Melody stood outside the duke’s office open window. Inside were the duke, Violet’s mother, Victoria, and a man Melody was unfamiliar with.

“Allow me to introduce you. Melody, this is Marquis William Gale, a close ally of mine.” Duke Caldwell introduced them.

“A pleasure to meet the princess of the Gaian Forest.” The Marquess bowed his head.

“Thank you. It is nice to meet you as well, Lord Gale.”

“Now, you said you had news to report?” The duke asked.

Melody nodded. “Yes. I think your saboteurs are not finished.”

“What do you mean?” Lady Cambel asked.

“Sylvanus reported that they found seventeen wells in your city filled with metal scraps like iron and copper. They, er, my people, are working on cleaning all the wells.” Melody informed them.

“Damn them!” The duke slammed his fist onto his desk.

“They mean to make our people sick.” Lady Cambel concluded.

“How many wells are in your city?” The Marquis asked.

“Around sixty.” The duke sighed. “Lady Melody, could we get more assistance from your people?”

Melody nodded. “I already notified my mother. They will close up parts of the Trading Post, and more Forest Spirits will be coming to the city. Could I ask you to have soldiers escort them to the wells?”

The duke nodded and called for a messenger.

“The question now is, was this a result of their failure to take down Lady Cambel? Or a continuation of their plan?” The Marquis asked.

“I can ask my people to check the metal concentrations in the wells for a rough estimate.” Melody turned and communicated to the Forest Spirits, working to help the city.

“If this was a continuation, they are truly vicious to target the people.” Lady Cambel angrily stated.

“I appreciate your assistance in this, Lady Melody.” The duke bowed his head to her. “We will pay this debt back for sure.”

Melody smiled and shook her head. “You are a close ally to the forest and home of my closest friends. I could not abandon you.”

The three nobles chuckled.

“Then I guess I owe a debt to you, Lady Cambel.” The duke joked.

“I could always use a tax break.” She replied whimsically.

The Marquis shook his head at their banter. “I will have my people investigate potential sources of metal. We should find what we can.”

“I’ll have my guards check their records to see if anyone has been bringing in a large amount of scrap metal in the last few months.” The duke stated.

“I will give your people a hand.” Lady Cambel informed the Marquis.

A few hours passed, and the Forest Spirit forces worked together to help Hallfen clean all their water supplies. Melody kept the three updated on the progress throughout.

Sylvanus contacted Melody through nature. “My lady.”

“Yes?” Melody replied.

“We have completed our assessment of the metal content of the well. Averaging everything together, we estimate the wells were poisoned for two weeks at the latest. It seems they started on the city’s western side and moved east. Most of the wells in the east had been tampered with a few days ago.” Sylvanus reported.

“Thank you, Syl. I will notify the duke. Thank you for contacting me earlier.”

“Of course, my lady.”

Melody turned to the three nobles. “The culprits may still be in the city.” She stated.

“What do you mean?” The duke asked.

She updated them on Sylvanus’ report.

After hearing the report, the duke sent out orders for the exits to the city to have quadruple the guards and everyone to be checked.

“They will likely run if they heard how Melody and her people undid what they had done.” Lady Cambel stated.

The duke sighed. “I am sorry, Lady Melody, could you inform Queen Gaia of this? Better that she understands this will likely bring the Aristocratic Party’s ire.”

“I will… Huh?” Melody received a message from one of the Forest Spirit teams. “Oh?” A mischievous grin came to her face.

“Oh, dear… Violet is rubbing off on you….” Lady Cambel lamented.

“She takes after you, you know.” The duke flatly commented.

“My dear, duke. I have something interesting you will want to know.” Melody’s smile caused them to shiver.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four men quickly moved through the city under cover of night. They kept their communications to a minimum and stayed out of sight. Carefully, they avoided others as they made their way to their destination.

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Arriving at an abandoned-looking house in the slums of the Hallfen, they rapped on the door in a sequence. A moment later, the door opened, and they were invited inside by a rough-looking man.

“We have to move quickly so we are not caught.” The leader of the group stated.

“I can’t believe they beefed up the gates too much. There was no way we were getting out that way.” One complained.

“At least they don’t know of this place.” The other commented.

The leader turned to the rough-looking man. “Seal the exit once we are through. We cannot allow them to find this place.”

The rough man nodded and opened a secret entrance to a ladder that led below.

The four men headed down while the man above closed and buried the entrance to the secret tunnel.

They moved down the tunnel quickly, knowing they were safe from prying eyes.

“Hey, you never mentioned who the boss is.” One of the men said.

“You don’t need to worry about that. You do your job, and you get paid generously. Knowing too much can be… deadly for someone like you.” The leader stated.

The man looked at the leader skeptically, thinking he was taking things too seriously.

Twenty minutes of walking later, they arrived at another ladder. They headed up to the hidden cabin in the woods. Stepping out, they headed over to the horses in a stable.

“Let’s go.” The leader reached out to one of the horses.

“NIEGH!” The horse whinnied while bucking.

The other horses followed its lead, and all four took off running.

“What the hell!? What happened!?” The leader cried out.

Several knights came out from the forest, led by their captain, Erzalette.

“Greetings, gentlemen! A good night to be using an illegal tunnel.” The knight-captain commented jovially.

“Dammit! We were made!” One of the men cried out, pulling out his sword.

“It seems we have.” The leader commented, pulling out a dagger. “Glory to my master.” The leader plunged the blade into his heart, taking his life.

