“By the way, Vernon. Did you say something to Father?”

I asked Vernon as we made our way to our destination.

“What do you mean, your highness?”

“Well, he was acting a little weird earlier. Did you perhaps mention something to him that should be put to my attention?”

Vernon smiled.

“Princess, I only gave my usual report and observations. It depended on your Father how he took my report.”

“Hm.”

It felt like there was more to his report that he had no intention of telling me. Not like it mattered greatly, as long it doesn’t impede me, that would be fine. Actually, this kind of situation, hiding something, was to be expected when you were serving two masters and the other was your true superior.

I’m not going to become mad because Vernon tried to conceal some parts of his report to me, his true master was my father after all.

“Alright, I understand.”

A short while later, we arrived at our destination. After having the door closed, I sat down on the table and laid down my elbow with my hand on my cheek as I fell into thought.

I guess all I could do now was to further improve my magical abilities. I have no cards to play in attempts to bait my enemies, at least not yet. There may be Allie, but she wouldn’t be of much use anymore.

Use her as bait? Maybe during a public execution and make the enemies save her amidst that? I don’t know if that would work. It would likely end up being useless, if that was the case, I would rather use her in other ways.

You’ll never know, Allie might only be a disposable pawn to them.

“Your highness, is something wrong?”

“Please be silent, I’m thinking.”

“... My apologies.”

Resuming. I think she’s merely disposable because they literally have her, inexperienced, to try and kill me, it’s like they didn’t care what would happen at all afterward. What do you think will happen after she carries it out? She didn’t have any skill whatsoever aside from cooking, so she’ll definitely get killed, or captured then killed. It was as if it didn’t matter what would happen to her after she killed me.

Furthermore, they have yet to try and break her out. Of course, they have only learned about it, so it will take time, so we’ll have to wait. In addition, the enemies seemed to have lacked information, so they must have no spies left. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have fallen for the trap, and they didn’t seem to know that Oryn was already killed.

How fortunate I am that information traveled here incomparably slower than my old world. If this was the old world, there would already be headlines all over the internet and news broadcasts. Geez, people and their phones.

In contrast, if they have any spies left, then they should have already heard of Allie’s imprisonment. But there have been no changes as of late.

“Vernon, has Allie said anything new?”

I looked at Vernon.

“... I have been meaning to tell you later, but she mentioned that she often delivered messages for Oryn in the past outside the palace walls, within the city at different locations.”

“Nothing else?”

“No.”

“She hasn't yet given up on telling their whereabouts?”

“Sadly no.”

“Well that’s fine.”

“That’s fine...?”

“No point in forcing her to speak about that, she wouldn’t know anymore. She would likely be a few years outdated. If they are meeting at different locations, then they’re not meeting at their main base.”

Actually, it would be expected she wouldn’t know.

If we were to do it, after sending a spy inside an opposition, we would move to another base unbeknownst to the agent. This was so that if that agent ever got captured, they would learn of a different and completely wrong base.

Therefore, even if Allie speaks of their whereabouts, she would definitely speak of a location they have used in the past, but that would end up empty upon searching. Furthermore, now that the ambush worked, the enemies would realize the extraction had gone wrong and move their base of operations somewhere else.

Anyone could think of that precaution.

“Can I give my order of what to do about Allie?”

Vernon blinked a few times.

“I believe a suggestion would do.”

As expected, I don’t have full power in this affair. I also don’t want to take her under my “care.”

“Then I suggest stop interrogating her and have her rest.”

“... Princess, could you have realized…?”

“What is?”

“What we do to get information from her.”

Of course I do. But I’m not gonna say that.

“Why? I can only imagine you asking and talking to her inside a room with a table and a few chairs. Are you doing something else?”

“N-No, we are not doing anything else.”

In any case, they have to stop with the torturing, they’ll overdo it. For the time being, I need her to hang around a jail cell in solitude as she wallows in despair and pain, with no decent food and living in a dirty cell.

The loneliness would only make things worse for her, there were no other prisoners here in the palace walls after all.

“If we are stopping her interrogation, then… perhaps it's time to send her to another prison, and await her execution.”

“No, keep her here in the palace grounds.”

“Why?”

If you did so, then my little plan would be ruined before it even starts.

