She swallowed hard and with a bold gesture, swiftly pulled up the rug on the floor. On the floor covered by the rug, a large magic circle was engraved with white paint.

It was a complex magic circle with numerous shapes swimming in a large circle, and ancient words that were difficult to read filling the blank spaces, overlapping and intertwining so that it would be hard for anyone but Adelia to recognize.

Adelia knelt on one knee in front of it.

“It looks fine on the surface…”

Adelia bit her lip and brushed her hand over it. Then, a burst of light emanated from the magic circle. Tiny golden sand-like light particles spread out and sprinkled into the air. Soon, they gathered again to form an identical magic circle in the air as the one on the floor.

Adelia put her hand into it. With her eyes closed, she moved her hand inside the magic circle with delicate and careful touches, as if feeling each particle of light.

After a while, Adelia, who had been moving her hand gently, suddenly stopped as if her whole body had frozen. Her closed eyelids lifted, revealing the blue sea hidden within.

“How…”

Strong waves surged, and chaos filled the blue sea that had engulfed everything, leaving nothing behind.

Her long, straight eyelashes quickly stirred the air. Faster than a butterfly’s wings, irregularly and randomly.

Adelia muttered in disbelief.

“How could there be a scratch on the defensive magic circle?”

The defensive magic that blocked everything was an advantage that made white magic shine. Being able to block anything and thus be invulnerable was the ultimate ability for humans living finite lives.

But now, a scratch had appeared on this defensive magic made with white magic.

“White magic doesn’t even get scratched… How could this have happened?”

Adelia checked several times in disbelief. However, the result remained unchanged.

No one, no matter how exceptional, had ever scratched the defensive magic of white magic. Even the Emperor, who could shatter magic with brute force, couldn’t overcome white magic.

Although the defensive magic wasn’t completely shattered, even a small scratch was a serious matter. Small scratches could accumulate to create a large wound.

Adelia clenched her trembling fist tightly and glared at the scratched magic circle.

“Who was it? Which damned bastard targeted the white mage?”

Her voice was eerily calm. The warm blue light now felt as cold as frozen glaciers.

Conrad swallowed hard at the sight of her quietly suppressing her anger while gritting her molars. Although her gaze wasn’t on him, it was clearly a question directed at him.

He barely opened his mouth and explained what had happened that day.

“I’m not sure. On the night you left, Master, I was working late when suddenly I felt a big impact. I quickly turned my head to look at the window and saw one of the window decorations falling.”

“That shouldn’t be possible because of the defensive magic.”

“Exactly! I was startled and looked down outside, and I clearly saw a person in a black robe that was covered to their toes passing by in an instant.”

“A black robe… That’s too common. Is there nothing else?”

There were numerous assassination groups that wore black robes. Even if not an assassination group, if you walked around the back alleys, half the people would be wearing black robes.

Long black robes that covered the entire body were often used when one needed to hide their identity or was doing something that shouldn’t be revealed.

With just the information of a black robe, it was impossible to narrow down the culprit.

Conrad seemed to think deeply, closing his eyes and shaking his head this way and that, before finally giving an answer.

“There wasn’t anything in particular. Ah, I didn’t see it, but I felt something unpleasant. You know that feeling of anxiety you get when you meet someone you can’t deal with? It was somewhat like that, but instinctively, I felt very uncomfortable and didn’t want to get close. Of course, it’s just a feeling I had, so it’s not accurate.”

He shared this information thinking even small details might help, but tilted his head as if uncertain.

Even to him, a feeling didn’t seem like particularly helpful information for deducing the culprit.

However, Adelia listened to his story with a serious face. She even paused for a moment as if pondering, staring into space.

“Besides that, did you notice anything about the face or characteristics of the robe?”

“Hmm… It was dark so I couldn’t see well, but it didn’t seem to be very high-quality fabric. Even in the moonlight, it had no luster. And the person was short and small in stature. They looked about a span shorter than me, and seemed thin and small in build.”

