At the same time, in the situation room of the Second Bureau of the Imperial Magic Department.
Originally responsible for various administrative duties within the imperial palace and the maintenance of its magical facilities, the place was now operating under a state of emergency, with an entire department effectively paralyzed.
The dozens of monitoring magic stones packed densely throughout the situation room were showing only a single target.
The Northern Grand Duchess, Ella von Arzenheim.
The Second Bureau’s sole mission at present was to monitor and analyze her every move, her every breath, and even the faintest currents of mana around her, twenty-four hours a day.
“Ah, damn it… My head seriously feels like it’s going to split open. It’s like there are leeches stuck to my brain, sucking out my blood. Aren’t there any mana recovery potions left?”
“You just cleaned out the last bottle in storage and drank it. Stop whining and hold on. I feel like I’m dying too.”
All throughout the situation room, the dying groans of the mages drifted about like ghosts.
The cause of the problem was the powerful mana absorption devices plastered all over the imperial palace in order to keep Ella in check.
These barrier devices, installed to suppress the Grand Duchess’s magic, were quite fairly sucking in the mana of the empire’s own mages as mercilessly as vacuum cleaners.
Mana was something that naturally replenished only when both body and mind were well rested. Yet they could not even properly close their eyes, and were forced to wring out the scraps of mana they had left to maintain a massive surveillance network. It was enough to drive anyone mad.
“Haa, fuck. At this rate, before Her Highness the Grand Duchess can even do anything with magic inside or outside the palace, we’re going to dry up and die from mana depletion first.”
“At least the imperial family specially modified the surveillance devices so they aren’t affected by those absorption devices. Thank the heavens for that. Otherwise, the surveillance network would have collapsed and been breached ages ago.”
One young female mage, dark circles hanging thick beneath her eyes as she stared fixedly at the main monitoring magic stone, flopped over onto her desk and grumbled irritably.
“Ah, this is so annoying… Normally, at a time like this, I’d pretend to manage the surveillance network while sneaking a look at that handsome face of Prince Ian from Sterling who just arrived, and at least get some mental healing out of it. But having to watch nothing but the Northern Grand Duchess’s face day and night for days on end is making my eyes feel like they’re going through a drought.”
“Hey, don’t complain when you’ve got it good. Her Highness the Grand Duchess is incredibly beautiful, isn’t she? Silver hair, violet eyes—one of the greatest beauties in the empire. Just staring blankly at the screen should be a feast for the eyes.”
“I’m a woman, so what good does staring at a pretty woman’s face all day do me?! I need to look at a handsome man’s face to cleanse my eyes and refill my mental mana! Ah, I miss Prince Ian…”
When the female mage banged on the desk and shrieked her protest, the colleague sitting beside her snickered and rose from his seat.
“All right, all right. I’ll go to the cafeteria and eat quickly, so you keep your eyes peeled and watch the main screen while I’m gone. Don’t fall asleep.”
“Yeah, fine, so bring me back a dessert or something tasty. My brain feels like it’s melting, so I’ll watch it somehow.”
“What should I bring?”
“Coffee and pudding. If they have custard pudding, bring that, and if not… just pack up any sweet cake.”
“You’re going to get fat like that.”
“It’s not like I have a man to meet anyway, so who cares~”
“Keep that up and you’ll live as an old maid into your thirties like Sir White.”
“…I’m going to tell Sir White you said that.”
“Gah.”
“I’m kidding. Hurry up and bring me something sweet. If you don’t, I’ll bite you.”
Click.
When her colleague closed the door and left the situation room, only the low mechanical hum of the monitoring magic stones lingered eerily in the vast, empty chamber.
“Huaaahm…”
The female mage cast a perfunctory glance at the screen, stretched wide, let out a huge yawn, then rubbed her eyes and turned her gaze toward the main magic stone screen showing Grand Duchess Ella.
On the screen, Ella was in the luxurious quarters prepared for her in the imperial palace’s VIP guest rooms, leisurely seated on a soft sofa and tipping a cup of black tea.
