A while later, Mera arrived and I allowed her entry into my room. Her greatly worried eyes greeted me the moment we made eye contact. Sitting on the bed — because I was feeling dizzy — I greeted her almost casually.

“Hello, Mera.”

She stared at my current state and saw that I was smeared by dust, and my dress was dirty. Well, Oryn was controlling the fucking wind, so of course I got dirty. But she noticed my bloodshot eyes, and she seemed to panic. Good thing the traces of blood on my nose have been wiped off by my brother.

“M-Milady, so Oryn was a traitor?”

“Surprisingly so…”

Well, not that really surprising since I was also suspecting him. But I didn’t expect him to have that kind of power.

“Mera, didn’t you feel vibrations in the air?”

Mera blinked before answering. “No…”

Huh, I thought I would affect the entire palace like last time, guess my control and will to limit it has worked. But still incredibly hard. I tried limiting the area of effect of my rampaging since I don’t want to burst them all away and hurt me more than I should, and I don’t want to waste mana.

I may have been able to limit the range or output, but I in turn failed to lengthen the time of accurately guiding the mana to pin down Oryn.

“Help me change my dress, and it appears I will need a small cleaning.”

I smiled wryly.

“I will bring a wet towel… And milady, I’m glad you’re alright.”

She said with blushing cheeks which I found so amusing.

Oh no, she loves me.

Just a casual and teasing throw away comment...

The way she felt could just be admiration and mistaken as love. That said, there’s not much difference between the two — eh whatever.

“Yes, thankfully Brother and Vernon are there… Otherwise, I might have perished. Quite a close one, actually.”

I giggled with shaking lips, then my hands trembled as though terrified to think back about it.

“But there’s nothing to worry anymore, Mera… It’s all okay now…”

With that said, Mera went out and brought back a clean wet towel and rubbed only the dirt parts of my skin. After that I changed my clothes, I had the process go a bit quickly since I was planning to do something.

I may be feeling a bit dizzy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Before the knights could take out the body, I want to check it out. You see, a sudden occurrence, and the death of someone like Oryn the infiltrator, could reveal some nice stuff.

The stuff could be sweet or bitter or something else, at least it would be something. Of course, there will be some times that you get nothing after a lot of effort, so that sucks.

In any case, I’m gonna go and check things out.

But you know, this made me think, if my other enemies are gonna be like Oryn…. Fuuuuckkkk!

Are they gonna be as strong as him? Bullshit! No way! First the guy who warned me turned into a fucking fog, and now an infiltrator has the ability to control the wind, and an elf no less! Then… What about the others? Surely Oryn’s not alone.

Why are they going after me?

I couldn’t arrive at an answer.

Looks like I will need to get stronger than what I am now.

If the world could just give me a fucking break.

This was so distressing that I wanted to pull my hair in frustration. Well that was just an urge, not that I would actually do it. My hair is precious, okay? It’s way more precious than the jewels you guys wear, hehe.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

With the minor affair done, I exited the room with Mera in tow. A short time had already passed, so I wondered if they had moved his corpse out. But the moment I stepped outside, I encountered my mother wearing an intensely worried expression. Behind her was a knight.

“Estelia!”

She rushed towards me and held me on my shoulders firmly. She frantically checked me all over as though looking for any wounds or damages to my precious being.

“You okay?”

She then proceeded to sandwich both by cheeks with her hands.

Um, mother, is this necessary?

“You seemed to be fine, thank the gods.”

The way she looked at me somehow made me glad that my heart began to race. Why was I feeling this way? And her wide smile of relief was beautifully bright.

“M-Mother…”

“A knight came and told me what happened…” she told me with a faltering voice. “I’m glad you’re alright!”

She suddenly took me into her arms, then proceeded to kiss me on the cheek multiple times. The warm embrace and the pleasing kisses on my cheek...What a weird sensation… But… I like it…

A genuine smile unconsciously curled on my lips. I couldn’t even bring myself to lie and act… Thus, I was left unable to speak. Before I knew it, I had snuggled more into her, my face hidden from everyone. I might have blushed a little...

Only then the healer arrived.

“My apologies! I heard the princess needs immediate medical attention.”

