Chapter 61

The Yang Residence

Angry yelling, servants screaming and begging for mercy, and the sound of things being smashed came from the master bedroom.

Lord Gregory had just reached the hallway when he saw two bloodied servants stumbling and crawling out of the room, faces full of panic. Inside, Captain Yang was still shouting furiously.

The servant who had brought Lord Gregory here looked nervous and lowered his head.

"Please forgive us, Lord Gregory. Ever since the master was… brought down from the city wall, he was unconscious for a full day. After he woke up, his injuries were still serious, and his temper has been very bad."

Lord Gregory raised his hand, signaling the servant to leave.

The servant hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly stepped back.

Lord Gregory pushed the door open. A porcelain bowl smashed to the ground in front of him. Captain Yang, still raging, was about to scold whoever dared to enter. But when he looked up and saw it was Lord Gregory, his furious face froze.

He quickly forced himself to calm down, struggling to sit up from the bed and gave a salute.

"Please forgive me, Lord Gregory. I was rude and didn't know it was you. I'm still badly injured and lost my temper when I saw the servants being lazy. I apologize for letting you witness such a scene."

Looking at those terrified servants with blood on their faces, it was clear they hadn't been slacking off. But since Captain Yang said so, Lord Gregory didn't argue. He wasn't interested in such trivial things.

He slowly walked over to Captain Yang's bed. His personal guard brought over a chair immediately.

"How are your injuries?" Lord Gregory sat down and faced him.

Captain Yang's face twisted for a moment. The whipping he suffered publicly on the city tower had become one of the greatest humiliations of his life.

Ever since he woke up and felt the burning pain of his wounds, he couldn't stop remembering how he had been tied to the wall and whipped in front of everyone. His anger had grown worse.

These days, even the slightest mistake from a servant would get them violently beaten or even killed. The number of bodies carried out from the Yang residence had increased. Even the mass grave outside the city had piled up higher.

"Thank you for your concern, Lord Gregory. I'm… much better," Captain Yang answered, clearly annoyed.

Lord Gregory didn't take offense. In fact, he slightly smiled at Captain Yang's bitter and angry face.

"You shouldn't be so angry. Elara and Benedict are still sitting on the throne and acting as the Emperor and Princess of Plumera. If they really wanted to humiliate someone, even if I tried to stop them, I wouldn't be able to fully go against them."

Captain Yang's face twitched with suppressed hatred. For years, he had followed Lord Gregory and had seen how all the ministers in Plumera bowed to him. In his eyes, Elara and Benedict were nothing. Just puppets under Lord Gregory's control.

And yet those same puppets dared to lay hands on him. And humiliate him like that.

Feeling the burning pain on his body, the memory of being whipped in front of the public returned. The hatred in his heart deepened. His eyes even started to show a killing intent.

His chest heaved twice. He lowered his voice and said to Lord Gregory,

"Lord Gregory, everyone knows by now that you are the true power behind Plumera. Why do you still let those two brats sit on top? That position should have changed a long time ago."

Lord Gregory's eyelids lifted. He saw the hatred and killing intent in Captain Yang's eyes and gave a cold laugh.

"You think this is something that can be done whenever I want? I've been waiting for the right moment."

"What moment?" Captain Yang asked eagerly.

Lord Gregory picked up a cup of tea and took a sip before calmly answering,

"A moment that can help you get revenge. And that moment has now arrived. I came here today to see if you have the guts to take it."

Captain Yang's face, twisted with hatred, calmed for a second when he heard the word "revenge." But right after, he didn't look excited or impatient. Instead, he fell silent.

After a while, he looked at Lord Gregory cautiously and asked,

"So… does this mean the connection between those two siblings and the northern protector is finally broken?"

Though Captain Yang hated them deeply and never saw Elara and Benedict as anything, he knew there had always been someone behind them.

For years, no matter how much Lord Gregory hinted at it, no one really dared to touch the siblings. They were controlled but not truly harmed.

In time, Captain Yang understood why. There was someone protecting them—most likely the quiet yet powerful regent in the north.

That's also why Captain Yang had swallowed his pride all these years. Even when he was publicly whipped on the wall, he didn't fight back.

But just days ago, Lord Gregory still didn't act because of that man. So why today?

The more Captain Yang thought about it, the less joy he felt from the idea of revenge. Instead, doubt and caution filled his mind.

Lord Gregory gave him a side glance. Seeing how Captain Yang quickly hid his anger and became wary, he let out a cold laugh.

