The grand ducal residence turned upside down the moment Ingrid returned home, escorted by the crown prince’s soldiers. Their best scouts and assassins were quickly deployed to investigate, while the security around the Dhalia palace was further tightened.

“How did it go?” Grand Duke Rasmus asked with a dark expression. The aura he emitted was like a heavy pressure that pressed on everyone’s shoulder.

The captains had to tread lightly while talking to him, afraid to set him off. Only Elias, who was used to the Grand Duke's unpredictable mood, remained at ease.

“Upon investigation, we found out that the house of Pembroke did not send an invitation for the lady of our house," Elias informed them of their findings. "But the duke of Pembroke said that the seal on the letter our lady received was authentic."

“Their statement is rather contradictory," Martin, the captain of the Blue Squad in charge of protecting the ducal palace, said with a frown. “They didn’t send an invitation, but they confirmed that the seal was theirs. So which exactly is it?”

“I believe that someone is trying to use the celebration in the House of Pembroke to abduct the lady,” Elias replied as he placed a thin translucent stone with a deep and vibrant shade of purple on the table. Several inscriptions could be seen on its smooth surface.

The thin stone glowed when Elias injected mana into it, projecting a hologram for everyone to see.

“The image you are looking at right now is the invitation that the House of Pembroke sent out. Then,” he manipulated the hologram, and another image appeared. This one is the invitation that our lady received.”

The captains injected mana on the table, and a screen popped in front of them, where a mini-hologram of the invitations appeared. Each of them studied it carefully.

“Both letters are in cursive, but the letter our house received had a thinner stroke than the one they allegedly sent out. Also, the letters sent out by the house of Pembroke used silver ink, while the one we received was written in gold.” Alfir, the captain of the Silver Squad, assigned to the central district of the dukedom, pointed.

"Gold, huh?" All eyes turned towards Leon, the captain of the Red Squad, responsible for the security of the Dahlia Palace. There was a hint of anger in his cat-like eyes as he spoke. “There is only one person in this kingdom who uses gold ink.”

Suddenly, the temperature inside the room became even colder. Everyone braced themselves, waiting for the grand duke to blow. In their hearts, they silently cursed Leon for mentioning the wicked witch when the grand duke was already pissed as it was.

But the storm didn’t come like they expected.

“Grand duke, if you begin acting irrational, none of us will be able to stop you,” Elias said, placing a hand on the grand duke's shoulder. “In that case, I will have to go and wake Lady Ingrid, who had just rested after experiencing something so horrible, to convince you to stop,” he added while smiling like a creep. It made everyone’s skin crawl.

That quickly soberred Grand Duke Rasmus up.

Elias clapped his hand like nothing happened and said, “Now that we got that out of the way, let us now focus on the problem at hand. Calix, the team captain of the White Squad, will brief us of their discovery at the Duke of Pembroke’s residence.”

A man who looked like your typical drunkard stood from his seat. He had a thick beard that seemed like it hadn’t been trimmed for weeks. His clothes were worn and tattered. He looked more like a homeless man than a team captain.

“Greetings to you, my fellow captains, grand duke, and sir Elias,” he said in a raspy voice, like he had been eating sand. “Excuse my clothes. It was an emergency, so I did not have time to change into something more presentable. Anyway, we found Serunian assassins lurking outside the duke’s of Pembroke's mansion. More specifically, my team and I followed them there.”

What Captain Calix said quickly got everyone’s attention.

“As everyone here already knows, we’ve been receiving secret intelligence from the South for a few years now. We still don’t know who has been sending this intelligence, but we’ve already confirmed it to be real and accurate. The intel this time was about a group of Serunian assassins who disguised themselves as refugees.”

Captain Calix dropped a tiny memory stone on the screen in front of him. The screen absorbed it, and an image of a secret letter appeared on the giant hologram and on everyone’s screen.

Written on the letter was detailed information about what the assassins look like, where they are headed, and what their purpose is. As everyone expected, it was to abduct Lady Ingrid.

They unconsciously looked at the grand duke to see his reaction. But to their surprise, the grand duke remained calm—or at least he was trying to be.

