“Don’t be in such a hurry, I’m not finished yet,” Liana told Felicia to relax. “Regarding the forbidden drug that can make me lose my ability to use magic, not many people in this world would know about it. Even Mephilia only knows because she used this drug for treatment.

“Of course, Second Prince Oester is older than Mephilia and has seen more than her, so it’s understandable. But why does Second Prince Oester know so clearly that this forbidden drug is in my mother’s study? And my mother’s study has many protective measures—even if you know the book is there, it’s not easy to find it,” Liana said.

“How could Second Prince Oester direct Countess Rose to find the book containing the forbidden drug so precisely? It’s so hard to guess.

“Is Princess Liana completely treating Second Prince Oester as your enemy now?” Felicia’s face looked very unpleasant. That person beside Princess Liana was definitely a Judge. With a Judge protecting Liana, they had no options.

“What else should I do? He wanted to kill me. Excessive use of the forbidden drug could very likely lead to death,” Liana said coldly.

“But Princess Liana, you still don’t have any evidence, do you? The ‘O’ mentioned by Countess Rose doesn’t necessarily refer to Second Prince Oester, right?” Felicia said.

“Evidence, evidence, how boring. You just want to hear what you want to hear. How Second Prince Oester treated me, someone whose name contains ‘O’ and who could access these things—who else could it be?” Liana waved her hand dismissively.

“Besides, this matter would be clear with just a little investigation—whether Second Prince Oester and Crown Prince Hodwen are your diamond-level member cards or not.”

Indeed, this would be clear with just a little investigation, but, “Second Prince Oester and Crown Prince Hodwen are indeed our diamond-level members, but shouldn’t they be? If Princess Mephilia were to come, we would also treat Princess Mephilia as a diamond-level member.” Felicia openly admitted this point.

These were heirs, future kings—giving them diamond-level memberships was entirely reasonable and not worth mentioning.

“Fine, fine,” Liana spread her hands. “Then, Crown Prince Hodwen using his privileges to purchase forbidden techniques and magic from you to give to the Darriss Territory is also false?”

“...” Felicia’s eyes widened. Why? How did she know this?

The only people who knew about this were the Angus Commerce Guild and the absolute core of Darriss.

The others had been eliminated to prevent leaks. How did Liana know about this?

There was a mole among them!

“Why aren’t you speaking? Is it false?” Liana smiled. “Your territory and the Darriss Territory are both territories inherited from the previous king. It’s quite normal for there to be transactions between you, right? After all, they’re forbidden techniques, not too difficult to investigate, so...”

“Are you trying to sow discord regarding the loyalty of Angus Territory and Darriss Territory to the Lisat Kingdom? Princess Liana, aren’t you going too far? Should I think this is Princess Mephilia’s intention? Does Princess Mephilia think our two territories cannot be trusted?”

After speaking, Felicia very thoughtfully added for Mephilia’s sake, “However, this is also a normal thing. After all, we are outsiders, territories left over from the previous kingdom. Being vigilant towards us is normal and very commendable. It’s for the benefit of all residents of Lisat.”

“No, this has nothing to do with Mephilia. Minoga’s task is only to protect my safety. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have remained silent from beginning to end,” Liana said. “Mephilia doesn’t even know about what happened today.”

“Then you really are good at causing trouble for Princess Mephilia,” Felicia mocked. “Making such irresponsible statements in front of so many people without any evidence has a huge impact on our Angus Commerce Guild’s reputation.”

“There was no reputation to begin with, so don’t talk about impact,” Liana looked at Felicia. “Let me say what no one has dared to say before.”

This is how Liana should be—directly speaking out when she sees something displeasing.

“Using influence to forcibly close small shops, signing unequal contracts, using various means to induce others to sign contracts, exploiting loopholes to do things forbidden by the Lisat Kingdom.” Liana listed some examples.

“Don’t say I have no evidence. The evidence is standing right beside me, isn’t it?” Liana said.

“This was voluntarily signed by Miss Tari’s family, and they damaged our goods first. If Princess Liana uses this as evidence, I can only comply,” Felicia said somewhat helplessly.

“It’s not about Tari’s matter, but about my products being treated unfairly at your establishment. To leave, one must pay a price far exceeding the value of the goods. And you’re using various methods to gather information about me. Why? I think many merchants of the Angus Commerce Guild know this, right? After all, they’ve experienced it firsthand,” Liana smiled.

Felicia’s face had turned extremely ugly. After today, she would probably lose the Angus name.

