Chapter 63: 63

Sitting cross-legged on her bed with her eyes closed, Michelle used her spirit energy to sense for the Spirit Mark she had left on Garric Sloan. She was already observing him for a few days, and the whole time, he didn’t return to his manor for once. It was like he was scared of going back there. Maybe it was because of her visit there using the identity of Michale Grayson.

Meanwhile, she had Nyxaroth spy on Malrik Sloan, while Snow and Mare were carefully observing the servants in the prison-like places under the two mansions. And Cold Flame was with the little Emperor, giving him information from Michelle, and prepared to protect him if something unexpected happened. Michelle refused to let something happen which would ruin her plans or endanger the little Emperor. Since people from the lower realm were involved, she was cautious.

She might have dealt with a delegation from the middle realm in the past, but back then, she knew who they were and they weren’t using sacrificial objects. But at the moment, she didn’t know who she was dealing with, and sacrificial objects were involved, so she decided to act carefully. A little cautiousness wouldn’t harm her, but it could prevent disasters. A good thought out plan could fail merely because of lack of information, so she was waiting in hiding until the people from the lower realm appeared.

And her waiting paid off. A week after she had found out about the Soul Seeking Pendants, Nyxaroth notified her that a person with the aura from the lower realm met entered Malrik’s mansion and said he would reside there for a while. But that just made Michelle frown as the person was alone. With such a huge amount of Soul Seeking Pendants, would just a single person from the lower realm come down when something happened? It sounded suspicious. The only explanation was that the person was a decoy supposed to take her attention away from the real problem.

And indeed, a day later, a bunch of people from the lower realm came to meet Garric by the artificial lake where he collected the Soul Seeking Pendants. “My Lord!” Garric quickly knelt down when he saw the white-haired old man leading the group.

“What was the urgent news you had for me?” the old man asked coldly, his voice commanding and authoritative, but from what Michelle could see and feel through the Spirit Mark, the old man’s aura could never compare to her or the Archduke’s aura.

But Garric was clearly overwhelmed by the old man’s aura. “My Lord…” he quickly explained how Michael Grayson, Michelle, appeared in his office and told him that the little Emperor has some plans with him. He also said that Michael Grayson didn’t seem to be from the Land of Exile or the lower realm. He seemed more powerful. Garric had never met anyone from the middle realm, but he was guessing that Michael Grayson was from there. But his guess couldn’t have been more wrong. The middle realm was that one place that Michelle never wanted to enter.

After listening to Garric, the old man frowned. “When did this Michael Grayson first appear in the Empire?” he asked, his aura pressuring Garric.

“I’m not sure, but it was around the time when the Emperor Emeritus abdicated and gave the throne to his youngest son. Michael Grayson was the little Emperor’s teacher at the time. But after the little Emperor’s coronation, he never appeared again.” Garric quickly spoke.

When his words fell, the old man frowned. Because of what they were planning in the Land of Exile, he had taken notice of the happenings there, and knew when the Emperor Emeritus abdicated. It was just a while before the people from the middle realm entered the Empire. But when they came back to the middle realm, the states they were in were horrid.

The old man was guessing that the Michael Grayson person was someone the people from the middle realm were hunting down, so he came to the Land of Exile to hide. He built some political power by becoming the little Emepror’s teacher, and when the people from the middle realm found out about him and came to get him, he destroyed them.

But with the hypothesis in mind, the old man just couldn’t understand why Micael Grayson would be targeting the Sloan family. Was it initiated by the little Emepror? Or did Michael know about their plan and didn’t like it? Or was there a completely different reason?

Using the Spirit Mark to observe the old man, Michelle smiled. It seemed that at the moment, her opponent was finally a bit smarter and she could get entertained. Originally, she was planning on going to the lower realm with Ivona Beltrez and Kieran Ashford, but Kieran clearly wouldn’t leave the Land of Exile before taking care of the Sloan family, so she was planning to play with them. Like a friend of hers from her past life would have said it; play them to death. In other words, mess with them until they go crazy and kill themselves.

Using the contract to contact Cold Flame, Michelle told him to ho soy on Garric and the people from the lower realm before she went to the Beltrez mansion. She wanted to know whether Ivona would be willing to go with her to the lower realm and leave everything behind. Ivona was the first friend she made in the new world, and though they weren’t the best of friends at the moment, and they didn’t know each other for that long, Michelle valued the friendship and didn’t want to lose it.

With Kieran, it was somehow similar. Though Michelle had mostly practical reasons for the friendship, if she could call it so. Just by the glint in Kieran’s eyes, she could see that he was the type of person who would always achieve his goal. Also, just from how big his hatred towards the Sloan family was, she could see that he valued something or someone to the point of hating the Sloan family when they destroyed it. Michelle didn’t know what the feud between him and the Sloans was in depth, but she knew that it was just proof of how loyal he could be.

It could sound nonsensical that she was measuring his loyalty by his hatred towards others, but it worked. Because the more loyal one is to someone, the angrier and hurt they will be if the person gets hurt, or worse, betrays them.

With how deep Kieran’s hatred was, it was clear that he was either loyal to the Sloans, and they betrayed him, or there was someone he cared about whom they harmed.

Entering the Beltrez mansion, Michelle was led by a maid to a grass field where she saw Ivona trying to train a dog. “My Lady, you have a visitor,” the maid said as she bowed her head.

That made Michelle arch a brow. When arriving, she thought Ivona was the one who asked for her to be led to the field, but it seemed more like the maid just led her to Ivona, not even caring if Ivona wanted to be seen while training her dog. It was like Ivona had no say in her family.

When Ivona heard the maid, she turned around and smiled. “Michelle!” she waved her hand, but just from her expression, Michelle could see that she felt a bit awkward. “Why did you come here?” Ivona asked as she led Michelle to sit on a big swing while the maid left without a word.

Michelle’s gaze landed on Ivona’s gray dog. “I wanted to discuss something with you…” she said as she noticed that the dog turned its attention at her. It probably felt her Spirit Soul Blood as it approached her slowly. “Do you know about the Sloan family?” she asked.

Ivona nodded a bit: “They are well known for being corrupt, but the former Emperor never did anything with it, so they got arrogant over time. And lately, it seems they have got some kind of power behind them, as they constantly challenge the Prince Regent and the Emperor.”

“I’m planning to get rid of them,” Michelle stated carelessly as she bent down a bit to pet the dog which laid down beneath the swing.

Hearing Michelle say that so carelessly, Ivona felt like she was joking, but knowing Michelle for a while already, she knew she was dead serious. “Michelle, how did they anger you?” she asked, aware that if Michelle wanted to get rid of them, they must have pissed her off a real deal.

“Nothing much…” Michelle shook her head lazily before slowly explaining to her what was going on with the Sloan family. To explain that, she also had to explain to her about the realms and the Land of Exile.

When they finished talking, the sun was already setting and Michelle received a message from Cold Flame that Garrick and the people from the lower realm were going to the Imperial Palace. So Michelle bid her farewell to Ivona and told her to think about leaving the Land of Exile with her. Then, she used her Shadow Spirit Steps to get to the Imperial Palace before Garric and the others could come.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep