Most of his thoughts were occupied solely by the 'promise' he had made with Yvonne to meet 'again' at 'that place' earlier.
Faster than the wind, from the Palace of the Deep Sea to the Palace of Peace, Rudnine returned to the banquet hall, calming his trembling heart and going near the terrace where he had parted ways with Yvonne.
The outdoor banquet hall was beautifully decorated with a harmony of magic stones and lamps that illuminated the darkness.
He felt the gazes of the nobles who had gathered outside in groups of three or five and were chatting openly, but Rudnine paid no attention and looked around to find Yvonne.
But Yvonne wasn't there as promised.
'Yvonne?'
Even though Rudnine, who had stopped dead in his tracks, called out to her in his mind, Yvonne did not appear.
He was thinking about going into the banquet hall, but suddenly a bad feeling came over him.
Yvonne Argenthoz. She's not one to break her promises.
The one who broke the promise was he, who made a rash decision and went to the territory without even leaving a contact.
Yvonne said she had been waiting for his dinner appointment.
If there was something to do, he would definitely do it on time and come back.
Rudnine had already noticed this by observing her gait, speech, actions, and thoughts.
Yvonne is a more honest and hard-working person than others.
So maybe that's why he liked her more.
Rudnine, who had been standing here for a minute, bit his lower lip, thinking that the roads might be crossed.
If Yvonne doesn't come back, it means she's in big trouble and can't be helped.
'I have to go find her.'
As Rudnine was about to take a step forward, he ran into a drunk woman who was approaching him to talk to him.
“You're the Duke of Iels. Come talk to me for a moment. My name is Aurora Hellestine...”
"Excuse me."
He somewhat roughly avoided the rude woman who was blocking his way, gently touching his chest.
“Whoa!”
As he avoided the woman who was so drunk that she tripped over her own feet, another spirit approached me bravely.
“I have something to say to you, Your Excellency!”
“I don’t have any. And I’m a little busy.”
Rudnine, who had stubbornly and coldly expressed his refusal, now ran away without even looking at them.
I'm so busy. Why are you guys bothering me like this?
Where on earth did she go?
Yvonne is strong.
She is a great magician and is an incredible woman with incredible physical strength and brute force.
There's no need to worry, so why bother her by stepping in?
Or maybe...
Is Count Gratti summoning Yvonne to negotiate a separate settlement? Or has that prickly Princess of the Mare Kingdom just started another fight?
Rudnine's beautiful brow furrowed.
'Neither one of them can possibly be Yvonne's opponent.'
Rudnine's long legs moved quickly as he wandered through the Palace of Peace, but the person he was desperately seeking was nowhere to be seen.
“Yvonne.”
Rudnine, who had been wandering around vaguely, suddenly stopped walking, rubbed his forehead, and sighed.
He felt that he shouldn't waste time like this, so he raised his head toward the darkening evening sky.
His dark eyes grew darker between his narrowed eyes.
The capital of the empire was very peaceful, but in the territory of Iels, which was under Rudnine's control, there was a place called the Northern Gate.
A dangerous place where monsters periodically pour out.
Why am I feeling the chills I felt when I narrowly avoided death right in front of me, now, here?
The foresight honed in the Iels territory was manifested.
Moreover, if the opponent is Yvonne Argenthoz.
Now he focused on the instinct that was warning him that she was in danger.
As his nerves became tense and tense, Rudnine became calmer.
The peaceful palace ruled by Empress Giselle, where the sun has set and darkness has fallen.
In this leisurely space, where the well-dressed nobles are all laughing and chatting in a splendidly decorated place, and people are all drunk, death and threat seem like distant words.
'But...'
Rudnine's eyes gleamed fiercely, as he had already grasped the situation through some solid evidence, and was not fooled by this illusion.
He already knew that there was an unusual atmosphere flowing around Empress Giselle and others.
