Reincarnated Princess Wishes To Avoid Death

Chapter 171

Suspicions

“What do you mean Sion? One of the Four Dukes is involved with the Chaos Serpents?” Mia asked flustered.

The Four Dukes of the Empire were the nobles closest to the emperor. They were related to him by blood and so they have the right to succeed to the throne. This doesn’t mean they are automatically trustworthy, but considering their closeness to the emperor, they are more credible than the rest of the nobles. So, Sion’s news poses a concern.

“How certain are you of this information?”

Sion ponders for awhile and then answers...

“Well, if you think about it normally, the accuracy isn’t that high. It’s an information that originally came from the Wind Crows that was dispatched to the empire, but it’s old. This information has been neglected for a long time. If it really was important, then they wouldn’t have let it sit around for a long time.”

“You said ‘If you think about it normally.’ Is there another way of thinking about it then?” Abel asked to which Sion nodded.

“There are always multiple ways of looking at things. Sometimes the less obvious perspective is the most convincing one.” Then he smiles mischievously. “If we think about it in another way. It might be that this information wasn’t shelved because it was unimportant, but rather the opposite.”

“Oh, I see. There were Chaos Serpents in the Wind Crows. If Jem or any of his accomplices deliberately chose to hide this information, then that makes it more suspicious.”

“That’s... certainly very suspicious. I think we need to find out more about this.” Mia agreed.

If the information was true, then it would be a big problem since the suspects is one of the Four Dukes! They were the ones that supported the empire by rallying the rest of the nobility. And they were bound by their allegiance to stand with the imperial family to the bitter end... Or so Mia had thought.... Then she remembered something from the previous timeline.

Oh? But wasn’t I betrayed by Esmeralda last time?

All things considered, I shouldn’t be shocked that there were traitors among them... in fact, I should consider myself lucky! This is an opportunity! I have a one-in-four chance of weeding out one of the Serpents. If I nab the guy and hand him over to Rafina, it might please her enough to let me off the hook if my campaign pledges don’t turn out so great...

Mia, who became a little positive, looked toward Sion. But Sion shook his head a little,

“Unfortunately, too much time has passed. Finding out more would be difficult.”

“Well, that’s not surprising, I suppose.”

“And we lost contact with the person who sent this information.”

“What? Then...” Mia was at a loss for words.

“Naturally, it’s reasonable to think that the agent was murdered because of the information.” Sion says in a heavy tone and then folded his arms. “I can’t say for sure anyway. As I have said in the first place, I don’t know how credible this information is. But still, it should be better to be careful.”

Mia heard the words as if they were from somewhere far away. Mia’s thoughts were already turned inward. Because if she combines the information that Sion brought with the information that Bel gave her, an entirely different picture can be formed...

The Four Dukes are in conflict over the empire’s succession. Bel said they split into two factions and civil war breaks out.... But was it really just a power struggle?

Naturally, she has such suspicions. If one of the Dukes was harboring Chaos Serpents, a ploy by them would be a far more convincing explanation for the sudden fragmentation of the empire than a simple power struggle.

It seems that I need to be vigilant against the Four Dukes.

The next day, Mia got a visit. It was no other than Sapphias Etoille Bluemoon, the eldest son of the Bluemoon family, one of the Four Dukes.