Walking out of the gloomy Royal Capital, the sunlight was blinding.
Elvia took a deep breath, and the corners of her mouth curled up involuntarily.
It had been nearly a month since Lin Gui's departure.
This month, everything had gone smoothly for her.
Her influence was growing and spreading in the shadows, and she was skillfully instigating Charles and Diana to fight each other.
She herself lurked in the darkness, quietly waiting for the moment to harvest.
Now, she had even gained control over the dying King and obtained his final trump card.
Unfolding that roll of encrypted parchment, the names and locations recorded on it made her secretly startled.
The old man had hidden things much deeper than she had imagined.
With these, combined with the forces she had gathered in secret...
Elvia was confident that she would be the ultimate winner.
She walked through the corridors with a light step and reached the palace gates.
Dozens of servants prostrated themselves on the ground in humble postures.
The head maid stepped forward to support her, leading her into a brand-new gilded carriage.
The interior of the carriage was lined with velvet, and incense wafted through the air.
The honor she had once lost was returning alongside her power.
The carriage drove toward her new mansion.
The courtyard was vast, filled with exotic flowers and herbs, and its pillars were a pristine white.
No matter where she went, servants bowed their heads to attend to her.
Whether she was bathing, reading, or even letting out a single cough, someone would respond immediately.
It was as if she were wrapped in a refined cocoon.
...
At noon, Elvia sat down at a long dining table.
A silver cover was lifted, revealing a dish as exquisite as a work of art.
In the center of the massive plate, there was only a mouthful or two of food.
Such plates filled the long table.
She took a bite and her brow furrowed.
She took a napkin and turned her head to spit it out.
The silver fork clattered softly.
The head chef’s face turned ashen, and he knelt on the floor.
The maids trembled with fear.
"How many times have I told you," Elvia rubbed her temples, "do not add those strange things you call 'noble'."
"I just want it to taste good. Do you understand what 'tasting good' means?!"
Ever since Lin Gui left, nothing she ate tasted right.
She had asked the chefs to replicate the flavors from her memory, but they always fell short.
Part of it was the inability to find Lin Gui’s "exclusive seasonings."
But more than that, the chefs could never resist adding rare ingredients to "enhance the depth," which only ended up ruining the dish.
Looking at the trembling chef on the ground, she normally would have flared up in anger.
But—
The image of a black-haired figure in an old mage robe flashed through her mind.
Elvia’s tilted chin stiffened.
Suddenly losing interest, she waved her hand.
"Everyone, leave."
The servants hurried away as if they had been granted a grand pardon.
In the empty dining room, she sat alone at the end of the long table.
Before her were dozens of plates of cold "art pieces."
She remained silent for a moment, then stood up and walked onto the balcony.
The slanting sun cast her shadow long against the floor.
A breeze brushed past her golden hair, carrying the fragrance of flowers from the garden.
Yet it could not blow away the hollow feeling in her heart.
That bastard... where was he now?
And that talkative elf who loved to bicker with her.
Just as Elvia was staring into the distance lost in thought.
"What you wanted me to handle has been done."
A deep, raspy voice came abruptly from the shadows behind her on the balcony.
Elvia did not look back, as if she had already expected this.
A tall figure walked slowly out from behind a pillar, unmasked.
The crisscrossing scars on his face looked particularly hideous in the sunset.
It was the rebel leader, Caesar.
After the disastrous failure of the assassination attempt on the Saintess, which had cost them almost all their top assassins,
Elvia had taken the initiative to find him.
She extended a hand of cooperation to him.
She hoped to use his remaining forces that spanned the shadows of the Royal Capital to help her ascend the throne.
Although the elite combatants under Caesar were almost entirely wiped out,
the low-level intelligence network, the manpower, and the dark veins he had cultivated over many years were still not to be underestimated.
Regarding Elvia’s olive branch, Caesar was initially dismissive.
In his eyes, this princess was no different from those sickening nobles.
To make her back down,
he had proposed several conditions that he believed she could never possibly accept.
Publicly judge and strip three high nobles of their crimes, confiscating their property to distribute among the commoners.
Abolish the "bloodline ransom" system.
This was the corrupt rule where a commoner could use their entire family assets to atone for offending a noble.
Allow the children of commoners to enter the Royal Capital Knights and the Administration Office through assessments, breaking the noble monopoly.
Every one of these conditions struck at the very roots of the nobility.
He waited to see this princess’s face change as she refused.
However, Elvia only fell silent for a moment,
then she looked up at him, her gaze terrifyingly calm.