"You've learned a few things over the years. But the fact that I came to you today shows that things have changed. I remembered the disgrace you suffered, so I came to offer you a chance for revenge.

But seeing your expression now… I guess I won't waste more time here."

With a loud sound, Lord Gregory set down the tea cup and stood.

Princess Residence

Elara returned to her bedroom. Mathias was already standing outside, quietly waiting.

Elara glanced at him and pushed open the door to enter the room.

Mathias followed behind her. They didn't stop until they reached the study. Then he bowed and said,

"Princess, someone from the palace just delivered a few reports."

Elara walked to her desk and was about to ask what kind of reports they were. But her eyes suddenly fell on the desktop, and her expression froze.

She raised her hand to stop Mathias from continuing. Her brows furrowed slightly as she asked,

"Uno, who was on duty guarding my bedroom today?"

Uno appeared right behind her. "Reporting to the Princess, it was a team led by Guard Twenty-Five."

Elara looked up toward the empty beams of the ceiling and called out, "Twenty-Five!"

Another figure, just as slim and sharp as Uno, appeared in front of her and respectfully knelt down.

"Princess."

"After I left today, did anyone enter my bedroom?"

Twenty-Five shook his head. "Reporting to the Princess, not long after you left, Imani came back. But he didn't dare come close. He only stayed outside the courtyard, secretly looking toward the main hall, then left. He seemed torn and scared."

"Besides him, Rafael also came. He wanted to request an audience, but when he learned you weren't here, he left without entering the courtyard."

Rafael? Elara searched through the original owner's memories and quickly found the only one with that surname.

Rafael was one of only two favored men who dared to get close to the original princess in the entire residence. The other was the unlucky Scholar Fu.

Elara suddenly remembered. The two people she saw earlier in the back garden—one holding a book was Scholar Fu, and the other was Rafael.

Elara frowned slightly. She looked down again at her desk, which seemed to be exactly the same as when she had left.

Before she went out, she had used a bamboo scroll to write a few drafts. To avoid drawing attention with simplified characters, she used cursive script. To someone unfamiliar, it would look like messy scribbles, which actually suited her current identity.

But no one could recognize her cursive handwriting better than she could.

Even though the scrolls on the desk looked to be in the same place and order as before, she could tell at a glance that someone had touched them and flipped through her writing.

The top two scrolls looked the same at first glance. But because of her habit when writing in messy cursive, the curve of the last stroke was always slightly different.

This difference was nearly invisible to others. It was like how ordinary people can't tell what the wave-like lines drawn by old doctors mean. But to Elara, the person who wrote them, even the smallest curve told her what the character was.

That's why she was sure. Someone had entered her study after she left and looked through the bamboo scrolls. They put them back "exactly" the way they found them.

But because they couldn't read her scribbles, they didn't notice the subtle difference. They accidentally switched the scroll on top with the one underneath. That's how she could spot it right away.

Who was it?

Elara tapped her finger lightly on the desk and looked again at Guard Twenty-Five.

"Other than those two, did you see anyone else enter?"

Twenty-Five nodded. "No, Princess."

Elara kept staring at the two scrolls for a moment and then said in a calm voice,

"From today on, the main hall will always be guarded by Four, Five, and Six. The other areas will still follow the usual rotation."

"Yes."

Someone was able to enter and leave her study under Guard Twenty-Five's nose without being noticed. That meant this person's skill was far above his.

Although the guards from the Wei family were already very strong, there were always hidden experts in the world who were even stronger. Elara wasn't surprised by this.

What did surprise her was that in this little back courtyard of a third-class kingdom's princess residence, there could be such a powerful person hiding.

Could there really be something in this rundown residence that was worth attracting such a person? Or maybe the Plumera State, which was always on the edge of being destroyed, had some ancient treasure hidden that attracted them?

She had considered this before. That's why even when she did calculations or wrote down things in her study, she either used unreadable cursive or destroyed everything right after to prevent this kind of thing. But she didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Elara wasn't nervous or uneasy about it. The event already happened. She just needed to solve it.

In her past life, she had run a huge company. She had seen plenty of cases involving corporate espionage and leaked secrets. It had trained her to always be on guard.

So even if this mysterious expert took her drafts and showed them to someone else, they wouldn't be able to understand a thing.

Still, having someone like that hiding in her residence, with no face, no name, and no known intention, was a risk.

Elara thought for a moment and said, "Tres, go to the Princess's villa tonight. Tell Oswyn to come see me."

"Yes, Princess."