Chapter 144 - Topaz Guild

“A queen? Is she engaged?” Did Charles have a fiance? And he made a confession to me? At the moment when Charles’ reputation was about to fall to rock bottom inside Azriel, Maylie denied it. “No, she’s not engaged. I’m saying she’s the most suitable person to be the spouse of His Majesty if we weigh various aspects of her like her family, sophistication, beauty, and even age.”

“Oh…,” Azriel apologized to Charles inside her. I’m sorry that I misunderstood you for a moment. And she suddenly realized. Charles told her to take his confession lightly, and he, in fact, confessed lightly, but it could never be a light confession as long as he was the king. Azriel asked. “But what about her?”

“I noticed this while putting together the information about the recent missing incident, there is a commercial guild that secretly sponsors missing people’s families.”

“A guild is sponsoring the families of missing people, not the country?”

“It’s distinct from state support. It’s a very small guild, but later I found out that it was a practice guild established by the family of Madriol.”

“What is a practice guild?”

“It’s a small scale commercial guild established by high aristocrats for the purpose of their children’s education. It’s where they learn management and skills to deal with people in real life. Those guilds will merge back into each of their family’s guilds at the end of the practice period.”

“I see. You mean that the sponsor guild is Lady Madriol’s practice guild?”

“Right. It was the guild that the Duke of Madriol made for Lady Lexina von Madriol.”

“That means the Lady is sponsoring the victims of the missing incidents. Did you need to interview the Lady by any chance, Maylie? The Lady must be attending the ball since it’s hosted by the Duke of Madriol.”

“An interview? No. I can’t dare to ask for an interview from such a high aristocrat like Lady Madriol. Umm, this is what I personally researched because I ran into something strange while researching for data…,” Maylie covertly looked around. There were only Marthi and them as before. As soon as Marthi met Maylie’s eyes, he pretended to cover his mouth again. Maylie laughed briefly and patted him. Only then, she continued. “Most of the people that the guild sponsors are related to the missing incidents, but their sponsorship didn’t begin because they were related to the missing incidents.”

“…Wait, no way.”

“Can you tell what this means? While investigating, I found out that quite a lot of people who went missing were sponsored by the practice guild, the Topaz Guild.”

“So, it means that the guild is not sponsoring the victims of the missing incidents, but people who were sponsored went missing.”

“It’s fishy, isn’t it?” Maylie’s had a significant look on her face. Azriel thought of three possibilities. First, it was a mere coincidence. Second, the force behind the missing incidents and the Topaz Guild were related. Third, as the guild found people with unnamable mana and sponsored them, naturally, missing people increased from its members. It could have happened naturally or intentionally.

‘If it’s the third case, the guild might be finding and sponsoring them on purpose. Is it because they’re trying to catch the force behind the missing incidents? It may be cooperating with the royal family’s investigation. But if it’s the second case, the guild could be related to the behind force… Now I get why Grandpa Pendelok said that he couldn’t reveal the suspect force. If it’s related to Madriol, one of the two greatest Duke families, it’s a huge problem. Can it also be related to the reason why Charles has a Madriol as his guardian knight?’

Azriel agreed with Maylie. “That’s extremely fishy.”

“Yes. So, I was wondering if you can see what Lady Lexina von Madriol is like if you are planning to go to the masquerade.”

“Maylie.”

“Yes?”

“That’s too dangerous.”

“What? No! I wasn’t going to ask you to investigate her or sound her out. I just wanted you to tell me what she was like…”

“I’m not talking about myself, it’s you.”

“Me?” Maylie widened her eyes, pointing at herself.