their next plan is going to happen?”
“Um… no. I know it is from the neighboring kingdom, but if you ask who or when they are going to infiltrate here, I don’t know.” Alicia wanted to say that Eli needed to join the reapers to gather such intel, but she refrained from telling her. After all, she vaguely remembered that Eli needed to kill a family or even children when she joined the Reapers.
Alicia went into a dilemma. Shadowstep might be attacked soon. But to uncover the plot, she needed to join the Reapers. But if she joined the Reapers, she might be forced to kill people.
Alicia had thought about going to the woods to scout. But the woods were vast. Without GPS, she had little confidence in making it out of there, and she was just a college NEET in her previous life. She had never done any outdoor activities such as hiking or camping.
Unlike Eli, she didn’t value Shadowstep that much. Even if Shadowstep were attacked, they could always evacuate and retake it soon after. It’s not like the attacker was a monster. They wouldn’t kill civilians unnecessarily.
“Ah… But John is my father….” Alicia whispered as she slurped a spaghetti bolognese drenched with ketchup. Eli had cookies and tea, but unlike the whimsical Alicia, she was too occupied with the pressing problem at hand. Such as the prince’s advances. If invaders were to conquer Shadowstep, her father, who is a knight, would be put on the front line, and he might perish.
Alicia frowned. Now that it was personal, she had to do something. But how? The reaper organizations had gone silent on her. There was no way to contact them.
“Yes! We must figure out how and when they will attack us!” Eli said.
“Only the reapers would know,” Alicia confessed under zero pressure.
“The reapers? Why? Ah… I see. They are actually a criminal syndicate from another nation.” Eli connected the dots. But even she had now come to a dead end. Just like Alicia had thought, there was no way to know how they would contact the reapers.
“We should inspect the slums. Maybe we could figure out how they operated!” Eli suggested.
“Huh? The slums? I already did that…” Alicia sighed.
“Ugh… so that was your goal before. I didn’t realize. We should have interrogated the person who handed me that letter instead of bombing their casino… Sorry.” Eli frowned. She swore she would live by justice in this life. She didn’t think she needed to be cunning. After all, she was blessed with power and was a noble. Only now did she realize that she needed to be more cunning. Allow the slightest corruption for the greater good. Eli sighed. Why couldn’t this be more simple? She just wanted to build her territory and bring prosperity to everyone.
Days passed peacefully soon after. Or at least that’s how it was on the outside.
It wasn’t only her; she saw how the knights seemed to patrol the roads incessantly. Unlike the usual lazy guard, they seemed to watch the shopkeepers with keen eyes. These guards even watched the school grounds, occasionally turning up in hallways and even checking the surrounding woods and gardens.
“Lady Elidranthia, you’ve got an invitation from Prince Ludwin,” Elena said. Eli scrunched up her face when she saw the royal envelope with a golden seal. Another problem at hand.
“Lady Elidranthia. I knew you didn’t look at Prince Ludwin favourably, but that face was unbecoming of you…” Elana smiled wryly. “I wonder why. Prince Ludwin strikes me as someone capable, with confidence befitting that of royalty.”
“He is arrogant, and he is a prince. If I get along with him, people are going to be jealous. I am going to make enemies…” Eli pouted. When she voiced her dissatisfaction out loud, she realized she was being prejudiced.
Wasn’t this exactly what bullying was? Discriminating against people based on their status.
“I am a hypocrite.” Eli sighed. If she avoided Prince Ludwin just because he was a prince, that would make her a hypocrite.
“So, Lady Elidranthia, will you accept the invitation? It would be nice to make connections with the prince. Being friendly with the prince had its baggage, but if our territory was in trouble, you could ask him for help.” Elena asked. “So, is it a yes? I have to send the reply soon.”
“Yes. I will attend the party,” Eli said. Ludwin might be arrogant, but he was just a brat. Judging from his status, it was understandable. His attitude could still be fixed.
Eli decided to approach this in a new light. Ludwin was prideful, but he didn’t seem like a bad royal. He was not like those cold-blooded CEOs or politicians who tyrannize their people. Not yet. Once Eli accepted the invitation, the royal messenger returned to the castle, and the very next day, he came back with a carriage and a dress for Eli to wear.
Alicia was also invited as Eli’s plus one, so she wore her maid dress. A guard eyed Alicia’s sword that hung on her waist, but after a confirmation from Ludwin’s personal guard, they allowed her to keep it.
