“This… doesn’t make any sense.” Cyrena frowned with confusion.
“It has only been a few hours since we received letters from High Witch Beth, Lord of Wolfwater, Lord of Eastcliff, and the other batch of merchants. Reasonably thinking, they shouldn’t have known we were planning to refuse their invitations, so we haven’t offended them yet.”
“So this kind of attempt on your life doesn’t seem to be something they would do now, Lady Solana,” Cyrena mentioned.
“You’re right, Cyrena,” Solana agreed with Cyrena’s thought, still fuming over Marilla’s death. “These dirty tactics must belong to another group. And whatever group it is, I don’t think they have any interest in negotiating with us over the central properties.”
“If they did, then what they did here was an extremely stupid idea. I would rather sell the properties to a dog than sell to them! They have infuriated me!” Solana swore to avenge Marilla’s death.
After she sealed the wounds on Marilla’s body, she cleaned up the blood and poison before moving outside the room to handle the rest of the task.
A short while later, Solana returned to the bedroom after she finished handling Marilla’s body.
“I’ll be back,” Solana informed Dahlia and Cyrena before instructing them, “Try not to go anywhere.”
“Huh? Where are you going now, Lady Solana?” Cyrena quickly asked.
“So many forces could act so rampant in Sunpeak Town because we lack the security of magic tools, unlike Redpine City. As such, Sunpeak Town is no different from a haven for lawless people to gather,” Solana mentioned.
They did have some security-type magic tools installed in the past. But that was before the town declined due to the curse.
When people fled the town during the chaos, most of the magic tools were also salvaged and sold off to the black market somewhere by scavengers.
“However, I suddenly recalled that each region lord was given a long-range communication magic tool to contact the capital for emergencies. I just hope it’s still within the estate somewhere,” Solana mentioned.
Dahlia getting hurt was a trivial matter to Queen Henrietta, but an assassination attempt on her life was a different matter entirely.
She was the previous lord and the current acting lord of Sunpeak Town.
As such, an assassination attempt on her life was equivalent to challenging Queen Henrietta’s authority in the Kingdom of Black Rose.
Nevertheless, when Dahlia understood Solana’s intention, she was surprised and asked for confirmation, “You’re going to contact the capital and seek help from Her Majesty?”
“Yeah,” Solana nodded. “Since information regarding this region is most likely locked down, the communication magic tool is our only chance of letting our words reach Her Majesty’s ears.”
“But if you contact the capital with it, there’s a high chance that it will attract even more greedy hyenas from the capital over,” Dahlia mentioned with a frown.
However, Solana was aware of such a risk.
“I know, but that’s also exactly what I want,” Solana admitted with a nod before explaining, “The last thing these greedy lords and merchants want is even more competitors.”
“So, if we can attract many opportunists from the capital over, it’ll completely upset the current power balance between these outside forces.”
“We might be able to find a chance to reverse our situation within such chaos,” Solana added.
Shortly after, she left to search the estate. However, she returned in disappointment a few hours later.
“The communication magic tool is not in this building. It might have been taken during the time I neglected it to manage the Golden Peacock Inn.” Solana sighed.
“However, I’m still going to find those bastards responsible for Marilla’s death and make them pay. Tomorrow morning, I will post an announcement outside regarding this incident. I make those greedy lords and merchants look for those bastards.”
“If they fail to turn in the culprits, I will use the ‘communication magic tool’ to inform the capital about the assassination attempt on an acting lord,” Solana declared.
“What?” Cyrena immediately jumped with fright and raised her objection against the idea, “No, you can’t, Lady Solana. It’s way too dangerous. That’s no different from playing with fire.”
“Sometimes we need fire to fire,” Solana was determined.
Although Cyrena was still against the idea, she failed to persuade Solana. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do besides concocting low-level potions.
However, even that was out of the question since they ran out of raw ingredients.
She could only sigh and resign herself to whatever fate had in store for her.
…
…
…
Thousand Fog Mountains, Nine Mountain Peaks
Back in the Red Dragon Clan, Vaan exhausted Narvim’s mana stones on his aura cultivation before he moved to Eighth Peak to go after Khaleesi’s mana stones.
Upon meeting Khaleesi, he found her supervising Eniwse’s body-enhancing medicinal bath.
Although he didn’t know this body-enhancing medicinal bath would affect Eniwse’s voluptuous melons, he hoped it wouldn’t grow any bigger.
While size didn’t matter to him, it wasn’t good for Eniwse’s back.
Nevertheless, Vaan recalled Eniwse’s previous words and decided to leave fifteen drops of the Fire Dragon God’s blood essence with Khaleesi.
The eighth dragon lord appeared to be the expert in training Eniwse. Thus, she would know how to use the Fire Dragon God’s blood essence to strengthen Eniwse’s body effectively.
Still, he informed Khaleesi to notify him if she required more drops of the Fire Dragon God’s blood essence for Eniwse’s body-strengthening process.
And if Khaleesi was left with excess blood essence, she could use it on herself.
Afterward, Vaan gained access to Khaleesi’s vault and robbed all her mana stones before he decided to pay another visit to the Trial by Fire.
Considering he was planning to leave the Red Dragon Clan soon, it wouldn’t do if he didn’t record every magical plant with Emerald’s specialized magic, Plant Compendium.
As long as Emerald became powerful enough, it was possible to recreate any type of fire-attribute magical plant in the Trial by Fire.
However, it wasn’t just limited to fire-attribute magical plants in the Trial by Fire, but any magical plant in general.
After Vaan finished his task in the Trial by Fire, he suddenly felt a sense of discomfort and frowned.