For a long while, Michelle sat silently on the couch, trying to understand the rage she was feeling. Part of it was most probably caused by the feelings of the original owner left in the body, but the rest was caused by the fact that deep in her heart, she had accepted the Archduke as her father, so his deceased wife was naturally accepted as her mother. And hearing that her mother was poisoned while pregnant was something disgusting and enraging, making her blood boil.
"Father..." she looked at the Archduke after a while as she stood up. "I won't condensate my spirit energy while they are here, but once they leave, I'll work my way up to get revenge for mother!" she said as she turned to leave. She walked out of the Archduke's office and went to her room. She looked at the sky outside her window. It was already darkening, and she could see the moon rising on the horizon. Her eyes were glued to it as she replayed the Archduke's words in her mind.
Finally, she turned to look in a mirror and stared into her own purple eyes. When they turned blood-red from her rage, she was surprised, but she didn't move. She just let the rage cook up a gruesome plan in her mind. Since she had decided to avenge her mother, she had to start the plan early on. But she had to be cautious so as not to get caught by the two.
After a while, a plan was completed in her head and she smiled coldly, her eyes still blood-red with rage. She walked over to her desk and took a letter paper. She quickly wrote something and put the letter into an envelope. She wanted to go to the butler, but since it was still night, she decided against it and sat on her bed to cultivate. When the sun rose up behind the horizon, she stopped cultivating and went to the butler. "Butler, can you send this letter to the Beltrez mansion? It's for Young Lady Ivona!" she said as she handed him the letter.
Without even giving the butler a chance to say something, she went somewhere else. Back to the Archduke. "Father, I have something to ask you," she knocked on the door before entering.
"What is it that you need in such a hurry?" he asked, and his eyes widened a bit when he saw that her eyes were still blood-red. "Did you walk around the mansion looking like this?" he asked with a raised brow.
Michelle didn't understand. As she had no time to look in the mirror after stopping cultivating, she didn't know that her eyes didn't return to normal yet. "What do you mean, father? Is something wrong with how I look?" she asked with a tilt of her head.
The Archduke noticed and pointed to the window. Michelle glanced at the window and didn't know what she was supposed to look at, but when she noticed her reflection, she realized that her eyes were still blood-red. She touched her face in confusion. "How come...? Father, why are my eyes red?" she looked at the Archduke with a questioning look.
"As you have Spirit Blood, your eye color reacts to your emotions and feelings. When you feel intense emotions, your eyes will turn red. The darker the red, the more intense emotions you are feeling. It will return to normal once you calm down." The Archduke explained. "Anyway, why did you come here in such a hurry?" he asked.
Michelle remembered why she came. "Father, do you remember the thing I gave you before the harvest festival banquet? We didn't use it back then because things were going smoothly."
"I remember. I still have it." The Archduke reached into a drawer and took out the thing. "Do you need it for something?" he asked.
To that, Michelle nodded. "Father, Thomas Hillberg would be enraged if his children were killed in the Land of Exile of the lower realm, right?" she asked with a cold sneer, the red of her irises darkening.
"You-!" the Archduke's eyes widened in shock. "You can't do that..." he said after a while.
Michelle frowned. It was clear from the Archduke's expression that he was hiding something from her. "Why can't I?" she asked with a frown. "Father, tell me!" she insisted.
To her surprise, the Archduke shook his head. "Anyway, you can't kill them!" he said seriously.
Receiving such an answer, Michelle's eyes turned a shade of red so dark that they seemed black. "Can I at least cripple them?" she asked, suppressed rage evident in her voice.
Seeing how enraged Michelle was, the Archduke knew that he couldn't forbid that so he sighed. "Fine! But be careful and make sure they don't notice your Spirit Soul Blood. And... Basically, don't let them recognize you. You look similar to your deceased mother, so their servants might recognize you and that would be troublesome. Make sure to use a good disguise mask." As he spoke, he reached into a drawer and took out a new disguise mask. "This one is from the upper realms so they shouldn't see through it."
Michelle smiled and the red in her irises retracted a bit. "Thank you, father. And can you give me the thing? I want to use it..." she glanced at the thing they wanted to use against the Crown Prince during the harvest festival banquet.
The Archduke sighed again and gave it to her. "Don't get hurt..." he said.
"Don't worry, father. I'll be careful." She smiled as she turned to leave.
Seeing Michelle's departing back, the Archduke was reminded of his wife. It was quite funny that the servants all thought that after "losing her memories", a.k.a. having a new soul, she acted just like him, when in reality, she was completely the same as her mother. Even the way she walked was so similar.
After leaving the Archduke's office, Michelle went back to her room to cultivate until a reply came from Ivona Beltrez.
When the letter came, Michelle read it and smiled. Using the contract, she called Made and Snow into her room and told them about her plans. Then, they left the Archduchy and went to a café where they would meet Ivona.
Sitting down across Ivona, they exchanged quick greetings and went down to business. "Two people indeed came to the Imperial Palace, and as you've guessed, Prince Regent avoided them, so His Majesty had to deal with them alone. It seems they came to meet Emperor Emeritus because of a deal they had with him in the past, but when they saw the state he was in, they decided to talk with Emperor. I overheard that they are searching for a person." Ivona spoke about what she found out.
Michelle nodded a bit, a frown forming on her brows. Her eyes were already purple as she had long calmed down. "What person are they searching for? You weren't able to find out?" she asked after a while.
"No..." Ivona shook her head. "They didn't tell that even to the Emperor. They said they would search for the person by themselves."
"I see..." Michelle's frown deepened. "Why so secretive...?" she mumbled to herself as she thought back to the conversation with the Archduke, when he told her not to condensate her spirit energy ever again. Did they know about her existence and were searching for her? If that was the case, she would have to disobey the Archduke and annihilate them. Or make them unable to ever speak again.
"Ivona, do you know this?" Michelle placed the item she wanted to use at the harvest festival banquet on the table.
Ivona looked at the item and her eyes widened. "My Lady, how come you have this?" she asked in shock.
"I found it in the Crown Prince's Palace when I was cooking up a plan against him," Michelle answered calmly as she put it back in her sleeve. "Can you use it?" she asked seriously.
"I can, but I didn't use it for a long time." Ivona said with some worry in her voice. She was afraid that she would mess up and ruin Michelle's plan.
Michelle nodded a bit and leaned back in her chair as she sipped on her tea. Made and Snow observed her every movement, trying to understand what she was thinking. It was clear that she was changing the plan in her mind, but since they didn't know the initial plan, they couldn't know how she was changing it.
"Listen up, Ivona..." Michelle spoke after a while. "I will leave Mare with you when the operation starts. I'll send a signal to Mare and when she tells you, you will use it on the two who came. Ignore their servants and just use it on them. Mare will protect you."
Ivona was worried about something. "My Lady, but what if the two I use it on are in reality servants pretending to be the two for their safety?" she asked after a while.
Michelle smiled. "That's exactly what I want to happen," she said as she reached into her sleeve and put the thing on the table. "Take it with you!"