Chapter 172 - 171: The Scandal Sheet

Something about Adena’s expression had shifted the moment Eleanore’s tired words registered. The concern flickering into something else entirely, something closer to alarm, gone almost as quickly as it appeared.

"Lady Adena." Eleanore straightened slightly, studying her more carefully now. "What are you actually doing in here? You have your own room for the tea party planning."

"I just needed a bigger space to lay everything out," Adena said, already gathering the fabric samples into her arms with more haste than the task required. "Your room has better light. For colors. Color matching needs good light."

"Lady Adena."

"I should go check on the invitaion list anyway, I think I left it downstairs, or maybe it’s still in my room, I should probably check both—" The words tumbled out faster now, disjointed, nothing like Adena’s usual confident chatter, and she was already halfway to the door before Eleanore could get another word in. "I’ll come find you later! Feel better! Bye!"

The door clicked shut before Eleanore could respond, leaving her sitting there in the sudden quiet, replaying the exchange with a growing, uneasy suspicion. Adena didn’t rattle easily. Whatever had just happened, it wasn’t about centerpieces.

She rose and did a slow circuit of her room, checking the drawers, the desk, the small side table by the window, but everything appeared untouched — nothing missing, nothing out of place. She was on the verge of dismissing it entirely, chalking it up to nerves after the greenhouse, when the air in front of her flickered faintly and a familiar translucent panel bloomed into view.

|| Chapter 1: The Woman Named Barbra

Barbra was known to be a very gentle and kind woman of the kingdom. She was always quiet and had no enemy. Until she fell for the wrong person and tried to win him over only to be trampled on completely by the queen of the social circle, Eleanore Sinclair (You)

Quest 1: Death Case Of Lady Barbra Fein

Task 1: Who killed Lady Barbra?

Do you accept the task?

Yes/No

Note: Reward: +100,000 reputationPenalty: -200,000 coins

Total Reputation: -100,000Total Coins: +90,100||

Eleanore stared at the panel for a long moment, the unease from moments ago sharpening into something colder. A name she didn’t recognize. A death she’d never heard mentioned. And, apparently, a debt of blame was already sitting squarely on her shoulders before she’d even had a chance to learn what actually happened.

Is the system giving me a reminder or something?

---

Marina arrived minutes later, out of breath and clutching a small stack of yellowed newspaper clippings, having clearly been summoned the moment Eleanore’s message reached her.

"You’re not going to like this," Marina said, spreading the clippings out across the desk. "I dug through the archive room. It took a while. Most of this was buried, and not by accident, I think."

Eleanore leaned over the clippings, scanning the headlines. The first, dated several months back, read in bold print: LADY BARBRA FEIN FOUND DEAD — DUCHESS SINCLAIR NAMED PRIME SUSPECT IN SOCIAL CIRCLE SCANDAL. Beneath it, a smaller article detailed accusations from anonymous sources, all pointing toward Eleanore’s supposed jealousy, her supposed cruelty, painted in the same breathless, damning tone as the article Adena had shown her weeks ago.

"There’s a name at the bottom of most of these," Marina said, tapping the byline. "Pat Pattison. Same journalist on nearly every piece."

"And then?" Eleanore asked, though she already suspected the answer wouldn’t be good.

"Then, two days later, it just — vanishes. No retraction, no follow-up, nothing. It’s like the story never existed. I only found these because the archive room keeps physical copies that never got pulled from the record." Marina’s expression was grim. "Someone made this disappear very quickly and very quietly, which usually means someone with real influence wanted it gone."

Eleanore sat back, mind racing through the implications. A death conveniently blamed on her, a story erased just as conveniently before anyone could dig deeper, and now, months later, some invisible system dredging the whole thing back up with a quest attached to her name and a debt already counted against her.

"I need to write to my brother," she murmured, mostly to herself. "He might remember something from that time, even if it never made real news."

She pulled out a sheet of paper immediately, pen moving quickly as she wrote out the letter, careful, deliberate questions about anything Alaric might recall from months back, any names, any rumors, anything at all connected to a woman named Barbra Fein. She sealed it before she could second-guess the wording, setting it aside for the next courier out.

"What now?" Marina asked.

"Now," Eleanore said, already rising and reaching for her coat, "we find Pat Pattison. Whoever buried this story clearly didn’t finish the job well enough, and I want answers."

She found Victor down the hall not long after, and it took only a brief, clipped explanation of the clippings and the notification before his expression shifted into the same grim focus she’d seen the day he’d first mentioned the spy sightings.

"Pattison," Victor repeated, already reaching for his coat. "He is a real trouble. Always writing fake news like they were some scandal." He glanced at her, something steady and resolved settling into his expression. "Let’s go find out exactly what he knows, and who paid him to forget it."

They leave the mansion in search of this journalist who couldn’t write a single true word in his articles. He is going to have so much fun in the interrogation that is coming his way.

Eleanore was determined to find answers and clear her name for good. She had had enough of this mud splattered over her face. She had decided to take care of this nonsense, useless author, for good. She had many questions, and today was the day she would find answers to them.

|| Chapter 1: The Woman Named Barbra

Barbra was known to be a very gentle and kind woman of the kingdom. She was always quiet and had no enemy. Until she fell for the wrong person and tried to win him over only to be trampled on completely by the queen of the social circle, Eleanore Sinclair (You)

Quest 1: Death Case Of Lady Barbra Fein

Task 1: Who killed Lady Barbra?

Do you accept the task?

Yes/No

Note: Reward: +100,000 reputationPenalty: -200,000 coins

Total Reputation: -100,000Total Coins: +90,100||