“It would be difficult to identify someone with just that information.”

Adelia muttered softly while rubbing her nape. The information they had now was far from enough to find someone.

‘Who could it be… Could it be someone I should know?’

Adelia carefully retraced the original story. Was there something she had missed, some secret she didn’t know? No matter how desperately she went over it again and again, nothing changed.

In a way, it was natural. She had read the original story dozens of times over the past three years and gone over it hundreds of times. It was unlikely that anything would change just by thinking about it now.

But she had to find the culprit by any means necessary.

In the original story, only the poisonous herb called the flower of dark magic and the holy sword could stand against the villain with white magic. Among these, only the holy sword could damage a defensive magic circle made with white magic.

At least as far as Adelia knew.

‘But the holy sword should be with His Highness the Crown Prince now. He was with me, so it couldn’t have been that…’

Then who could it be? And how did they do this?

Once again, as a secret not present in the original story was revealed, she felt her breath get caught. It felt as if she had fallen into deep darkness, with the weight of pain pressing down on her heart.

Adelia quietly brought her clenched fist to her chest, pressing it hard as if suppressing the pain.

‘If there’s a new magic I don’t know about or a variable has appeared, I need to find a way to respond. Should I look into more ancient texts…?’

As if the variable of the saintess wasn’t enough, now a new danger had appeared. Somehow, troublesome events kept happening one after another. The thought of having to find the culprit who damaged the magic while still not having found evidence that the saintess was fake made her head spin.

Adelia let out a deep sigh.

“How about fixing the magic circle first? While you were away, Master, I couldn’t even go home. I was anxiously worrying about who might come in.”

Conrad, who had been nervously watching from the side, cautiously offered his opinion.

He was very well aware of his own condition. So well aware that he was disgusted with himself. His clothes, unwashed for about a week, reeked of sweat, and his unwashed face was dripping with grease.

Now that Adelia had returned, he desperately wanted to quickly fix the magic circle and go home to wash up.

But Adelia’s following response was far from his expectations.

“I’m not going to fix it.”

“Pardon?”

Conrad gaped at Adelia with an incredulous look. She tapped her temple with two fingers.

“Think about it. It’s been a month since the white mage became known to the world. But only now they’ve touched the guild where the white mage is. And of all times, right when the Crown Princess is on her honeymoon. Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“Couldn’t that just be a coincidence?”

“It might be someone who suspects my identity. They might suspect that I’m the real guild master, not just someone close to the guild master. So they might be deliberately testing it.”

If they had targeted the time when Crown Princess Adelia was away from the capital, there was a high possibility they were thinking along those lines. During the honeymoon, the guild would inevitably be empty, so they wouldn’t be able to immediately notice what was happening at the guild during that time.

“It’s been quite some time since the magic circle was scratched. If the magic circle is restored on the very day I arrive in the capital, it would be too suspicious.”

Anyway, this level of scratch hadn’t created even a small flaw in its function. It wouldn’t be a big problem to leave it for a few days before erasing it.

If the culprit was really moving as she expected, she had no intention of complying so easily.

But Conrad shook his head.

“The people at the banquet that day, the people on the streets… No one suspects you, Master, so who would think like that?”

“They don’t suspect because their eyes are blinded by the fixed idea that the guild master is a man. Honestly, if it weren’t for that, anyone would see that I’m the guild master. It’s stupid not to suspect.”

“Then what do you plan to do?”

The corners of Adelia’s mouth curved upwards. It was her characteristic smile when devising an interesting strategy to bring down an opponent.

The devious smile meeting her innocent face made her look full of expectation.

“We need to set a trap.”

“A trap?”

“If my thoughts are correct, the culprit will surely come to check the magic circle. During the day, not at night when I might be here.”

If the culprit really came to check the magic circle, it was actually a good thing. It meant they would have a chance to record the culprit’s appearance.