"It was the second prince who took the initiative to speak to me," Elodie explained. "I was just casually humoring him."
Her father added coldly, "He's notorious for being untrustworthy. If he ever asks to meet you or contact you in private, just ignore him."
Elodie could not help asking, "Father, are you worried about me?"
Her father did not deny it. She thought she had misheard and asked again to confirm. She still found it a little hard to believe. Her father seemed somewhat helpless, yet could only acknowledge it.
So Elodie also told her father one thing, which was to warn him to be careful. "Please be wary of your aide, Mr. Hector."
Two days passed after the emperor's birthday banquet ended. Martha came to report that the Duchess was summoning her.
From the novel, Elodie knew that when Elodie was little, there had been almost no one to look after her except for the Duchess.
She arrived at the greenhouse and saw an excessively beautiful flower. She was just about to reach out and touch it when the Duchess grabbed her in time.
The Duchess calmly reminded her, "If you go a little further, your whole arm will be torn off. It is a man-eating flower called Halkeria, which lures people close with its gorgeous appearance and hallucinogenic pollen, then devours them." The Duchess warned her, "You'd better be careful."
The Duchess then let her try some iced tea she had made herself. Right in front of the Duchess, Elodie drained the cup in one go without any hesitation.
The Duchess was clearly surprised. She had not expected her to just drink it all like that, and she frankly said, "Very few people dare to drink what I hand them so recklessly."
Elodie thought to herself that she might die three years from now anyway, so she was really not afraid. But so as not to arouse suspicion, she could only say, "It's a bit hot today."
The Duchess countered, "So your life isn't as important as the heat?"
Elodie immediately changed her story. "Ah, it's because the tea smells so good."
The Duchess coolly pointed out, "But this tea has no scent."
Crap. If this goes on, she'll be suspected. Elodie quickly patched it up. "You and I are very good business partners. No one would poison a partner they're working with, right?"
The Duchess seemed to somewhat acknowledge this, but she immediately asked in return, "Is that alone enough of a reason for me not to put poison in your cup?"
In the end, though, the Duchess still hoped she would form a habit from now on: always stay wary of others.
After that, the Duchess had her take her money, and said that the detailed accounting records could be checked against the documents. Seeing the pile of gold coins, Elodie was so happy she nearly took off on the spot.
But before that, the Duchess wanted to place an additional order for another batch of antidotes. And while she was at it, she also asked for the manufacturing method. Elodie stated that the method was a trade secret.
The Duchess pressed her for other ideas. There were so many different kinds of poisons. Could those all have matching antidotes made as well?
Elodie replied that it was no problem, but the stronger the toxicity, the trickier it became, and the longer it would take, because if you wanted to make an antidote, at the end of the day, you had to drink the poison first. And possessing the purification authority did not mean she could not feel pain.
Elodie then turned to ask the Duchess about what she had asked her to keep secret last time. The Duchess told her not to worry. "Since I agreed to you, I will keep my word. Aren't we partners?"
The relationship between the two of them seemed to soften bit by bit, like this.
On the way back, Elodie happened to run into her father in the middle of judging Hector. Hector was desperately begging for mercy, insisting that he had been framed. The Duke told him to shut up. "I've already gathered evidence of your collusion with the second prince."
Elodie just stood there quietly, eating melon seeds and watching the drama.
But the next second, as if sensing something, she turned around, wanting to leave. However, her father suddenly called out to her. Her heart sank. It's over.
Her father ordered her to come with him for a talk. Back inside, he asked her coldly, "How did you know Hector had betrayed us?"
Elodie calmly answered, "Before His Majesty's birthday banquet, I happened to run into him in the corridor. At the time, Mr. Hector seemed to have a strange misunderstanding about me. He thought I liked the second prince."
The moment her father heard the second prince, his anger bar shot straight to maximum.
Elodie tactfully explained, "I felt there was no need to go out of my way to correct his misconception. But then at the banquet, the second prince really did approach me. So I reminded you and asked you to be careful."
After listening to the story, her father barely believed it. So he decided to conduct a large-scale purge in the short term, and had his daughter stay at an annex residence for the time being.
Her father admitted that in exposing the traitor this time his daughter had great merit, and she might make one wish. Elodie did not hesitate. "Just lift my confinement."
But her father set one condition. He was apparently worried about his daughter's safety. Lifting the confinement meant she would go out. So he required that whenever she went out, she must take either Ashen or Carlott with her.
Elodie wanted to go out alone, but her father firmly refused. The reason was simple. The second prince might approach her. So the Duke had no choice but to resort to this.
With no other option, Elodie could only pick the softer persimmon.
The next day, she went to find her second brother, Carl, and asked him to be her escort for the day's outing. Carl, of course, did not want to go out with his illegitimate little sister, much less serve as her escort.
This was exactly what Elodie had counted on, which made things easier. She turned around and headed off to complain. In the end, Carl could not withstand their father's pressure and had no choice but to agree.
But Carl never imagined that he would be shaken off by her in just a little while.
Elodie had not chosen Ashen because Carl wore his heart right on his face.
Carl's authority was a destructive power of ground collapse, which could extend from a small area to a fairly large one. This kind of power was very useful in large-scale war, though it lacked a stage in peacetime. But Carlott was still quite satisfied with his own authority. On top of that, he had exceptional talent in swordsmanship. Even against decent adult knights, he might not necessarily lose.
After that, Elodie brought Carl to a dessert shop, because she wanted to eat that shop's plop chocolate. Carl was very displeased. The place was packed with people. Whenever Carl refused, Elodie simply brought up their father. Naturally, this move never failed her.
Some young noble ladies attending a party saw that Carl had actually come to buy sweets in person, and they immediately started chatting about this cute side of him. And the moment Carl uttered the word plop, the ladies behind him practically exploded.
When Carl finished buying and turned around to look for Elodie, the proprietor of the waiting room told him, "The young lady said she had somewhere to go. It's already been two hours."
It turned out that Elodie had already run off to the magic tower by herself.
When she told the magic tower receptionist that she was there to invest, he immediately treated her like an honored guest. The man in charge of receiving her enthusiastically introduced the magic tower's popular investment projects. But what she truly wanted to invest in this time was a certain mage, namely the mage Elbi.
Elodie understood why the man made that kind of face. Because Elbi was a mage with zero achievements. But from the original novel she knew that before long, the magical devices he invented would sell like crazy and earn an absurd fortune.
She quietly praised herself in her heart. Carefully reading the original really pays off.
The man then took out a magical contract and signaled for her to sign.