Returning to the Archduchy, Michelle went to see the Archduke first. "Father, what if I got a bit carried away and poisoned the Hillberg siblings?" she asked after she sat down in the office.
When her question fell, the Archduke frowned a bit. "What poison did you use?" he asked after a while. "Can it be cured?" he added worriedly.
Michelle shook her head. "I used a poison I made by myself, so no one other than me can cure it," she smiled lazily.
"Can you be sure of that?" the Archduke was still skeptical. "You don't know how competent the doctors in the middle realm are..."
But Michelle wasn't the least bit worried. "Don't worry, father! I used knowledge from my old world to make the poison, and I've already checked with Alexander Terce that even he had never heard of these techniques and principles before," she said with a lazy smile.
Hearing that, the Archduke was a bit relieved. "That's good then, but you shouldn't have done that. What if their father comes down here to take revenge on you? I won't be able to help you by then..."
"Oh- I've already taken care of that!" Michelle leaned back in her seat. "Thomas Hillberg did come down here, so I forced him to stab himself with mother's knife." She reached into her sleeve, took out the small knife from beaten bones and put it on the Archduke's desk. "I put it to good use."
The Archduke raised a brow as he stared at the small knife. He knew what it was used for, but he couldn't figure out how Michelle achieved that Thomas stabbed himself with it. After a while of silence, he spoke again: "What did you do exactly?"
"Nothing too hard..." Michelle shrugged. "First, I broke the Hillberg sibling's minds by scaring them, so they would tell me the full content of the prophecy. Then, I froze their legs and finally had Ivona Beltrez stab them with the knife. I killed all their servants, leaving only one alive to go tell Thomas that if he wanted to see his children alive, that he should personally come meet me. I used the identity of Michael Grayson. Before he came, I knocked his children out, poisoned them and hid them in an inn." Michelle spoke lazily.
She continued: "I then waited for him in a different inn. When he came, I let him see his unconscious children, but I didn't let him know that they were crippled and poisoned. I hid his children from him again, and I told him that he should think about what I want, that it isn't fame or fortune. After that, I left mother's knife with him and left. In the evening, he tried to kidnap the little Emperor, but I expected that, so I was already waiting in the palace."
"To save his dignity, he said that he came to bring a gift to the little Emperor and gave him a sword which was supposed to be a birthday gift for his son. The next day, I left Mare and Snow with the little Emperor and took the unconscious Hillberg siblings with me to go meet him. When he came, he attacked me with mother's knife, but I kicked him away. That made him think that I was from the heavenly realm, but I was just using the skills from my past life."
"Finally, I grabbed Eleanor Hillber by her throat and started choking her in front of him to force him to stab himself. When he stabbed himself, I took mother's knife from him and told him that his children were crippled and poisoned to die, so his sacrifice was pointless. With that, I left and hid in the shadows, following him around until he left for the middle realm. He left behind a few subordinates which I've killed." Michelle finished talking with a lazy smile.
"So? What do you think about my performance, father?" she asked as she leaned back in her seat.
Listening to what Michelle said, the Archduke frowned. "That's strange..." he muttered.
Michelle raised a brow in confusion and asked: "What's strange, father?"
"That Thomas Hillberg was willing to cripple his cultivation for his children..." the Archduke's frown deepened as he spoke. "Firstly, he's known to be cruel and cold-blooded. And secondly, his wife was infertile, so they adopted the two children. A selfish bastard like him wouldn't sacrifice his cultivation for two adopted children."
The moment the Archduke's words fell, Michelle frowned. "That leaves two possibilities..." she said with a frown. "And one can piss one off!" she gritted her teeth. "It's either that the two children were really Thomas' and he had them with a mistress. Which would mean that he lied to his infertile wife. What a pitiful woman to marry such a jerk." Michelle sighed.
"Or... the person who came down here was just his double and maybe, the two children's real father, and that was why he was willing to sacrifice his cultivation for them. But if that's the case, how come the double that could use weapons from beaten bones? It's a highly unlikely possibility. That's a very rare trait and the higher the realm one is born in, the smaller the possibility to be born with a suitable soul." Michelle spoke with a frown, not liking the trail of thought.
It was only a slim chance, but if that was what really happened, some things would get pointlessly troublesome. And Michelle hated trouble. She wasn't scared of trouble and was confident that she would be able to take care of it if it came her way, but she was lazy, so she tended to avoid it as much as possible.
So she came up with an idea.
Seeing Michelle's expression, the Archduke knew what she was thinking. "You want to send someone to the middle realm to check if Thomas still has his cultivation?" he asked.
Michelle nodded. "Truthfully, I first thought that I would go by myself, but I'm too weak for that, so I can only send someone over," she said lazily, yawning a bit. The last few days, she didn't get a wink of sleep because she had to be constantly on guard, so nothing would go wrong. And the whole time, she had to keep up the façade of a carefree but powerful Young Lord from the heavenly realm in front of the middle realm bastards.
She wasn't exhausted, as she was used to much worse in her past life, but she wasn't comfortable going sleepless for a few days straight. She valued her sleep deeply, but she could also give it up when needed.
Thinking that Michelle was exhausted, the Archduke didn't keep her any longer and let her go, so she could rest. She then walked back into her room and laid on her bed, Cold Flame lying on her pillow next to her head.
Since making a contract with Snow, Michelle had always slept uncovered, with the blanket kicked off the bed, sleeping only in some light clothes. The first few days, whenever the cleaning maids, cleaning in the morning, saw her like that, they would cover her up, but she would right away kick the blanket away, so they eventually gave up.
Waking up in the morning, Michelle petted Cold Flame's head subconsciously, and frowned a bit when she felt some difference and mumbled: "Flamie... you are growing so fast, that each morning, you are bigger... Yesterday, your head was the size of my palm, now it's a bit bigger." She sat up and looked at Cold Flame, seeing that he had indeed grown a bit during the night. At the moment, he was the size of a huge eagle, and that was still a month before his full maturity. "How big will you be when you are fully grown?" she asked with a smile as she ran her finger over his beak.
Cold Flame woke up to Michelle's touch and stretched his wings a bit. Then, he flew up to sit on her shoulder as she got up from the bed. "Master, I'll be so big that I'll easily be able to protect you!" he exclaimed as Michelle gently lifted him off her shoulder and placed him on her desk, going to change her clothes. She put on a purple set of pants and a shirt, something only men, and only warriors at that, wore.
After changing her clothes, Michelle walked out of the little changing room she had and sat at her desk, her hand subconsciously going up to pet Cold Flame's head. "Flamie, what if, when you fully mature, you grow so big that you will attract unwanted attention?" she snickered. "What will you do then?"
When Michelle's teasing words fell, Cold Flame puffed up his feathery chest proudly and patted it with his wing. "Then I'll protect you, Michelle! Don't worry! I'm very powerful! And I'll be even more powerful when I mature!"
Michelle chuckled and petted his head again. "That's good then, Flamie," she smiled as she stood. "Let's go see Snow and Mare now," she said, and Cold Flame flew back to her shoulder, letting her carry him comfortably.
"Michelle, you don't believe that I'm powerful?" Cold Flame pecked Michelle's head gently as she was about to open the door.
"Of course I believe you..." Michelle grabbed his beak to shut him up, so the servants wouldn't notice that he could speak as she walked toward Snow and Mare's rooms.