He then continued.

“Keeping prisoners here in the palace grounds is not ideal. If you can give me a reason, it will help.”

Damn, it’s hard for me not to have any authority here. Well, I do have authority, just not to that department.

“Hmmm. Let’s say if we try to move her out, our opposition would try to ambush us, and they’ll likely have the advantage with the strength they have.”

“Their strength?”

“You still don’t know? That’s fine, ask my father later. For the time being, let’s imagine if most of them were at the level of Oryn and a few above him, and a large number of them ambushed the convoy, do you think it would end nicely for us?”

“It would depend on our numbers.”

“Would we really be sending that many knights for one person? And would we sacrifice several lives for one prisoner?”

“No…”

“Then now you see, too risky to bring her out. Furthermore, if we keep her here, she’ll be no threat to us. When the enemies strike us to break her out, we’ll be at an advantage within our own territory.”

“... Why are you so keen on letting her stay? We could have sent only a few people to bring her to a prison outside the palace.”

“If they break her out from a prison outside the palace, they’ll likely succeed and it would be a wasted opportunity for us. We also cannot afford to send a great number of knights just to guard the sole prison, we need more swords for other purposes.”

Ugh, really I would have preferred not to speak any more than this. But I don’t want them sending Allie out there. Why was I so adamant about letting her stay here? Well there were a lot of things in my mind.

One of them was that she was a talented cook. I would like to have her on my side, but there is a low possibility of that happening. Hard to fully trust a traitor.

I can also imagine her doing a few things for us if I can “convince” her. But I’m not sure if that would work, but it's still worth it to invest. I would also like to learn of her relationship with her friends, if such emotions were strong with each other, then I can use that to bait them to each other. Like for instance, have Allie go out there and find them, when they really cared about her, at least one would approach her.

Even one emotional person among them would help me and have them do something rash. Like make them save Allie.

I might need to have the enemy feel for the upcoming demise of Allie. I can think of a way to make them feel that way.

That being said, I need to learn about her relationship with them.

Now how was I able to think this way? My teammates and I were the same — no rather, we would try to save the other, if not for the organization's policy and our superior’s orders. As friends, we would desire to save one in plight, but unfortunately, our organization wouldn’t allow that. Heh, even that handsome man who killed me would have tried to save me if there wasn’t any order or policy to do otherwise.

“I understand princess, I’ll send your suggestion to the king.”

“Thank you, Vernon. Now then, I would like to inquire about what I asked you to do.”

“Yes, I had sent men to investigate any other people that interacted with Allie and Oryn, as you asked.”

Yes, I did. Now that I have dealt with Allie and Oryn, time to give some time to others. Did I fail to mention last time that the first thing I would do would be to check those in high and risky positions like high-ranking officials and the kitchen that always cooks my food since that would be advantageous to the opposition? Also that I would be giving focus on those close to me? I think I didn’t fail to mention that.

But now that’s over, time to give some resources to small positions. I wasn’t able to do much about this since, come on, I was rolling solo. How do you expect me to investigate each one of the staff, which could amount to several dozens, be realistic, of course I’ll focus on risky positions first.

But now was different, I have Vernon! Hahaha! I have manpower now.

“So, how was it?”

“One of the things you asked to investigate is the person and his team that always deliver ingredients to the kitchen which could send out information through. However, we have yet to find anything suspicious.”

“I see.”

“We also ran investigations on the actions and history of the maids, but we found nothing to be wary of as of yet. Even those in the laundries, and others at lower positions, we have yet to find any dirt on them.”

“I understand, continue on with what you're doing.”

“Very well.”

“Now then, we’re done with business, I’ll return to studying. Ah, Mera, how are you faring in familiarizing the contents of this book?”

I have been lending out this book to Mera every night since she was so keen on learning with me. She mentioned that she reads about one or two spells per night since that was all she could manage. I mean, she did have to wake up early, so she couldn’t sleep out late.

“I believe I’m doing well, milady.”

“Great! We’ll be training together for Vernon’s technique tomorrow, yes?”

“Um, yes.”

I then turned to look at Vernon with a smile.

“Yes, your highness, I won’t go back on my word.”

“Thank you ever so much, Vernon.”

I chuckled.