The Prince’s Nanny, Her Specialty Is Assassination - Chapter 144
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 144. The Prophet and Guardian (2)
“What does The 2nd Imperial Consort like most?”
It was an unexpected question.
The maids looked at her with surprised eyes.
“You’re curious about that?”
“Yes, I’d like to use it as reference when embroidering.”
Already thinking about gaining favor.
The maids burst into laughter looking at the young and skilled new seamstress maid.
“Hey, don’t try too hard.”
“Right, it’s not good for us seamstress maids to catch The 2nd Imperial Consort’s attention.”
“Huh? Why not?”
The new maid tilted her head as if she didn’t understand.
Then one of the older-looking maids glanced around and whispered in her ear.
“Well, the late 1st Imperial Consort was originally The 2nd Imperial Consort’s seamstress maid.”
* * *
A vast maze-like garden located between the paths leading to the 2nd Imperial Consort’s Palace.
Inside it stood a dilapidated stone gazebo that hardly anyone visited.
“So?”
I asked while leaning against a gazebo pillar.
“Is there nothing else you found out besides the fact that the 1st Imperial Consort was the 2nd Imperial Consort’s seamstress maid?”
The girl with a basket on one arm nodded instead of answering.
She had the exact same face as the girls I had seen at the Golden Goose Rooftop.
‘She said she had planted someone in the Imperial Palace, so she moved them straight to the 2nd Imperial Consort’s Palace.’
How long had it been since I asked her to investigate the House of Redcliffe?
Somnia had immediately moved her hidden informant in the palace to the 2nd Imperial Consort’s Palace.
‘I heard it’s difficult for Imperial Palace attendants to transfer elsewhere.’
I couldn’t even guess what method she used to change affiliations.
‘Did she blackmail some related noble?’
For example, the head attendant of the Imperial Palace.
I was having such trivial thoughts when I straightened my body that had been leaning against the pillar.
“Good, then let’s meet again at this place in two weeks.”
The girl nodded slightly at my words and walked away casually.
“Ah, wait.”
I stopped the girl’s steps due to a memory that suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Have you ever heard the words ‘prophet’ or ‘guardian’ there?”
Prophet and guardian.
Both words had come from the mouths of the mercenary group hired by the House of Redcliffe and members of the Breath of the Angel organization.
Whatever they were, they seemed to have deep connections with the 2nd Prince’s side.
“I haven’t heard them, but if I do, I’ll let you know.”
The magic doll, or rather, what was she called here? ‘Lili’?
I replied briefly to the girl with my back turned.
“Yes, please do. Lili.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Lili, the 2nd Imperial Consort’s seamstress maid, gave a soulless smile and walked away gracefully.
The girl’s face, which had shown no expression just moments before, suddenly became lively.
It was an expression full of vitality, like a real living person.
‘Did she immediately fix the vulnerability she mentioned last time?’
Unlike the doll I saw in Paradis, I could hear something like a faint heartbeat from the doll before my eyes.
‘What terrible taste.’
This clearly showed Somnia’s perverted values that any object, even fake ones, should look real.
‘Well, it’s good for me.’
The risk of having to sneak into the 2nd Imperial Consort’s Palace myself had disappeared.
I confirmed there were no suspicious presences around and quietly left the place.
* * *
“Your Highness, you were here.”
When I returned to the 3rd Prince’s Palace, I wandered around for a while looking for Edwin who wasn’t in the study.
I kept coming up empty-handed until I ran into Catherine, thanks to whom I finally learned of his whereabouts.
“Don’t you knock anymore?”
Seiji scolded me as I entered the cabin.
“Do we need to knock between us?”
“Really, you only talk about ‘what we are’ when it suits you.”
Edwin, who was next to the grumbling old sage, made a pleased face when he spotted me.
“You’re here?”
“Why do you look like that, Your Highness?”
Edwin looked disheveled for the first time in a while.
He had his sleeves rolled up and was diligently sorting various weeds on a large round table.
Judging by the terrible smell, medicinal herbs and poisonous plants seemed to be mixed together randomly.
“Seiji.”
I called Seiji with a frown.
He was already pursing his lips, perhaps feeling guilty.
“Prince Edwin is not your assistant.”
“I know! He’s not an assistant!”
Seiji sneakily hid behind Edwin.
Though he wasn’t tall enough to be hidden anyway.
“But he’s my disciple! Is it so wrong for a disciple to help his master?”
Instead of answering, I stared at him intently.
Then Edwin gave an awkward smile and waved his hand.
“Rachel, I’m fine. You came to get me because it’s almost dinner time, right? I still have a little work left. Just wait a moment.”
“Sigh.”
He’s become completely docile.
