When I arrived at the palace, Eric was waiting for me. I wondered if something was wrong, if he came all the way out to the gate to meet me.
“Leia! Did you see Linboldt at the chapel?”
“Huh?! How…do you know?”
Eric sighed, “So my hunch was right… I had a spy follow Tailong, and the spy informed me that Tailong met with Linboldt and they went to the chapel together.”
That’s my Eric. I hadn’t thought of assigning spies to Liu and Tailong.
That’s why he was waiting for me…he had a bad feeling.
I nodded. “Yes, Margrave Linboldt and Tailong approached me at the chapel, but Prince Liu found me first.”
“What?! Wait, I shouldn’t be surprised. Liu probably ordered Tailong’s meeting with Linboldt. Anyway, tell me what happened.”
Eric looked surprised at first, but he quickly understood. We were on the same page that the imperial prince was surely pulling all the strings and Tailong was acting under his orders. Eric and I moved over to a terrace in the outer garden to continue our conversation.
“What did he have to say to you, Leia?”
“Well…first, Prince Liu proposed to me again, and he asked me to go back to the Ren Empire with him.”
“I thought so… That bastard, how dare he treat my Leia like that?!” While Eric did not lose his cool, there was a tremor of rage in his voice.
I wasn’t at all surprised. A man would only ambush an engaged lady when she’s alone and propose if he wanted to pick a fight with her fiancé.
Still…I know it’s improper to think this, but I’m kind of flattered that Eric is so furious.
I didn’t tell him so, but I could feel the love behind his unabashed anger.
“I can’t quite put my finger on it, but when he proposed to me, I got the feeling that he had an ulterior motive.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I can’t express it very well, but…I felt like his words and actions were only half sincere. It seemed like he was testing me—yes, that’s it! It’s what you were talking about the other day. I feel like he’s spying on me.”
“Ahh. Hmm…that’s very intriguing.”
I had always felt something was off about Liu. He kept asking me to go back to the Ren Empire with him, but there was always something insincere about it. At first, I thought he was merely shallow, but I started to wonder if there was more to it than that.
“It seems that Prince Liu proposed to me because he saw the political value in having a saint, myself, in the Ren Empire. But now I think there’s more to the story.”
“More to the story, you say? You don’t think he cornered you when you were alone to convince you to back off so I would marry Lingsha?”
“Yes, I thought that might be his motive at first, but as soon as Margrave Linboldt showed up, he dropped that angle. Then again, that was for the best. Jill didn’t catch on that she played a part in this mess…”
“Wait, Jill Westoria was there? Could it be then that Liu was actually—” Eric was astonished. Perhaps he had a clue as to Liu’s true objective.
“Did you figure something out, Eric?”
“Yeah. Liu’s real reason for going to see you might have been to observe.”
“What?! W-well yes, I suppose that’s possible. Though I do believe he also wanted to reconfirm my feelings.”
I tilted my head, perplexed. After all, this was a major assumption. Liu wanted to observe what kind of person I was…and that was why he was following me around. But I was surprised that Eric would go out of his way to point that out. Was there some other meaning behind it?
“No, Leia, that’s not quite what I meant. Sure, Liu may have also wanted to observe you, but I think it’s possible that his true objective was to observe your sister.”
“What?!” I shrieked in surprise. He wasn’t after me—he was after Jill.
No, wait…there is some evidence to back up that hypothesis.
There was one thing that made me agree with Eric’s theory, and that thing was the source of my feeling that there was something off about Liu…
“That’s right…Liu knew Jill’s name. Back at the meeting, he didn’t know my name—or perhaps he was only pretending he didn’t know it…”
“So, you noticed. Yes, if Liu’s actual objective is Jill Westoria…then I wager he’s after someone who can cast Death Poison.”
“Ah, that does make sense…”
Death Poison was taboo magic. A caster could produce enough poison to kill a person just by touching a liquid. Berklein had taught Jill the spell, hoping to assassinate me with it, since Jill had a natural talent for it.
“Only two people in this kingdom can cast the Death Poison spell. One of them is Jill Westoria, and the other is a man with a former magic scholar for a father—Nash Hoffman.”
“Wait a minute, Nash said he felt like somebody has been spying on him recently!”
That’s right. He said he felt that somebody was watching him. It was highly likely that his spy was under Liu’s command.
“He stopped Linboldt from speaking with you any further because he had already distracted you from his true objective. Besides, he could have talked to you until he was blue in the face yet accomplish nothing—our engagement cannot end without my consent.”
“I remember him saying it was pointless to talk. But wow, I didn’t expect Death Poison would come up again. Why do you think Liu wants it?”