He was not satisfied with Crown Prince Adrian's actions, so I joined forces with Duke Argenthoz to investigate some suspicious incidents, and he stumbled upon this.
While digging around Crown Prince Adrian, he naturally discovered Empress Giselle's lair...
Every result reported was astonishing.
They had been stealing and selling special magic stones for over a decade, and they had also created strange groups disguised as merchants throughout the empire, using the status of Empress Giselle and the Duke of Cardin.
The group's motives are still under further investigation, and corruption involving tax evasion and other irregularities continues to surface.
But the real problem was something else.
"Circumstances involving black magic have been revealed. If that's the case, then this Palace of Peace is definitely not safe."
Rudnine carefully observed his surroundings, using all his senses to the fullest extent and staying alert.
Empress Giselle Cardin Verbent.
Really, she's a warlock.
Long ago, there was an atrocious incident in which Empress Giselle poisoned Consort Ibelin, the mother of Prince Felix, and rendered her idiotic.
But at that time, Empress Giselle was a Princess of Cardin, and Consort Ibelin was a daughter of Viscount Rumia, so the difference in power between the families was significant.
Moreover, because the Emperor stepped in and urged them to close their eyes and cover up the incident, it ended up being just an incident of jealousy and infighting within the palace.
Of course, it shouldn't be like that, but he thought it could be.
Because at that time, Empress Giselle lost both of her sons to illness at the same time, and it was said that she was in shock and went crazy, and did it.
But if Empress Giselle is a warlock...
What if she was already a warlock at that time?
The outcome of several incidents, including the poisoning of Concubine Ibelin, changes completely.
This is not something the Emperor can turn a blind eye to.
'What on earth is happening in the empire? The Empress is a warlock.'
Rudnine, being a layman in magic, decided that it would be more rational to move after Duke Argenthoz arrived.
But, unlike reason, intuition kept urging him on.
Hurry up and move.
Although this was the Black Magician's stronghold, Rudnine quickly concluded that he could move alone, so he closed his eyes and concentrated all his attention.
But, strangely enough...
The image of Yvonne's charming pet hamster with pink fur came to mind.
Although he felt ashamed of himself for feeling jealous of the pet she was raising, he felt an unusual energy from that hamster.
And now.
Rudnine opened his eyes, and his pupils swayed like reeds in a storm.
'Why is it similar to the strange aura that Yvonne's hamster gave off?'
Similar to that hamster, but with a different, slightly more sinister aura.
His heart pounded hard, pumping blood, and he felt dizzy with a mixture of anxiety and excitement.
He moved nimbly, chasing after the evil spirit.
Before he knew it, the surroundings had become completely dark, and he passed by an artificial lake that was said to be in the Empress's palace.
The surroundings were quiet as no one was passing by, but his mind was in turmoil.
The more he tried to organize the situation, the more it became clear and confusing.
Because he already knew.
At the time, he was so distracted by Yvonne that he couldn't be sure, but... this feeling was definitely there.
'Familiar!'
It is a unique aura emitted by a powerful familiar that moves against the movement of living beings and draws strange waves.
As he entered a complicated intersection, he stopped for a moment and called out to her loudly.
“Yvonne!”
As expected, there was no answer.
Thick veins stood out fiercely on the back of his hand as he clenched his fist.
Why did Yvonne have a familiar?
No way... Is Yvonne a warlock, too? He doesn't think she'd be that kind of person.
It was more shocking and, above all, hard to believe than the fact that Empress Giselle was a warlock.
But Rudnine remembered Yvonne's bright smile towards him, and decided to focus only on that.
"It doesn't matter. First, we need to find Yvonne and make sure she's safe."
He started walking again.
At that moment, a strange, pungent smell wafted from somewhere.
As he hurried towards the source of the foul smell, he found a silver-haired woman collapsed near the glass greenhouse.
From the way he breathed to all his thoughts, everything stopped.
It was Yvonne.
He ran to her side in an instant.
Yvonne, who always had a healthy smile, was now lying on the floor with her long silver hair and limbs hanging limply like a dead person.
“Yvonne!”
Rudnine bit his lower lip as he picked her up and checked her condition, as she didn't even flinch at his call.
Looking at her left calf, he saw a bite wound of some kind, something unusual. It was turning black and spreading across her leg.
'This is poison. The poison of the familiar!'
He made a judgment based on the knowledge and intuition he had accumulated while dealing with monsters and familiars. He tried to examine it more closely, but then turned his head back and narrowed his eyes.
Someone was approaching this place quickly.
There was no time to hesitate, to be angry, or to be sad.
Rudnine, carrying Yvonne, who was barely holding on to life with weak breathing, ran quickly, and the two of them disappeared in an instant.
Empress Giselle, who had been using black magic and hypnosis on Emperor John again today, and was eating away at his lifespan, smiled and turned away, leaving him to sleep.
With just a little more effort, just a few more months, shr could completely control Emperor John.
As she walked elegantly back to the banquet hall, she suddenly bowed her upper body as a piercing pain struck her like lightning.
“Ah!”
“Why are you doing that?!”
The maid and black magician who served Empress Giselle approached her in surprise and helped her up.
“...my familiar.”
Empress Giselle, with her eyes wide open, did not explain further and quickly moved to the glass greenhouse.
The pain was palpable.
The familiar she cherished died.
Who the hell? No, it doesn't matter who. She's sure it will be a brutal and painful death.
They went straight to the glass greenhouse, but all Empress Giselle found was the black traces of her familiar's death, and there was no one around.
She blinked as she looked around the empty glass greenhouse.
‘...What is this sense of foreboding?’
The year before last.
That day was also Adrian's birthday party. Wasn't it similar to the day the intruder came to the glass greenhouse after hearing their plans?
To call it a coincidence...
Empress Giselle couldn't laugh any longer. There was no time to be complacent.
“You’re alive...?”
Fear came over her, and her hands started to tremble.
Faster than the wind, from the Palace of the Deep Sea to the Palace of Peace, Rudnine returned to the banquet hall, calming his trembling heart and going near the terrace where he had parted ways with Yvonne.
The outdoor banquet hall was beautifully decorated with a harmony of magic stones and lamps that illuminated the darkness.
He felt the gazes of the nobles who had gathered outside in groups of three or five and were chatting openly, but Rudnine paid no attention and looked around to find Yvonne.
But Yvonne wasn't there as promised.
'Yvonne?'
Even though Rudnine, who had stopped dead in his tracks, called out to her in his mind, Yvonne did not appear.
He was thinking about going into the banquet hall, but suddenly a bad feeling came over him.
Yvonne Argenthoz. She's not one to break her promises.
The one who broke the promise was he, who made a rash decision and went to the territory without even leaving a contact.
Yvonne said she had been waiting for his dinner appointment.
If there was something to do, he would definitely do it on time and come back.
Rudnine had already noticed this by observing her gait, speech, actions, and thoughts.
Yvonne is a more honest and hard-working person than others.
So maybe that's why he liked her more.
Rudnine, who had been standing here for a minute, bit his lower lip, thinking that the roads might be crossed.
If Yvonne doesn't come back, it means she's in big trouble and can't be helped.
'I have to go find her.'
As Rudnine was about to take a step forward, he ran into a drunk woman who was approaching him to talk to him.
“You're the Duke of Iels. Come talk to me for a moment. My name is Aurora Hellestine...”
"Excuse me."
He somewhat roughly avoided the rude woman who was blocking his way, gently touching his chest.
“Whoa!”
As he avoided the woman who was so drunk that she tripped over her own feet, another spirit approached me bravely.
“I have something to say to you, Your Excellency!”
“I don’t have any. And I’m a little busy.”
Rudnine, who had stubbornly and coldly expressed his refusal, now ran away without even looking at them.