She would be cut off by the guild, just as she had once cut off others.

“So, one last thing—is there anyone who wants to buy lotion or makeup remover? Our Venus Territory offers unlimited purchases, and the prices are several times cheaper than the Angus Commerce Guild,” Liana took the opportunity to advertise.

“So this was Princess Liana’s purpose.”

“No, no, no, I’ve already stated my purpose. Don’t think you can continue like this. Someone is already investigating. Those forbidden techniques are only recorded in my mother’s study. Whether Crown Prince Hodwen purchased them from you and gave them to the Darriss Territory will be known soon,” Liana said casually.

“Oh, by the way,” Liana raised her hand, pointing in a direction. “Since when did the Angus Commerce Guild start receiving merchants from the Luska Kingdom? How strange.”

“Princess Liana, you—!”

Liana waved her hand, interrupting Felicia’s words. “You should just honestly accept the investigation. Being angry at me serves no purpose.”

Liana looked at Tari, “Come on, my little kitten, let’s go home?”

Tari looked at Liana, then at Felicia, as if she had made some kind of determination. She took out a magical artifact and threw it on the ground.

The magical artifact shattered, and all one hundred thousand gold coins spilled out. “These one hundred thousand gold coins were originally meant to find my parents, but the Angus Commerce Guild violated the agreement. Doesn’t this count as losing goods?”

“You’re treating family members as goods?” Felicia retorted.

“You sold family members to make money, didn’t you?” With Liana’s support, Tari now had courage.

“I know that a large part of these one hundred thousand gold coins came from the rewards the guild gave me because of Princess Liana’s cosmetics. But now, Princess Liana has chosen to leave, so I don’t need this bonus anymore. Additionally, I’m returning all the commissions I earned from selling for the Angus Commerce Guild over these years.

Consider it compensation for damaging a basic magical artifact back then. A basic magical artifact priced at fifty thousand, leading to the complete destruction of my family—the Angus Commerce Guild certainly makes money easily.” After growing up, Tari naturally knew that what she had damaged wasn’t anything precious.

It was just packaged that way by the Angus Commerce Guild. With just one actor’s cooperation, they could inflate the price indefinitely.

“Having someone cooperate with the Angus Commerce Guild, then extorting others—this way of making money is indeed much faster than simply selling goods,” Tari’s words resonated with many people here.

They were well aware of this matter, but they had no means to address it. Unlike Tari, they didn’t have Princess Liana backing them. If they dared to speak out, not only would no one believe them, but they would also face retaliation from the Angus Family.

“This really fits my stereotype of you despicable merchants,” Liana sneered. “Very rare, coveted by a high-status noble—so you can inflate the price of an ordinary stone to be more precious than a gem. This zero-cost extortion is indeed profitable, no wonder that the Angus Commerce Guild now has such monopolistic power.”

After saying this, Liana turned and left, ignoring whatever Felicia might say behind her.

Anyway, Liana had already achieved her goal this time.

Evidence—she indeed didn’t have any. Although the Angus Commerce Guild was definitely conducting these transactions, due to their caution, it was difficult to obtain substantial evidence.

But did it matter? It didn’t, because the people who could access these transactions were all core members who never imagined this would leak out. And when they asked the question, why was there a leak? They would think it must be because there was a mole among them—this was Liana’s aim.

Resolving this problem herself would be too troublesome, but if they resolved it internally, it would be much easier.

Besides, Liana hadn’t lied. These were all facts. As for how she knew?

This was the privilege of being a transmigrator. Without a system, you couldn’t expect Liana to start with a nightmare scenario, and not have access to some intelligence, right?

After walking out of the guild’s main entrance, Liana looked at the sky. “The snow has stopped, the sun is out. Looks like good tidings are bound our way.”

Liana showed no panic whatsoever, instead appearing extremely calm, as if the person who had just caused such a commotion wasn’t her at all.

Tari lowered her head. Originally, she had come here happily, but reality had dealt her a cruel blow.

Beside her, Minoga’s expression was also somewhat peculiar. After boarding the carriage, Minoga asked with some concern, “Princess Liana, the things you just said have completely touched the bottom lines of the two princes.”

“I know, that’s what I intended,” Liana’s plan was to focus everyone’s attention on herself, so that the two princes wouldn’t have the leisure to deal with Mephilia.

They all liked to use little tricks, right? They all liked unfair competition, right? Then bring it on.

“If the matter a month from now fails, the problem will become very troublesome,” Minoga said.

