Chapter 48: Everyone’s Having a Bad Day

However, Vilyric had no interest in going out to dinner alone with a man. If it were a familiar friend… she might consider it, but this guy clearly had ulterior motives, right?

He talks about exchanging adventure experiences—yeah, right! With so many adventurers in the City of Courage, why come looking for me specifically?

Other girls might be intimidated by Second Prince Ban’s identity or attracted by his gentle and polite demeanor, and might end up having a direct exchange in bed, but the Priestess wasn’t buying it.

“Since Miss Rebecca isn’t willing to budge, let’s call it a day. Thanks for the guidance; we’ll catch up another time.”

After saying that, Vilyric turned to face Ban, forcing a smile, “Uh, I still have things to do, so I’ll take my leave now. As for dinner… hmm, definitely next time!”

With that, without waiting for him to react, the black-haired girl grabbed her pet’s little hand and darted away, fast enough to leave everyone around her dumbfounded.

“Wow, amazing! So she really has strength above the Ink Steel level! I thought it was just because she knew that Count… huh? But isn’t Miss Vilyric a Priestess?”

Rebecca stared dumbfounded at the two girls’ lightning-speed departure, while Second Prince Ban’s gentle smile turned a bit gloomy.

He never expected that a commoner woman without a family or title would dare to refuse his invitation.

Although Ban maintained a humble exterior by not openly revealing his prince identity, who in the City of Courage didn’t know the names of some royalties? Anyone with a bit of insight could surely see his noble status.

This Miss Vilyric didn’t seem foolish at all; Ban didn’t believe for a second that she hadn’t noticed. It meant she was deliberately treating him this coldly, fully aware of his status.

“Interesting… truly interesting. I want to see just who you, Vilyric, think you are to play hard to get with me?”

Thanks to the influence of the “Cognitive Obstruction Mask,” he still couldn’t connect the name Vilyric with the mysterious girl who suddenly appeared near Princess Liliya.

Muttering in a low voice that only he could hear, Ban approached Rebecca, presenting her with a “warm” smile, as if trying to soothe her confusion.

“Miss Rebecca, I have a small favor to ask. Could you copy the identity information of these two? It shouldn’t… be too difficult, right?”

…

After leaving the Adventurers’ Guild, Vilyric didn’t continue walking; she immediately found a nearby inn where she could book a room.

After resting for a little while, the sky had completely darkened.

Next, it was time to meet Liliya.

After thinking for a moment, Vilyric decided to temporarily send Xiao Guang back to her pet space.

Though she had no intention of hiding her Little Dragon Daughter from the princess, since they had never met before, explaining it felt like a hassle. Better to avoid that for now.

Moreover, the Priestess had a feeling that suddenly reuniting Xiao Guang with Liliya might lead to some unsavory chemistry. It was better to steer clear of that.

Despite Little Dragon Daughter looking a bit unhappy, she was obedient to her master and soon settled back obediently after a little calming.

It’s simple: Xiao Guang knew about the relationship between Vilyric and Liliya, but Princess Liliya had no idea that her master had such a pet. This indicated that the Priestess trusted and was closer to her Little Dragon Daughter than to Liliya, which was enough for now.

After that, Vilyric tidied herself up, used her skill to conceal her appearance, summoned her wings, and flew out of the inn through the window.

The City of Courage was divided into five areas: East, South, West, North, and Center. The South District mainly contained training grounds and camps for the city guards and Imperial Guards, while the East and West were civilian areas. The North District, being the hub for adventurers, was the wealthiest and housed most of the nobles and rich people.

At the center was the Royal Palace of the United Kingdom, with the Fifth Princess’s Mingluan Palace built on the outskirts in a protective manner. From the air, it was quite noticeable.

However… there were clearly two palaces inhabited by females. Since Vilyric had never been here before, she didn’t know which one was Liliya’s residence. Not wanting to land and ask anyone, she picked a random one and descended directly.

After all, she was invisible; if she got it wrong, she could just leave.

This seemed to be an open back garden.

Judging from what she could see from the air, if she went out the front door, she should reach the princess’s residence. At this hour, Liliya probably wouldn’t be running around, right?

While weaving through the colorful flowers, suddenly, the presence of two beings appeared in Vilyric’s perception.

This was quite normal—the princess’s quarters must have numerous maids and attendants around, nighttime patrols or guards were common, and Vilyric had seen plenty of them on her way there. But…

There was something off about these two.

Or rather, one of them was problematic.

To the Priestess, one of them felt like it existed in a limbo between life and death… a member of the Undead.

A hound of the Throne of Immortality.

Changing direction, Vilyric quietly crept closer to the two, eavesdropping on their evident secret conversation.

Both were dressed in the garments of royal maids, but one of them didn’t quite fit right; she seemed to have borrowed it from someone else. At their feet, Vilyric noticed another young girl, unconscious and only wearing inner garments.

“What’s the situation?”

“As you said, I put that kind of drug into the princess’s tea for seven days now, and she hasn’t noticed…”

“Hmph, good job. That little girl has no idea that her most trusted maid is betraying her, heh heh.”

“You… you said you could keep me eternally youthful, and grant me endless wealth and glory; you better not be lying!”

“Don’t worry; haven’t you already seen it? The greatness of our immortality—don’t be fooled by my appearance, I’ve actually lived over a hundred years. Don’t I look younger than you now?”

“Okay, fine, I’ll do whatever you say. I have no way back anyway…”

“Exactly! As long as we control little Princess Mona, we’ll have an important trump card when dealing with Liliya. From today on, change her medication to once every three days, but remember to keep an eye on Mona’s mental state. This stuff isn’t fully matured; don’t let her pull any surprises, got it?”

“I understand. But… what about her?”

The maid pointed to her unconscious colleague, her dim eyes filled with reluctance under the night’s veil, as if she already anticipated what was coming.

“Do I need to say it? She saw my face; she can’t be left alive. I’ll take her to the base and take care of her. Just right, we need more subjects for the experiments anyway. With the city under strict watch lately, and Liliya cracking down on human trafficking, our progress has slowed down, tsk.”

“But… fine, I’ll help you take care of it. A missing ordinary maid shouldn’t be hard to cover up.”

“Alright, that’s settled then. I’m off.”

The clearly a cultist of the Throne of Immortality bent down to pack the knocked-out maid into a sack and swiftly departed down a deserted path.

Once the other maid walked away, the Priestess’s figure gradually emerged from the darkness, looking contemplative.

It seemed this was not Liliya’s Mingluan Palace but instead the residence of the Sixth Princess—Mona Meikailande. Did she mess up?

How could she miss a choice of two? Maybe she’s just been having a bit of a bad luck streak lately with all these bizarre occurrences.

But from what she heard, it seems that these maids were colluding with someone from the inside, plotting something against the little princess?

Since it was the doing of the Throne of Immortality, it was almost certainly under the Second Prince Ban Meikailande’s orders. He seemed so gentle and refined; who would have thought he’d be so ruthless as to target his own little sister? Tsk.

Attacking Liliya could still be framed as a necessary royal power struggle, but to do so against twelve-year-old Mona could only mean he sees family as expendable pawns.

What a cold-hearted person. But this guy is also pretty unlucky to have his conspiracy accidentally uncovered by her… Did that mean her bad luck had transferred to him after their meeting today?

Thank you, kind stranger!

   

---