18 - Chapter 18

Estel followed the advice of her mentor and brought two confidant maids to look for durians. The kitchen worker was not surprised to see ‘princess Estel coming to get durians in person’. Yesterday, Princess Tarina came to get durians and was pricked. But the durians were no longer in the kitchen. An hour ago, Prince Lanto took all the durians from the place with several people, even the similar looking jackfruits.

The prince not only took away the durians, but also temporarily summoned several merchants and fruit farmers who were in charge of delivering the fruit. The prince suspected that the durians were smeared with poison, so he wanted to interrogate the delivery person quietly. Estel felt that something was slightly wrong. The fruits used in the banquet had been transported to the palace few days ago. According to the quality of service, the delivery time had to be later. Even the latest batch had been delivered to the palace yesterday, otherwise the first group of guests arriving at teatime today would be neglected. Fruit farmers and merchants were not among the guests. They could only enter the outer wall of the citadel, not even the palace. Therefore, they usually returned home immediately after the goods were delivered and the payment had been received. The Queen’s birthday was not a big festival, and the King will not have any carnival celebration. It is not interesting for them to stay, it is better to make more business as soon as possible.

If Prince Lanto found the merchants who sent the durians so quickly, it means that the group has not returned to their hometown and has not left the royal capital after a day and a night.

This is what a soldier told Estel. At the same time, Estel asked him to lead the way and found the place for the temporary interrogation room — the row house of the servants, behind the grape trellis in the citadel. At this time the servants were all in their posts, and there was no one in the row house. Estel was a little confused, why should her uncle interrogate the suspects in such a secluded place?

She hid in the shadow under the grape trellis, and saw seven persons standing outside the row house from a distance. Two heavily armed soldiers, and five men dressed as civilians, while Prince Lanto and his staff were in a private conversation with a merchant indoors.

“Your Highness, go back.” The soldier who followed Estel whispered. “You shouldn’t worry about this. What’s more, what if there are really poisoners scoundrels amongst those people?”

Estel said: “My cousin Tarina is only thirteen years old… I’d like to see with my own eyes who is so evil to poisoned her.”

Tarina’s coma had nothing to do with poison, and Estel knew that better than anyone else. But there was something strange about the situation, she felt that there would be some twists.

It was inconvenient for Estel to cast spells. She took a single crystal lens. It was given to her by Burris. As long as you observe the outside world through the lens, you could identify all magic items, shades, ghosts, invisible items and creatures.

Estel was startled. Of course, there were no ghosts and invisible creatures, but the “merchants and fruit farmers” in front of the row house had many enchanted weapons! The man in the small round hat had a flexible sword disguised as a belt at his waist. The tall man had arrows that were as long as his forearm in his left and right sleeves. The man in boots had two daggers hidden in them. The golden-haired coachman was hiding several explosion flasks, which exuded the aura of magic fire… There was only a fat little man with no magic traces on him, but Estel believed he must have a hidden weapon too, but it was not enhanced by enchantment.

Common people carrying daggers can say it is for self-defense, but if they are carrying so many enchanted weapons, they must be assassins. Estel whispered to one of the maids, she wanted her to report the message quietly, but before the maid could answer, the soldier came up and said: “Your Highness! Hush!”

Prince Lanto’s anger could be heard from far away of the house, and his staff called another merchant loudly, as if to tell him to go in and confront the first person. Just as the two soldiers at the door stepped to give way, the blond coachman shot two flat bottles at the same time, centered on the chest armor of the left and right soldiers. After the bottles were broken, the liquid in them exploded instantly. The spherical flame engulfed the soldiers, but the impact of the explosion was silent. At the same time, the sound of weapons fighting came from the room, and several ‘merchants and fruit farmers’ outside drew out hidden weapons one after another.

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Estel stood up. She was about to raise her hand to cast a spell, but the soldier behind her threw her to the ground. She didn’t struggle because a cold dagger was clinging to her neck.

At the moment of being pushed down, she thought that the soldier wanted to ‘stop the reckless behavior of the princess’. Now it seemed that this was not the case. The soldier who came along the way was also an accomplice of the assassin. The maid had been silent for a long time, and Estel’s heart hung to her throat, wondering if the two girls were still alive.

Estel didn’t want to waste her words with the soldier. She maintained her horrified expression, grabbing the soldier’s wrist with one hand. The soldier didn’t see the light gray smoke on Estel’s fingertips. When he noticed discomfort, he could not even hold the dagger.

An icy force invaded his body, freezing his strength and will, and causing him great invisible pain. His dagger fell and slightly scratched the side of Estel’s neck, and she quickly turned to avoid being crushed by the false soldier.

She walked to the row house. A curse came from her lips, and a dark blue electric current condensed in her right hand. After walking a few steps, she stopped.

Several strong men in black jumped out from behind the bushes and grape trellises and swarmed up the row house. Although they were unarmed, they successfully subdued the assassins with their excellent combat skills.

