Author: Nikss

My gaze flickered at his words. 

 

‘Did I hear him incorrectly?’

 

Trying to hide the tremor in my voice, I asked again.

 

“…The Amber Guild? 

 

“I’m embarrassed to introduce myself to the Princess, but yes.”

 

Cayden, the man who had dropped the bomb on me, laughed softly.

 

Now I understood why his seemingly friendly demeanor exuded such an air of cunning. But that wasn’t the point.

 

‘… I either have to like this or not.’

 

I moistened my dry lips with tea.

 

【Amber Guild】

 

The Amber Guild, as Cayden had just called it, was an intelligence guild that was said to be the best in the Empire.

 

It was rumored that if one asked the Amber Guild, they would know everything, even what color underwear someone was wearing today.

 

Of course, as with the best information guilds, their prices were high.

 

‘Back in the day, when I went to the arena to rescue Thane, it was the Amber Guild that I bought information about the place.’

 

The fact that the head of such an information guild was on our side was very reassuring.

 

‘…If it weren’t for the fact that the Amber Guild has suffered quite a bit of losses due to the intelligence guilds under the umbrella of Lagrace’s top organization.’

 

— The Amber Guild is the one that suffered the most from the rise of the Information Guild at the top. It’s not an exaggeration to say that they had a monopoly on the information market until now.

 

— Hmm, I see. You don’t have any friction with them, do you?

 

— No, not really, although they do seem to care.

 

— Well, that’s okay, we’ll just have to live with it and share it.

 

Suddenly, I remember a conversation I had with Yurgen a few months ago.

 

Today, I’d decided to let him know that I’m the owner of the Top of the Lagrace

 

The last thing I wanted to do was do something stupid like hide the power that could help save the day.

 

But Cayden was the head of the Amber Guild.

 

It was a bit of an ambiguous situation.

 

‘After all, the Amber Guild did lose money because of the Lagrace Top.’

 

I glanced at Cayden. He was still smiling, his handsome scent wafting in the air.

 

When our gazes met, I smirked back with an equally gentle face.

‘Oh, I don’t know. Now that we’re on the same side, he won’t mind if I say otherwise. It’s not like we’ve done anything immoral.’

 

I decided to rationalize.

 

“I was a little surprised to hear the word Amber Guild and forgot to mention it, hahaha,” I said to Cayden out of politeness.

 

Again, I was relieved to find him relenting.

 

“Hmm, by the looks of things, I feel like I should introduce myself.”

 

“Well, now that we’ve introduced ourselves, I think we should get down to business.”

 

In the awkward air, Fern opened his mouth with a grunt, only to be cut off by Father.

 

More accurately, he was ignored.

 

“…My lord only chastises me.”

 

I glanced at Fern, who muttered with a hurt expression at my father’s disregard, then turned away, smiling awkwardly.

 

“Then I suppose the first thing we should do is explain to the Princess what’s going on, at least briefly.”

 

Worse, even Callian didn’t bother to look at him as he got down to business.

 

💫

 

The fact that Callian had spoken so simply and clearly earlier was quite surprising.

 

More than half the nobility of the neutral faction are on his side.

 

Including the Dukes of Hesse, the Marquises Jacqueline, Valeria, and Xavier, among other powerful families.

 

‘There’s more support for Callian than I thought.’

 

Who would have thought that more than half of the neutral houses would now be on his side?

 

Callian has been on the battlefield for four years.

 

It was enough to surprise even me to realize that his forces were much larger than I had expected.

 

‘Besides, my family supports him.’ 

 

All things considered, we’d lose some ground, but it was hard to say that we were far behind the imperial family.

 

As I pondered this for a moment, Callian’s voice reached my ears.

 

“There aren’t many in my faction who know that the Grand Duke is with me. Jacqueline, Valeria, and Marquis Xavier, to be exact.”

 

“…I see.”

 

The families Callian mentioned were all his closest confidants.

 

Jacqueline’s second son was his aide, and the head of Valeria was his maternal grandfather.

Marquis Xavier…

 

‘Somehow, my brother is with Jerome Xavier.’ 

 

When I glanced at Aaron, he gave a small nod.

 

That confirmed my suspicions.

 

‘Marquise Jacqueline. He’s always been supportive of Callian, and everyone else knows it.’ 

 

‘I hear the Marquise Valeria has been chipping away at the estate since the death of Queen Asyla.’ 

 

I was told he had no interest in his only grandson, but that was not true.

 

Callian’s current power was less than a third of his true strength.

 

‘…You’re hiding it on purpose.’ 

 

If it became known that Krovachatz was standing by Callian’s side, the Empress and the First Prince would immediately take action.

