Flop!
Lucy bent down on her knees, there is no more trace of her foolish face earlier, the sudden change makes everyone furrowed their eyebrows witnessing how serious this lunatic maid is.
"I failed to carry your command and lost his trace, My Lord"
She said looking down, except for Mammon who doesn't know Lucy's ability yet, everyone in this room believes that aside from her lunatic behavior, this maid is the best in this field of work, yet she lost the masked man's trace even with her blessing to become a shadow.
Tap!
Grizel tapped the maid's shoulder as she speaks in her usual calmness.
"Get up, it was my order to not following him too close"
She had a hunch that this Westerner's representative is somewhat different from the dumb traitors, following too close is like exposing Lucy to unknown danger, and she doesn't want to take the risk of losing her precious child over this man's identity.
"Is there anything else do you want to report regarding that man?"
"Yes, My Lord. I see him wearing a bracelet with a strange symbol"
"Strange symbol?"
Lucy took out her drawing of the symbol from her storage ring and shows it to her Lord.
"Grizel, this is..."
Rex who sits next to his fiance mumbled in shock as he sees the drawing, the combination of a sword with a demon's head and angel's wings, he knows about the symbol because it appears in Grizel's memory as part of that weird novel.
"Seraphim"
Grizel murmured as she recalls this name, the reason why she never let her guard down and be satisfied with her power even though she had confirmed the traitors' identities and the real mastermind behind the rebellion...
Because there exists another group of villains in the novel.
Seraphim is a secret organization led by 7 strong people with code names, even though they rarely appear in the story, Grizel never underestimates these villains, rather, she thought they were far more dangerous than those rebels whose goal is clear in pursuing their greed.
Seraphim inflicted fear through terrors not only in Azure but the entire Eastern mainland including the Sherwood Empire, and it's hard to guess their motive and origin because of the irregular pattern of attack.
Except for the code names of their leader, there is too little information about them both in the novel and reality, and their goal remains unknown until the end of the story when Rex wins the war against the rebels and successfully reunite with the West region of Azure without knowing the truth of Grand conspiracy, Seraphim just disappear without a trace as if never existed.
At a glance, it seems like they are nothing but insignificant side Villain in the story, but Grizel is not stupid enough to believe everything written in the novel, the information can be misleading and there is a lot of hidden facts behind the plot holes, hence why she builds the intelligence department before anything else, just like in her previous life, Angela Samael never naively put her trust 100% on something or someone.
After all, she is well aware that the novel is only a little tiny piece of this entire world.
'I see, so that's how it is...'
She thought inwardly as she glances at the symbol of Seraphim, it seems like they are part of the Westerners' grand conspiracy as well, Grizel's conclusion of her interaction with the foolish traitors at the party is that both the traitors and the rebels are nothing but mere pawns to the Westerners, it means Seraphim is their real force that's been hiding.
"Divide et Impera"
Grizel mumbled to herself, it was a Latin name of a military strategy for Divide-and-Conquer, Azure was strong but they will be powerless if their strength is divided into many factions, weakened from both outside and inside, Azure will struggle to maintain their union, even if Rex win the against the rebellion like the original novel, the traitors still exist and Seraphim is on standby observing from the shadow.
Azure is like dancing on their palm.
But it will be different story if someone capable of reading this grand scheme appears, much less someone who is familiar with this kind of conspiracy, cutting their pawns one by one crushing the huge spider web that been trapping Azure,and it's even possible use it as the advantage to counterattack, Angela Samael learned the similar strategy in the 6th book of Dell'arte Della Guerra or The Art of War by Niccolò Machiavelli.
For her, history is the way the ancestors in teaching her.
"My Lord?"
Lucy's voice is waking her from the long train of thoughts, the fact that Seraphim began to move is a loud alarm for her to quickly complete her puzzle of 7 sins.
"Seraphim is an organization led by 7 elites from the West"
Grizel explained, the rebels and traitors aren't worthy to be considered as an enemy because they are nothing but disposable pawns used by Westerners.
And recalling how haughty the masked man earlier in front of the traitors, he seems to be someone with quite a high position in Seraphim, but obviously not one of the top 7.
"7 elites from the West?"
Levi asked, as always he is the first one to grasp the situation as he continues to speak.
"Is it means that Seraphim is the real enemy of Tartarus?"
Grizel nodded as she glanced at her surrounding, there are only 4 elite members of Tartarus, to confront the 7 elite of Seraphim, isn't it normal to require at least an equal in number.
West Vs East.
Seraphim and Tartarus.
"Lucy, is there any news about the remaining 3 members?"
This puzzle needs to be completed before Seraphim starts to make their move, Tartarus isn't stable enough to confront a long-established organization like Seraphim.
"Our intelligence network had confirmed 2 of 3 remaining members, the information about their location given by the Lord was accurate except for one, we couldn't find his whereabouts"
Out of 7 geniuses in the novel, only one of them has an unknown origin, the youngest of all, a little boy who possesses too much knowledge of magic and history, in the novel he was being chased by Seraphim.
The only clues of his origin are the color of his eyes and hair mentioned in the novel because he has a unique, no, more likely a strange combination of colors.
Silver hair and golden eyes.
"My Prince, are you sure that Father Emperor has no illegitimate child with a member of my Belial Family?"
Grizel said nonchalantly, silver hair is the pride of the Belial Family so does the Royal Family's golden citrine eyes, to have both colors means he was born with both lineages.
"The fact that you ask me means you find nothing even after conducting a thorough investigation, don't you?"