"I can give you the power and the authority to do these things."
"But as for how far you can take it..."
"That depends on how much you can hold onto and how much you can overturn yourself."
That day, for the first time, Caesar felt
that this once-arrogant princess might have truly changed.
Caesar walked to the edge of the balcony and stood beside her, looking toward the distant palace.
"Regarding those dirty things Charles did in the past..."
"I've already 'accidentally' let that old hag Diana find out about them."
"Excellent."
Elvia curled the corners of her mouth in satisfaction, a cold light flashing in her eyes.
"Let that mud puddle get even messier."
"When they have both suffered and exhausted themselves..."
"I will be the one to sweep everything clean."
Caesar fell silent behind her for a moment, then lowered his voice even further:
"Then... what about Prince Warren?"
"The forces of Charles and Diana are now damaged in the open."
"But the other candidate for the throne, Warren... there hasn't been a single stir from him so far."
He turned his head and stared at Elvia’s profile.
"Could he be... just like you, waiting for the right moment?"
The smile on Elvia’s face suddenly froze.
Then, her expression became somewhat strange.
It was as if she had heard something both absurd and helpless.
"Him..."
She shook her head.
"He likely won't come to obstruct me."
"In fact... he might not even be an obstacle to me ascending the throne."
Caesar frowned. "Why?"
Elvia’s expression grew even more peculiar.
"Some time ago, he took the initiative to come find me."
"He borrowed part of my intelligence network to investigate some... strange things."
"In exchange, he vacated several substantive positions under his name and gave them to my people."
Caesar’s eyes sharpened. "Why would he do that? Could it be a trap?"
"No."
Elvia’s tone was certain, carrying a subtle touch of sentiment.
"Because... it seems he is on quite good terms with my 'royal husband'."
"According to him, he owes my husband a favor."
As for what that favor was, to be honest, Elvia was also very curious.
It seemed Lin Gui had done something quite extraordinary while she wasn't looking.
She paused, seemingly weighing her words.
"To put it another way..."
"He is, more or less, one of ours."
Hearing the words "royal husband," the scars on Caesar’s face twitched slightly.
That young mage with black hair and black eyes who always had no expression...
The man who had forced him into a desperate situation in the mine, yet gave him a strange thread of hope.
His expression became exceptionally complex.
Caesar was silent for a moment, then changed the subject.
"There have been a string of disappearances in the Royal Capital recently... is that the work of one of the high nobles up top?"
Mentioning this, Elvia also furrowed her brow.
"I'm not sure either, but it definitely wasn't done by my people."
Ever since Lin Gui left...
a truly staggering number of disappearance cases had occurred in the Royal Capital.
To what extent?
Over the past week, more than five thousand people had vanished into thin air.
Because those who went missing were commoners, refugees, and low-level artisans,
they hadn't attracted the genuine attention of the upper class yet.
But Elvia’s foundation was in the commoner district.
She was very clear on the "uniqueness" of these five thousand-plus people.
Almost everyone who vanished had a specialized skill.
Master blacksmiths, old women proficient in growing medicinal herbs.
Servants who were skilled in mental calculation, and old carriage drivers familiar with every corner of the Royal Capital.
There were even a few tailors and potters with good craftsmanship.
Elvia sighed and rubbed her temples.
"Right now... I don't have the energy to investigate this deeply."
She still had too many things to do.
Consolidating the King’s inheritance she just acquired.
Keeping a close watch on the struggle between Charles and Diana.
Deploying her own people...
Caesar looked at her and suddenly said:
"There's one more thing."
"That movement regarding Eagle Fortress you asked me to keep an eye on before..."
"News came this morning that the banshees have left Eagle Fortress."
The color drained completely from Elvia’s face instantly.
She whipped around, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the balcony railing.
A freezing chill slowly crawled up her spine.
She gave a hollow laugh and said to Caesar,
"Haha, you must be joking, right?"
Not understanding why Elvia, who had everything under control just a moment ago, suddenly turned deathly pale,
Caesar reaffirmed several times,
"I'm not joking. The banshees have all left."
"Eagle Fortress is completely empty now."
Caesar was also quite puzzled about this; the banshees’ departure seemed extremely urgent.
So urgent that they didn't even take the banshee eggs they had laid.
What kind of thing could have happened to make them retreat in such a panic?
After thinking for a while, Caesar couldn't figure it out.
And when he snapped back to reality, he found that Elvia, who had been riding high recently... had now collapsed to the ground, her face devoid of color.
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