If the fake death plan succeeded, Liana would be able to slip away, leaving two very angry princes with no recourse but to swallow their anger.

“Then we’ll consider it when we fail. Besides, I don’t think we’ll fail. We’ve made all kinds of preparations, haven’t we? As long as we follow the plan, there won’t be any problems,” Liana said.

“That’s true.” Minoga also trusted Liana, which was why she hadn’t said a word from beginning to end. Otherwise, given Liana’s explosive statements, Minoga would have covered Princess Liana’s mouth long ago.

“However, Princess Liana, I feel that in some time, you’ll have to go to the capital,” Minoga said.

“What’s wrong? Is Second Prince Oester or Crown Prince Hodwen summoning me?” Liana didn’t care what these two wanted to do.

But Minoga shook her head. “I think it might be His Majesty the King who wants to see Princess Liana.”

“...That shouldn’t happen, right?” Going to see His Majesty the King, Liana felt a bit of pressure. After all, he was the ruler of a country, and now also her father-in-law?

However, Mephilia probably hadn’t told His Majesty the King about her relationship with Liana yet.

“I think it’s quite likely.” Both of his sons had been affected by Liana like this. Although the King of Lisat no longer managed much of the Lisat Kingdom’s affairs, what Liana said today had clearly crossed a line—that is, if what Liana said was true.

“We’ll deal with that when the time comes.” Anyway, she hadn’t lied, so there was no need to feel guilty. If they couldn’t investigate, that was their problem. Liana had already given them this crucial information.

“Anyway, now we can rest a bit,” Liana lazily laid down in the carriage.

“Princess Liana, was everything you just said true?” Minoga asked.

She had been by Liana’s side most of the time. How did Princess Liana know about this? Had she known for a long time?

“I don’t know,” Liana spread her hands.

“...Huh?”

Liana definitely couldn’t say she knew about this, because even Liana herself didn’t know how to explain it.

“I’m just making deductions based on existing evidence,” Liana said. “Whether it’s true or not isn’t very important to me. Moreover, I feel it’s probably true.”

“...Princess Liana, doing this will cause some serious troubles,” Minoga was somewhat helpless. She had thought Princess Liana was going to present some surprising evidence, but did Princess Liana really not know about this?

“Just tell me if this trick works,” Liana put her hands on her hips.

“You’ve really provoked everything you could possibly provoke,” Minoga sighed. The Angus Territory, the Darriss Territory, the two princes—Princess Liana had provoked them all.

“I’m not completely making things up, you know. I made these statements based on certain deductions. Second Prince Oester doesn’t need further explanation; I’ve mentioned him many times.

As for why I spoke that way about Crown Prince Hodwen, on one hand, it’s because of Count Ige’s matter, which made me very displeased with him. Add to that his attitude towards people who can’t use magic, which makes me think this guy is unreliable. That’s why I said what I did.

If the information about the forbidden drug could leak out, some books recording magic would certainly be moved out as well. Once you start wanting to profit from this, you definitely wouldn’t stop at just one.

Moreover, if Crown Prince Hodwen wanted to establish good relations with the Darriss Territory, it would be difficult with his status as the firstborn son of the Lisat Kingdom. After all, it was our Lisat Kingdom that destroyed the Darriss Kingdom. As the firstborn son of the founding king, Darriss would certainly be dissatisfied with him, even if their ideologies are similar.

At this point, he would need to present some gifts. Ordinary gifts wouldn’t impress the Darriss Territory, so he used his diamond-level member privileges to purchase some magic to gift to the Darriss.”

Liana ‘deduced’ based on the information available.

It must be said that Liana’s explanation was quite plausible and had some reasoning to it. “But since this is just Princess Liana’s speculation, if there are discrepancies, it could lead to significant trouble.”

“If what I said is problematic, they’ll probably come knocking tonight. But if they don’t, it proves they’re still dealing with their internal contradictions, doesn’t it?” Liana said confidently.

“Besides, even if it’s false, then it’s false. After all, ‘Liana’ has done this more than once,” Liana spread her hands.

“...Princess Liana should think about how to explain this to Princess Mephilia,” Now, Minoga could only pray that Princess Mephilia wouldn’t blame her as well.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,” Liana might not know how to deal with others, but when it came to Mephilia, she was quite experienced.

“Sigh.” Poor Princess Mephilia, being played like a fiddle by Princess Liana, though Princess Mephilia herself seemed to enjoy it.

“Where’s Tari? Didn’t she come out with us? Why hasn’t she boarded the carriage yet?” Liana asked.

