Chapter 131: Framing Up 101

"Well, we sure did... with you changing quite a bit."

When I went to Urduja and Momoiro's side, the ball was still many moments away from starting given that the sun had just started to set, it was still too early that the nobles present were not that many either, but that may be because of the identity of the Seiyokus, so I don't know.

After my mother-in-law returned my respectful greeting with a questionable sentence, she continued.

"Well, seeing that you are the one who started this farce with the Seiyokus, I presume that you're also the reason why is my presence requested in the Royal Capital?"

Upon hearing such, I could not help but chuckle, after which, I replied.

"What are you talking about? What I did is to just ask for a little compensation for my life-risking stunt of saving this Kingdom in the steed of its King, it's not my fault that they choose to smelt one of my coins causing their largest smithy to explode to smithereens alongside 60 percent of their weapon commissions, causing their biggest industry to be crippled and all of their alliances all over the world to be in the verge of collapse."

I smiled lightly while I watched Auntie Midori start to shake hands with the nobles that attended her party, after that, I continued.

"All of their misfortunes are because of their decisions."

This time, it was the turn of my mother-in-law to snort, she ignored Momoiro who was dumbfounded by what I had said, I wondered if she still finds me interesting after this, well, I can't really glorify myself to appeal to the other daughter of the parent of the person I will marry, so I guess it doesn't matter.

"Haa... if you say so, it's not like I particularly care, but can you at least tell me why are you planting a mole inside Gjallarhorn when you have that spider? This would risk discovery by a large degree compared to using her offsprings, you know?"

Hearing that, I sighed as Auntie Midori went in front of us, she was shocked to see me with Urduja but given that she knew that I was the fiancée of Eleanor, she just smiled awkwardly and shook hands with the three of us before bowing once again, I can say that she's afraid of three marginally strong people sitting in her mansion.

After Auntie went out of my illusion, I finally replied.

"... How about you treat it as me helping my Auntie Midori reclaim the prestige of her name?"

Urduja was once again speechless, though soon her eyes went wide and a grin appeared on her face.

"This is why I hate speaking with smart people."

After that conversation, the three of us started to talk more casually, mostly about how I became this packing in front and back, the preparations for the wedding and how will I use the investment I forcefully forked out of the coffers of Gjallarhorn, Urduja also asked me about how will I stir Kamatayan into the direction I wanted to, the conversation continued until the food arrived and the dance started, yet, despite all of that, I have one thing in mind.

_Are those spies looking for me?_

[3rd Person POV]

The night went on, Urduja went and danced with Momoiro and Sophia before the latter bid them farewell and used the 4th dimension to go back to her Queendom, before she entered however she did not forget to stop and take a look at the people who are scanning the whole area, she also felt some presences that are searching the rooms of the Seiyoku residence while all servants and soldiers are concentrated in the vicinity of the ballroom, she ignored them soon when she concluded that they are not that much of a threat to any of her plans and entered the 4th dimension under the gazes of her mother-in-law and Momoiro.

At that moment, the normally blank-faced Momoiro frowned.

"Mother there are a total of 15 spies in the ballroom searching for Hara Sophia, and another 15 were searching the place with the same goal."

Urduja sighed and shook her head, seemingly disappointed.

_What in the world is happening to Roselle?_

Of course, this thought was not read by Momoiro as her mind-reading ability was turned off at that moment, knowing this, Urduja replied.

"Let them be, with how I see it, this matter will be inches near to being linked to Sophia, but will never be able to actually implicate her."

Normally, Momoiro who has taken more fancy towards Sophia due to the queen of undeads showing her true colors to Momoiro just a little while earlier will be at ease hearing such affirmation, however, her face did not just not return to normal but instead, her frown deepened.

"... That being said, are you sure that she doesn't require any assistance from you?"

Hearing that, Urduja scoffed as she unfocused herself in the formerly ripped-apart space and watched the last dance prevail and focused on some of her "eye candy", she did not reply for a while which caused some annoyance to Momoiro, but she did not show it to her face because after a full ten seconds, Urduja finally opened her mouth.

"She doesn't need any help from anyone... I'm sure that Bakunawa already did her thing... also, that person is already  out of her central command."

Momoiro was further confused, but she did not dare read the mind of her mother because while she could do it, the last time she tried, some of her eyes turned blind, and never saw a speck of light again.

_______

As Urduja and Momoiro discussed about a helping hand that is not needed by Sophia, some "nobles" are sitting quietly while everyone was dancing, unlike the prideful look of their counterparts, these "nobles"  have sharp eyes as they scanned every single person who entered and exited the dance floor, just like Sophia have observed, these nobles are in fact a bunch of spies King Roselle has planted on the celebration of the Seiyoku family as he finds the sudden ability of these mere peerage family to buy a permanent Barony when just a few weeks ago awfully suspicious.

The preliminary investigation yielded a very common result, the women of the family became desperate and made themselves mistresses of some noble who loved fooling around like the former patriarch of the Seiyoku household, however when the King of Gjallarhorn learned about the relationship between the Seiyokus and Sophia, Roselle immediately suspected that Sophia is the one behind this event, the deputy commander of the spy network is obviously disagreeable with this notion, after all, they can't just blame Sophia for every little thing that happens to the Kingdom, more so when the defamation mission given to them has backfired so bad that rallies calling for the execution of the people who are spreading rumors about their "savior" gained traction, of course, they also suspected that this is due to Sophia's interference, but they don't have any evidence, so they can just stop all the rumors to slowly stop the rallies too.

