VIP Chapter 204: Treya’s Trap
The Royal Palace.
Treya, clad in dark gray armor and wielding a sword, walked through the palace gardens. The atmosphere within the palace was thick with tension. Treya’s silver hair fluttered as servants, who brushed past her, would turn to look back, whispering amongst themselves.
“Will the Ninth Princess be the one with the highest chance of winning this struggle?”
“It’s hard to say. His Highness the Fourth Prince, who was thought to have victory in hand, has fallen.”
“Shh, the Seventh Princess has too many informants. We must not be mistaken for someone on her side.”
“Let’s talk about the Ninth Princess instead. Has she been under a lot of pressure lately?”
“She’s usually expressionless. How can you tell?”
“You can’t see it?! Don’t you think she’s become much more haggard? It must be the high pressure of the palace lately, suffocating her. She hasn’t smiled in days.”
“You’re joking, right? No one has ever seen her smile!”
As a half-elf, Treya was more sensitive to sounds than ordinary humans, and she still overheard some of the gossip behind her. However, for Treya, who was not highly favored, she cared the least about discussions concerning her. She dismissed them as wind; others’ discussions, she would treat as information and listen carefully.
“Will was right about this,” she mused.
As her father’s health worsened, and after several consultations with doctors in the past few days, with only the children of the current Empress Anna attending to him, everyone likely sensed something was amiss. The struggles within the Royal Family were already fierce. Earlier, when Emperor Edward was away on campaign, always on the verge of death on the battlefield…
The children had already been scarred from their struggles to “prove themselves.” The Second Prince died in a conflict—a direct assassination, and no one has yet discovered who was responsible. The First Prince’s body was ruined by something unknown, and he was now half-dead, much like his father. The Third Prince disappeared after running away from home, and people even suspected he was the one behind it, having been eliminated by the factions of the other two. As for the first three princesses, they were already losers and chose to marry out, fighting for a sliver of power for their brothers in the royal struggle.
—These were all stories Will had told her.
—It was laughable; as the Ninth Princess, she had been completely unaware of her own family’s affairs and had to rely on an outsider to meticulously recount them to her.
After entering an era of peace, most of the remaining children had not yet experienced such intense struggles. However… they had already engaged in plenty of minor skirmishes, like the ones Eugenie used to engage in, combining both overt and covert tactics.
Lost in these thoughts, Treya found herself standing before the Guard Headquarters, located within the Royal Palace. The headquarters was impressively built, about three stories high and occupying an area of two to three hundred square meters, with a shiny golden paint finish on its exterior. But… at the entrance, only a bare flagpole remained. The guards were a branch of the Royal Knights, originally overseen by the Fourth Prince and managed by the Sixth Prince. The Fourth Prince, embroiled in a “rebellion” scandal, had his banner removed from the flagpole, which had previously represented his faction.
She pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside. Creak—The moment the door opened, the noisy, chattering atmosphere from within the headquarters, audible even from outside, fell into complete silence. The action of drinking coffee froze as the cup touched the lips. The action of organizing documents halted as a page was turned. The action of signing documents paused as the pen touched the paper. What truly stopped was the topic of conversation.
Treya had overheard fragments from outside. For example, the Fourth Prince possessed classified documents detailing how he had murdered the Third Prince and disposed of his body in a river after the latter’s departure. Furthermore, for the sake of his battle achievements, the Fourth Prince had secretly benefited his opponents in several campaigns, transporting a large amount of wealth and treasures from the dungeons. It was also said that the Seventh Princess was now impeaching because the truth could no longer be concealed, as she had helped her brother cover it up for many years.
The servants gossiped about the royal struggles because only when discussing such matters could they sigh, “The high and mighty Royal Family lives a darker life than ours,” to console themselves, making their ten-meter-thick pile of documents for the day seem insignificant.
Treya walked a few steps further into the silence. The heels of her silver boots clicked on the floor, and an inexplicable sense of pressure spread throughout the headquarters.
“I’ve come to ask about the wanted poster that was commissioned. Is it ready?” she asked, stopping in the center and speaking loudly. Her tone was plain, but her voice was exceptionally cold.
“Ninth Princess—we have already carried out your orders. The posters should be up in various locations by now.” The general on duty here—he hadn’t been on a battlefield in a long time, hence his portly figure—slid across the gleaming floor, which reflected their images like a mirror.
“Are you sure the covered locations include all cities with dungeons?”
“Yes, yes. We’ve also posted them in cities where dungeons have appeared before.”
“…Good.” Treya surveyed the room. Everyone seemed to look at her with fear. How strange, she wasn’t that fierce today.
“Your Highness, I don’t know if I should say this…”
“Speak. I’m listening to everything.”
“If you truly want to find someone quickly, you might consider secretly drafting an arrest warrant and ordering the guard to bring anyone who sees them to the palace. It would surely be much faster than putting up wanted posters like this.”
Treya paused. “He is your fiancé, Your Highness. Don’t worry, we do this often. We’ve caught that trash husband of the Fifth Princess, who brings slaves, in various private establishments several times.”
“That doesn’t sound like a lawful procedure. You use it often?”
“Oh! No, no. As your subordinate, I said nothing. It’s just that the young masters of those merchant families claim they are missing… we all understand.”
To outsiders… a wanted poster from the Ninth Princess might simply be seen as the helplessness of “the perverted young master of the Hysterm family has wandered off again, and his fiancée, the Princess, is desperately posting wanted notices across the country.”
“Will is not like that. A man who blushes and avoids cameras when called a couple by the newspaper would only appear near dungeons… to pursue his ‘career’.”
Treya strongly defended Will while walking to a table. On it lay extra copies of the wanted posters. She gazed at Will’s face on the poster; she had seen his brown hair and deep blue eyes many times. Yet, she was still captivated, her lips naturally curling upwards.
“However, I understand. Although we made no promises, he might be the one who cares about me the most in this world, and he is the one who can understand this wanted poster.” This was because Treya did not expect much care from her “relatives.”
In Treya’s heart, and in Will’s heart… This was Treya’s “cry for help.” A photograph, wanted posters plastered across the country, and a solitary signature from Treya, revealing no personal information.
“Therefore, this is a trap.” Putting down the wanted poster, Treya’s smile disappeared. She believed that the moment Will saw it, he would rush to her aid without hesitation. He would return to her side according to his own will. Just like that night, when he extended a hand to her in the darkness. That was what Treya desired, the “color” in her eyes.
