The meeting ended, and the generals poured out like they’d been injected with adrenaline, each of their eyes shining brightly.
Their eagerness didn’t look like they were preparing for a gamble that would decide the kingdom’s fate; it was more like they were about to divide the treasury of a defeated nation.
But just as only three people remained in the council chamber, Astreia suddenly remembered something.
Her face paled in an instant.
“This is bad!”
She grabbed Wendy, who had just stood up from her lap, lowered her voice, and trembled as she said, “Wendy, I…I don’t think I’m up to it!”
“?” Wendy tilted his head slightly and slowly formed a question mark.
“I… I feel stronger than before, yes, but compared to when I was completely fallen, it’s like night and day!”
She furrowed her brows tightly and spoke rapidly, “Maybe… maybe I’m only strong enough to fight a thousand Orcs one-on-one… Going to the Royal Capital like this… can I really protect you?”
Wendy’s heart skipped a beat, and his smile froze instantly.
The reason he dared to be so arrogant, to directly order troops to pressure the Royal Capital, was entirely because of Astreia’s terrifying combat strength that could crush the entire continent.
The garrison troops of Valoran’s Royal Capital and the magic-wielding nobles were no different from “street dogs” before such power.
But he had forgotten one iron rule—“Blackening multiplies strength tenfold, purification weakens it to a third.”
Now that Astreia had been “purified” by him, kicked straight from the GM version back to human form…
Even though the power to solo a thousand Orcs sounds absurd, even with the Sunset Fortress army’s support, they would eventually run out of strength.
If they forced it now, their side would likely suffer heavy losses.
But what meaning would this operation have if something happened to Astreia?
The prince glared at the princess, his expression silently asking: Why didn’t you say this sooner?
Astreia shrank her neck under his gaze, embarrassed, lowering her head like a guilty golden retriever.
“I-I just recovered… my mind is still full of all those strange ‘dirty thoughts’… I didn’t think of it in time, so I… I forgot…”
“…”
Wendy placed a hand on his forehead, feeling his temples throb.
This was over.
The “Northern Lioness” was now a lame lion.
In the game, there was no storyline where a normal Astreia could take on the Royal Capital’s Guard Corps!
After a moment of panic, Wendy took a deep breath and forced down the turmoil inside.
No.
Panic was not an option.
If strength was insufficient, then cunning would have to make up for it.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and he immediately locked onto a key person.
Wendy stood up at once and called out to the one-eyed old general who was about to leave the hall.
“General Sera, wait a moment.”
He put on that gentle, harmless smile again, as if the inner panic moments ago had never existed.
“Could you take us to see Edwin Veid?”
Wendy held Astreia’s still slightly disoriented hand and followed behind, gently explaining, “After all, he’s the only male lead in our little ‘Clear the Court’ drama. We can’t let him change his lines at the Royal Capital filming location, can we? He needs a good ‘encouragement’ first.”
“Encouragement?”
General Sera grinned, revealing a set of teeth that looked particularly white in the light.
“Don’t worry. I made sure to place the corpse of that ‘Margot the Twisted’ as Edwin’s new cellmate. It’s been almost six days now—by now, that smell should be ‘encouraging’ enough for him to reflect on life, haha!”
“Heh, General Sera really knows how to arrange psychological counseling properly.”
Wendy quickly held Astreia’s hand tighter and followed.
Astreia had come back to her senses but said nothing more.
For Edwin—the traitor who almost killed Wendy and conspired with the Orcs—there was not an ounce of knightly pity left in her heart.
Walking down the dark, damp corridor covered in moss, Sera suddenly seemed to remember something and curiously asked, “By the way, where’s that little thing Cara? Didn’t see her today. That kid is usually Your Highness’s shadow, never leaving your side.”
At the mention of “Cara,” Astreia and Wendy exchanged a glance.
Both of them immediately recalled the white-haired adjutant they had seen when opening the door earlier.
Her eyes were bloodshot and vacant, with a strange shiny liquid trickling from the corner of her mouth.
A look as if her soul had been drained, yet she was still immersed in some euphoric afterglow—an expression truly hard to describe.
“Ahem, I… I sent her back to rest properly,” Astreia hastily coughed a few times, covering her guilt.
“She… she was on guard duty too long, and both her body and mind… were too exhausted.”
General Sera, an old hand seasoned on many battlefields, immediately saw through their guilty and suppressed smiles.
She grunted quietly and didn’t ask more but quickened her steps.
Some things, the less you know, the better you sleep.
Soon, they reached the deepest part of the dungeon.
A smell so foul it was almost tangible slammed into them.
The stench was a mixture of rotting sweetness and the acrid stench of excrement, so strong that both Wendy and Astreia instinctively held their breath.
Sera, however, seemed to have a broken nose, showing no change as she strode to a barred door and yanked it open.
“Yo, former Secretary Edwin, long time no see. Do you like the new neighbor we arranged for you?”
Wendy pinched his nose and peered inside, chuckling softly.
What lay before them was a piece of contemporary art.
Edwin Veid was curled up in the farthest corner of the cell, filthy from head to toe.
His once well-kept short hair was now a tangled, messy bird’s nest.
The face that was still somewhat handsome was covered with terror and despair.
Less than a meter away lay Margot’s body, now heavily decomposed, swollen, and greenish.
Her head was twisted back at an unnatural angle, her empty eye sockets seemingly fixed on Edwin.
Countless white maggots busily worked over her bloated body, carving out new homes.
The scene was utterly nauseating.
“Ah! Ahh!”
Seeing someone approach, Edwin grasped at the iron bars like a drowning man clutching a life buoy, crawling over to the cell edge.
His hands gripped the cold iron tightly as he cried incoherently toward Wendy, “Lord Wendy! Please! Please move me somewhere else! I’ll do whatever you want if you just let me out of here! I’ll agree to anything!”
Though Wendy was the one responsible for Edwin’s current state, after six days spent alongside a continually rotting corpse, falling asleep amidst the stench, and waking to the sound of maggots squirming, Edwin’s mental defenses were completely shattered.
Right now, he only wanted to escape this hellish nightmare.
“Oh?”
Wendy nodded, his smile as warm as spring, “Want a new place? Sure.”
He briefly and simply explained to Edwin the plan to lead the army to the Royal Capital to “Clear the Court.”
“So, Secretary, you’re now a key piece who can prove our legitimacy and help us bring down the Veid Family.”
Wendy squatted to look level with Edwin through the bars, his peach blossom eyes curved into a crescent.
“Of course, without you as this piece, it would just be a bit more troublesome and we’d go in directly. But if you dare to disobey, or say a single word at the Royal Capital…”
He trailed off, nodding toward the stinking corpse beside them.
“Today is ‘Margot the Twisted’s’ tomorrow. No, it might even be worse for you. After all, thanks to the Veid family’s quartermaster, the Sunset Fortress kitchen hasn’t had fresh meat for a long time… I heard that chopped human jerky tastes almost like beef?”
Hearing this, Edwin Veid trembled violently.
He looked at Wendy’s handsome, angelic face but felt as if he were staring into an abyss.
A devil!
This man was a devil!
B-But even if I agree, the Veid family won’t let me go…