I'm so busy. Why are you guys bothering me like this?
Where on earth did she go?
Yvonne is strong.
She is a great magician and is an incredible woman with incredible physical strength and brute force.
There's no need to worry, so why bother her by stepping in?
Or maybe...
Is Count Gratti summoning Yvonne to negotiate a separate settlement? Or has that prickly Princess of the Mare Kingdom just started another fight?
Rudnine's beautiful brow furrowed.
'Neither one of them can possibly be Yvonne's opponent.'
Rudnine's long legs moved quickly as he wandered through the Palace of Peace, but the person he was desperately seeking was nowhere to be seen.
“Yvonne.”
Rudnine, who had been wandering around vaguely, suddenly stopped walking, rubbed his forehead, and sighed.
He felt that he shouldn't waste time like this, so he raised his head toward the darkening evening sky.
His dark eyes grew darker between his narrowed eyes.
The capital of the empire was very peaceful, but in the territory of Iels, which was under Rudnine's control, there was a place called the Northern Gate.
A dangerous place where monsters periodically pour out.
Why am I feeling the chills I felt when I narrowly avoided death right in front of me, now, here?
The foresight honed in the Iels territory was manifested.
Moreover, if the opponent is Yvonne Argenthoz.
Now he focused on the instinct that was warning him that she was in danger.
As his nerves became tense and tense, Rudnine became calmer.
The peaceful palace ruled by Empress Giselle, where the sun has set and darkness has fallen.
In this leisurely space, where the well-dressed nobles are all laughing and chatting in a splendidly decorated place, and people are all drunk, death and threat seem like distant words.
'But...'
Rudnine's eyes gleamed fiercely, as he had already grasped the situation through some solid evidence, and was not fooled by this illusion.
He already knew that there was an unusual atmosphere flowing around Empress Giselle and others.
He was not satisfied with Crown Prince Adrian's actions, so I joined forces with Duke Argenthoz to investigate some suspicious incidents, and he stumbled upon this.
While digging around Crown Prince Adrian, he naturally discovered Empress Giselle's lair...
Every result reported was astonishing.
They had been stealing and selling special magic stones for over a decade, and they had also created strange groups disguised as merchants throughout the empire, using the status of Empress Giselle and the Duke of Cardin.
The group's motives are still under further investigation, and corruption involving tax evasion and other irregularities continues to surface.
But the real problem was something else.
"Circumstances involving black magic have been revealed. If that's the case, then this Palace of Peace is definitely not safe."
Rudnine carefully observed his surroundings, using all his senses to the fullest extent and staying alert.
Empress Giselle Cardin Verbent.
Really, she's a warlock.
Long ago, there was an atrocious incident in which Empress Giselle poisoned Consort Ibelin, the mother of Prince Felix, and rendered her idiotic.
But at that time, Empress Giselle was a Princess of Cardin, and Consort Ibelin was a daughter of Viscount Rumia, so the difference in power between the families was significant.
Moreover, because the Emperor stepped in and urged them to close their eyes and cover up the incident, it ended up being just an incident of jealousy and infighting within the palace.
Of course, it shouldn't be like that, but he thought it could be.
Because at that time, Empress Giselle lost both of her sons to illness at the same time, and it was said that she was in shock and went crazy, and did it.
But if Empress Giselle is a warlock...
What if she was already a warlock at that time?
The outcome of several incidents, including the poisoning of Concubine Ibelin, changes completely.
This is not something the Emperor can turn a blind eye to.
'What on earth is happening in the empire? The Empress is a warlock.'
Rudnine, being a layman in magic, decided that it would be more rational to move after Duke Argenthoz arrived.
But, unlike reason, intuition kept urging him on.
Hurry up and move.
Although this was the Black Magician's stronghold, Rudnine quickly concluded that he could move alone, so he closed his eyes and concentrated all his attention.
But, strangely enough...
