After Guardian Knight Victoria reorganized the guards, Velis set off on the journey back to the palace.
Xi’eryou, being a teacher at the academy, had to remain at the Royal Academy now that it was in session.
Or rather, the fact that she had gone to summon Velis today was itself a dereliction of duty.
And since Velis had just passed her Inaugural Speech, she had not yet been assigned a class or duties, so for the time being she had no teaching obligations.
“Your Highness, the Inquisition Office has already begun investigating this morning’s assassination.”
Seated inside the carriage, Victoria sat upright across from her and spoke.
Velis, meanwhile, was toying with the invitation she had just received from Elliot Laval, her gaze lingering on it as she examined it from left to right, though she seemed rather uninterested.
“Oh, is that so? Have they found anything?”
“Well… no reports yet… but that elf named Winnie Kanasha.”
Victoria hesitated, because regarding this elf, there was a shadow of her own involvement in it.
After all, when Velis had received word and wanted to taste elf flesh, she had been present on that night a few days ago.
“Enough, I know what you want to say. I’ll handle Winnie Kanasha myself.”
Velis took a breath, then suddenly smiled as she looked at Victoria.
“Your Highness, what’s wrong?”
“You are a member of the Meckler Family, and the Meckler Family is renowned throughout the Okam Empire for intelligence gathering…”
Velis picked up a teacup beside her with some amusement and began to spin it in her hand.
Hearing this, Victoria pressed her lips together and asked, “What does Your Highness want the Meckler Family to do?”
“Do… what needs to be done.”
Velis smiled.
On the bustling streets, silence surrounded the princess’s entourage, and passersby scrambled out of the way in terror.
They didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly, afraid that any sound would see them seized and charged by this princess whose fearsome reputation had spread far and wide.
As the escort turned the corner with the carriage, Victoria stepped down from it, then melted into the crowd and disappeared.
After passing through the gates of the Imperial City, Velis’s procession traveled all the way to the Douque Imperial Palace before stopping.
The princess, blessed with a stunning countenance yet infamous far and wide, stepped out, and a host of soldiers and officials’ family members within the Imperial City hid in the distance, stealing glances.
When Velis entered the Douque Imperial Palace, however, she found all the butlers and maids prostrating themselves on the ground in fear.
“What are you all doing?” Velis asked, puzzled.
“Your Highness was attacked; we are guilty!” the butler shouted, his voice trembling.
Velis laughed in exasperation: “What guilt is there in this?”
For a moment, the butler couldn’t answer, only burying his head lower, and the maids behind him even more so.
“Enough, get up. Go do what you need to do. Has the door to my room been repaired?”
Velis waved her hand, that hollow, bored feeling growing more pronounced by the moment.
“It has been repaired… um, Your Highness, you truly won’t punish us?” the butler asked cautiously.
“Are you a masochist?”
Velis rolled her eyes and ignored the crowd of butlers and maids who had been frightened half to death for no apparent reason, relying on her own memories to return to her room.
Sure enough, the door that Xi’eryou had shattered this morning had already been repaired.
She had originally wanted to take a bath before sleeping, but for some reason, she no longer had the inclination.
That sleep lasted until the middle of the night.
Twice during that time, maids had come in to ask if she wanted to eat, and both times Velis had driven them out.
This last time, however, Velis was startled awake by the person before her.
She had actually already been awake, merely half-closing her eyes in feigned rest while pondering her strategies for the days ahead.
The other party moved very quietly; with Velis’s perception, she would have had no way to detect their concealment.
But…
The True Eye, upon observing that thing, automatically surfaced its information.
[The mist permeating the room has hallucinogenic and hypnotic properties—it is a favorite of this continent’s stalkers: Hallucinogenic Mist, an essential tool for burglary and ambush. Holding your breath will prove quite useful.]
“Who are you?”
Velis sat half-upright in bed, and her voice immediately made the other’s figure freeze.
Seeing that Velis was awake, the newcomer knelt directly on the ground, then threw back the black robe concealing their face: “Your Highness!”
Memories surged up from the depths, and after a stunned two seconds, Velis remembered who this was.
“Nightfall?”
“Your Highness, Nightfall has already uncovered information. The one who attacked you today was spearheaded by the Meckler Family, who leaked word to enemy forces operating within the Empire.”
The other’s voice was somewhat hoarse and grating, as if deliberately so.