Only then did Estel see clearly that these people were wearing the holy emblem of bright moon and spiked white orchid on their chests. They were knights of the temple of Otarot. It was not advisable to wear armor on royal ceremonies, so they wore black sacrificial robes for the ceremony.

Sir Naylor was the commander of the knights. The knights were busy confirming the safety of the prince and rescuing the wounded soldiers, while Sir Naylor looked back at Estel.

He saw the wound on her neck, but he took a long time before going to ask her about it.

Roth left the palace and hired a carriage. Because he couldn’t tell the name of the destination, he just told the driver to turn left and right. After a while, they stopped in front of a tavern called Lucky Bird. Roth gave the driver an express fee and a waiting fee and told him to stay where he was and to pick him up later to return to the palace.

He felt a sense of familiarity. Odile was in the Lucky Tavern. He had an extraordinary connection with these creatures, as long as they were not too far apart, he could sense their location.

Roth went to the second floor of the tavern. A waitress had just brought fruit and milk tea into the room by the stairs, and was walking out with an empty tray. Roth stood by the door of the room, where a man and a woman were chatting happily, and clinking glasses with milk tea.

They talked from the legendary bloody castles to the special mineral powders, and the man also applied lipstick on the woman, a color ‘dark purplish red tone, of metallic luster and death’…

After a while, the voice of the girl in the room gradually weakened. The man asked her what was wrong with her and she said that she would leave and let him wait for her in the room.

Odile opened the door sideways and closed it quickly, trying not to let anyone in the room see outside. Roth pointed to her at the end of the corridor, and she followed obediently with her head down.

“Not bad, Odile.” The Skeleton King sighed. “It seems that you are enjoying life too? Your ability to act is amazing.”

The girl was still wearing a disturbing black robe, but her gloomy and pale face had some slight changes: her originally pale eyebrows had become curved black lines, her upper eyelids were suffused with purple and green polarized light like beetle shells, and her light colored lips were turned into two black red blood stains.

Odile stared at her toes, not daring to raise her head: “Your Majesty…I have been looking for clues… It’s just… it takes time…”

The king patted her on the shoulder. “”I didn’t blame you. You are already a complete independent entity, of course you can have your own life. I’m praising you for your own interest in having fun. Were you talking about a castle right now?”

“Yes.” Said Odile. “”I’m paying attention to the ancient castles and ruins, where there are often magical disturbances, which often indicate thin planes…”

“Mhm, good idea. Raise your head, don’t look like you have been caught. I’m not against your makeup, or against you having a boyfriend, let alone reprimanding you. Well, I’ve got some interesting clues recently. I need you to help me with my investigation.”

Odile finally raised her head, waiting for her lord to speak.

“Two places are suspicious. The first is in Prince Lanto’s territory. There is a place called the Moonset mountains, where humans and other races fought many years ago. After the end of the war, a human warlock gradually became insane. He was called Red Vulture. The second place is the Gem Forest, next to the free city-state named Fessit; it was once ruled by the necromancer Yriel. At that time, people called it the Cursed Forest, but now it is just an ordinary forest.”

“I bear it in mind. Do you suspect that there are thin spots in these two places?”

“It’s just possible, I’m not sure. You can ask more about the news first, don’t investigate too deeply. I will go there personally when necessary. Let me think about it… You should first explore the Gem Forest. There seems to be a clear trace of divine magic in that place. The clearer the divine magic trace is, the more likely there will be thin spots on the plane.”

“Well, I bear it in mind.” The girl nodded and said: “Your Majesty, to tell you the truth, I have heard many rumors about the Cursed Forest.”

The Skeleton King touched his chin and nodded. “Mhm. Then so be it. By the way, who is talking to you about the Cursed Forest?”

“Just… some mages.”

“An elf mage?”

“Mhm….”

“A necromancer male elf?”

“Yes…”

“A good-looking male elf necromancer with a white face and black nails?”

Odile pursed her lips and nodded. The Skeleton King sighed disappointedly. “Odile, you really disappoint me. I told you not to hurt Burris and the people around him, and don’t let them know of your existence, and yet you are living with his apprentice?”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty…It was an accident…just a coincidence…” Odile stared at the ground aggrievedly. She did not harm the elf. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty, he doesn’t remember me, and he doesn’t know my identity. He thought I was a wandering mage…”

The Skeleton King continued to scold her. “Don’t say anything else. First of all…what’s your taste? Are you still my creation? How could you like that kind of…”

Suddenly, he remembered how Burris had persuaded the princess to break up with the knight, and felt that this was not good, so he didn’t finish his words. “Forget it. As long as you keep your head clear.” He waved his hand to the girl. “You go downstairs and wait. I’ll talk to Heisong.”

Odile’s face became paler: “Your Majesty! He really doesn’t know who I am!”

The Skeleton King laughed angrily: “It was you who beat him to death, and I saved him. Don’t worry, I won’t lay a finger on him. I just want to talk to him about something else.”

Thanks for reading! 🙂 Please, tell me if there is any mistake. I edited some previous chapters and was mortified to find so many D: