Chapter 108: Moment of Chaos (2)

At an elegant table sat five beautiful women. They were supposed to be chatting quietly while enjoying a pleasant dinner.

But the food on their table was untouched and getting cold; none of them really felt like eating right now.

The atmosphere was heavy.

Everyone’s mood was very different, and no one had spoken in a long time.

"T-this is terrifying. I never thought something like this would happen, let alone that it would be Stella." (Avelia)

Finally, as if she could no longer bear the silence, the first to broach the inevitable topic was the woman with horns and ears resembling those of a cow.

She was Avelia, the seventh concubine, and her face betrayed clear concern and a certain fear.

They were all in a communal area.

It was the best restaurant in the harem, and only the queens and the top 15 concubines usually came here to spend time.

Avelia shouldn’t have felt very afraid, since not far from her table were her maids, who had been sent by her family.

These maids were different from those who handled household chores, as each possessed great power and was a formidable fighter of at least rank four.

But that very fact worried Avelia. She feared her maids might make her look suspicious.

But that was just her being paranoid for no reason.

Most of the concubines and queens had maids of that sort, who served as their bodyguards, and, of course, all of them had been thoroughly investigated and searched before entering the castle; each concubine was allowed no more than five such maids.

"You just opened your mouth to spout nonsense. Besides, stop shaking—you’re getting on my nerves." (Miyako)

Another woman standing next to Avelia spoke; she had ears that looked like those of a canine, and her tone was harsh and threatening.

She was Miyako, the ninth concubine.

"B-but we’re suspects, aren’t we? We spend a lot of time with her, and we were even about to meet here—what if we..." (Avelia)

"You!...You only care about yourself! Stella just died, and you’re only afraid of what might happen to you. If you don’t shut up, I swear I’ll really..." (Ayame)

A third girl with bear ears seemed unable to bear the conversation any longer; she stood up angrily and pointed at Avelia with fury.

She was Ayame, the fourth concubine, and she appeared to be extremely angry—she even knocked over some of the plates on the table.

"You shut up and calm down, too! This situation is already a nuisance in itself, and the two of you are making it even worse." (Miyako)

"..." (Avelia)

"..." (Ayame)

Miyako stepped in and, with her domineering attitude, silenced them both.

Even Ayame, who looked angry, didn’t want to mess with Miyako; if Miyako got angry, only Stella could keep her under control, but she wasn’t there anymore.

"You really should keep your composure, like those two over there..." (Miyako)

The remaining two, as Miyako said, were very calm.

One was a girl with horns that looked like a goat’s and ears on the sides of her head. She was the fifth concubine, Yuna.

And the other seemed calm enough to keep sipping her tea as if nothing were wrong.

She had rabbit ears that fell elegantly to the sides of her head. She was the thirteenth concubine, Reina.

Upon seeing those two, Ayame seemed to get angry again. She could ignore Reina, but Yuna’s composure bothered her.

But just as she was about to say something, Yuna—who seemed to sense that Ayame was about to lash out at her—raised her hand to stop her and spoke.

"You’d better calm down and maintain your composure. I’ll be blunt here: with the exception of you, all of us were on Stella’s side because of the advantageous position we gained by being by her side." (Yuna)

"You—how dare you? She, she..." (Ayame)

"Stop it. What I said isn’t a secret. Stella knew it very well and took advantage of it. How many favors did she receive from our families over the past few years? It was a business relationship, nothing more, nothing less. Don’t expect us to feel anything like sadness." (Yuna)

"..." (Ayame)

Yuna spoke curtly and made her point so clear and precise that Ayame could only bite her lip in frustration.

What she said was true. Ayame knew that, too; even so, she had thought that over the years they had built a closer bond, one that would make them show at least a little sadness for their dear departed friend.

"Besides, Avelia, you should drop it already. All of us here have an alibi, and all our trusted servants came with us. The fact that we were about to meet her at this public place rules us out as suspects." (Yuna)

She continued speaking with cold logic. After all, the place where they were meeting was a spot where several concubines often gathered to chat, drink tea, or eat.

It wasn’t just them here; there were other concubines and servants who would back up their alibi.

Besides, they had nothing to do with it, so nothing bad would happen to them.

The only problem was that, to avoid any suspicion, they would have to stay there until the investigation was over—and that could take a few more hours.

Even so, each of them had sent maids to keep them updated on the situation. After all, it wasn’t a matter they could simply ignore.

Even Yuna, who said it was all about profits, wanted to know who was to blame.

After all, Stella was her investment, and she wasn’t at all pleased that she had died that way.