“Miss Tari said she wanted to take one last look at the headquarters.”

“What do you mean ‘one last look’? We’ll be back sooner or later,” Liana lifted the curtain. “Monopoly is a very unhealthy behavior. Without competition, there’s no mutual progress. Besides, being in a monopolistic state for too long makes one very arrogant, because there’s no existence threatening them enough. Even if they do something excessive, others have no recourse because there’s only one place to choose from. So they would have no need to work hard to provide the best goods and services to their customers, only the bare minimum, would do”

Liana also saw that Tari was walking towards the carriage.

She knocked the snow off her shoe soles before boarding the carriage. Her first action upon entering was to kneel before Liana. “Thank you very much, Princess Liana, for saving me.”

“Get up. I just value your abilities,” Liana’s tone was neither cold nor warm.

“Regarding your parents, I express my deep sympathy.” There was no storyline about this in the original work, so Liana wasn’t sure if Tari’s parents were still alive.

Moreover, Felicia probably had no idea where Tari’s parents were, otherwise she wouldn’t have let things escalate to this point without speaking up.

“Actually, I realized this a long time ago, but I just didn’t want to believe it,” Tari took a deep breath.

After working at the Angus Commerce Guild for a while, she had seen many strange things, many unfair transactions.

With the mind of a merchant, she quickly understood what was happening and realized that she might have fallen into a scam long ago.

Her rationality told her that her parents might be gone, but deep in her heart, she still held a glimmer of hope. Before receiving definitive confirmation, her parents must still be alive!

This was how she comforted herself, because if she once accepted the news that her parents had died because of her, Tari would probably, like Sephirena, find a quiet corner and die alone.

Tari didn’t have the power of nature to stop her, nor was her identity special. Forget about begging others to kill her—just going out alone at night...

“And now, I have to accept this fact. I caused the death of my parents.”

“I won’t offer any comforting words. I just want to say that even if you hadn’t damaged that item that day, there would have been thousands of other items waiting for you to damage. Even whether it was you who damaged that item or not doesn’t matter—as long as it was a member of your family, that would have been enough,” Liana said she wouldn’t comfort Tari, but her words were no different from comfort.

“Now, you have nothing left. I saved you, so from now on, live for me. I’ve always been displeased with this Angus Commerce Guild. Your next task is to help me bring down this pigpen,” Liana said.

Bringing down such a large guild couldn’t possibly be a simple matter. It might take a lifetime without being able to shake their position.

But as Princess Liana said, she had nothing left. Princess Liana had saved her and given her a reason to live on. Plus, she wanted revenge.

Even if there seemed to be no hope, she would still try.

“I understand, Princess Liana,” Tari nodded in agreement.

“The Venus Commerce Guild will help you with supplies and customers. I’ll explain everything clearly to Erinna. After I return, I’ll write out the raw materials and production process of the cosmetics for you,” Liana said.

“Thank you for your trust, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Princess Liana.”

“Of course, I also have some experimental products for you to try selling,” Two cosmetics alone certainly wouldn’t be enough to attract too many customers.

So Liana decided to introduce things like five-spice powder and sweets that existed in her original world but not in this one, such as chocolate.

“At the beginning, it might not go smoothly, as the customer base certainly can’t compare to them. Take it slow—as long as we don’t lose money, it’s fine,” Liana said.

“Yes, I understand.”

Now, how will those pigs find their non-existent mole?

In the Lisat Royal Capital, Second Prince Oester looked at the message coming from the crystal ball, a dark smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. Although he seemed to have been implicated again, the good news was that Crown Prince Hodwen’s situation was much worse than his.

Knock, knock, knock!

There was an urgent knocking sound from outside the door.

“Has he come?” Oester opened the door.

He saw Hodwen holding the two bottles of wine that he had taken over earlier, standing at his doorway.

“What’s wrong, Brother Hodwen? You seem to have become somewhat agitated,” Oester smiled.

Hodwen looked at Oester’s gloating expression and wanted nothing more than to punch him. “This matter—is it related to you?”

“It seems Brother Hodwen is blinded by anger. Doing such a thing would bring me no benefit whatsoever, and I’ve even been inexplicably mentioned,” Oester sat on a chair and took out two glasses.

“Only one person would benefit from doing this—Mephilia. And I am currently the person Mephilia hates the most, after all, I’m the one who made her dear Liana like this,” Oester said without any restraint.

“You don’t deny this?” Hodwen was puzzled. Oester had directly admitted to it.