“As you can see, the information they gave was only up until how those soldiers were to join the refugees that the Duke of Pembroke planned to house in celebration of his marriage. But how and when they would execute their plan of abduction was something that we didn’t know. So we followed them there, disguised obviously.”

“Then, we found out a week ago that the new Duchess was preparing for a tea party. One of my subordinates managed to get his hands on the guest list, but to no surprise, our lady’s name wasn’t on it. However, knowing who our opponent is, we did not want to take any chances. So I wrote a letter informing the residence of our findings. But we never got a reply.”

Grand Duke Rasmus’ frown deepened. “I never received a letter,” he said, looking at Elias.

Elias shook his head in response. “It seems that someone might’ve intercepted the letter before it reached the residence.”

“That would be impossible,” Captain Calix replied while playing with his overgrown beard. “The letter was hand-delivered by my trusted aide, Regar. Unfortunately, the grand duke and Sir Elias weren’t around when he arrived. However, I specifically told him to return before the sun set, or else our target might suspect something. So after half a day of waiting, he decided to leave it on the grand dukes table and left.”

Stolen novel; please report.

Elias lowered his head as he began to piece together all the pieces of information in his head, then asked, “Captain Calix, what day did you send the letter?”

“It was a Wednesday, three days before the tea party. I had Regar set off at dawn, and with his speed, he most likely arrived at five or six in the morning.”

“Wednesday,” Elias murmured to himself. “Coincidentally, we received a distress letter from the southern border a night before, indicating that a group of Elite giants led by an Elder giant is attacking. The grand duke and I had to leave at midnight. When we returned that same night, I went to check if there were important files left for the grand duke that day, but I didn’t find any letters.”

The room fell silent for a moment. Things had become even more complicated.

“Calix, summon Regar here.” The grand duke’s booming voice broke the silence.

Captain Calix bowed and said, “As you wish your highness, however, Regar is currently in the dukes territory. It might take some time.”

“It doesn’t matter. Just let him hear. And while you’re at it, clear out those pests.”

Captain Calix gave the grand duke a meaningful smile, bowed his head, and left.

“Alright, while Captain Calix is gone, let’s talk about our other problem,” Elias started, pushing an arrow on the table. It rolled around the flat surface until it stopped at the very center. “That is one of the arrows that wiped out the entire Purple Squad and attempted to take Lady Ingrid’s life.”

All eyes unconsciously landed on the captain of the Purple Squad, who had his head bent all this while. His face was pale and evidently sick, but after hearing what happened to his squad members, he forced himself to attend the meeting despite the healer’s dissuasion.

“Isn’t it odd?" Captain Leon blurted, his cat-like eyes turning into a thin slit. “If I am correct, a week ago, three of the members of the Purple Squad were beaten on the streets.”

"Hmm, that did happen,” Captain Alfir of the Silver Squad chimed in. “It occurred in the central district, so I personally handled the case. Those three got beaten by a group of traveling mercenaries after getting drunk, and they ended up with several broken bones. But those three are elite among the elite. Mercenaries aren’t a match for them, even when drunk. So we made a thorough investigation and found that those idiots went to the Velvet Shrine.”

Captain Alfir shook his head disapprovingly.

“That place has allegedly been using a special kind of incense called the flower of temptation. On its own, it doesn’t do anything. However, when paired with a special wine, it causes people to hallucinate and even impair their cognitive abilities. That’s how The Velvet Shrine has been scamming their clients out of their money. We’ve been on their tail these past few months, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get any credible evidence to incriminate them.”

“What about their victims? Based on what you said, there should be many,” asked Captain Martin.

“Captain Amiel,” Captain Alfir called the youngest among the captains who had been silent this whole time. “You’re a noble. If you happen to get drunk in a pleasure house and find yourself stripped of all your valuables, would you file a case against the said pleasure house?”

“Me?” Captain Ameil pointed at himself innocently. “E-even if I die…I won’t g-go into a ple-pleasure house!” He declared, completely red and flustered.

The captains chuckled, amused by their youngest. Even the grand duke’s face, which had been wearing a scowl, slightly softened.

“We knew that,” Captain Leon said, rolling his eyes. “You even run away when you see a woman, much less enter a pleasure house. It’s a hypothetical question. Just answer it.”