In the past, he would have complained about why he was being made to do such things.
I feed him poison every day, so why has all the venom drained from his temperament?
I eventually sat down carelessly in an empty chair without saying anything.
“Master, this is both a poisonous plant and a medicinal herb, how should I classify it?”
“Hmm, that one only has toxicity in the root part, so cut it and separate it.”
Perhaps because they’d spent quite a bit of time together.
The two worked quite well in sync.
‘I thought he only taught imperial studies.’
I looked at Seiji, who seemed much more enthusiastic than usual.
‘Well, his main specialty is medicine.’
He was supposedly a developer of treatments for incurable diseases.
Probably no one in the Empire could match Seiji’s medical knowledge.
“Hmm?”
While I was killing time by wiggling my toes, I suddenly noticed a stone placed on the desk.
I wondered what kind of stone it was, but looking closely, it was a magic stone.
‘But it feels different from the magic stones I know.’
Originally, magic stones have a bluish color.
But the magic stone on the desk had a reddish color.
I could feel faint magical power from it, so it must be a magic stone, but could it be a different type?
“Seiji.”
“Ah, why? I’m not done yet.”
“What is that stone? It looks like a magic stone, but it doesn’t look like a typical magic stone.”
Seiji, who had been responding reluctantly, stopped his hands at my question.
“Ah, that thing.”
The old sage suddenly let out a deep sigh and made an expression of annoyance.
“It is a magic stone. To be precise, it’s a magic stone that came from the body of a variant monster.”
A magic stone from the body of a variant monster?
For a moment, the face of the King of Adamant flashed through my mind.
“What?”
Then Edwin looked at Seiji with surprised eyes.
“A magic stone came from the body of a variant monster?”
“That’s right.”
Seiji saw his disciple’s eyes asking for more explanation and put down the herbs from his hands.
He sat down in the chair placed next to the desk and opened his mouth again.
“You both remember the variant monster you saw in Ruxen Village, right?”
“Yes! I remember!”
Seiji nodded at Edwin’s words and continued speaking.
“I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before. The variant monster appearing in Ruxen wasn’t just that one time. It had appeared several times before.”
Ruxen was a plague village.
The only military force that could fight monsters were the guard soldiers protecting the village.
“At that time, there were several variant monsters that the guard soldiers managed to subjugate with all their might.”
From the corpses of the monsters killed by the guard soldiers, small gems of strange colors emerged.
Seiji wasn’t interested, but Leo, who was his assistant, thought they resembled magic stones and secretly stole them.
At first, he thought it was just a coincidence, but after that, small magic stones continued to emerge from the bodies of variant monsters.
“So what’s different about this magic stone compared to other ordinary magic stones?”
From the outside, it only seemed to differ in color.
I said while carefully examining the magic stone with its ominous blood-red tint.
“It’s probably not just different in appearance.”
“Of course it’s different. This is fake.”
“Fake?”
“Yes, it’s an artificially created magic stone.”
An artificially created magic stone.
I had heard that mages sometimes condensed their own magic power to create artificial magic stones.
But this was the first time I’d seen one directly.
“But that’s not what’s important.”
Seiji suddenly rummaged through the shelf hanging on the wall.
What he found was a bundle of dried leaves.
“This is a common weed called ‘demon grass.’ Its unique trait is that it only reacts to divine power, and it burns when touched by divine power.”
Grass that burns when touched by divine power.
I could immediately understand why it was called demon grass.
“If I bring this close to here…”
Seiji brought the dried demon grass close to the magic stone.
Whoosh.
Then the demon grass instantly caught fire.
The small flame seemed to burn fiercely at first, then quickly went out.
“Whoa!”
Edwin covered his mouth in surprise, and I made a serious expression.
“Did you see that?”
Seiji looked down at the magic stone with an uncomfortable expression.
“This magic stone has divine power dwelling in it, even if just faintly.”
“That’s impossible!”
Edwin, with surprised eyes, shook his head from side to side.
“Divine power and magic power have properties that repel each other. Coexistence is impossible!”
As Edwin said, divine power and magic power were opposing forces.
Divine power purified magic power, and magic power corrupted divine power, so they were practically incompatible.
‘But to think that divine power dwells in a magic stone, which is practically a lump of magic power.’
Logically, it was a phenomenon that made no sense.
Seiji scratched his head at the prince’s words.
“I think so too.”
He suddenly picked up the demon grass he had brought close to the magic stone.
“Actually, it’s difficult to express it as divine power ‘dwelling’ in it. Look at this.”
The demon grass that had been brought close to the magic stone was only slightly charred at the tips of the leaves.
“At this level, rather than an object with divine power dwelling in it, we should consider it as having traces of divine power remaining.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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