“Moser, have my brothers ever bought Bloodkin slaves?” The Ninth Prince felt a chill bead like dew along his spine. He stared at the butler while holding Eli’s letter.

He meant the other princes. Butler Moser stood silent for a breath, then bowed slightly, voice steady as winter rain. “Your Highness, from our network alone, there’s no such report.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. There isn’t even a whisper of any of the eight princes purchasing slaves. Let alone hiring Demon Race as assassins. If that’s exposed...” Moser’s brows drew tight, like storm clouds knitting.

The Ninth Prince nodded, yet doubt burned like a low lamp. He didn’t believe his brothers were clean.

Besides them, who else would target a “weak” façade like his? Who else could fetch a Bloodkin to slit his throat?

“Moser, our web still has holes,” he said, a worry like fine sand grinding behind his eyes.

The butler weighed it, then bowed deeper. “It’s my failure, Highness.”

“Enough. That Bloodkin, Mr. Eli will likely take care of it.” The Ninth Prince shook his head, like a reed shedding rain, and let the thought drift for now.

Moser hesitated, words hanging like mist. “Highness, do you truly trust Mr. Ostor that much? If I may...”

“I get it, Moser.” The Prince’s tone was soft, yet a flint sparked beneath. “It’d be a stretch to call it full trust. Still, he’s more reliable than any archmage we’d pull from a Mage Tower.”

Moser mulled it over, gave a wry smile, and withdrew like a shadow at dusk.

Of course he understood the old man. Lately he’d laid his coffers bare before Eli. If Eli held any stray ambition, ruin would fall like a black wave.

But he had no other path. The Mage Towers were likely under Second Brother’s thumb. The cold shoulders and thin smiles from his elder brothers toward his own mages said enough.

He was the youngest. What he held was a candle, while those ambitious brothers held torches.

A headache pressed like iron between his brows. “Seems it’s time to visit Father and Mother.”

..................................................

Eli followed the intruding Bloodkin at an easy pace, footsteps light as falling ash. The Bloodkin never sensed him. Yet she did not head for the Ninth Prince’s quarters, nor toward where the Prince currently was. She drifted, instead, toward Angela’s room—the opposite shore from the supposed target.

That tightened something in Eli’s chest, like a bowstring drawn cold. What’s your game?

Curiosity pricked like thorns. He quickened his steps.

Half a circuit later, a thought flashed like lightning across dark water. Did she spot me? Or is she lost? An assassin who doesn’t know a manor’s bones?

What kind of assassin is that—planning to berserker through the front hall? Absurd.

Eli’s frown locked in place, a bar of iron. It wasn’t that simple.

Caution costs nothing. At every corridor he passed, he laid down the bare bones of a spell array, chalk lines like spider silk. He primed Holy Light spells in his mind, white fire banked behind glass. He was ready for a sudden storm.

In the great hall, tucked in a shadowed corner, Edlyn studied a strange pocket watch. A crooked smile touched her lips like a crescent moon. She measured time, then stepped toward the crowd as if wading into reeds.

“Hero. Let me look at you once more.”

A servant glanced at the girl standing there, a little statue in lamplight. Remembering she was a guest invited by His Highness, he approached with a polite bow. “Miss, do you need any help?”

Edlyn turned, smile bright as frost on slate. “Nothing urgent. His Highness did say a string of earls would arrive with their daughters. Could you open the front gate?”

The servant blinked, puzzled, then bowed. “At once, miss.”

Edlyn drifted to the balcony. A few young lords offered hands like over-watered flowers. She declined with an airy shake of her head, then lifted her chin to the sky and fell silent, eyes far as starlight.

Eli watched the Bloodkin standing motionless at Angela’s door. The bad feeling grew roots, winding tight.

The Bloodkin turned suddenly, gaze cutting toward him. In a man’s voice that fell like pebbles in a well, she said, “Friend tailing me, care to step out and talk?”

Eli narrowed his eyes, measuring the wind. Bluff? Or sight sharper than mine?

In truth, the Bloodkin hadn’t noticed him. But she knew, with the bone-deep certainty of an instinct older than language, that Eli had been watching from the start.

Why? There was no why. She just knew.

She called twice more. Eli finally stepped from the shadow, face storm-lit. “Sharp eyes, sir.”

“Heh.” The hood swallowed her expression like a theater veil, keeping those tangled eyes behind its brim.

Bloodkin—Edlyn in disguise—looked at his familiar face. For a heartbeat she drifted, then shook her head with a soft laugh.

Whatever else, the plan must flow on like a river.

..................................................

“You’ve been on my tail for a while, haven’t you?” Edlyn planted hands on hips, amused, as she faced Liqianyu standing a short distance back.

She’d felt a gaze on her the moment she left the alchemy shop, warm as a lamp and free of malice.

At first she thought herself too jumpy and let it slide. Then, in one breath, she caught that vast, familiar, restrained swell of Battle Aura, like thunder bottled in a jar, and guessed the watcher’s name.

“You noticed me?” Liqianyu’s eyes flicked, surprised. She wasn’t a master at tailing, but with the edge of her Battle Aura, she was hard to spot. This little girl was no simple kitten.

Seeing the confusion pool in Liqianyu’s gaze, Edlyn smiled. As her demonic soul rose like a sun behind her ribs, the pride of a Demon King filled her like wine.

She shed the skin of a little girl, inch by inch. Mischief grew like ivy. Other people’s baffled faces were sweeter than candy on her tongue.

One day, I’ll run the Hero in circles. The thought tickled her.

“You must be very curious,” Edlyn said, smile light as drifting petals.

“Who are you, really?” Liqianyu’s tone cut clean, like a blade rinsed in snowmelt.

“Oh?”

“When I walked out, I saw you by Eli’s side...”

“And also me, over there, right?”

“Mm.”

“Both were me. That was just a double.”

“Huh?” Liqianyu’s lips parted, shock whisking across like a breeze.

“A small trick,” Edlyn said, smiling.

“How am I supposed to trust you?”

“Does your trust change anything for you?” Edlyn’s smile didn’t waver.

Liqianyu’s mouth opened, then shut. The truth was, this imp had little to do with her. Her eyes turned, bright as a fish. “If your identity stays muddy, it endangers the Ninth Prince.”

Edlyn only smiled, neither agreeing nor denying. She didn’t buy that Miss Li suddenly cared for the Ninth Prince’s safety.

Liqianyu felt silly and looked aside with a twitch of her lips.

“So what are you doing now? Wandering is dangerous. What if someone snatches you?” her voice softened, like a sleeve brushing dust.

Edlyn lowered her head. Snow-white hair fell like a veil, hiding the odd curve of her smile.

“I’m not a little girl anymore.” The awakening let her press down a Succubus’s “needs,” like a hand over a drumming heart.

Tonight was the hour when that itch should have bloomed like poison flowers. She held it down completely, and pride warmed her veins.

So what if I’m a Succubus? A Demon King’s authority is a mountain.

As for Angela... she really did want to toss her to the Hero for safekeeping, but...

“Sigh. Fine, fine. Let’s go back,” Liqianyu said, shaking her head, lifting a hand to tug the girl along.

“Don’t.”

“Huh?”

“I... don’t want to go back.”

“What are you saying?”

“Heh. I have some things to handle myself.” Edlyn tucked her hair behind her ear, eyes steady as a level beam.

“But...”

“I’ve set every piece I need. You and I aren’t close, so there’s no need to keep me. I can protect myself, at least a little.” She shrugged, light as a feathered fan.

“Oh, and by the way—Angela with the Hero, my sister? She’s fake too.”

“So you’re set on leaving?” Liqianyu suddenly smiled, a moon-slice of memory in her eyes.

This brat looked so much like her old self, chafing against a father’s iron-bound ways.

Different reasons, maybe. Same iron in the spine. It stirred a quiet kinship.

Let her eat a few hard lessons. That’s how people grow.

She wondered if Eli, upon learning all this, would hang himself from the nearest beam.

“Mm. Staying by his side would stunt me,” Edlyn said.

“And now you’re going where?” Liqianyu asked, gaze sweeping her like a lantern.

“The station. I want a ride on a magitek train.” Edlyn tied her hair into a ponytail, youth bright on her face like dawn. “Don’t go tattling.”

She said it with an impish tilt.

Liqianyu lifted a shoulder. “I’d love to know why, but... safe travels.”

She turned to leave.

Edlyn stared, a nest of small, troublesome thoughts waking like birds. Irritation pricked her.

“Miss Li, do me a favor,” she called.

“Relax, relax, I won’t snitch,” Liqianyu waved.

“Not that. I want you to carry a letter.” Edlyn hesitated, then reached into her pack. She bit her lip, handed over an envelope. “If—if Eli sees through my setup, please give him this.”

Liqianyu blinked, then grinned. “A love letter?”

“No!” Edlyn couldn’t help raising her voice. Liqianyu laughed. “Alright, alright. I’ll do it.”

“If he doesn’t figure it out, burn the letter.” Edlyn added it like a pebble into a bowl.

Liqianyu blinked again, then nodded. “Fine. Big sister will do you this favor.”

“Thank you.”

“Safe travels.”

“Mm.”