“Well, if it’s hypothetical..." he murmured and played with his hand like a child. It was a wonder even to the other captains how such a naive and timid boy became a captain. "Then, I don’t think I would. As a noble, I was taught to be careful of my every action and to not do things that may tarnish the reputation of our house. Getting caught entering a pleasure house is embarrassing enough. Getting scammed is even worse. Filing a complaint against the pleasure house? My family would probably disown me. Or worse, I’d be castrated.”

Captain Alfir motioned his hand, gesturing that what Amiel said was the answer to Captain Martin’s question.

“Most of their targets are rich nobles who would rather be mimed than air their dirty secrets. Luckily and unluckily, they targeted our men this time, so we managed to gain both evidence and witnesses and shut all of their business down.”

“Wait, you said all their targets are rich nobles. And because of that, you’ve been having a hard time catching them," Captain Martin repeated.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“So why did they target three soldiers who didn’t have any noble titles?"

Captain Alfir was taken aback. He was so overjoyed by the fact of finally being able to catch the people running The Velvet Shrine that it didn’t occur to him. But now that he thinks about it, it was rather odd. The reason they weren’t able to catch them all this time was because of how meticulous they are when choosing their target.

His feet were itching to leave and investigate, but before he could excuse himself, captain Leon spoke: “Two days after that incident, six people were sent to the medical ward when the training room exploded after they used tainted mana lamps during their training. One of them was a member of my squad. But the other five were from the purple squad.”

“And a day before the tea party, a few members of my squad, including my vice captain, and I suddenly had food poisoning alongside some other servants,” Captain Zion added with a clenched fist. Anger and pain swirled in his heart as he thought of his fallen members. “I didn’t think much about it. I thought it was just a coincidence that all the first members of the squad met in an unfortunate incident. It never crossed my mind that we were being targeted.”

Captain Grace of the Green Squad taps Captain Zion on the shoulders to comfort him. Meanwhile, the rest of the captains took a moment of silence to show respect and honor their fallen comrade.

“On their own, these incidents just seem to be mere unfortunate coincidences. But if you piece it together, you could tell that there is a certain pattern. Whoever did this wanted to make sure that all team 1 members of the Purple Squad were incapacitated before the tea part,” Captain Leon concluded.

"But how did they know who the team 1 members are? That is classified information that only a few people in the residence knew," Captain Alfir asked.

The atmosphere in the room became colder. There is only one thought on everyone’s mind: There is a traitor in their residence.

A knock on the door disturbed their discussion.

“Your highness, I have brought Regar.”

The door of the meeting room was pushed open, revealing Calix still wearing his worn and tattered clothes. But the captain, who has an extremely sensitive nose, quickly smelled an odd but familiar scent on his body—the metallic smell of blood. As he walked in, their eyes landed on his bloodied hands and clothes, which he didn't bother to hide.

Beside Captain Calix was a young child, no more than ten. He was trying his best to keep up with Captain Calix’s long stride using his short legs while keeping a straight face. Even an adult would cave when standing in front of so many powerful men, but the young child was unfazed.

"Greetings, your highness,” the young boy Regar said in a small and steady voice that was unlike his age.

“Come here, child,” the grand duke said in a gentle voice.

Regar walked towards the grand duke with steady strides.

“Can you tell me about the letter your captain asked you to send to me?”

Regar nodded his head and began recounting the events. Just as Captain Calix said, he arrived at five in the morning and was received by the head keeper of the grand duke’s palace, Diem. Diem led him to the grand duke's office, where he waited obediently for almost eight hours.

Apart from Diem, who sent him breakfast, snacks, and lunch, he did not come into contact with any other person in the residence. After waiting for too long, he decided to leave the letter on the grand duke’s table, remembering his captain's instructions.

Diem was also summoned.

The moment he entered the room, he quickly kneeled in front of the grand duke and said, “Forgive me, your highness.”

The grand duke’s face darkened. “And what is it that you’ve done wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have trusted others to relay information to you. That day I was really swamped with work, as the explosion from the training room really did a lot of damage to the left wing of the palace. So when I met Lily, who was heading to your office, I asked her to tell you about the letter Regar left as I had another errand to run.”

“Lily?” Elias asked.

“Yes, Lily,” Diem repeated.