“There’s nothing to deny, since I indeed did it,” Oester said indifferently. “I did this only to gain Brother Hodwen’s trust. If I lied from the start, you certainly wouldn’t want to cooperate with such a person, right?”

“When did I say I wanted to cooperate?”

“Don’t be so stubborn, Brother Hodwen. If we continue like this, we’ll have completely lost our chance,” Oester opened the wine and poured some for both of them.

“We’ve both done it—purchasing intelligence from the Angus Commerce Guild. If Father finds out, it will become very troublesome. So, we’re allies standing on the same side.”

Hodwen’s face looked gloomy.

“However, I really didn’t expect, Brother Hodwen, that you would purchase Ambis’ magic and gift it to those people in Darriss. You know, those people hate our kingdom with a passion. Brother Hodwen is really going all out.”

“Stop the sarcasm. If you just wanted to mock me, I’ll leave,” Recent events had made Hodwen’s heart quite irritable.

“Don’t be so impatient,” Oester pushed the wine glass towards Hodwen. “Now, Mephilia’s advantage is already significant. Our chances of winning are almost non-existent, unless... Mephilia loses her chance to run for election.”

“You want to...”

“Well, this is a desperate measure. Although Mephilia is at Ibett Magic Academy, there’s no Judge protecting her, so it’s not completely impossible.”

“The guardian won’t agree to this order,” Hodwen knew very well that such matters were absolutely untouchable.

“That’s why I said it’s a desperate measure,” Oester said helplessly.

“Then what do you mean?”

“Liana, the culprit behind all this. You now hate her intensely, right?”

Originally, he could have competed with Mephilia to some extent, but after Liana’s actions, Hodwen’s chances had become extremely slim. How could he not hate her?

“But she has Minoga protecting her,” Hodwen said.

“So, we don’t need to rush. Give her a little time, let her think that with Minoga around, she’ll have the illusion of safety,” Oester said. “I’ve investigated. Mephilia leaves Ibett Magic Academy once a month, and when she goes out alone, it’s very dangerous. So during this time, Minoga will escort her—about half an hour. This is our opportunity.”

“But the time each month isn’t fixed, right? And with Minoga usually by her side, it’s difficult not to be detected, isn’t it?”

“It is indeed difficult. I paid a great price to know this intelligence. But if we can’t get close to Liana, why can’t we wait at Ibett Magic Academy?” This was also why Oester wanted to cooperate with Hodwen.

Two Judges—one to kill Liana, one to wait at Ibett Magic Academy for Minoga.

This could indeed solve the problem, “But who will kill Liana? Even if Minoga leaves, Liana would still have guards around her, right? Not to mention, if a Judge is found participating in such a thing, death is the only outcome.”

“The Judge doesn’t need to act; they just need to confirm her death,” Oester smiled. “At that time, the Judge will go to ‘help’ Liana, but in reality, it’s to ensure whether she’s dead or not. And we just need to increase the pressure. Assassins won’t betray their employers.”

“But Countess Rose is gone now, isn’t she? The place with the most assassins is Venus Manor. It’s not realistic to hire them to kill their own young lady, is it?” Hodwen asked.

“It doesn’t have to be all assassins. Robbers, bandits, wild beasts—an accident suddenly occurring, accidentally killing Liana, is also a very normal thing. Besides, don’t forget what Liana said before: ‘If you have any grievances against her, you can seek revenge at any time.’ Isn’t this the best reason?”

Hodwen looked at Oester, not expecting that this guy had thought so much. It seemed that the recent setbacks hadn’t made him give up on the election.

Come to think of it, this was the entire kingdom. Who could let it go?

This also made Hodwen somewhat vigilant. Perhaps after dealing with Liana, this guy would want to deal with him.

“But how do you ensure that after dealing with Liana, we will have a chance?”

Liana’s video footage had probably spread by now, and many people knew that Liana had changed. At this point, Liana’s sudden death might not be a good thing.

“I indeed don’t know, but one thing I can be certain of is that Mephilia will definitely suffer a huge blow, won’t she?” Oester looked at Hodwen. “We have no choice, understand, Brother Hodwen?”

Indeed, in the current situation, they had no chance left. Their only option was to take a gamble.

“Do you want to watch Mephilia gradually widen the gap between us, or take a gamble and deliver a heavy blow to Mephilia?” Oester raised his wine glass.

After struggling for a few minutes, Hodwen also picked up his wine glass. After clinking glasses, they drained their wine in one gulp.