This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 240

Inferiority Complex

“M-My lady, I’ll talk. I’ll talk.” Seeing Ellie move her finger slightly, the soldier, who had been secretly cursing her in his mind, quickly blurted out. He didn’t want to experience the sudden pain again. Whatever it was, this woman was too terrifying! She made his finger disappear without a trace—this wasn’t a normal ability at all!

“Mmm, I’m listening.”

“Y-Yes, my lady. U-um...my leader received orders from a high-ranking noble of the kingdom, the Hart family. Th-they seem to secretly support the Rhea Kingdom. For this war, the Hart family has been helping Rhea with all their plans.”

“Hmm? Did you say the Hart family? The same Hart family allied with the Cherine and Fernal families?”

“Yes, that’s them. I don’t know all the details, but I know they sent some soldiers to create trouble for the prince to divert attention and keep an eye on the movements within the kingdom. But it’s actually a plan by Rhea to capture the prince and use him as a bargaining chip.”

“A bargaining chip for what?”

“They aim to take over this city. Actually, they could seize other nearby cities too. There’s turmoil in the second floor that they’ve been stirring up. However, their primary target starts with the 1st floor because the royal city in the 1st floor, which has abundant basic potion-concocting resources, is this city, and the Hunter’s Association’s city. If they secure this stronghold, the royal family will have to rely on buying resources from other nobles’ cities.”

“I don’t know all the facts, but the nobles involved plan to profit from this war. They want to increase their own income since their businesses have been struggling. If they let the Rhea Kingdom take these cities, the kingdom would have to rely on the Hart family for resources.” Hearing this plan, Ellie started to piece together the situation.

She now understood why a war that never occurred in the novel had erupted. It was because previously, there hadn’t been a destruction of the Fernal family from the immortal potion made from the Sapphire Dragon Scale herb. Hence, the Fernal family, with their consistent high revenue, had no reason to betray the kingdom.

But now, after Ellie had reduced their sales by more than half and ruined their prices, the Fernal family had to lower their prices to match those of the Max family. Consequently, their income had significantly dwindled. Greedy as they were, they couldn’t stay idle, leading them to reveal the kingdom’s secrets.

Emma’s entanglement with the Seven Night Poison group was likely due to selling information to them. The Fernal and Hart families probably didn’t anticipate the situation would spiral into such chaos. However, they quickly adapted and capitalized on it, proving themselves to be quite clever.

Unable to deal with the Max family or the Setter family directly, they sought to benefit from the forced circumstances. It’s no surprise that the Rhea Kingdom targeted this city first—they collaborated with these families. Their goal was to send the prince to this city so they could easily deal with him while creating chaos with the association, pretending to seize more easily conquerable cities.

Ellie admired their strategy. The Fernal and Hart families were excellent disruptors. She had initially thought it was a rivalry between Prince Joseph and Prince Jason, but it turned out to be driven by a single noble’s greed.

Maybe the Fernal family was laughing behind their backs, sending both Ellie and the prince here. They likely hoped to use the Rhea Kingdom to kill her as indirect revenge against the Setter family!

“Are there many collaborating with the squad leader?” Ellie asked the next question. Knowing who was behind it, following their other plans would be easier now.

She had been juggling many issues, and even though spores were everywhere, she couldn’t track everyone. However, with a clear target, it would no longer be difficult.

“There are only about 5 or 6 selected individuals. It’s dangerous and cannot be widely known, my lady.” Seeing Ellie satisfied, he relaxed slightly, realizing she might not torture him further.

Compared to his cruel and capricious squad leader, he found this unassuming duchess far more terrifying. It wasn’t a hard decision to choose sides...and yes! He chose to side with Duchess Ellie.

“Mmm, so the soldiers sent initially to deal with the prince didn’t know the truth?”

“No, they believed they were only to assassinate the prince. They were disposable pawns.”

“I see...” Ellie nodded. The prince had told her he sent soldiers to trace the source of the plot against him. Aman spared those soldiers, and they were earnest with their job, but they didn’t realize they were just pawns too.

“How will the Rhea Kingdom’s soldiers enter? You said they intended to capture the prince as a bargaining chip, meaning they would enter Ares Kingdom’s forest zones. They would be spotted nevertheless.”

“That...in fact, a family from the Gaia Kingdom is secretly helping them,” the soldier hesitated but finally revealed. It seemed this issue was larger than Ellie had anticipated. It turned out that the Gaia Kingdom, which had declared neutrality, was making such moves...weren’t they afraid of the consequences?!!

It seemed like Ellie needed to confront the head of the Max family. He claimed to be the top noble that no one dared to defy, openly collaborating with the Ares Kingdom. So why were lesser-rank nobles betraying the Ares Kingdom? Was this not an internal declaration of war?

“The Rhea Kingdom’s soldiers will pass through the city and appear in the Fragrant Held Forest. They have experts in poison, allowing them to travel safely through the forest, which currently has no hunters doing missions there because they’ve all been called to the second and third floors to protect the lower kingdom’s forests. Thus, the path is safe for them.”

“Besides traveling through the forest, they can also gather additional poisons. I’ve heard that they once allowed people to cause trouble in the Fragrant Held Forest and discovered a good route for travel. In other words...those previously captured might have been pawns of the Rhea Kingdom too.”

