"Enter," Adelaide called the moment her ears picked up a familiar series of knocks. A man with an unidentifiable age wearing a porcelain mask stepped into the room, his striped tux is smoothly worn and he held the weight of his body perfectly. Adelaide gave him a complimentary nod. Such is the attitude of one of the Sharpe family''s aide.


    She had sent this one away to spy on a young baroness, one of the variables she had noted to be problems in the current political climate. Meanwhile, she deemed Rosalind to be less of a threat and more of a curiosity she herself will talk to in the coming week. The man''s target however, Constance, is just as much of a mystery while being far more ambitious than her counterpart. A spy was necessary to learn of the girl''s true motives.


    "Speak," Adelaide gave the man standing before her permission to give her the information, whatever it is he learned, she would digest. It is of utmost importance she knows what Constance is doing. Aside from the fact that Constance is making moves against her family while being no more than a baron''s daughter, there is also the looming threat of her causing an uprising. Ambitious nobles didn''t stop at Dukedoms after all, they dethroned kings. Adelaide''s family knows that well.


    "The girl is going in and out of her home at constant intervals, I tailed her to figure out why and learned that she is gathering herbs from the forest. I figured out why she is doing this and I have gathered that an alchemist''s lab has been constructed recently in her home." Adelaide nodded, that''s going to sting the Marlowe''s pockets. Unless...


    "She''s planning on selling alchemical products?" Adelaide questioned the possibility. It was a likely thing, good alchemists are rare and their wares are sought after, making the profession quite lucrative but what does a girl like that know of such a dangerous job? Surely she knows she''s risking her life by going in blind?


    "I do believe so," the aide nodded, Adelaide raised her brow. Forests had herbs, plenty of them, and the one next to the capital just so happens to be brimming with high quality ones due to its distance from a nearby mana spring. But higher quality herbs means more energy, and more energy causes explosions upon failure.


    But to build an alchemist''s lab? It was almost as if the girl isn''t scared of it and she somehow convinced her father that her fearlessness is the right call. Which can only mean one thing; she proved her competency enough that her own father decided to fulfill her wishes.


    A future alchemist despite not being educated in the art, and if she was, the rest of the court would have known about it years ago. Gossip is their art and no sane baron would not brag about his daughter to his peers in hopes of getting a good marriage. Somehow, someway, Constance managed to learn alchemy without anyone knowing about it. Suspicious.


    But that''s assuming she doesn''t die from a failed brew in the following days, Adelaide calmed herself. "Continue."


    "The task that you have given me, I have fulfilled. I have gathered information related to Constance''s connections within the court."


    Adelaide smiled. Well then, what secrets does Constance hide from the rest of the nobles? Shady dealings? Contractual bonds with demons? Quite possibly a connection to a dangerous group planning an uprising? She was the perfect candidate to act as a spy for that last one, as being the daughter of a baron had higher chances of being a concubine of a higher caste precisely because of her lower status. She wouldn''t be the wife but she didn''t need to be if her goal is to gather information.


    "She joins a school within the capital attended by the sons and daughters of neighboring barons, the building itself is nothing special, nor the visitors. Save for one- a disguised third prince has been going there as of late, I have also concluded from his majesty''s actions towards the girl that he is infatuated with Constance."


    Well then, this is out of Adelaide''s expectations. "He was sick- the herbs? Constance healed him?"


    "I believe so." Nodded the aide.


    "Any other noteworthy piece of information I should know about? Ones related to the prince himself perchance?" Adelaide asks.


    "The prince tells her a lot of things, from the names of merchants to other nobles as well as their preferences, he is like a puppy bound to her by a tight leash." The aide explained the bad news in his typical casual tone, his voice refusing to rise by a single pitch despite seeing the woman in front of him become visibly angrier with every spoken word. "Beyond that, Constance is also gifted with resources by the King."


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    "The crown is supporting her because she''s healing the prince, they see potential in her." Adelaide accurately guessed. She connected her recent revelation to her fascinated suspicion of the girl somehow learning how to make a potion that no other alchemist across the kingdom, no matter how knowledgeable, has managed to produce.


    "She''s gaining their trust. It is worse than I thought." Adelaide muttered in worry, a faction managed to grab hold of Constance somehow and now they''re planning something with her acting as the main gateway to the crown. She needed more information.


    "Anything else?" Adelaide snapped out of her thoughts and asked the aide.


    "I do believe she''s also making items, though those might be from her father''s endeavors." The aide answered.


    "Tell me more, what do you mean by "those"?"


    "Trash, mechanical in nature and clearly built with the intent of making a machine have been littering the outside of their house. I do not know what they are or what they do, I am uneducated in such matters."


    "It''s fine, bring me one when you come back here. For now, keep watching her. If something important happens, rush here immediately." Adelaide instructed, she knew that the news given to her right now is days old and that the one she''ll receive would be a week delayed from the time of revelation but people moved slowly, a week, a day? There won''t be much of a difference at that point in time.