 

In the worst case, they might even try to kill him.

 

The Empress has already been involved in the death of someone with black magic.

 

‘There’s no guarantee she won’t do it again.’

 

There was a reason Callian was keeping his head low and not showing his full power.

 

Having been briefed on the current situation, I slowly spoke up.

 

“Well, since it’s come to this, it’s probably best not to keep secrets.”

 

“…?”

 

At my stammering, Callian, sitting across from me, blinked at me.

 

“What do you mean.”

 

My father and Aaron didn’t seem to know what I was going to say.

 

The five heads turned toward me, and I felt a bit overwhelmed, but I didn’t hesitate to speak. The smile on my lips must look conceited now.

 

“From now on, even the top of Lagrace will help you, Your Highness.”

 

“What does that mean…”

 

Callian looked puzzled at the sudden mention of Lagrace’s name. He was equally surprised by the pair of red rubies.

 

‘I guess my father and brother didn’t know about this.’ 

 

Knowing about my research into black magic, I thought they’d already found out about the top.

 

Not knowing why they were surprised, I shrugged it off.

 

“If you need anything, just ask. Lagrace will help you as much as my father will help you.”

 

Finishing with a commanding tone, I smirked out of the corner of my eye.

 

The assistance of one of the Empire’s top could certainly come in handy for Callian.

 

“…You mean the Lagrace top, I know.”

 

Callian, who was looking in my direction with a puzzled expression, asked me.

 

“Well, would it be more clear if I told you that it also means Yurgen Casey?”

 

“Huh…”

 

When I brought up Yurgen’s name, known to the world as the Top Lord, a low sigh came from someone.

 

This was an understanding I’d had with Yurgen since I founded Lagrace’s Top with him.

 

Someday, I may need to use the power of the Top to help someone, and I hope he understands my decision.

 

“So, the hidden owner of the Lagrace Top is the Princess.”

 

Cayden, who was sitting next to Callian, muttered.

 

I chimed in meekly, “Well, for now, let’s call it a partnership.”

 

Hidden owner was too grand a word.

 

‘And a little shady…’ 

 

The reason was a bit greater, but still.

 

“…Haha! Somehow, no matter how much I pry, I can’t figure out that it’s a woman.”

 

“Ahhhh.”

 

“No wonder my boys couldn’t figure it out.”

 

There was a hint of amusement in Cayden’s tone as he said this.

 

On the surface, Cayden seems like a nice guy, but his personality was hard to read.

 

Or rather, I should say, I couldn’t figure him out.

 

‘Well, it’s rare for people who lead large guilds to be ordinary.’

 

With that thought, I opened my mouth again.

 

“And that leaves the most important fact.”

 

This was part of what I was going to reveal, but it was beside the point.

 

Now was the time to explain why my father had summoned Callian.

 

Reaching out, I opened the subspace. This was to retrieve the books and artifacts I had shown my father and Aaron earlier.

 

It wouldn’t matter, since the only people here knew I used magic anyway.

 

“Huh… I can’t believe you use subspace magic so easily.”

 

I pretended not to hear Fern’s embarrassed muttering.

 

Thunk— 

 

Swoosh~

 

With a careful touch, I slid the clock-shaped artifact and book to the center of the table for the others to see.

 

“This is… an artifact.”


Callian’s gaze, which had been scrutinizing the clock, landed on the gem embedded in the center.

 

“Wait, let me see it.”

 

Stepping in quickly, Fern held the artifact in front of me.

 

“Huh, is this…, no.”

 

Fern held the artifact up to his face and muttered to himself.

 

‘Well, he seems to recognize it.’ 

 

Even if he didn’t know exactly what it was capable of, he had recognized the vicious difficulty of the enchantment on the jewelry.

 

Despite his usual airy, lighthearted demeanor, Fern was one of the top three mages in the Empire.

 

“I explained it to my father and brother earlier, but…”

 

Trailing off, I flipped to a page in the book.

 

It was the page that had given me a eureka moment when I first discovered the book.

 

“As you can see, this book describes how to create an artifact that can identify a black magic user.”

 

The faces of the three men, except for my father and Aaron, visibly lit up at those words.

 

To this day, I gritted my teeth as I remembered the painstaking work I’d put into engraving magic circles on jewelry.

 

Thinking about all the precious gems and time I’d wasted on those early failures made me cry.

 

But for now, I was grateful to have stumbled upon the book and successfully created another artifact.

 

“So this is…”

 

Fern muttered, looking down at the artifact in his hand.

 

I nodded and said, “This is the artifact I made according to the instructions here.”

 

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