While walking down the hallway, I asked Darius something I had been curious about for a while.

“Who is the enemy in the North?”

Darius looked at me with a strange expression.

“We have no enemies.”

This did not mean that the North had pacified the country with its excellent knights and great military force, or that it was getting along well with everyone like a flower garden.

The North simply had no enemies yet because it wasn’t that great.

It’s like, ‘What’s the point of fighting a land with nothing but stones? Let the barbarians be a breakwater.’ Something like that.

But you know what?

‘In the original story, Anette was assassinated by Darius’s political opponent in the annex.’

Who on earth is that opponent that even the person in question doesn’t know about?

Wondering, I opened the door to the former Lady Egritte’s room, now the crime scene investigation site.

Daniel and other knights, along with a priest summoned from the temple, were waiting for us inside the room.

The old priest, who was said to have been specially invited, looked around Lady Egritte’s room and let out a heavy sigh.

“The magic circle itself in this room is nothing special. At best, it’s a magic circle for summoning low-level magical beasts.”

“She controlled something like a large slime. It certainly didn’t seem like a highly intelligent being.”

“Yes. The witch caught this time doesn’t seem to be a powerful one.”

The old priest’s face was rather gloomy as he said it wasn’t a strong witch.

“This is an inefficient magic circle. To put it simply, as Lady Egritte lacked skill, she would have offered many sacrifices to fulfill her wish.”

“You mean…”

“I’m not sure if it’s fortunate or unfortunate that a terrible witch appeared in the North. If it were a skilled witch, she could have achieved the effect of killing ten people by killing one, but that Lady Egritte…”

She would have gained the magical power equivalent to killing one person by killing ten.

That’s why Lady Egritte hid this fact and always needed money to find new victims. Money solves many things, after all.

“Now that she’s run out of money, and ominous rumors about people disappearing have started to spread, she was planning to leave the North.”

But I caught her before that.

“Just being in this room gives me a feeling of overwhelming bloodshed.”

The old priest shook his head. It seemed like even with his long experience, this was a first.

“To think that everyone has respected such a person as the housekeeper of the castle all this time.”

As the gentle Sir Daniel showed a shocked expression, the old priest comforted him.

“As I examined the magic circle, it was a type of magic that gains people’s favor. That’s probably why the people of the North liked that witch without suspicion.”

Lady Egritte wasn’t originally from the North. She married into the Inkhart family and became a relative of the Grand Duke’s family. Even her husband, who died early, might have died for suspicious reasons.

Minimum death penalty, maximum death penalty. No matter what, it seemed Lady Egritte had no way to escape the death penalty.

“The criminal is now imprisoned in the castle’s underground dungeon. However, considering that she is a member of the Inkhart family, even though she’s a heinous criminal, we plan to move her to the annex.”

I flinched at Sir Daniel’s words.

Could it be that the annex where they confine noble people is the one from the original story…

“What’s wrong, Anette?”

“Nothing. I just thought it was a good idea. We have a lot to ask her, and we shouldn’t let her tire easily.”

Goodness. I can’t even be surprised freely because my husband is so sensitive. If I showed surprise twice, Darius looked like he would tell me to go back, saying this place is too dangerous.

Sure enough, Darius whispered worriedly.

“If it’s too hard for you to be here, you can go back.”

“Saying that won’t make my heart turn to you, Grand Duke, so please be quiet.”

When would I ever investigate the ledgers again if not now when Lady Egritte, who manipulated them, is in prison? It’s the perfect time to investigate while the enemies are flustered, so why would I go back to my room?

* * *

Inside the gloomy annex.

Lady Egritte, who had just been moved from the underground prison to the annex, shouted angrily without losing her energy.

“How long have I worked for the Grand Duke’s family, and yet you believe the words of that wench who just arrived recently. You’ve all lost your minds!”

Her arms were tightly bound for the reason that she could draw magic circles again by drawing blood.

“Sir Slut! We’re not strangers, are we? Listen to me!”

The knights had their backs turned to Lady Egritte.

Even when Lady Egritte screamed in resentment, they didn’t even pretend to listen. They all had earplugs in, wary that they might be enchanted if they heard the witch’s voice.

Finally, it was Lady Egritte who tired out first and collapsed.

‘Anette, Anette! If it weren’t for that wench! Everything has gone wrong since that wench came!’

If only she had left this place just one day earlier without dawdling, it would have been Darius and that wench regretting and beating the ground now!

