Chapter 26: The Little Tail
The banquet ended before nine o'clock. The young duke, as the castle's master, took Saber, Bubu Wang, and Amu to tour his father's collection.
In the castle's study, Su Xiao sat alongside Finance Minister Wokley. On the wooden table between them were black tea, pastries, and the like.
Wokley held a smoking pipe between his fingers. The tobacco in this world wasn't made from dried tobacco leaves but from the tender leaves of a Four Seasons Tree.
"Duke Kukulin, your visit here isn't about the military funds matter, is it?"
Wokley tapped his pipe lightly, white smoke curling through the room.
"Of course not. The reason I came..."
Su Xiao paused mid-sentence, his gaze shifting to the wooden table beside him. On the side of the table was a small, transparent scale, about the size of a fingernail.
"The main reason I came is to investigate the theft of the crown."
"The theft of the crown?"
Wokley clearly hadn't heard about any crown theft. In truth, this was a random excuse Su Xiao had fabricated.
"You want to know?"
"Not particularly interested. I'm old. My view of power grows dimmer by the day. When I savor it carefully, that's really all it is. The more you possess, the more you pay. Before I was thirty, money was everything in my eyes. Before fifty, power was my life. But after passing seventy, I realized that power can't solve the problem of me getting up three times every night. It only makes me get up more often."
Wokley shook his head with a smile, as if savoring something, or perhaps lamenting something.
"This thing is solid proof that a thief visited the duke's estate."
Su Xiao pried off the transparent scale from the side of the wooden table. After entering the duke's estate, he hadn't seen this thing just once or twice—he had spotted it at least a dozen times.
If Su Xiao wasn't mistaken, this was left behind by the Violator. There were no mental imprints or the like on it. It was more likely a side effect of using some kind of ability.
"This is..."
Wokley looked at the transparent scale on the table, momentarily surprised.
"Isn't this the shell of a Wood Thorn Fruit?"
"Wood Thorn Fruit?"
"Haven't you heard of this summer fruit, Duke?"
Wokley grew more puzzled, but he quickly noticed that after losing its support, the Wood Thorn Fruit shell began to evaporate rapidly. That was highly abnormal.
"Lena was very fond of Wood Thorn Fruit, but she suddenly fell gravely ill yesterday afternoon and has already..."
Wokley didn't continue. The Lena he mentioned was a distant relative of his, mainly responsible for daily supplies procurement at the duke's estate. She had died suddenly in her bedroom yesterday.
"Sudden illness" was met with zero tolerance in the empire. Once discovered, the body had to be burned immediately.
"So she died yesterday afternoon?"
"That's right. It was very sudden. Lena was a good girl. Truly a pity."
Wokley sighed. He naturally sensed that this matter wasn't simple, so he quickly distanced himself. The young duke had already withdrawn from the power struggle for the throne, and Wokley didn't want to get involved in such troublesome affairs.
"Yesterday afternoon..."
Su Xiao certainly wouldn't fully believe Wokley's words, but one thing was important: he had been ambushed last night and encountered the troublesome enemy, Flesh Cathedral Baha.
Su Xiao had decided yesterday at noon to deal with Bloomer. He planned for about an afternoon, acted at night, the assassination went smoothly, and he was ambushed on the way back.
As for Lena from the duke's estate, she had fallen gravely ill yesterday afternoon. If she had already been replaced by the Violator, then her sudden illness yesterday afternoon was likely the Violator switching to a new replacement target.
From the moment Su Xiao got involved in the power struggle, he had been exposed to the Violator's sight. That was a certainty.
Lena died of illness yesterday afternoon, and Su Xiao was ambushed last night. Moreover, the ambusher precisely knew his return route.
When he was attacked last night, Su Xiao suspected there was a mole inside the Right Imperial Estate. Now it seemed the Violator had likely replaced someone within the Right Imperial Estate.
The only thing that didn't add up was this: if the Violator was inside the Right Imperial Estate, the tracking function should have activated. But Su Xiao hadn't received any notification.
If the Violator's ability was very special, allowing them to replace a native without devouring their consciousness, then it would be one body with two consciousnesses.
Under normal circumstances, the replaced native would retain their original consciousness. That would be judged as an invasion of foreign consciousness energy, not as a Violator.
But when action was needed, the Violator would take over the other's consciousness, using their identity and memories to act. This way, they would hardly leave any traces and would maximize their chances of evading the tracking function.
Because from start to finish, the Violator's true body wasn't inside the Right Imperial Estate. It was more likely a replacement or manipulation of consciousness, not a complete substitution of a native resident.
Complete substitution was actually easier to handle, but if it was just consciousness parasitism, and stripping the consciousness would cause the native's death, then it became very difficult.
With a general idea in mind, Su Xiao stopped asking the Finance Minister about matters related to the Violator. The Finance Minister was happy to oblige, and the two began to chat idly.
At ten o'clock that night, the Finance Minister and the young duke saw Su Xiao and the others off at the estate's entrance.
"Duke Kukulin, be sure to visit me when you have time."
Judging by the Finance Minister's expression, he had enjoyed their conversation, even feeling a sense of regret that they hadn't met sooner.
"Of course."
Su Xiao smiled as well. But the moment they turned their backs to each other, the smiles on both their faces vanished simultaneously.
'This old bastard has issues.'
Su Xiao could be sure of one thing: the Finance Minister was definitely not as simple as he appeared. However, he was likely unrelated to the Violator matter.
It was even possible that the Violator had been driven out of the duke's estate by this old man.
"Bubu, what did you find in the estate?"
"Woof."
Bubu Wang tossed a wooden box to Su Xiao. The box was nearly filled with Wood Thorn Fruit shells. These shells had some peculiar property—they didn't dissipate immediately when exposed to air, but once they lost their support, they vanished at an extremely fast rate. Or rather, this was related to the Violator's ability. Their ability also required some kind of support, and once that was lost, it would dissipate quickly.
"Did you find anything?"
Saber spoke up. She had spent most of the night searching the lower three floors of the castle and had made considerable gains, finding many traces left by the Violator.
"Nothing much."
Su Xiao wouldn't tell her for now that the Violator might be inside the Right Imperial Estate. The fewer people who knew about this, the better. Once the Violator was alerted, they might flee to who knows where.
Besides, Saber wasn't a professional in this area. Her main purpose in entering this world was to prevent Su Xiao from clashing with other Contractors. From that perspective, she had done an excellent job. Not only had there been no conflict, but Su Xiao hadn't even seen the face of any other Contractor. Holy City was only so big—this couldn't be a coincidence.
Right now, the fish was right next to the hook, just waiting to bite.
Su Xiao glanced at the World Core on his wrist. He had to make sure that fish didn't bite through the line and swallow the bait whole. That would be a huge loss.
That night, Su Xiao returned to the Right Imperial Estate as usual, as if he had really just gone to visit the Finance Minister.
At midnight, Su Xiao gave an order to Wufu, telling him to search for something.
Currently, Su Xiao had considerable influence within the empire. It would be a waste to use this power only for seizing the throne. So he ordered Wufu to search for records related to swordsmanship, and of course, some alchemy materials couldn't be missed. Su Xiao needed to find time to improve his Plant Harmony chapter and swordsmanship.