Chapter 30
Afterward, Lian Qi went to wash her hair and, while she was at it, took a bath. I sat on the living room sofa, listening to the whoosh of the water from the bathroom. I couldn’t help but feel… did I do something really wicked? Luckily, Lian Qi didn’t seem to mind.
And Lian Qi complained I get agitated when the Demon King is mentioned? I’ve clearly lost my composure in front of her more often, okay?
Recalling what just happened, I shifted my knees, embarrassed.
I actually… accidentally smeared Holy Light with chewing gum properties all over her face…
Just then, Qifeng pushed the door open and returned, carrying several bags of delicious-looking food.
“You’re back,” I said with a smile, covering up my earlier embarrassment.
Qifeng looked around, blinking. “Where’s Lian Qi?”
“She’s taking a bath,” I blurted out.
I never expected Qifeng to take half a step back, looking as if her spirit had been dealt a heavy blow.
“What—? Why would she suddenly take a bath in the middle of the day? Uwaah—Fei’er, did you two… do something while I was out…?”
“Where is your mind going? You dirty-minded woman!”
“Then why else would she be bathing? It must be… Fei’er, you must have gotten Lian Qi dirty, that’s why she went to bathe! Please… get me… dirty too…”
…
I grabbed a throw pillow from the sofa and threw it at her.
My aim has been getting better and better lately.
At some point, the whooshing sound of water from the bathroom stopped. Lian Qi walked out, wrapped in a bath towel. Because she feels that “we’re all girls anyway” (her own wishful thinking), she didn’t bother being modest.
“Wh-What’s wrong?” she asked, puzzled, seeing me hit Qifeng in the face with the pillow from a distance.
“Nothing, nothing!” I laughed, as if nothing was wrong.
Time passed. When night fell, according to the plan we’d made during the day, the carriage I was in stopped one kilometer away from Rogers’s magic lab. Then, I sent people to lure him out.
“I truly didn’t expect the Saintess would grace me with her presence,” Rogers said, the moment he opened the carriage door and saw me. In his black robe, he seemed even more somber in the night.
“Could it be that the Saintess is also interested in magic potatoes?”
It’s not that at all.
“Rogers, have you heard of the Demon King’s plan?”
I sipped my tea with a strategic air. I’d brought the tea set from home.
“Of course. After you announced the Demon King’s plan to the public, as a royal court mage, I was among the first to know.”
“What do you think of it?” I asked, holding my teacup.
“The Demon King wants the entire power structure of magic to stagnate because she is afraid someone will surpass and defeat her.”
Mm, that’s what I think too.
“This was evident from the Demon King’s destruction of the ninety-nine Summoning Gates years ago. She’s afraid of being beaten by a transmigrator from another dimension, just like herself. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be so nervous,” Rogers said.
He mentioned Lian Qi. I smiled at Lian Qi, who was sitting next to me. She remained silent.
“Saintess, in my opinion, it is precisely because the Demon King wants magic to stagnate that we must develop magic even more vigorously, to make it advance and break through her blockade. That is the key to defeating her.”
“As someone who researches magic… aren’t you afraid the Demon King will come knocking?” Lian Qi asked.
“I research in the civilian-livelihood sector. If the Demon King feels that magic potatoes pose a threat to her, then I have nothing to say. But even if I fall, others will rise to take my place. The Demon King can’t kill everyone.”
“So she thought of no longer using slaughter, but rather conspiracies and schemes to make the entire magic power structure stagnate,” I said.
Just look at the incident where the Demon King’s subordinate secretly manipulated the student council to corrupt the Magic Academy from within. It resulted in Lian Qi’s graduating class having no outstanding mages. Truly sinister…
“Saintess, that ‘Nature’s Home’ community definitely has a problem. Their ideals run completely contrary to the advancement of magic. You must not trust them.”
I smiled. “I know. That’s why I came to find you.”
Rogers froze for a moment. “You mean—”
Just then, the carriage door behind him was pushed open, and Qifeng rushed in.
“Fei’er, the poisoner has been caught!” She made a “victory” sign at me.
“What poisoner?” Rogers turned his head, looking at Qifeng in surprise, completely confused.
“The person who was trying to poison your magic potatoes,” Qifeng said. “Didn’t you notice you were being tailed when you just came out?”
“N-No… I didn’t notice…”
“The person tailing you snuck into the magic potato storage warehouse while you were gone, preparing to poison them. They were caught by the people the Saintess had lying in ambush.”
Rogers turned his face, looking at me in shock.
“Saintess, all this… you arranged it?”
“Rogers, someone wanted to frame your magic potatoes, just like they dumped poison in the river to frame the mana crystal factory upstream.”
I didn’t expect the criminal to be brought to justice so quickly. I put down my teacup and stood up. Under Rogers’s astonished gaze, I walked out of the carriage.
“If people got sick from eating your magic potatoes, the consequences would be unimaginable. I’ll go check on the situation.”
“Saintess—”
He called out to me from behind.
“I, Rogers, owe you a favor. If you are determined to defeat the Demon King, then I will provide assistance to you within my field.”
“Then go and do a good job researching your magic potatoes. Let the refugees be free from the suffering of hunger sooner.”
I smiled, turned, and left.
The smog outside is really thick.
I had only taken a few steps from the carriage when a Church knight, covered in dust, came to me. He took off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his forehead, saying with a helpless look, “Saintess, the poisoner committed suicide by poison.”
I froze. “Poison again!?”
Just then, a stretcher covered with a white cloth was carried past me. It seemed the trail had gone cold again.
“Fei’er, when we caught him, he was holding this syringe, injecting some unknown poison into the potatoes. It’s this thing.”
Qifeng said, handing the syringe to me.
She knows I have a natural fear of sharp objects, so she had thoughtfully removed the needle beforehand.
“Judging by the color, it doesn’t look like the poison dumped in the river. Could it be another new type of poison? I wonder what harm it does if people eat it,” Lian Qi said, leaning in beside me to examine the syringe.
“I remember they were slandering mana food, saying it causes genetic deformities in offspring. Eek, don’t tell me… this is some kind of deformity-causing poison?” Qifeng said.
“That’s too sinister… In any case, let’s take it to Sister Aijieliya to analyze. Let’s see what the ingredients are.”
I said, gripping the syringe in my hand.
“We have the evidence in our hands now.”
“Hmph, hmph. We thwarted them again tonight and made their conspiracy go bankrupt,” Qifeng said proudly.
“Just you wait. Next… it’s time to force out their mastermind,” Lian Qi said, hands on her hips, declaring with great vigor into the smog, as if the unseen enemy was right there.