“What do you mean that the Princess has disappeared?”
Faylos exclaimed, bewildered. At the same time, Isilis straightened her gaze, catching her looming spirit.
“What is the location of the tracking magic I put on the princess?”
“It looks like they used a magic tool.”
“Then, what happened to the imperial doctor who visited the Princess’s room?”
“That is…”
Faylos urged the new wizard, who hesitated and could not speak.
“Speak. Where is he!”
“He’s dead!”
“…Dead?”
Hearing Isilis’s words, filled with surprise, the wizard continued, “The imperial doctor went in and didn’t come out, so I went in to check. However, the Princess disappeared, and the imperial doctor, the nanny, and the chief handmaid were all lying bleeding.”
“Search the video stone.”
“It has already started.”
“The secret passage of the Imperial Palace has been opened. Lock the gates of the Imperial Palace immediately and check their identity cards.”
“Understand.”
“Come to me no matter what.”
“Yes!”
With Isilis’ command, the wizards moved in unison.
“Illis.”
“Faylos, you must move your guild. With an incident like this, there is no way that it would have moved without any rumors.”
“Yes.”
“Go and find out who did this.”
“I will obey your orders.”
Faylos bowed his back and hurriedly left the place. Isilis, who was watching him, hurriedly headed to the place where the Princess disappeared. The wizards and the knights running around looked at her and bowed their backs.
“What happened?”
“The imperial doctor went in and didn’t come out after ten minutes, so I came in, and it was like this.”
Isilis looked closely at the bloody scene.
“What about the video stone?”
“It has already been destroyed.”
“Then, they must have known that the Princess was here.”
“It seems so.”
“Cast a memory magic.”
Five or six wizards gathered and began to draw a circle. Eventually, the image began to unfold with memory magic. Four people dressed in black jumped out of the wall. Then, they killed the imperial doctor, the nanny, and the chief handmaid in turn before quietly embracing the Princess and disappearing
Isilis, who was looking intently at the memory magic, said.
“Stop.”
She pointed to a point in the memory magic.
“What is that?”
There, she could see the chief handmaid writing something with her fingers. Seeing that strange appearance, the wizards lifted the chief handmaid’s body.
“Here it is!”
There were writings on the chief handmaid’s clothes.
“…Aire?”
“Did it say Aire?”
Isilis was surprised when she heard the name.
“That’s right. It is written as Aire.”
“How dare…”
Aire.
The shame and disgrace of the Larchen Empire… The person who happened to have a room in the Imperial Palace had many stories. Originally, only those who inherited imperial blood were called the Imperial Family though Aire was different.
He did not inherit the blood of the Larchen imperial family, but he lived in the Larchen imperial palace. Isilis’ father had fathered him from another. He was the Imperial Family’s secret history — the shame of the Imperial Family unknown from the outside.
The Empress forgave her father, but Isilis could not.
“I will go by myself.”
With her body shaking with anger, she moved her steps. The red magic was overflowing as it resonated with the Imperial Palace barrier, and finally, the entire palace was enveloped in red energy, and the barrier was further strengthened.
Isilis opened the hidden door of the Imperial Palace, which had been closed secretly, and fired capture magic.
“You surprised me.”
She wanted to tear off his face as he looked at her with a puzzled smile.
“Where is the Princess?”
“Princess?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you asking me for your child? Do you think I would answer the question?”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer. You will die here.”
“If I die, the child will not be found.”
Isilis grinned coldly as he grabbed Aire’s neck with magic.
“Do you know why I kept you alive?”
“Kept me alive?”
“Because you are nothing to me. It’s because you’re trash.”
At her words, Aire, whose face dyed red, opened his mouth, “Right. How does it feel to get hit by that trash?”
“Do you know why I came here without looking for the child?”
“Well?”
“Because no matter what you do, you can’t defeat me.”
Isilis continued as she crushed Aire with her magic.
“The Princess was not born with magic. Didn’t your followers give you that information?”
“…What?”
‘That’s right. Their intention was to take the Princess and extort her magic.’
The Larchen imperial family was a double-edged sword for the nobles. It was true that the imperial family protected the country by expressing their magic, but they were not able to develop their spirits because they were crushed by the imperial family’s magic.
When an heir to the imperial family was born, they were often kidnapped in order to gain power. There was no case where an abducted Imperial Family was unable to return, so nothing was known to the outside.
A strange country maintained around the power of the Emperor.
Conversely, without the Imperial Family, the Larchen Empire could not be maintained. In a situation where they had to bow their heads to the Emperor, the nobles’ revolt to seize power had begun.
“It’s already too late! The Princess is in our grasp.”
“Is that so?”
It had already been thirty minutes since the time when the Princess disappeared. Then, she should have already been contacted from somewhere else… A contract to demand something under the pretext of the princess.
The fact that there was still no news meant that something had happened over there as well.
“The predecessor Empress’ biggest mistake was keeping you alive.”
“You are the ones who imprisoned me, who lived in peace!”
“You dare! It is a great sin to feed the Empress’ spouse with drugs and try to take him. It is also the predecessor Empress’ great fault for keeping you alive by saying that the child is innocent.”
“I am also a member of the Imperial Family of this country!”
“You are not.”
Isilis opened her mouth as she glared at the trembling Aire.
“The heir to the Imperial Family of Larchen is of the imperial blood. Strictly speaking, the Empress’ spouse is not a member of the Imperial family, so you cannot become a member of the Imperial Family.”
“No! I can become an emperor, too!”
“You don’t even have magic as much as your nails?”
She beckoned lightly, telling him not to be funny. Adding her words again, she smiled coldly at the sight of Aire vomiting blood.
“It’s not even hard for me to kill you alone. The reason I kept you alive until now is because I wondered who was behind you.”
“I won’t tell you!”
“Of course, you would. Drag him.”
The wizards who heard her command captured Aire.
“Use brainwashing magic and find out who’s behind it.”
“Understood.”
“This is an insult to the Imperial Family. We can never forgive. We will declare martial law from now on.”
“I will obey your orders.”
As soon as the wizards who had given Aire brainwashing magic dragged him out, Faylos slammed the door open and entered.
“Your Majesty!”
“What’s going on?”
“Outside the Imperial Palace…!”
It was said that there was a disturbance outside the imperial castle. There was a hostage situation and the hostage was, in fact, the son of Duke Verus. Not only that, Isilis urged Faylos after hearing that many commoners were being captured.
“Who did you say?”
“Pirates of the Sea Empire.”
“Why are those guys here? The Capital’s barrier!”
“They didn’t use magic, they didn’t use an aura. They didn’t even touch the barriers of the capital. They are moving with swords, so wizards are practicing defensive magic.”
“Is it difficult to deal with even with defense magic?”
“Seeing that they are going to take revenge for the other day…”
“They want me.”
“That’s right.”
It was a problem to shoot magic at the pirates of the Sea Empire. She knew that the pirates were tenacious, but at that time, there was nothing she could do. It would have bothered her more if she had left her dying soldiers alone.
“What did they say?”
“When the Empress comes, they will release them.”
“Crazy.”
Isilis could not move as they wished. She didn’t know what would happen if she moved to grant their request while the Princess was missing.
“Your Majesty. Can I have a moment alone?”
With Faylos’ word, Isilis dismissed everyone around. He whispered to her, making sure that no one was there.
“…It’s kind of weird.”
“What is weird?”
“It’s not the pirate’s accent.”
It was Faylos’ judgment as he had traveled to many places. Isilis lowered her voice.
“Things happened too coincidentally.”
“All these things happening at the same time?”
Anger soared. It was not enough that they dared to take her child, that they now put on a show with a noble son.
“Then, is Duke Verus also on the same party?”
“I don’t think so.”
Isilis answered Faylos’ words.
“Aren’t you trusting him too much?”
“He is not like that. Perhaps coincidentally, his son was involved in the incident.”
She clenched her fists. It must have been an incident to cover her child’s disappearance. It was intended to cause another incident to cover the trees in the forest. Still, their judgment was wrong. The Princess was more important to her.
“Faylos. Do you know about appearance transformation magic?”
“I know.”
“Then, let’s do this.”
At her words, Faylos raised his head at her whisper. It seemed like things would be easier than he thought.
“Gather the rest of the wizards and continue our search. I’ll give you this.”
Isilis spoke as she handed the Empress’ seal from her hand to his. The seal had hidden magic — a magic to use magic of similar color to her magic. It was large-scale fire magic.
“Just once. You can only use it once before the magic is exhausted.”
“Yes.”
Isilis, who was watching it, tapped him on the shoulder as Faylos bowed her back deeply towards her.
“Good work.”
Now, it was time to go find her child.
—
Thank you so much for always supporting the novels I work on, even if you don’t buy me a coffee, I really do appreciate it a lot.