What happened before everyone's eyes was far too sudden.
Neither the guards nor the court mage had time to react. And by the time they finally realized what was happening and tried to save her, the Second Princess had already become fertilizer for the autumn crocus.
Even her soul had been absorbed into Hel's soul network.
In an instant, everyone around fell into panic.
Some of the guards hurriedly tried to rush into the flowerbed to rescue her, only to be swallowed whole by the crocus's gaping maw.
Although autumn crocuses had extremely poor defense—any low-tier spell or martial technique used by an ordinary transcendent could easily kill one—if they seized the opportunity, even Tier-3 or Tier-4 transcendent beings could be devoured in a surprise attack and turned into flower fertilizer.
So after the first unlucky soul was swallowed in one bite, the surrounding guards immediately scattered like startled birds.
They ringed the garden, not daring to make another move.
No one knew how much time passed before a group of people came rushing out of the castle's main building nearby.
At the front was a striking red-haired girl.
She wore black leather clothing, the collar slightly open to reveal a hint of pale skin and a silver choker around her neck. Her fiery red hair was casually tied into a ponytail, with a few loose strands hanging by her ears, giving her a free-spirited, unrestrained air.
The moment Hel saw her, she immediately used her trait inspection.
What appeared in the other party's trait panel, however, was something Hel had never expected.
'Damn it—why is she everywhere?'
Hel cursed inwardly.
Her inspection had been extremely well concealed, and with the other party being only Tier 6, she shouldn't have noticed anything.
But the one behind her was truly terrifying.
Thus, the terrifying intuition of a half-god allowed her to instantly sense something amiss.
Fortunately, the Tier-6 strength still limited her upper bound. This puppet controlled by Imshi—although already descended into—still failed to realize that Hel was peeking at her.
"What exactly is going on here?"
Imshi's incarnation, the First Princess Lycoris, calmly swept her gaze over the scene before frowning.
"Where is Belladonna? She causes such a mess and doesn't even clean it up herself—who is she waiting to do it for her?"
Upon hearing the maid report that the Second Princess had destroyed the Netherworld Flower garden, the First Princess had immediately rushed over with her people, so she hadn't heard the rest of the details.
After the guards stammered through the explanation, her brows knitted even tighter.
"She suddenly rushed out, started destroying the garden, then slipped and fell, and was swallowed by a Netherworld Flower?"
Something about it felt strange.
Based on her understanding of the Second Princess, she shouldn't have had the nerve to do something like that.
'So… was she provoked by something?'
Thinking this, she looked toward the two figures standing by the garden—Hel and the personal maid.
Her gaze even lingered on Hel's face for a second, making Hel inexplicably feel a twinge of panic.
And when Hel saw her walking toward them, that unease grew even stronger.
Only when she arrived did Hel realize that Imshi's gaze had been fixed on the personal maid all along.
"I remember you. You're Belladonna's maid, aren't you?"
"Can you tell me what happened at the time?"
Imshi's incarnation was tall. Looking down at them from above, she exuded immense pressure.
"And can you explain why you didn't go stop Belladonna the moment she ran out—to prevent her from doing something dangerous?"
"I also recall that a personal maid's primary duty is to ensure her master's absolute safety."
"So why is it that your master is dead, yet you're standing here calmly, as if nothing happened, watching the commotion?"
The personal maid shuddered, then looked at Imshi pleadingly and said in a trembling voice:
"I'm sorry, Your Highness. The Second Princess's movements were simply too fast—I didn't have time to react."
As she spoke, she embellished the story, explaining in detail how the court mage had sent someone to threaten them, how furious the Second Princess became after hearing it, and poured everything out in one breath.
While listening, Imshi also searched this body's memories for information about the personal maid.
'So… she's mine?'
Imshi paused briefly, then frowned.
'Could it be that the original consciousness of this body planned all this to eliminate a rival to the throne?'
But no matter how she searched, she found no trace of any plan by the First Princess to harm the Second Princess.
With a slight frown, she could only attribute the incident to the personal maid's own initiative.
After another thought, Imshi decided it didn't really matter anyway.
She still needed to focus on besieging York, and there were several stubborn old men in the city who needed her personal "persuasion" to get involved.
She truly didn't have time to waste here.
"Forget it. I'll report this to the king. Your punishment will be handled according to the rules."
She turned to leave, but just before doing so, she glanced at Hel as if guided by some impulse.
"By the way, who is she? A new maid? Was she with you earlier as well?"
"Huh? Y-yes, Your Highness," the personal maid replied.
"She's a new maid who arrived today. Her name is I—"
At that moment, Hel's heart skipped a beat.
She immediately took control of the maid, afraid she'd blurt out the truth right in front of the real deal.
"…She's called I— I what was it again?"
"My name is Eve, Your Highness," Hel said smoothly, stepping in.
"I arrived today. The Second Princess summoned me earlier and wanted to assign me some tasks, but before she could say anything, this tragedy occurred."
Hel controlled the maid into pretending to forget her name while tactfully introducing herself.
Perhaps because "Eve" was such a common name, it failed to arouse even the slightest suspicion from Imshi.
She merely gave a casual acknowledgment and turned to leave.
As she passed the unfortunate court mage, her brows furrowed again.
"Guards. Watch him and the maids here closely. Until the king gives his order, no one is to leave."