The only one who seemed indifferent and detached from all this was Reina, who was simply sipping her tea, but she had always been that way—a quiet, absent-minded woman who always seemed lost in her own world.

She was like the group’s mascot, and she only spent time with them because, for some reason, Stella liked having Reina around.

Apart from Stella, no one bothered to waste time on her.

"Oh! Finally, someone’s coming. I hope this annoying situation is about to end." (Miyako)

At that moment, Miyako noticed that one of the maids they had sent earlier—Yuna’s maid—was returning.

The maid passed by the guards who were surrounding them and watching over the five of them, as always.

The maid’s face was growing paler the closer she got; a cold sweat was visible on her, and her face reflected incredible terror.

This intrigued everyone present even more. As Yuna’s maid, she was supposed to approach Yuna and whisper what she had discovered in her ear—though the others, who had keen hearing, would have heard it anyway—but that didn’t happen.

Instead, she headed toward Miyako, and before reaching her, the maid fell to her knees.

"I-I’m truly sorry, my lady. I-I have failed." (Suiren)

She said this to Miyako, confusing everyone present.

They all knew she was Yuna’s maid, and those words made no sense at all.

Even Reina, who had been uninterested until then, raised an eyebrow as she watched the scene with interest.

The situation didn’t seem to be that simple.

"Hey, what does this mean? Why are you kneeling in front of her? What did you mean to say?... Suiren, answer me!" (Yuna)

"I-I’m truly sorry, my lady. The investigators started searching the concubines, and I-I didn’t have time to hide it..." (Suiren)

Suiren, the maid, continued to kneel before Miyako and apologize, saying things that Yuna couldn’t ignore.And instead of continuing to question her, she turned to Miyako.

"Why is she only answering you? What is she saying? What did you do?" (Yuna)

"What did I do? I didn’t do anything...Why are you saying such nonsense?" (Miyako)

Seeing that a misunderstanding was beginning to arise against her, Miyako grew even angrier, stood up, and yelled at the maid, but...

"I’m, I’m sorry, my lady. I’m truly sorry for my incompetence!" (Suiren)

"What the hell?! Stop apologizing. Stop kneeling in front of me! What the hell are you trying to do?" (Miyako)

"I’m sorry, my lady, but we can’t go on like this. We have to leave soon. The investigators will be here and..." (Suiren)

Bang!

"Stop talking nonsense!" (Miyako)

At that moment, Miyako seemed to lose her patience and, in a fit of anger, kicked her hard.

Suiren rolled across the floor, but quickly got back up, approached Miyako again, and clung to her. There was genuine fear and desperation on her face...

"My lady, please, give me another chance. I, I..." (Suiren)

"You damn fool! Who’s your lady? Stop talking nonsense!" (Miyako)

Suiren was begging for mercy and another chance regarding something, but that seemed to upset Miyako even more, and she continued kicking and hitting her with all her might.

But that only made the others realize they couldn’t just stand by and watch this happen—especially Yuna.

Suiren was her lifelong maid, her right-hand woman. She had to find out why Suiren was calling another woman "my lady" and saying such dangerous things.

But neither Yuna nor anyone else dared to get too close to Miyako now that she was angry.

Being a concubine meant there was no point in pursuing any other path.

But Miyako continued to hone her profession as a hobby and was currently at the third rank.

Among the concubines, she was one of the physically strongest due to her profession, with the potential to reach the sixth rank.

And, as far as anyone knew, Miyako had killed several maids with her own hands, since her patience was short and she didn’t hesitate to use violence when something annoyed her.

And it seemed that Suiren’s fate was going to be the same. You could even see a faint aura of fire surrounding Miyako, which meant that every blow was meant to be lethal and she was determined to kill Suiren.

What no one had time to notice was that, despite being brutally beaten, Suiren’s gaze fell upon each of them as if she were evaluating something—especially Miyako. Suiren was watching her with particular attention.

"Stop her! She might be involved in Stella’s murder." (Yuna)

They didn’t want to mess with Miyako, but the situation forced them to call their maids to stop her.

If they didn’t handle this properly, they could get dragged into something bad.

But before the maids could get close, something happened that no one expected.

"I will correct my mistake, my lady. I leave the rest in your hands." (Suiren)

Suiren continued to say things that Miyako didn’t understand.

But at some point—which Miyako didn’t catch—a kind of crystal appeared in Suiren’s hand, and before Miyako could figure out what it was...

BOOOM!

A loud, shrill sound accompanied by a blinding light engulfed the place.