Chapter 75
March 21st, Year 761 (Sunday)
“Yaaawn…”
Early morning. Princess Muriela was sitting on her bed, eyes closed.
She’d woken up at her usual time, but her mind felt hazy, and it was hard to move.
‘Maybe I didn’t recover from yesterday’s fatigue? I really did run around a lot.’
She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids kept drooping without her realizing.
At this rate, she was in danger of skipping her morning exercise.
“Exercise… I have to…”
— “Your training schedule must be followed!” shouted Ghost Trainer Solinor.
But his desperate cry only echoed futilely inside little Muriela’s sleepy head.
In the end, Muriela collapsed sideways from her sitting position and fell back asleep.
“Princess, you coughed—”
Florina, who had also barely managed to wake up and rubbed her sleepy eyes, staggered into the princess’s room.
Seeing the princess had already fallen back asleep, she let out a sigh of relief. She was dead tired herself.
A delayed start to the day would actually work in her favor.
‘Honestly, this is better. I need some rest too.’
As she exited the room, a yawn escaped her lips with a long sigh.
She’d stayed up late writing a report last night, and her eyes were still heavy with sleep.
To make things worse, Bianca was on vacation, so Florina had to look after Princess Muriela alone.
Which meant she had no choice but to burn through her stamina today.
Still, since the princess had gone back to sleep, she had bought herself a bit of time.
She could’ve woken Muriela up, but why bother?
Even if the princess was uncharacteristically mature for her age, she still had the body of an eight-year-old.
‘Mm… I better hurry back to the servant quarters.’
A little rest now would help her conserve energy in case the princess decided to do something wild again.
‘Surely she wouldn’t want to go out again after everything yesterday, right?’
But that was too optimistic.
They were talking about Princess Muriela here.
After what happened yesterday, Florina had completely given up trying to predict her behavior.
‘Yesterday’s princess was the embodiment of madness.’
Staggering a bit, she walked back toward the servant quarters, replaying the events of the day before in her mind.
Things had felt strange from the very moment Muriela stormed into the budget department.
Though that had been pre-planned, so it was somewhat understandable.
But then came the spur-of-the-moment decision to sneak out again? That too, in secret?
‘Ugh, even thinking about it now makes me shiver.’
While she admired the princess’s boldness and knack for identifying problems, it had all felt so reckless and impulsive.
She’d barged into a bureaucrat’s home and blatantly threatened them with force.
Then she’d spanked someone mid-conversation as a warning from behind. That had almost given Florina a heart attack.
‘Still, her ability to think on her feet was nothing short of incredible.’
Especially when they’d been surrounded by foreign spies at the end.
Despite the life-threatening danger, she had stayed calm and searched for a solution without so much as flinching.
That wasn’t something even a trained adult could easily do, let alone a child.
‘Maybe she really is born of a special bloodline? But if so, how come none of the other princes or princesses show that kind of composure?’
She had spent her entire life inside the palace, living in comfort, and yet she had acted like it was second nature.
Even with the advantage of spirit magic, that hadn’t been the key factor.
Most people would’ve panicked and failed to use it at all.
Muriela, however, had demonstrated the makings of a truly exceptional person.
‘Up until that point, everything was fine. No, it was impressive. But what came next… that’s when the real problems began.’
The things she had done after subduing the enemies had been so shocking, they threatened to erase all other memories of the day.
Torturing someone to extract answers wasn’t especially unusual.
But in her case, the problem was that she toyed with her victims by asking questions that couldn’t even be answered.
It was written in the report, too—her cruelty was enough to inspire terror in many.
‘King Eldric may be indifferent and irresponsible, but he’s not cruel. Where did she inherit that trait from?’
Unlike her father, she was remarkably proactive and competent, no doubt about that.
But if no one around her managed that cruelty properly, there was no telling what direction she might go in.
If she ever became monarch, no one could say what kind of ruler she’d turn out to be.
A virtuous sovereign? A tyrant? Right now, both seemed possible.
Well, it’s not something that would happen soon—at least a decade or more remained, so it could be managed.
While Florina was deep in thought about Muriela and the kingdom’s future, she found herself already at her bed.
Even half-asleep, she had managed to think through all that and walk herself there.
And just like that, Sunday morning in Princess Muriela’s chambers passed peacefully and quietly.
—
Meanwhile, that same day, very early in the morning.
At the Spymaster’s Office, Corbin was reviewing the mountain of reports covering his desk one by one.
Background checks on the foreign spies who had been killed or captured the day before, and post-operation summaries.
Reading everything thoroughly was likely his way of expressing appreciation to the agents who worked through the night.
Eight killed, two captured—ten in total. The amount of material was immense.
Everything that had happened during Solinor’s rampage yesterday was also thoroughly documented.
‘Big bro really pulled it off. Took out all those rats crawling through Solineum—his instincts are incredible.’
Of course, Corbin had known that foreign spies were operating inside Solineum.
The reason he’d let them roam free until now was precisely so he could round them up in one go.
Two of them had been tracked down, including fake identities and housing. But the others hadn’t.
They moved around meeting so many people, it was almost impossible to find meaningful connections.
It must’ve been a deliberate strategy.
“By befriending hundreds of people, they made it harder to pin suspicion on anyone in particular. Damn clever.”
Sid—the apparent leader of the spies—was someone he had never even considered a suspect.
A perfectly average bureaucrat. Even background checks had turned up nothing.
Moderately upright, moderately corrupt—a man of balance.
Too normal to seem suspicious, so they had done only a surface check and set him aside. And yet he had been critical.
“Unbelievable. Irregular and long-cycle meetings—how did big bro even notice it? He even pinpointed the location!”
Corbin admired Solinor’s information-gathering prowess. Even in that body, his intel exceeded that of trained spies.
Of course, it had all been a massive coincidence, but Corbin misunderstood and praised him anyway.
Otherwise, why would he have chosen to go out exactly yesterday?
“Maybe he used a spirit? Damn… that’s so unfair. That’s the kind of ability all spies need. If only I had a wind spirit too…”
Chuckling, Corbin moved on to the next report—and burst into laughter when he saw a particularly amusing section.
“Hahaha! Isn’t this exactly what I taught him? Must’ve been a hell of a sight.”
It was the part about the eccentric interrogation method that had horrified everyone.
Corbin was impressed that Solinor had learned well and used it appropriately. But to everyone else, it had been so bizarre and terrifying.
Especially Florina, who had added a note saying, “The princess is insane! She’s cruel!”
She even emphasized that her temperament must be corrected before she came of age—bolded and underlined.
“Hahahahaha! This is a masterpiece. I have to show this to big bro later and see his reaction.”
After finishing all the reports, Corbin roughly organized the documents and fell into deep thought.
“We knew the Bellaris bastards were always watching for a chance—but they’re moving even faster than expected. Damn it. Canceling the Capital Defense Force’s training was a mistake. I told them this would happen…”
Another foolish decision by King Eldric.
Why bother training the Capital Defense Force when the enemy would never reach the capital?
It was all because of those sycophants. They just wanted to embezzle the training budget for other purposes.
“Alright, I’ll interrogate the survivors and see what else I can dig out.”
With that, Corbin stood up. Since Solinor had already broken them in, they’d likely open up more easily than expected.
A chilling smile crept across his lips as he headed for the interrogation room.
—
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