This reasoning was put forth to Roselle, but he did not listen to it and swore that this time, he would catch Sophia red-handed, the deputy commander could not help but sigh as he gave those orders, he could just look helplessly in the direction of the mega smithy that is yet to be rebuilt and will take a long time to be fully functional again due to the super intricate construction process of such gigantic projects.

Going back, not only did Roselle plant noble spies, he also ordered a search and retrieval operation for any kind of evidence that links this event to Sophia, they search for the room of Midori and all her family members, the kitchen, the washroom, the bath, the cellar, basically every single place that are part of the mansion was turned upside down metaphorically, and yet they did not find anything, if only they have hero tier power and unveiled the illusion around the clear glass box in the room of Midori, then they will be one step closer to the truth, but because of Midori's intricate arrangement and Sophia's caution, the spies that received orders from an enraged leader came out empty handed.

Seeing this, Midori cannot help but scoff.

"Pitiful is a nation to have a leader that cannot take defeat with grace."

That's what all she can say.

_______

The operation majestically yielded no result, causing more rage to steam out of Roselle, however, all of his rage was quenched when an event happened 1 week after the ball! A noble who attended the ball of the Seiyokus died! And what's more, he died because of poisoning!

"THIS IS IT! THE BARON KINGFISHER, THE NOBLE WHO GAVE SEIYOKO THE MONEY TO BUY THEIR NOBLE STATUS HAS DIED! IF THIS EVENT IS NOT LINKED TO SOPHIA, OR AT LEAST TO THE SEIYOKUS, THEN I DRINK SHITHOLE WATER! GO TO THE SEIYOKOS AND INTERROGATE THEM WHILE ALSO INVESTIGATING THE PEOPLE OF CLOSE PROXIMITY, FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF KINGFISHER!"

Another rage-induced command filled the ears of the deputy commander but this time, it made sense, after all, the only social gathering that Kingfisher participated in the past week was the ball for the celebration of Seiyoku's permanent nobility, in the whole week, Kingfisher seems to indulge in the flower buds of her new mistresses and even canceled all of his appointments, thus it is just normal to think that the new baroness who is known for her cunning has devised the perfect downfall of their patron, thus the deputy actually was enthusiastic by the order and moved out some interrogators immediately, however, they were bound to fail once more!

Not only did Midori arrange all of their alibies in a way that is not too smooth to rouse suspicion but not too flawed for the blame to be directly pointed at them, but she had Sophia compliment all of her alibies, no evidence was pointed against Midori and co. and all of the people, places, and events they said in their alibi had traces of their presence, the traces were subtle too, meaning that the spies did not find them too perfectly placed to be true,  some of the household members even have to lead the interrogators in the scene to make a point of their innocence.

And three days after such a failure, they were about to give up, once again defeated by their commander's impulsiveness, however, at that moment, one of the investigators finally found the suspect!

The friend of the patriarch of the Kingfisher family, Ferdinand Queenpin was branded primary suspect when the spies who were about to wrap up the investigation found out that he was with Kingfisher during the ball and found a whole barrel of wine with thallium sulfate traces, upon trials, it was confirmed that the dose inside was enough for the mg: kg ratio of the poison to match the weight of Kingfisher of about 70 kilograms, more so, the Queenpin family are known chemists and are an important aspect of the military in terms of medical or poisonous matters.

They also learned that in the week that Kingfisher did not appear in public, Queenpin always visited him regularly, it was also said that her wife and children were on an escorted vacation in one of their villas, it was speculated that Ferdinand poisoned Kingfisher using poison inside the ball of the Seiyoku and then used the honeypot payment of the Seiyoku as an alibi to divert the blame to Midori and co., another aspect of investigation that practically confirms all of this is that Kingfisher doesn't have any alcohol contents in his body after the ball, he wanted to frame the Seiyokus.

The only careless thing Queenpin did is that he did not disposed of the barrel and just used a bottle worth of it's wine when trying to frame the new baron, if he just find a way to transport it alongside the ordered barrels of Midori, they he would have succeeded.

Upon delving deeper, Ferdinand was found guilty when the spies learned that he once caught Kingfisher having sex with the poor chemist's wife which caused a huge rip in the relationship between him and his friend.

Just like that, the case was solved, the Seiyoku family was proven not guilty and Ferdinand Queenpin who got concrete evidence planted inside her house got the death by guillotine as punishment without even knowing what the hell did he do.

All of this transpired in the watchful eyes of Midori who was amazed at how the event was manipulated, not only did her Lady who calls her auntie use an unconventional poison such as thallium sulfate to make it so that the poor chemists would be implicated in it, she also made it so that all their alibies will have concrete bases by making her children and fellow former wives of Shiro remember their faces, and the most impressive part was the fact that Sophia was able to dig up an event like wife stealing to seal the fate of the scapegoat.

Midori sighed, regretting her on-guard attitude the last time Sophia and her met.

"Ah... such a capable person... I wonder if I can get closer to her."

[Sophia's POV]

It took three days to watch the whole ordeal, I was amazed at how showing off my smarts was able to gain a good amount of Auntie Midori's favor, however, I do not care about such things, I exhaled a large one causing mist caused by vapor frozen to gush out, upon seeing the just finished paperwork of mine, a smirk appeared on my face.

"I can finally prepare for my wedding."

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Side Story:

Deputy Commander: So My Lord, how many scoops should I bring from the manhole?