Velis nodded: “I see, the Mecklers? Guardian Knight Victoria’s family?”
“Indeed!”
Suddenly, a flash of dagger light appeared!
But in the next second after the man drew his dagger, the Flame Whip in Velis’s hand had already lashed across his head.
A violent explosion swept up firelight, and in an instant, the flames licked at the man’s robe, turning him into a human torch.
But even so, the man still madly charged forward, only to be sent flying again by Velis’s Flame Whip.
The flames blazed fiercely, the smell of char and screams arriving together.
“Ahhh! Help, save me, master! I was wrong, I beg you, save me!”
The intense heat of the flames caused the man’s skin and undergarments to burn together, and that foul stench of burning flesh made Velis frown deeply.
Scorching, pain, twisted screaming.
“Who ordered you?” Velis asked coldly. “Tell me, and I’ll spare your life.”
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk! It was Kristi of the Mackintosh Family, she’s the one who had us… ah! Your Highness, I beg you, save me!”
The next second, a sharp Blade of Qi severed his head cleanly.
Velis watched with cold, sinister eyes as the burning headless corpse lay on the floor. Maids and butlers came rushing at the noise, and chaos erupted instantly.
“An assassin, an assassin! Protect Her Highness!”
“You there, hurry and protect Her Highness!”
“Where is Lady Victoria? Where has the Guardian Knight gone at a time like this?”
“What are you shouting for?! Go protect Her Highness!”
In an instant, several trembling maids surrounded Velis in the middle, their legs shaking so badly it seemed less like they were protecting Velis and more like Velis was protecting them.
The butler led his people in frantically dealing with the scene, while Velis said flatly, “Don’t bury the corpse. Throw it to the kennels and feed it to the dogs.”
Burned like that, there was no useful information to be gleaned from it anyway.
Hearing this order, the butler’s body shuddered, quickly acknowledged it, and led his people out after finishing up.
Looking at the terrified maids around her, Velis said, “You all leave too. Make preparations—it’s not safe here anymore. I’ll go stay with the First Imperial Princess for a couple of days.”
“Yes, yes! We’ll prepare right away!”
The maids scrambled out, and the entire Douque Imperial Palace buzzed with chaotic noise.
Half an hour later, beneath the moonlight, the Second Imperial Princess’s entourage once again departed the Douque Imperial Palace.
After seeing her off, the maids let out long sighs of relief.
“His Highness actually didn’t punish us. How strange.”
“You little girl, you actually want to be punished?”
“No… no… it’s just… wasn’t it His Highness who wouldn’t let the guards into the inner courtyard, which let the assassin get through?”
“You know perfectly well, our princess… only likes women…”
“Shh! Do you two want to die? Get back inside… The princess is gone. There shouldn’t be any more assassins tonight.”
Before long, word of this spread out, and the Inquisition Office came to investigate inside and out, found nothing useful, and left again.
When the night grew deep and quiet, several figures slipped out from within the Douque Imperial Palace.
“Let’s go quickly. It’s not safe here anymore. Without killing her, we’ll probably have to leave the Okam Empire.”
“But if we leave the Okam Empire, where do we go?” another figure asked.
“Anywhere is fine, as long as we leave here. Otherwise, once that demon comes back, none of us will make it out!”
After their discussion, the figures were about to leave.
“Is that so? I’m afraid none of you will be going anywhere tonight…”
Just then, a voice as biting cold as ten-thousand-year ice rang out from the side.
Velis slowly emerged from the shadows, the frost on her delicate face thicker than snow by three parts.
And her appearance nearly scared the wits out of those few figures.
“Y-y-y-your Highness, you… you… how are you here?”
“If I weren’t here, how would I ever learn who it was that let the assassin in tonight?”
Velis’s crimson hair stirred without wind, and her fire magic grew violent alongside her fierce killing intent.
“You flatter me, Your Highness, you flatter me.”
“In my view, for Your Highness to be able to improve the formation at such a young age, that is truly a sign of genius—the bearing of a sage!”
Xi’eryou behind them couldn’t stand the mutual flattery any longer, and quickly asked, “Elliot, what exactly do you want with my imperial sister?”
“It’s like this…” As he spoke, Elliot handed a letter of invitation to Velis.
“Two days from now, I shall hold a banquet at the Mirror Flower Elegant Court, and I humbly invite Your Highness to attend.”