“They made it seem like, after their failed plan, they wouldn’t use the Fragrant Held Forest again. Their plan succeeded because no one expected the Seven Night Poison group to travel through the Fragrant Held Forest again. Hence, it’s now poorly guarded, with the Hart family aware of the positions of the few guards there.”

“After passing through the Fragrant Held Forest, they’ll enter the Green Forest to deal with all the students. The mission assigners are also aiding the Hart family, so there are no soldiers on missions in the Green Forest, only a few students...and their plan is...to kill everyone except Prince Jason.”

At this point, the soldier glanced at Ellie’s face. She remained expressionless, not showing any anger, but he could sense that internally, she was seething with rage!

Who would have thought these people had such a cunning plan? It seemed everyone, including herself, had been deceived. If not for Apothecary Celey revealing this, Ellie might not have realized it.

It’s true that if there was a clash, she was confident she wouldn’t be defeated. With her spores’ power...getting rid of them wasn’t difficult. But she wanted to know...how did they obtain their information? Did they have someone with surveillance powers similar to hers?

Previously, Ellie believed her spores’ surveillance power was powerful. But now she realized it wasn’t just Prince Jason or Eldest Young Lord Owen who could evade her tracking. There might be others capable of countering her as well. Perhaps relying too much on her spores had caused her to miss such critical information.

"How many of them are coming?"

"I, I don’t know exactly, but I know they won’t attack your camp directly. They have information that your camp has over 30 students, mostly from the Stratagem Branch. So, entering without proper reconnaissance might lead them into traps. Therefore, they plan to use poison first, starting their attack at night. They’ll release poison smoke towards your camp, letting everyone die before making their move."

Ellie snickered. These people were truly cowards. Even in war, they didn’t dare to fight students directly. But then again...it’s the cowards who often survive the longest—if they hadn’t crossed paths with Ellie first!

"It seems you know how to behave. Your answer pleases me."

"T-Thank you, my lady." If he weren’t tied up, he would have prostrated himself before her. His face was full of eagerness, without a hint of shame for changing allegiances.

"Mmm. You should know that you can betray your nobles and your squad leader, but if you betray me, the poison in your body will destroy you immediately. Or you can test it if you’d like."

"I-I wouldn’t dare, my lady. How could I?" The soldier quickly replied, sweat pouring down his face again. He was genuinely terrified that Ellie might prove her point by disintegrating another finger!

"Good that you don’t dare. Otherwise, I might have to find another soldier involved to replace you."

"Haha, my lady, whatever you need, I am at your service."

"Mmm. There’s not much. Just stay alive and continue working for your squad leader."

"Huh? My lady, do you mean to continue working, even if it’s to harm you?"

"Yes, just bring yourself in the circle to know more information. When I’m not busy, I’ll call for you." Ellie waved her hand dismissively. She didn’t fully reveal her purpose. The soldier needed not to do anything, simply act normally and continue with their plans. The more trusted he became, the better. Ideally, he could become a loyal right-hand man, infiltrating the nobles behind the scenes. That’s how she would monitor their plans through these soldiers!

Ellie was just hedging her bets. His punishment would come after the war. If she told Young Lord Owen that someone had intentionally deceived her, he would surely devise a fitting punishment. Ellie knew he was better at such things than she was.

Although the soldier was confused, he eventually agreed and was released. Ellie also forced him to drink alcohol so his body would reek of it, instructing him to pretend he was drunk as an excuse for missing work. Sure enough, when he showed up, he was immediately questioned. Wrongdoers were always suspicious of each other. Seeing that his subordinate had been out drinking and flirting with a student delivering a mission, the squad leader could only issue a punishment. Yet, he knew how rare such opportunities were and hid his jealousy while searching for a high-born student to spend the night with himself.

Unfortunately, those students had no interest in him and even showed signs of disgust...

Well...it’s not like any students from high-ranking families would ever do such things. It was just an excuse the young soldier used. He leveraged his decent looks to deceive others, whereas the squad leader was old, overweight, and unattractive. Realistically...no high-born student would ever waste themselves on such poor soldiers. Only those with insecurities about their own appearance would believe and understand why the students rejected them.

Ellie returned to her room once more, but this time, she needed to carefully plan her strategy to deal with the impending arrival of a significant enemy...

Meanwhile, the prince, unaware of the full truth, was rigorously investigating with his soldiers. The soldiers who initially tried to assassinate him reported to him privately. They were punished by their squad leader for minor offenses, but the real reason was their failure to complete their task. Now, they secretly met with the prince.

Actually, the squad leader wanted to kill these soldiers to prevent them from revealing anything, but the mastermind said that they must be put to better use. So, he had to let them stay alive and were sent to the kingdom outside the tower instead.

“Your Highness, we’ve discovered something.”

“Speak.” The prince glanced at the soldier. He didn’t want to let these people live, but Second Young Lord Aman insisted they should be spared if they could lead to the mastermind.

They deserved to die. How could someone who plotted against him had a chance to survive!? Even though he was so furious, he still wanted to bring down everyone involved in the conspiracy, not allowing those behind the scenes to live well. Thus, he controlled his emotions.

“Since we failed our mission once, the one who gave the orders feared we might leak information. They even sent assassins to silence us. If it weren’t for a member of the Fernal family passing by and saving us, we would’ve been killed!”

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