"You know," Jeremy said, crossing his arms "I can kill you with just a snap of my finger."
"What, are you Thanos?" Eve thought to herself before replying, "I am not dumb enough to come unprepared."
Jeremy narrowed his eyes in suspicion. The words uttered by Evelina had a unique confidence in it, but for Jeremy, she was like a double-sided blade. He maintained his smile throughout the conversion which gave a hint to his sly nature nicely hidden behind his polite persona.
"How much are you offering?"Jeremy asked.
"A blank check." Eve replied nonchalantly.
"How do I know the check is legitimate?" Jeremy leaned forward and asked.
"You don't need to perform any task until you receive your deemed amount." Evelina replied, "I know the serpents have a fixed amount for every task they perform so I'll make sure that amount is well received."
Jeremy thought for a while before letting out a bright smile, "Well, I might have to re-introduce myself, Dear Customer." He got up from his seat and got closer to Evelina. "Jeremiah Myers, the Head of the Serpents, greets you, My Lady."
Evelina flinched. The Head of the Serpents? This guy?
"The moonflower shall soon send the check." Eve rose from her seat and spoke, "We expect a neat job."
"We shall do our best to meet your expectations," Jeremy replied, "But, you might already be aware of our current situation."
Of course. With the involvement of the Magic Tower, it's nearly impossible to infiltrate the palace walls. But, it isn't completely impossible.
"My Master shall make sure to introduce you as the personal Knight for the Princess." Eve replied, "Neither the Phoenix, nor the master shall be responsible for your actions inside the Palace walls."
"How do you know I won't betray your trust?" Jeremy asked.
"Hmm, why would you want to betray our trust in the first place?" Eve asked, tilting her head. She continued with a smile, "We have all the ripe evidence about your involvement in treason. We don't want your heads hanging from castle walls now, do we?"
"No ma'am." Jeremy replied.
"Good." Eve smiled and placed a sheet of paper on the desk and added some mana into it. "This sheet will be giving you information from time to time."
As she was about to take her leave, she turned around and added, "Disobey any order, and someone's head will be off in an instant." Saying so, she left the room.
Jeremy plopped back down on his seat and gazed at the roof of the room. He then picked up the slip of paper Eve had left behind and held it up in the sky. He then let out a smirk and said,
"Interesting."
…
"Bloody hell!" Eve exclaimed under her breath, "That creepy air nearly killed me!"
"Miss," Lily whispered, "That-was-EPIC!"
"Thanks?" Eve said, surprised.
"You were so cool back there!"
"Aw thanks.."
" If you ever try to pull out that stunt again, we are never coming out of the palace ever again." Lily rapped in a serious tone, making Eve freeze on her spot in despair.
"I can't believe you offered a blank check when you have hardly anything that you own! No matter how rich you are as a Crown Princess, you probably can't empty the national treasury just to hire a guard! That too a mercenary! I just-"
"Lily, shush!" Evelina whispered, suddenly going on alert.
"Oh, you don't shush me, young lady!" Lily said, fuming in anger.
"SHUSH!" Evelina hissed and tugged Lily by her collar to whisper to her ear, "We are being followed."
Lily went white at this. She visibly began to tremble from head to toe.
"Act as normal as you can," Eve sighed, "I'll be changing our appearance right now, so hopefully we can lose them."
As the duo met with the market rush of the Roseville street, Eve kept changing their appearance as many times as possible, until finally mixing in with the crowd perfectly.
"The spiritualistic magic isn't supposed to be known by anyone in this kingdom," Eve thought to herself, "If he does know about this, I might have underestimated him."
Thankfully, they successfully evaded the men trailing them and reached the pathway where the carriage was stationed. Just as Evelina was about to remove the disguise, a young man in his late teens passed by the duo. He was covered in a dark cloak from head to toe while his scent seemed to be awfully familiar.
Evelina immediately spun around and grabbed his hand,
"Who are you?"
…
"Can't believe that foolish Prince was right," Renard sighed as he took a seat in his office at the magic tower.
While he managed to interrogate the entire staff of the Riverton Palace on a day when the princess was away, he realised that the Prince's words turned out to be true. Not one servant remained in the household who had once served the Princess. Additionally, while he did succeed in tracking down some of the previous workers, he realised that they didn't spend much time with the princess to know what her true personality actually was. All of them had the same conclusion about her, "She fears the maids."
The Butler of the Riverton household was one of the only people who had seen the princess grow up. But, even he wasn't close enough to say about what her usual habits are or used to be.
"A clean record," Renard mumbled as he went through the evidence once more, "Poison that can kill the soul, magic that can kill the witness and a princess with no history."
Renard sighed and started playing with a crystal paperweight that lay on his table. Suddenly he stopped spinning it and exclaimed, "That's it!"
Saying so he teleported himself out of the Magic tower and landed on the streets of the Capital city.
Since the beginning of the investigation, Renard had found the traces of magic lingering everywhere but the Riverton Palace. The entire Imperial Palace was infiltrated while the Riverton Palace was untouched. This not only removed the suspicion from the princess but as well implied that the attack was directed at the imperial family. As no other duchy was involved in this, no such magic traces were found elsewhere.
"Judging by the level of magic and the amount of malice it holds", Renard thought, "The source is quite evident."
Renard knew that there could only be one Mage who despised the imperial family to his core. That person was one of the top mages of the facility and was next in line to be the Master of the Magic Tower. But, for some reason, that person vanished in thin air just days before he could take the position as the Tower Master.
"Ah,but seriously," Renard paused at a spot, "That senile old man ain't gonna retract those spells at any cost."
"Whatever." sighing, Renard continued heading towards the location he knew his master to be at when suddenly, he felt a strong tug on his hand which made him jerk backwards.
"Who are you?" a young lady asked. Her brunette hair paired with golden brown eyes was eye-catching no matter how ordinary the combination was.
"Uh-who are YOU?" Renard asked, surprised.
"I asked first." Eve replied.
"I am not obliged to answer." Renard countered.
"I am in authority to capture random strangers." Eve smirked.
"That's abuse of authority!" Renard exclaimed at that absurd remark.
"Perks of being a noble." Eve shrugged and continued, "Now answer the question, who are you?"
"Ren." Renard answered hesitatingly.
"Just Ren?" Eve tilted her head and asked.
"Yeah, just Ren," Renard replied and asked, "Now you answer."
"Eve." Evelina replied.
"Eve…" Renard mumbled as he squinted his eyes ever so slightly, "Pleasure to meet you, Miss Eve."
"Pleasure is all mine." Eve smiled. "Now if you'll excuse me." Saying so, Eve rushed up to the carriage and ushered it to drive. As soon as she took a seat, she turned a bright shade of beet and internally screamed, "AHHHHHH! THAT WAS EMBARRASSING! YOU STUPID IDIOT! YOU SHOULD JUST DIG YOUR OWN GRAVE AND DIE!"
Meanwhile, Renard was left with a taste of confusion and suspicion. He never approached such a strange person ever before. But nevertheless he had a feeling he did meet her before.
Shrugging it off, he continued on his way to find his master.
Evelina on the other hand realised that she could use her power to see through disguises. Unknowingly she saw through Ren's disguise and could still feel her heart running a marathon.
"Damn!" She exclaimed under her breath, "That one's a keeper~!"
…