The three men with him looked on in shock as their leader’s body hit the ground.

“Grab them!” Erzalette commanded, not wanting to lose another source of information.

The knights quickly took down the remaining three men, taking them into custody. They loaded their prisoners into a prison wagon and got them back to the city.

Erzalette turned to a darker area of the forest. “Much appreciated, princess. Please extend our thanks to your people.”

Melody’s voice could be heard from the darkness. “Hopefully, you can get something.”

The knight captain laughed. “I am sure we will get something. But…” She looked down at the corpse of the leader. “Losing him will likely stop us from catching the serpent’s tail.”

“I will see what my familiars can find. They are checking his trail in the city. Hopefully, we will find something.” Melody stated.

Erzalette smirked. “You are such a boon to our city. If that fool of an ex-noble was still here, I might have joined in on his beatings.”

“… … You aren’t going to punish them, are you?” Melody cautiously asked.

The knight captain let out a hearty laugh as she walked off to return to the city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days passed, and sadly, Lin and Lou could not turn up much while following the man’s scent. The most they found was the room he was using. Erzalette and her knights investigated the location but only found a few scraps of paper in ashes.

The knight captain stood outside the building with a sitting Melody, who was feeding Lin and Lou some reward snacks.

“Were your men able to find anything?” Melody asked.

Erzalette shook her head. “Just some scraps and a whole lot of ashes.”

“Did the scraps have anything on them?”

The knight captain sighed. “Not much. There were only a few letters at most on the scraps, nothing legible. The bastard was thorough in making sure there was no evidence.”

“I see. Perhaps we-…” Melody paused as she received a message from Fenny. “Oh… Um, we might have something.”

Fenny floated down to them with a small bird trapped in his talons.

“What’s this?” Erzalette asked as Melody took the bird from Fenny.

“Fenny said that this bird was carrying something.” Melody took a moment to connect to the bird through nature. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be scared.” She comforted the bird.

“What…” Erzalette was shocked at what she was seeing.

The little bird calmed and stood on Melody’s hand patiently. The giantess lowered her hand to Erzalette. “Could you take the message?”

The knight captain took the message from the small tube on the bird’s left leg. “This bird has a spell on it.”

“It does?” Melody asked, now sensing the magic placed upon it.

Erzalette checked the magic with her own. “Illusionary magic. Probably meant to make it look like a sparrow. Give me a moment.” With a quick burst of her magic, the illusion was dispelled. “Ah, a Seeker Raven. They are brilliant birds, often used in things like this.” She waved the scroll before unrolling it. “Damn. It is encrypted. It may take some time to figure out what this says.”

“Not to worry.” Melody placed the black bird on the ground. Closing her eyes, she used her magic to establish a connection. After going back and forth with the bird, she smiled. “Okay, thank you. I know you are a female, but only one name comes to mind when I think of ravens. Your name will be… Poe!”

The Seeker Raven, Poe, crowed happily.

“Did you just… make the enemy’s messenger bird your familiar?” The knight captain asked.

Melody smiled and nodded.

“Hah. Hahah! HAHAHAH!” She laughed as she realized they might have a perfect witness that NO ONE would have thought of.

Poe became tired and asked Melody if she had a place she could rest.

“Of course!” Melody picked Poe up and carefully put her into her magic pack.

“Is something wrong?” Erzalette asked.

“Ah, when naming others, there is a chance they could evolve. I think that is why Poe got tired. She is going to evolve.” Melody explained, leaving out the fact that everyone she had named had evolved without fail.

“I see. I wonder what she will become….” Erzalette wracked her mind to remember the evolved form of a Seeker Raven. “Do you know how long?”

Melody shook her head. “I am not sure. I have seen others evolve overnight, while Fenny took nearly a month. I will return home for now. If Poe wakes up soon, I will let you know.”

“Thank you, princess. We will get to work on decoding this.” Erzalette stated with a smile.

The two ladies went their separate ways.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Duke Talane waited in his office at his capital home. It was the largest estate in the capital, just short of the imperial palace. He looked annoyed as he swished his goblet of red wine.

Harvey, his butler, entered the room. “Your grace.”

“What news?” The duke demanded to know.

“Our men were captured.”

The goblet in the duke’s hand shattered under his grip.

The butler quietly moved forward and treated the noble’s cuts.

“How bad?”

“The one who would have been a danger dealt with themself. The others would know little.” Harvey answered as he bandaged the duke’s hand.

Duke Talane sighed in relief. “That damn giant and her monster ilk are becoming a thorn.”

“Yes…” Harvey finished and poured a glass of brandy for his master, handing it to him.

“Good choice.” The duke downed half of the whole glass.

Someone knocked on the door.

“See who it is.”

Harvey bowed his head and answered the door. “It is Lord Greggory and Lord Lionel.”

“Let them in.” The duke turned to the door.

The two disgraced nobles of Hallfen entered and bowed their heads. “Your grace.”

“Do you have good news?”

The two men smiled wickedly. “Plans are nearly ready. We’ve hired a good number of mercenaries. We also got assistance from the mercenary, Demon of Fire. He was expensive, but he will be worth it.”

A victorious smile came to the wicked man’s face. “Good. Harvey.” He turned to the butler. “Get that job ready for commission. We will execute the plan soon.”

“Shall I also prepare the invitations?” Harvey asked while bowing.

The duke laughed. “Yes. I am sure many will enjoy the show.”