Rex answered back calmly because he is sure that his father is not the kind of trash man who would have an affair behind the back of his wife and son, it might be the child of his distant relative but investigating the family tree of a distant relative will take a lot of effort.
"Indeed, even the only clue is not helpful"
Grizel sighed heavily, the color of his eyes and hair is the only clue she has in order to find the last piece of her puzzle, yet it's not that useful.
"Well, I can focus on searching him after recruiting the other 2, but before that..."
"Lucy, scout the rebellion territory"
"Understood, My Lord"
"Levi, explain our circumstance to Mammon, and don't teach him anything weird"
Grizel took out the earring with the emblem of Tartarus uses for a communication device and hand it over to Mammon, he seems to be confused with all of the conversations since he knows nothing about the traitors and the Westerners' scheme.
"Alright, you are dismissed"
The 4 subordinates excuses themselves to carry the order of their Lord keenly except for the dispirited red-haired man who has the eyes of a dead fish, tottering to leave the room where only the Prince and the Princess left.
Somehow he reminds Rex of his most trusted aide who got overworked lately thanks to a certain someone.
"My Prince, please gives this proposal to Father Emperor, also I request an audience with His Majesty to discuss the upcoming civil war the day after tomorrow"
It's indeed a time for Rex to head back to the Palace after enjoying quality time with Judas, and Dion is probably crying his eyes out due to the Prince's disappearance during his work.
"Alright, but why the day after tomorrow? My father would gladly reschedule his agenda so you can meet him tomorrow"
"No, I have something to do in the South tomorrow"
"South?"
Rex raised one of his eyebrows as if saying, what else she wants to do in Judas's territory, when he was about to ask, he remembers one of Grizel's most anticipated events in her memories.
"Aaahh... the appearance of the second artifact!"
He said half-shouted as Grizel nodded, she glances at the mysterious black ring that warped her pinky, this artifact is indeed far more overpowering compare to ancient weapons or blessing, this thing is on whole different levels, the artifacts of Apocalypse, it's no wonder there only exist 4 of them and all combined will bring calamity upon the world.
The first to appear is the artifact of Famine which is the name of Grizel's ring, it represents endless hunger and extinction thus brought to the power of gluttony, infinite dimension storage, and black hole, this artifact appeared in the Belial's territory, or precisely in the deepest part of the Forest of Demise.
"After I got your memories, I tried to search for its origins but found nothing related to this set of dangerous artifacts, are you going to be alright using such unknown things?"
Rex asked in a worried tone, those artifacts are indeed God-tier items but it put a heavy burden on Grizel's undeveloped body as the side effects, no matter how mature she is on the inside, it doesn't change the fact that she is just a 10-year-old little girl, like that time when she absorbed the ancient magic of the wind-barrier which protected the treasure she looted in the northern highest cliff, she got a severe backlash from forcefully absorbing it.
"I only have one choice, to be stronger"
Grizel determined because the bigger her desire the more efforts needed, that's life, no pain no gain.
Sighed...
Rex sighed, he knows that Grizel won't ever change her mind, but still, he will do anything to support his fiancee to achieve her goal.
He picked his robe and put it on, it's time to go back to the Palace because he has been absent for a few hours.
"Alright, please stay away from trouble at the south"
Rex strokes her long silver hair after placing a light kiss on Grizel's forehead before leaving as he warned her to not cause any more trouble than this grand counselor kidnapping.
"Are you worried about me?"
"No, I am worried about myself because my beloved future wife keep pouring me with the endless works"
He replied with a sarcastic smile while holding her shoulders tightly, rather than a sarcastic remark, it sounds more like a desperate begging, at least this once, he prays for this trouble magnet to miraculously do things in moderation.
"Tch, why in the world those artifacts keep appearing in this land"
Rex grumbled with a low voice as he left the room, if only they don't appear in this Azure empire, he wouldn't need to worry about Grizel causing any more troubles.
Hearing his grumble, Grizel flinched as she just noticed something strange, she stood there like a statue while seeing Rex's back getting further.
'Yes, why in the world those artifacts keep appearing in Azure?!'
Grizel once again drowned in her thoughts, the first appearance was in the East, and tomorrow is in the South, and the coordinates of the other 2 should be within this Azure land as well.
'Why? The world is vast, but why only in Azure?'
She suddenly recalled the Westerners who are persistently aiming for this Empire and her conclusion of the possibility this land possesses something precious.
'Is it a mere coincidence?'
'Artifacts that only appear in this land and the Western alliance that only aimed at this land as well'
'No, there is a high possibility their real goal is these artifacts'
Earlier Rex said he found no information about this set of artifacts, then she should be the only one who knows about the appearance of the artifact because she read the novel...
Unless they have read it as well.
'Hhmm?'
'Something's strange, they don't need to conquer this whole continent if they got the same information like I did about the exact time and place of the artifact's appearance'
If they have the information, they can just take the artifacts discreetly as she did, there's no need to conquer the whole continent, unless they don't know the exact time and place, it's understandable if they want to conquer this continent because they need to search thoroughly in this whole land.
If her theory were true, it means their source of information is different, they don't know about that strange novel which oddly enough gives her accurate times and places.
Grizel caresses her artifact ring, they sacrificed a lot to gain this item including the original Grizel who became the scapegoat, then what if all of their years of efforts, time, and money ended up in smoke because the very same scapegoat took all the artifacts?
Even though her ultimate goal is world domination, but...
"This revenge plot sounds fun"
Rip...
The Princess ripped off the teleportation scroll to enjoy the sightseeing in Judas's territory in the South.
To be continued...