The image of Yvonne's charming pet hamster with pink fur came to mind.
Although he felt ashamed of himself for feeling jealous of the pet she was raising, he felt an unusual energy from that hamster.
And now.
Rudnine opened his eyes, and his pupils swayed like reeds in a storm.
'Why is it similar to the strange aura that Yvonne's hamster gave off?'
Similar to that hamster, but with a different, slightly more sinister aura.
His heart pounded hard, pumping blood, and he felt dizzy with a mixture of anxiety and excitement.
He moved nimbly, chasing after the evil spirit.
Before he knew it, the surroundings had become completely dark, and he passed by an artificial lake that was said to be in the Empress's palace.
The surroundings were quiet as no one was passing by, but his mind was in turmoil.
The more he tried to organize the situation, the more it became clear and confusing.
Because he already knew.
At the time, he was so distracted by Yvonne that he couldn't be sure, but... this feeling was definitely there.
'Familiar!'
It is a unique aura emitted by a powerful familiar that moves against the movement of living beings and draws strange waves.
As he entered a complicated intersection, he stopped for a moment and called out to her loudly.
“Yvonne!”
As expected, there was no answer.
Thick veins stood out fiercely on the back of his hand as he clenched his fist.
Why did Yvonne have a familiar?
No way... Is Yvonne a warlock, too? He doesn't think she'd be that kind of person.
It was more shocking and, above all, hard to believe than the fact that Empress Giselle was a warlock.
But Rudnine remembered Yvonne's bright smile towards him, and decided to focus only on that.
"It doesn't matter. First, we need to find Yvonne and make sure she's safe."
He started walking again.
At that moment, a strange, pungent smell wafted from somewhere.
As he hurried towards the source of the foul smell, he found a silver-haired woman collapsed near the glass greenhouse.
From the way he breathed to all his thoughts, everything stopped.
It was Yvonne.
He ran to her side in an instant.
Yvonne, who always had a healthy smile, was now lying on the floor with her long silver hair and limbs hanging limply like a dead person.
“Yvonne!”
Rudnine bit his lower lip as he picked her up and checked her condition, as she didn't even flinch at his call.
Looking at her left calf, he saw a bite wound of some kind, something unusual. It was turning black and spreading across her leg.
'This is poison. The poison of the familiar!'
He made a judgment based on the knowledge and intuition he had accumulated while dealing with monsters and familiars. He tried to examine it more closely, but then turned his head back and narrowed his eyes.
Someone was approaching this place quickly.
There was no time to hesitate, to be angry, or to be sad.
Rudnine, carrying Yvonne, who was barely holding on to life with weak breathing, ran quickly, and the two of them disappeared in an instant.
***
Empress Giselle, who had been using black magic and hypnosis on Emperor John again today, and was eating away at his lifespan, smiled and turned away, leaving him to sleep.
With just a little more effort, just a few more months, shr could completely control Emperor John.
As she walked elegantly back to the banquet hall, she suddenly bowed her upper body as a piercing pain struck her like lightning.
“Ah!”
“Why are you doing that?!”
The maid and black magician who served Empress Giselle approached her in surprise and helped her up.
“...my familiar.”
Empress Giselle, with her eyes wide open, did not explain further and quickly moved to the glass greenhouse.
The pain was palpable.
The familiar she cherished died.
Who the hell? No, it doesn't matter who. She's sure it will be a brutal and painful death.
They went straight to the glass greenhouse, but all Empress Giselle found was the black traces of her familiar's death, and there was no one around.
She blinked as she looked around the empty glass greenhouse.
‘...What is this sense of foreboding?’
The year before last.
That day was also Adrian's birthday party. Wasn't it similar to the day the intruder came to the glass greenhouse after hearing their plans?
To call it a coincidence...
Empress Giselle couldn't laugh any longer. There was no time to be complacent.
“You’re alive...?”
Fear came over her, and her hands started to tremble.
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