CHAPTER 800: INVESTIGATION 1

After escorting Sylphia to her room, Aldrian’s avatar’s face returned to its calm expression. He then sent a voice transmission to Vars.

"How is it? Did you find anything?"

"Your Majesty? Ah, right. We already checked some of the places mentioned by Your Majesty, and it’s true that there were traces of the devils inside the city. Some locations seem to have already been swept by someone, while others were discovered by the imperial family. Many of the items were taken, but there are still some places where things remain. I think these locations haven’t been discovered yet," Vars replied.

"Also, we were lucky. It looks like one of the places we found was storing important documents. It’s true that there are signs the devils have connections to some of the nobles of the empire. We found a manifest listing nobles who seem to be doing business with the devils, which also owns properties within the city."

The avatar nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Continue what you were doing and secure everything that points to connections between the devils and the nobles."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Vars replied, but then he continued, "Uhm, Your Majesty, may I ask something?"

"What is it?"

"What happened earlier? Why was there an earthquake?"

Vars asked hesitantly. He did not know why, but he felt that the sudden quake meant something had happened where the avatar was. It had come too abruptly, catching them completely off guard. He knew this kind of tremor was not naturally caused but came from someone or something capable of moving the earth on a large scale.

"Well, something happened at the banquet. Someone targeted Sylphia. There was an assassination attempt," the avatar replied, which made Vars widen his eyes in shock.

"What?!" he couldn’t help but blurt out.

Someone tried to assassinate this monster’s woman? Were they insane? Who would dare to target her life right there, in that place, and right in front of him?!

"You don’t have to think about that. You’ll know what happened later. I’m sure the news will spread across the empire by tomorrow," the avatar said.

"Alright, Your Majesty." After that, they ended their communication.

Since a few hours ago, the avatar had tasked the Dark Saber group to go outside the palace and head to the locations he pointed out. These were the places where he had once killed many of the devils using heavenly lightning in the past, when he cleansed the world of them. When he killed large numbers of devils, many others hid in their secret bases, and this city had several of those places.

He ordered the Dark Saber group to visit those sites and check if anything could be found regarding their connections with the nobles of the empire. If there was any evidence, they were to secure everything so he could later use it as proof for the Silvarin imperial family to deal with the opposition faction.

Fortunately, the Dark Saber group managed to find something. It seemed the imperial family had not yet discovered the connection between those nobles and the devils. If they had, they would have already acted on it long before his arrival in the empire.

Now that the Dark Saber group had achieved results, it was his turn to begin his own investigation. He needed to meet Baron Stargis and find the traitors within the imperial family who had placed the poison in Sylphia’s drink.

The avatar then created a detection formation on Sylphia’s room door and balcony. With this formation, no one could infiltrate the room without alerting him, no matter how skilled their disguise or stealth technique was.

After he finished, he walked toward the deeper part of the palace.

First, he needed to find out who the rats in the imperial family were, and his first destination, of course, was the kitchen. There was no better place to put poison than where the drinks were prepared.

He did not know the way to the kitchen, and he could not be too obvious by spreading his spiritual sense to sweep through the entire palace, as that would alert everyone inside. It would cause unnecessary problems and misunderstandings, which would be troublesome. For this case, he had to observe the palace more "manually."

He was not like his real body, which could use the domain’s ability, after all.

At this moment, he walked casually without a specific direction until he saw a lone maid passing by. The moment she was about to walk past him, he canceled his stealth technique, startling her. But before she could scream, the avatar had already used his hypnotic technique. The maid’s eyes instantly turned blank.

"Where is the way to the kitchen where all the food and drinks for the guests or banquets are prepared?" he asked.

"You can take this way and keep walking along this hallway. After you reach the junction, turn left and keep walking until you reach the kitchen, which is located in a separate building. You’ll see it yourself," the maid answered as she pointed in the direction he needed to go.

Aldrian nodded before asking again, "Who is responsible for preparing all the food and drinks?"

"That would be Sir Frelix. He is the one in charge of everything that comes out of the kitchen and is consumed by the imperial family or any guests visiting the palace."

"Alright, thank you. You can forget this conversation and forget meeting anyone here," the avatar said before disappearing.

A split second later, clarity returned to the maid’s eyes. She blinked a few times, looking confused and unsure why she had been standing there. However, she remembered nothing about what had just happened and thought she might have been daydreaming while walking. She did not think much of it and continued on her way to resume her duties.

A few moments later, in another place, the avatar was already standing in front of the kitchen. To reach it, he had passed several guards, but he did not pay them any attention as he was still using his stealth technique. He noticed that there were still many activities taking place both inside and outside the kitchen building.

The avatar also overheard some of the people’s conversations, and as expected, they were still talking about what had happened at the banquet.

"How could Baron Stargis do that? To think he would do something so foolish as to try to assassinate Empress Sylphia. We’re talking about Aldrian the Great’s fiancée here! What he did could truly bring ruin to the entire imperial family," one of the kitchen staff said to his friend, his expression filled with irritation.

"Yeah, I was shocked too when I heard that Baron Stargis tried to assassinate Empress Sylphia. From the outside, there was nothing unusual about him, he seemed like a good person. I guess we never knew the real him. Is he working for someone else, or did he act on his own? I really can’t understand why he did that," his friend replied with a sigh.

"Aish, whatever the case, the imperial family will have quite a rough day tomorrow once the news spreads. The people will likely criticize them even more, and their reputation will drop again. Damn it, even the one who saved Empress Sylphia was Grand Duke Freindor. Aish, what a bad day for the imperial family," the man said.

Aldrian no longer paid attention to their conversation as he teleported inside the building. Upon entering, he was greeted by a large kitchen where many staff and cooks were taking a break, chatting among themselves. They had just served a grand feast for the banquet, but all their efforts seemed wasted after Empress Vilena abruptly ended the event earlier.

The staff were still discussing what had happened at the banquet, but the avatar had no interest in hearing about that topic. What he wanted was to locate the man named Frelix—he wanted to know if anyone was talking about him.

He sharpened his hearing, focusing on every voice in the kitchen, and after a few seconds, he finally identified the most likely location of the man.

He teleported to one side of the kitchen, right in front of the door leading to a private room. He checked for any hidden formations on the door before teleporting inside once more.

The moment his figure appeared inside, he saw a middle-aged elf wearing a cook’s attire, sitting in his seat and looking rather tired. From what the people outside had said, this man was Frelix, and this room was his private room.

The elf’s cultivation was at the peak of the pseudo-immortal establishment, truly strong for someone who was "merely" a cook.

Without waiting any longer, the avatar created a spatial barrier that blocked all sound and prevented anyone from entering or escaping. Once he finished, he took the seat across the table and canceled his stealth technique.

The moment his figure became visible, the elf’s eyes widened in shock. He was about to ask the intruder’s identity and shout, but the avatar was faster. He used his hypnotic technique.

"Silence."