I backed away from my mother, a strange sense of longing rose from within me, but I pushed it away. I didn’t know what had gotten into me, for me to feel that way… It was a blunder to immerse myself in such a luxury when there were pressing matters at hand.

“Estelia, let the physician check on you and rest…”

I shook my head.

“Not yet, I’m still fine. I want to check on….” I paused for a moment as though frightened to speak the name. “... on Oryn…”

“Estevan’s assistant... And the traitor…”

“Yes…” I turned and looked at the knight. “Are they already taking out Oryn’s… body?”

The knight wasn’t able to respond immediately due to his shock that the princess suddenly spoke to him.

“... They should be at any moment. It will be brought out of the palace and placed elsewhere.”

Of course, they wouldn’t let a corpse stay inside the palace where royalties stay.

“Then… Mother, please excuse me….”

“I’ll come with you…”

No reason to refuse, we headed towards the stairs together. The physician also came with us just in case something suddenly happened to me. As we went down the stairs, there were already several knights standing guard around while some were quickly patrolling the hallways.

Word must have already spread that the traitor has been discovered. Only then that a group of knights came down the stairs carrying a stretcher with a body laid upon it.

“...I can’t believe that Oryn would…” the mother muttered from beside me.

I also turned to look at how Mera reacted, it would appear that she wasn’t all that disturbed. Well, they were never close it seems. However, why did it seem like she was glaring at the corpse?

Oh well…

When the group of knights carrying the corpse reached the ground floor, only then someone frantically ran forward. It was a familiar girl.

“Wait!”

The girl stopped the knights and looked at the corpse, upon recognizing it, she covered her mouth. Tears began to well up her eyes, stepping back and shaking her head as though she couldn’t believe that this was real.

Her despairing expression remained agazed at the dead Oryn. As if she couldn’t bear it anymore, she fell to her knees, her tears never failing to stream out of her eyes.

“N-No…” she muttered in denial.

Ah yes people, this might be the stuff that I was talking about. The one that was to be revealed.

Allie’s sorrow for the sudden death of Oryn.

She looked confused about everything. Vernon who was following the group gazed down on Allie with pity, he after all also had an idea of what potential relationship she had with Oryn. We three saw them after all.

Estevan meanwhile was puzzled about it, only then that Vernon whispered to his ear that he nodded.

“Keep going.”

Estevan ordered and the knights continued on.

“Oh dear…” my mother murmured as she watched my personal chef wallow in sorrow.

“Mother… please excuse me…”

I walked towards Allie and Mera followed behind me. I glanced at her for a moment and she had a somewhat sympathetic eyes. Which made me wonder if they ever spoke with each other in a friendly manner.

“Allie…” I softly called out to her.

She looked up with wide eyes as she beheld me.

“Y-Your highness…?”

Her hand was trembling as she muttered.

“Allie… Oryn was a traitor…”

“...” she was silent for a while. “A traitor…? No… no…”

“And he needed to be struck down…” I said.

“No… why? It can’t be…”

I saw despair in her eyes before she lowered her head.

It was then Mera chimed in.

“Allie, I’m sorry…”

Allie didn’t respond.

O how the maiden’s heart was shattered into pieces, not by heartbreak, but of grief. The broken maiden clenched her hand on her skirt, tears falling, then she gazed up at me.

“P-Princess… what did he do?” she asked.

“He…” I paused, fear in my eyes. “He tried to kill me…”

“I see…” she lowered her head again.

It’s hard to talk to people in grief.

Good grief, I’ll just leave her to it for a while. She will need some space. I turned to her two companions from the kitchen.

“As her friends, can you please tend to her?”

The both of them responded in affirmative with no hesitation. With that, they carefully took Allie away.

It was then at that moment that Estevan returned to me and Mother.

“My son…”

Mother held out her hand and stroked Estevan’s cheek.

“Mother… It’s still a bit hard to accept that he was a traitor. He had been helping me for years… And to think that…”

Estevan’s pained expression was shown before Mother with no reluctance. It was different from it was just the two of us.

“Estevan…”

“I was the one to take his life… But… I have no regrets.”

Better be.

After that, the entire palace was on high alert the entire day and they immediately went to check Oryn’s lodgings. A messenger had also been immediately sent to the Church where my father was supposed to be.

When he arrives, I will need to share to my family what I have discovered about Oryn’s identity.