There was not the slightest fluctuation of mana around her. It was an utterly peaceful, everyday scene of her drinking tea while turning the pages of a book.
‘Honestly, the higher-ups in the imperial family are scared shitless. She’s just quietly drinking tea and reading like that, so why do they have to grind down the entire Second Bureau just to harass one person…’
She was resting her chin on her hand, swallowing her complaints inwardly and gazing blankly at the screen.
It was at that very moment.
On the screen, Ella, who had been elegantly lifting her teacup, suddenly froze mid-motion.
Then she slowly turned her head and looked straight at the lens of the empire’s finest stealth surveillance magic stone, which had been secretly and perfectly hidden among the decorations of the chandelier.
“…Huh?”
The female mage’s heart dropped.
Was it a coincidence? Had she simply turned her head without thinking, and it just happened to be in the direction of the lens?
No, there was no way it was a coincidence.
Beyond the screen, Ella was looking perfectly through it and meeting the eyes of the female mage frozen in the situation room chair.
That gaze was chilling, as if she knew exactly who was watching her from beyond the hidden lens, from a space several kilometers away.
“Hee.”
Soon, Ella’s red lips split into a bizarrely wide, eerie arc.
Her eyes narrowed into a bewitching smile, and she raised a pale hand toward the female mage beyond the screen, slowly waving it back and forth.
‘Insane… Did she just greet me? How did she notice that location? No, there’s a top-grade concealment spell on it…!’
An icy chill ran up the female mage’s spine.
She fell into a panic, flustered, and just as she reached for the switch with trembling hands to forcibly cut off the magic stone’s connection—
[Hello, Miss Mage.]
“…!!”
It was not a voice coming from the speaker.
In the very center of the situation room of the Imperial Magic Department’s Second Bureau, layered three and four times over with defensive magic and anti-eavesdropping barriers—
The cool, languid voice, as if scraping against her very bones, drove directly into the middle of the female mage’s mind as she sat there alone.
Even though mana absorption devices covered the entire imperial palace, creating an environment where ordinary mages could hardly breathe, Ella had cast long-distance telepathy without the slightest resistance, as though mocking all those restrictions and barriers.
[I didn’t know you had a hobby of watching people in secret. Well, I understand. Beautiful things are meant to be looked at again and again.]
“Hiiik, ah, aaaah…”
The female mage flailed and tumbled out of her chair, collapsing onto the cold floor.
Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart pounded wildly as if it would burst.
A primal fear pressed down on her entire body—the terror one felt before a vast monster of overwhelming disparity, something not human.
On the screen, Ella was still smiling eerily, her eyes curved.
Her lips moved, and once again, that spine-chilling whisper echoed inside the mage’s mind.
[But you see. If you tell your superiors that I greeted you just now, and that I’ve grasped the entirety of this surveillance network…]
The silver eyes of Ella on the screen gleamed strangely.
[You know what will happen, don’t you?]
She would die.
Whether her head burst open, whether her heart stopped, or whether she was torn to pieces without a trace even inside this ironclad imperial palace, she would die.
That was what the overwhelming and ominous waves of the Northern Grand Duchess’s mana, rummaging through her brain, instinctively warned her.
Along with the horrific truth that the empire’s proud mana suppression devices and the shield of the imperial family were nothing more than useless toys before that silver-haired witch.
[I don’t plan on doing anything just yet, so don’t worry too much. Keep diligently doing the surveillance you were already doing. Write your report prettily, saying I obediently stayed holed up in my room, then went out to the social gathering after sunset and chatted a little.]
“Hii, hii, hiiiik…!”
[I’m in a rather bad mood right now because of some insolent bitch. Don’t make me say it twice. Understood?]
The moment the final whisper cut off, the pressure weighing down her mind vanished like the ebbing tide.
On the screen, Ella was calmly bringing the teacup back to her lips, as if nothing had happened at all.
“…Hah, haaah…”
The female mage crouched on the cold floor, trembling like an aspen leaf as she clamped both hands over her mouth.
Tears of terror dripped down her cheeks, but she could not even scream.
All she could do was nod like a madwoman toward the monster quietly drinking tea inside the monitor.