As she was biting her lips with belated regret and resentment, suddenly there came a thud, thud sound.

“Huh?”

All the knights guarding Lady Egritte had lost consciousness and fallen.

Lady Egritte’s eyes lit up with joy at the sudden hope.

‘I don’t know what’s happening, but I must seize this opportunity!’

As she struggled to untie the knots on her arms, suddenly a woman appeared out of nowhere.

“I put a human in because the demon aura might be detected if it was too strong, but to think they’d be this useless.”

“W-Who are you!”

“Look at that frightened face. Humans are really insignificant after all. Like insects.”

“Even if they’re insect-like humans, they’ve done their job quite well so far. Thanks to them, we’ve gathered many human souls, haven’t we? Lady Lilith.”

A man appeared next. There was no sound when he appeared either.

“It is prophesied that a descendant of Inkhart will kill the Demon King. Because of that prophecy, we demons cannot directly touch Darius Inkhart. He is our natural enemy, given by the heavens.”

“If it weren’t for the restriction that no demon can take Darius Inkhart’s life, we would have killed him when he was still in swaddling clothes! Not using such insignificant humans as a strategy, but with my own hands directly!”

Lilith lamented the fact that she couldn’t kill Darius herself. What better way was there to show loyalty to the Demon King?

Only the Demon King was destined to be Darius Inkhart’s opponent. That’s why demons other than the Demon King could attack Darius Inkhart, but couldn’t inflict fatal wounds that would endanger his life.

Inevitably, the demons chose to attack Darius indirectly.

His mother, who passed away shortly after giving birth to Darius.

The previous Grand Duke Inkhart, who passed away after suffering from illness.

They tried to torment Darius by removing the people he loved from this world.

Infiltrating Lady Egritte into the North was for the same reason.

A spy to inform about the situation in the North, and someone who could stab Darius in the back when needed to trouble him. A human witch who wasn’t hindered by the prophecy, which was even better.

This witch had more or less fulfilled her duty so far. Although she failed to finish properly and got caught by Darius in the end.

“You’re demons?”

Lady Egritte focused only on those words.

They weren’t in the slimy form of the magical beast she originally had. They were high-ranking demons with beautiful human appearances.

She didn’t know why they appeared, but there could only be one reason for appearing before her, a witch!

“Make a contract with me… Ugh!”

“Oh my, I’ve heard so many lowly words that my hand moved on its own.”

Lady Egritte looked at her chest in disbelief.

Blood gushed out of her chest as if a knife had been stabbed into it.

‘I’m going to die.’

Ah, no.

With a clear sense of impending death, Lady Egritte tried to crawl away from Lilith with her arms still bound.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to become one with me?”

Lilith snapped her fingers with a beautiful smile.

The blood flowing from Lady Egritte didn’t fall to the floor but moved towards Lilith.

“What distasteful blood.”

Lilith frowned. Then she took out her magical beast.

“Now, this will be your last meal from your master.”

The slime-type magical beast that Lady Egritte had controlled started to suck up Egritte’s blood in a much smaller form. It was about to heal the injury it had received from Darius’s attack.

“Nooo!”

The slime-type magical beast happily sucked Egritte’s blood, just as it had sucked the blood of many sacrifices before.

No one noticed Egritte’s death until she let out her final death throes.

Only two demons and one victim were awake.

* * *

Lady Egritte, who was confined in the annex and prepared for interrogation, died. The captain of the guards who brought the news had a gloomy expression.

“I’m sorry. I deeply regret that such a thing happened before we could formally bring her to trial.”

“What about the culprit?”

“There were signs of being stabbed with a knife. The heart was thoroughly mangled. Judging by the remaining traces, it seems to have been done out of grudge against Lady Egritte. Probably someone who lost a daughter.”

The captain of the guards looked at me and refrained from detailed descriptions. He seemed to think it would be impolite to talk about blood and such in front of a noble lady.

“Are you telling me that the knights’ guard was breached by a single civilian?”

Darius rebuked with a fierce face, but it had already happened.

It had been several days since Lady Egritte was dragged away by the knights. Rumors were circulating in the castle that Lady Egritte was the cause of the maids’ disappearances.

If it was someone whose daughter had disappeared and was heartbroken, they might have gone mad after hearing that Lady Egritte was the culprit. Perhaps not everything the knights are saying is true, and someone among those knights might have cooperated.