“Oh, Your Majesty… that is…”

Even the usually quick-witted Duke Hamilton stumbled for words at that moment.

“I was not feeling well and lost my mind, so I wandered off and got lost. Hahaha…”

It was an obvious lie. The Emperor was about to frown upon this excuse when…

“Oh, a horn flute!” exclaimed the unsuspecting Princess Louibel in her innocent voice.

Duke Hamilton, startled, quickly covered his sleeve where the horn flute had peeked out, but both Louibel and Christine had already seen it.

“It looks just like a horn flute used to summon monsters!”

“Monsters?” Orent raised his voice in alarm.

“Prince Anselot of Luenhart once told me about these flutes. They’re carved from monster bones and imbued with mystical powers to summon monsters.”

Louibel blushed, mentioning her recent interactions with Prince Anselot.

“Prince Anselot is so knowledgeable and amazing.”

Louibel added shyly. Despite her recent awakening as a Swordmaster, she still blushed like a naive princess when talking about a man she liked.

Orent, who had been wary, relaxed and scolded her for discussing such trifles before the Emperor.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Louibel quickly came to her senses and apologized.

“I’ve been so preoccupied with thoughts of Prince Anselot lately…”

“Wait,” interjected Christine, who had been silent until now.

“I find that story very interesting, Louibel.”

“You mean about Prince Anselot? He’s as gentle as the spring sun and as fresh as the greenery of summer…”

“No.”

Christine cut off Louibel’s endless praise for Anselot, getting to the real matter she was interested in.

“The horn flute?”

“Ah…!” Louibel clapped her hands, finally realizing.

“The flute that summons monsters?”

She elaborated on the horn flute, her eyes sparkling.

To trap Duke Hamilton and Orent, the items she had casually bought from the dark guild helped immensely.

She used the “Tail Feather Fan of the Wind Peacock” to create a gust of wind just as Duke Hamilton arrived at the palace.

After practicing adjusting the wind’s strength the night before, she easily generated enough to blow off the Duke’s wig.

While his attendant was distracted, she switched the contents of the gift box he was carrying.

Everyone was so focused on the Duke’s gleaming bald head and wig that she successfully executed her plan unnoticed.

Using the “Invisibility Bracelet” to become unseen and “Rus’ Footsteps” to increase her speed were also crucial.

Naturally, the item in the box was the horn flute Anselot had sneakily taken from the Duke’s bedroom.

Later, she managed to bring her mother to the spot by tracking the movements of Duke Hamilton and Orent, thanks to the mini-map.

The mini-map displayed not only locations but also the movements of people.

Her mother, the youngest princess of the late Emperor, had surpassed her elder siblings to ascend the throne, not without reason.

She was quick-witted and shrewd.

With just a few clues I dropped, my mother sensed something fishy about Duke Hamilton and ordered her knights to investigate the horn flute.

They discovered a secret space in Duke Hamilton’s bedroom and confiscated numerous flutes.
“A considerable number of used horn flutes were also discovered.”

My mother summoned the palace’s item appraiser to examine the flutes. Among them was the , which had been used to summon the . It was revealed that this flute was involved in the incident at the lake, prompting an investigation into its connections.

The knights’ ability to find Duke Hamilton’s secret space was largely thanks to Anselot.

‘Why not give a solid bribe while I’m at it?’

‘You’re quite greedy, considering you have no intention of progressing the scenario.’

Despite his words, Anselot had complied with my request, blending in among the palace knights to locate the secret space.

I was curious about how Anselot managed to infiltrate so easily among the knights, but he didn’t divulge that much.

‘The rest is up to Mother.’

With all the hints given, my mother would unravel the remaining truth soon enough. She’s a capable woman, and it wouldn’t be long before all the details I wondered about came to light.

As the sky turned a deep red at dusk, I stood on the palace’s promenade, gazing towards the direction of Orent’s Second Prince’s Palace.

In just half a day, a turmoil had erupted, leading to the arrest of many from the Second Prince’s Palace by the palace knights.

I looked at the now seemingly desolate palace, lost in thought.

‘Could it really be related to the system manager?’

Considering that the was found in his bedroom, it was hard to believe that Orent and Duke Hamilton were unrelated to Haezen. But it seemed too sloppy for them to be the system manager themselves.

‘Maybe someone around them.’

Footsteps approached, not my own.

‘And now that I’ve stirred things up, they’re sure to show up.’

A long shadow fell behind me.

“This is strange.”

A man’s voice, filled with dissatisfaction, spoke.