“Greetings, Lady Elidranthia. I hadn’t had the chance to thank you for saving my life a week ago, so I arranged for my father to thank you in private. I don’t know why, but Father insisted we keep most of the incident under wraps, especially your contribution there, so unfortunately, I couldn’t reward you publicly,” Ludwin said.
“Greetings, Your Highness. Princess Charlotte, Prince Ludwin. I am honored to have received your attention. Your gratitude was wasted on me, Your Highness. I merely did my duty for the stability and prosperity of the Althemer Empire.” Eli curtsied.
“Please, have a seat, Elidranthia. I have prepared a delicious dish with imported spices and condiments from the Theocracy just for you. Here, our special Turkish delight and carbonara!” Ludwin said proudly.
“I shall gratefully accept.” Eli curtsied again and sat on her seat while Alicia looked around earnestly.
Instead of doing her job as a maid, such as serving Elidranthia tea, the clueless maid poked her head toward the wall, feeling it as if she was looking for something. The novel never specified where, but she knew there was a secret path here somewhere. She looked like a brainless pigeon pecking at the wall.
If one had never met Alicia, they would have thought of her as a spy, trying to find loopholes in the security. But her dumb and empty face dispelled such suspicions. Eli was amazed that none of the king’s guards merely ignored her antics.
“Is something the matter, Mage Alicia?” Ludwin asked. Alicia might be a commoner, but she was a mage and she had saved Ludwin’s life as well, so he tried to be accommodating. “Don’t worry, my father personally guarantees security. These knights were all the king’s personal guards, ready to throw their lives away for our safety. There is no way an ant could even pass through this security!”
“Say, Prince Ludwin, where are the secret tunnels or secret escape routes in the castle?” Alicia asked.
“Hm? No. There are none. I’ve never heard of it. Why would you ask?”
“Hm… I thought an assassin or two might sneak inside the castle through those escape routes,” Alicia said.
She vaguely remembered that there was such a scene in the original novel where Eli had to sneak someone into the castle through an escape route. But, since she never met the reapers, Alicia never had any information on when and where the secret route was.
“Ah hahaha! There is no such route. If even I, the prince, don’t know it, how could an outsider, especially assassins, ever hope to know?” Ludwin laughed. “You might be a maid, but you are also my benefactor. I will make sure to give you my thanks through Lady Elidranthia. Don’t worry, you will be rewarded.”
Ludwin laughed, but Eli sensed the king’s and some of his guards’ faces tightened. He glanced at his personal guard, and he shook his head. The king nodded, and he moved out. Eli didn’t know what secret message they were conveying, but somehow the situation had turned grave.
So there really was a secret escape route.
Eli’s face tightened. Then, just as Ludwin was about to drink the fruit cocktail, the king stopped him.
“Ludwin. Stop. Since Alicia seemed insecure. We will check the food once more. This time we will bring the device and the mage here,” the king said.
“Huh? Didn’t we already check them before?”
“We will do so once more,” the king said.
“Hm? Why?”
“Well, we just got new intel after all. It’s not wrong to be cautious.” The king eyed Alicia. She merely tilted her head, like a confused child.
“Ugh… this is why those mages said we were wasteful with mana expenditure,” Ludwin frowned. “We already checked them twice, right?”
But when the honor guard arrived with the mage to operate the poison tester, the device turned red only on Ludwin’s fork. Ludwin gaped at the result.
“You! You didn’t check for poison properly earlier! Are you in cahoots with the assassins?” Ludwin yelled at the poison tester. The poison tester kneeled, begging for forgiveness.
“No! Your Highness. I checked them earlier. I swear! It turned green earlier.” The king and the guards looked sternly at the results. Alicia gaped at the scene. This wasn’t what she had in mind. In the NovelPhoenix, they didn’t do something like this.
Assassins were way cooler if they slit someone’s throat, not poisons. So in the NovelPhoenix, it was more like stealth and then fighting another spy or killing someone in their sleep. Poisons are only for cowards.
“Ludwin. If he were an assassin, he would have tampered with the device and the device wouldn’t show red just now,” Eli tried to knock some sense into the panicking Ludwin. If she didn’t phrase this correctly, this innocent man might have been sent to the gallows.
“Then how? How can only my fork be poisoned?”
Elidranthia glanced at the king. But the king remained silent. Even after all this, not even a word about the secret tunnel came to light. He merely excused himself due to his royal duty.
Then, how? How did the assassin slip poison into Ludwin’s utensils? Only the goddess knew.