Day 23 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016

Dustor City, Grizzle Province

ALTHOUGH she was positive about Dev, Victoria didn’t exactly know what she should do to extricate the young major from this confusing situation.

The substance was found in one of his drawers. The thing is, one could argue it was planted by someone else, but the Palmers seemed eager that it was proof that Dev was the traitor. The trial was scheduled on the end of the week—which was two days away—and Victoria had to find counter evidence in that time.

Palmer's men were investigating the Major's office. Victoria intended for Krish's men to go instead, but some sort of weird hierarchical rule prevented her from doing so. She couldn’t insist otherwise because it would undermine her insistence that regulations be observed, so instead, she sent Luz to investigate privately. During the night.

She herself had another task to do.

An hour before the day broke, Victoria was already up. As she climbed out the window, she inwardly apologized to her bodyguards that she escaped from them again, but what she was doing couldn’t be followed by other people.

She went to The Barrel. Her stark black clothes made it hard for people to even see her, so it was startling for the half-sleepy, half-drunk bartender to see her pop up suddenly. She asked for Gleaming Blood, causing the bartender to be even more awake and looked at her suspiciously.

"Tell her V's here."

The bartender went to the backroom. The tavern was filled with smell of alcohol and vomit. Victoria wrinkled her nose at the drunk people strewn around the place. Seemed like a wild night just happened here.

"Come with me," the bartender came back and said without any of his previous sluggishness. Victoria did as he said, following him to the backroom. On the small room that was Calathea's empty office, and right on the corner, a small hatch door was open. "She told you to come downstairs."

Victoria shrugged. "Okay."

She carefully climbed down that vertical steel stairs as the bartender watched her. Once she did, he slammed the hatch shut. Victoria raised an eyebrow. Blades’ people were quite rude.

When she arrived down, she was welcome by one of the soldiers that was previously sent to bring news to her. "Your Highness," he grinned. "Right before the dawn meeting."

Victoria shrugged. "Your story left an impression on me, soldier."

He led the way for her. The soldier complained again about how Calathea insisted on a dawn meeting, but as they walked closer to the end of the hallway, the complaints morphed into praises of how considerate of his leader to prepare them breakfast. Victoria tried to hide her smile.

The underground dining room was huge. There were a lot of people sitting there already. Not all of them were soldiers. Blades was an organization that delved deep into information—and that means information from every nook and cranny, not just the military base. Victoria couldn’t imagine what would happen if a traitor slipped inside, but as far as she knew of Blades' initiation ritual, it was impossible. Not many people beside the Blades members knew that the organization possessed a magical item capable of looking into someone's heart and mind. Well, not many believed magic existed anymore, and that’s probably why it seemed legendary.

The initiation process also involved some very harsh training only those with strong mind could endure. Victoria herself thought she wouldn’t be able to. Even if she couldn’t see it, she knew this underground base also had some magical defense.

For an organization named Blades, they sure depended on a lot of magic, she mused. She didn’t blame them, though. She touched the necklace on her and immediately felt more reassured. Magic was indeed convenient.

Everyone in the room looked at her as she walked in. Victoria herself spotted Calathea on the head of the table immediately, as her turquoise hair was very striking. The woman looked at Victoria with raised eyebrow.

She saluted at the Blades' Grizzle representative with a grin. She didn’t blame the woman that she didn’t seem too thrilled at her presence. Blades was, at first, built as a secret control organization to the royal family’s government. As the council was formed, though, the function slowly shifted, though they still maintained their position as a control group that put the Kingdom's wellbeing first. The royal family couldn’t be too reckless in governing knowing there were people in the dark that could kill them.

During King Gilbert's, her father's, reign however, the function of the organization shifted even more. Her father approached Blades with a lot for missions concerning Lirsk and that caused the organizations position to slid even further away from being a control group. Some of the members weren’t too happy to see Blades close to the royal family because they considered it a violation to the original purpose.

Even Brad Lastain, of whom she entrusted a lot of tasks to, weren’t too keen of her. Oh, he liked her enough personally, but politically, not very. Her face was quite thick, though, and she had enough money, so she ignored all that. She sauntered to Calathea and said hello cheerfully.

"Princess," the woman sighed. "Why, pray tell, do you come here on the break of the dawn?"

"You hold meetings on the break of the dawn," Victoria shrugged again, smiling widely.

Calathea was a wise one. Seeing how thick the Princess’ skin was, she gave up immediately. “What do you need?”

“Maybe I just come to visit,” Victoria muttered, but no one was fooled. “Alright, alright. I need your help.”

“Of course you do,” Calathea replied, seeming like she almost lost her patience. But she had quite the self-control. “Help with what? I already told you the things you want to know, right?”

One of the soldiers brought her a chair and put it next to the leader. She thanked them with a smile and sat down with a sigh. “Come on, Miss Elmer,” she said. “I still haven’t found the traitor.”

On that mention, Calathea slightly stiffened. “Anything weird would always be reported to you,” she said after a few seconds. “This agreement is still in motion as long as you pay.”

Someone started to go around putting food on everyone’s plates, and even offered some snack to Victoria, but she declined politely. “Do you really think that I won’t pay? I need you to investigate something else.”

“I expect expensive payment for additional tasks.”

“Money is no problem,” Victoria said right away. “I need someone to investigate the list of people that were around the west area of the military compound these past few weeks.”

Those who were sitting near them immediately stared at her. Victoria noticed and raised her hands. “No need to attack me with those stares.”

“Why?” A big, gruff man asked. He reminded her of Brad.

She tilted her head, staring back at him. Now that she thought about it, his face looked similar to Brad. Perhaps he is related to the Lastain family.

“Sure,” she said. “I am trying to see if anyone was sneaking around the office area and messing things up.”

“You’re trying to investigate the aggressivity poison,” the gruff man stated with a frown. “Isn’t there an investigation going on already?”

Victoria scowled. “I have reasons to believe that the investigation won’t be completely truthful.”

He somehow relaxed his face. “Ah, you’re trying to relieve suspicions from Andres.”

“I believe those suspicions are unfounded.”

Calathea took control of the conversation. “So, you want me to keep watch around the west side? We already have many planted around there.”

“No, I want the list of people who were there even though they have no reason to be,” Victoria said. “As soon as possible.”

The turquoise-haired woman raised an eyebrow. “That demand would cost you extra.”

“I’ll pay.”

“Very well,” Calathea replied. “You hear the Princess, Lastain.”

“On it.”

Victoria stood up from her chair. “I’ll await your good news,” she said smilingly. []