    It is concerning that Constance is showing extreme amounts of growth in such a short period however. What happened? No noble, no matter how educated, wakes up one day and becomes an expert alchemist, nor do they try to make machines. The daughter of a baron should not be able to do the things Constance is doing, this, Adelaide knew. She also knows her father would agree with her on this.


    "Leave," the aide moved moments after Adelaide ordered him to, "and thank you," she almost forgot, used as she was to not saying it towards the useless worms around her. Unlike most people however, her aides were actually useful, and what kind of monster would she be if she did not repay their loyalty with a bit of kindness?


    When the aide left, Adelaide locked the doors and stripped. She changed into something less comfortable yet formal enough that her father''s brows wouldn''t crease upon seeing the state of her dress. Their mutual feelings towards anything distractingly distasteful had been something of an anchor point between her and him.


    The meeting she is about to have with her father won''t be different from the ones they did in the past. The importance of their topic aside, she''s sure that together, the two of them would come up with a proper solution to the ongoing problems plaguing the kingdom.


    After all, what use does a martial house have if they couldn''t protect the ruler they swore allegiance to?


    Adelaide knocked on her father''s study, "Adelaide." The response from within was focused, as though her arrival went unaccounted for, yet recognized to be important enough that she was addressed with her real name. Adelaide opened the door and locked gazes with her father as he looked up from his own work, "is something wrong?"


    "Yes. Marlowe''s daughter is miraculously capable of treating the bedbound third prince," Adelaide explained as she closed the door behind her, she activated the hexes on the door knob to trap sound inside the room. When she turned around, she saw a placid expression on her father''s face, "you knew."


    "I guessed as much," the man said, "do you have any ideas on how to fix this?"


    Adelaide found her seat in front of her father''s desk, now they were at equal standing. Father and daughter, Duke and heiress, none of that mattered at this exact point in time. What mattered is their ideas.


    "I have an inkling of an idea but nothing more than that," she didn''t want to be the bearer of bad news but that was the truth, Adelaide did not know of any solutions she can offer which will mend the growing distrust of the royal family towards them while discrediting the ones responsible at the same time.


    "Say it." Duke Magnus Sharpe pushed aside his current work and grabbed a fresh parchment from underneath his desk.


    "We need to figure out how a baron''s daughter who was barely literate a week ago suddenly learned alchemy and making mechanical contraptions, I do not know for certain if she studied in secret but if she did, then we should have known about it already."


    "Because her father would find a suitable partner for her, to do that, he would tell other nobles of her value." Said the Duke, "like what he is doing now."


    "Precisely. And, it seems that they have their eyes set on the royal crown." Adelaide added her own bits and pieces, "they''re weakening us as well, and I can only find one reason for why, they want to usurp the current rule."


    "Then they''re foolish." Scoffed Magnus, but Adelaide didn''t feel the same way.


    "You''re thinking that it''ll take them years to weaken us, then they''d have to move on to the king''s own soldiers." Adelaide''s guess had been spot on because her father nodded after she said her piece. "She has alchemy on her side and not to mention, currently making contraptions of some kind. With the resources she has, which came from the crown itself, she would be able to build siege weapons before long."


    "Fantasy," her father argued with a confident smirk, he crossed his arms, "even if it only takes her a month, which it won''t, what use do contraptions have against magic?"


    Adelaide found herself eyeing the cards stashed within the box to her right, she looked away. "Alchemy is also part of Constance''s repertoire." She retorted, hoping that her father would see reason. He can, with what she''s revealing next, she knows it. "The third prince is visiting her in her school. Lowly for a royal, but no one would suspect the bedridden member of the family to disguise himself and visit a girl with non-existent standing."


    "That''s new. She has the third prince in her laces?" Her father said, "she''s smart."


    "Strangely so." Adelaide agreed.


    "What do you think caused it?" Her father''s happy demeanor changed into something twisted.


    "My guess is as good as anyone''s." Adelaide solemnly replied, she shared her father''s expression. She hated weakness like this, it didn''t feel right to be so out of control. To lack information and not figure out why things are happening.


    "I see." Her father calmed himself, "I''ll figure something out."


    "And so will I," Adelaide repeated, "let''s push this aside for now, we need to talk about the lack of merchants coming to our territory. Farmers would still pay taxes but the people will be lacking proper food sources soon,"


    "We''ll all eat goats then. There''s plenty of those in the mountains," her father shook his head, a sign of both reassurance and dismissiveness towards the problem. "We''ll grow potatoes for now as well, harvest a lot of them in upcoming months."


    "And would the farmers agree to that?" Adelaide asked.


    "They will once I say so." Magnus answered.


    "I see, then I leave you to managing the territory then. I''ll focus solely on the problem at hand." Adelaide stood up, "if you need me, tell your servants that they can find me in the library."


    "For what?" Her father didn''t seem shocked but he asked regardless.


    "Studying." Adelaide responded. "I''m not gonna let some low blood best me at education,"