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"You still have a chance to remain alive. I can\'t trust a whole group of guards, but it\'s not a problem when it\'s only one. I wouldn\'t want to lose a promising expert mage."

The Empress said as she stood in front of the man kneeling before her.

"The Empress is wise. My loyalty will never be shaken."

"Tell me, Keiki. Why is Isuzu dead?"

"I deserve to be killed! I couldn\'t protect the first princess!"

Keiki had no idea what to say; he also didn\'t know why the first princess died. He made sure to hold back the expert mages of the second princess, yet she got killed by a mere true mage in a single strike.

"Did you see any expert mage attack her? Did you sense any fluctuation from the man she was with?"

One explanation she had in mind was that an expert mage with Darkness affinity ambushed Isuzu the moment Hanako attacked, and the second explanation was that Kisuke sneak-attacked her when she wasn\'t ready.

"I didn\'t sense any additional attack other than the attack of the second princess. Neither from a third party nor from the man she was with."

The Empress wore a contemplative face while she thought about it. The reason Keiki was the captain of the guards in charge of protecting the princess was that he was one of the strongest expert mages they had in the Imperial Guard.

Even if an expert mage with Darkness affinity attacked, he\'d still be able to sense it the moment that mage attacked. As for a new true mage, there was no way he could hide his spells from Keiki.

The only other explanation was that a magus with Darkness affinity did something to Isuzu to prevent her from defending herself. 

\'But who would dare do that? The Assassin Order took an oath not to take orders for royalty.\'

The only injury they found on Isuzu\'s corpse was the one from the water spell Hanako cast, so it had to be something that just canceled Isuzu\'s magic or prevented her from casting any defense.

If it was truly a magus of the Darkness element, it would be easily understandable that Keiki couldn\'t sense the attack at all.

"Did any magus contact Isuzu lately? Did she behave weirdly? Anything you can point out that might help me find the culprit behind Isuzu\'s death?"

"There was nothing out of the ordinary in the past few months. Only one strange thing happened."

"What is it?"

"First Princess didn\'t leave that man she was sleeping with the whole time. She disregarded her training, duties, and plans. It\'s very unlike the princess to act irresponsibly."

"Did you see her, or she was locked in the room with him the whole time?"

"We saw her when she\'d come out to take the food for the two of them. Other than being remarkably happy, she seemed fine. We thought she might have… fallen in love with him. People can get lost in love for a while sometimes."

The Empress nodded in understanding. Everyone had those times, even she had it with her first husband until she got over him and married another.

"I see. What about the man, did you see him come out?"

"No, he was inside and never stepped outside. It was always the princess who took the meals for both of them."

"Being served by the princess is quite an honor. Other than being pretty, does he have any other qualities that issue a battle between the two princesses?"

"Yes, Empress. Despite being a commoner, he lately advanced to the True Mage Stage at only 21 years old. According to him, he made first contact with mana when he was 15."

"So he became an intermediate elite human even though he didn\'t have the same resources as the imperial family. He is indeed worthy of being my son-in-law. Do you know about his relationship with Hanako?"

"He is the sparring partner of the sixth prince. Kisuke met the second princess in the forest when he accompanied the sixth prince to a training session in the forest. According to the guards, they flirted when she spoke to the sixth prince, and she liked him ever since."

"He is sure a charming man if he could make Isuzu stay in her room for a week. How did Isuzu meet him?"

"She heard he was having a date with Hanako and sent me to intercept him on his way back and bring him back to her. She decided that if she likes him too, she will seduce him with aphrodisiacs and claim him as hers."

"I see. Is there anything else you know that might help me?"

"No. Thank you Empress for sparing my life."

The Empress turned around and left the room while black fog covered it. When the fog disappeared, the room was empty again, and there was no sign of Keiki.

She also questioned the captain of Hanako\'s guards, yet she learned nothing new aside from the fact that Hanako has a serious crush on Kisuke. She frowned when she realized she had no leads to follow.

\'The only ones who are capable of doing such a clean operation should be the Assassin Order, but the oath is still intact, meaning they never broke it.\'

She looked at the scroll in her hand and sighed. If the Assassin Order was hired to hit a princess, the oath\'s scroll would lose its mana and the 5 heads of the order would suffer a backlash from the eighth-grade oath scroll.

If that ever happened, the three empires would take the chance to launch a massive attack to get rid of the Order, and those old fogeys would never take such a risk.

\'Then the only other explanation I can come up with is that the Order did it without being asked. That would even hint that one of my children cooperates with them to ensure getting on the throne. If I find out who it is, I will execute them.\'

Although her thought process was based on the principle that if it\'s the only plausible explanation it must be the correct explanation, she didn\'t consider that there might be powers she can\'t fathom like a blessing from the God of Charm.

\'It could be that woman who hunted some geniuses from my dynasty lately, but she shouldn\'t have an affinity with Darkness, so it shouldn\'t be her.\'

She got irritated as soon as she thought of the slippery magus that was raising trouble lately in the dynasty. She even went out to try to find that woman herself and still failed.

---------

"Kisuke, you can change your uniforms. You won\'t be part of the Imperial Guard anymore, now you will be protected by them instead."

Hanako smiled as she pointed at the high-quality black yukata that was neatly folded on the bed. She ordered it for him when he returned to her room after the incident at Isuzu\'s.

it was personally tailored for his sizes, and it came with long black pants. The yukata had a beautiful embroidery of a coiled golden dragon.

"Thanks, Hanako."

Kisuke changed in front of Hanako\'s expectant eyes, and she clapped for him as soon as he finished.

"It fits you perfectly!"

But he was busy planning the near future. First, he had to find a way to get his freedom from Hanako. Second, he had to find out his affinities. He felt that his affinity with the Earth element and his Darkness element improved, but he wanted to know the exact numbers.

"Hanako, do you think I could get some affinity measuring stones? I feel like my affinity with the Earth element rose after strengthening myself."

"Yes, sure. Do you only need it for Earth? I heard you strengthened yourself with the Fire element as well."

The guards felt the elements from when he faked his strengthening process and it obviously wasn\'t kept secret from Hanako.

"Yes, sure. Since we are getting so close to each other, I would like to share my secret with you."

"What is it?"

"I also need the one for the Darkness element."

Hanako looked at him in surprise. It was a rare element, and she didn\'t get it although her mother had it and used many techniques, magic circles, and potions that she purchased from the Assassin Order to raise the odds of passing that affinity to her children.

"That\'s amazing!"

If Kisuke would be powerful in the future, she\'d be practically safe from assassins. They were much less effective against magi of the same stage with Darkness affinity.

She called her guards and instructed them to bring measuring orbs of all elements. It was a simple way to prevent them from knowing which element they were testing.

A few minutes later, the orbs arrived, and Kisuke put his hands on the orbs. He felt excited about it; it has been a while since he could use his Darkness element effectively in a fight.

He started channeling his mana into the Earth Orb from his right hand and into the Darkness Orb from his left hand. Soon the two showed the results.

"That\'s awesome! Your earth affinity rose to SS-52. It should be because going through the strengthening process as an intermediate elite human boosts one\'s affinities."

Hanako explained excitedly when she saw that his affinity rose. But she was much happier when she saw the affinity with Darkness.

"SS-84, that\'s so high! Unfortunately, it won\'t be enough to pass the threshold to SSS when you get to the next stage."

She didn\'t know it was the same affinity as Isuzu.