Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 319: Catching the Culprits

Chapter 319: Catching the Culprits

Arabella stayed in Ferdinand’s room in Estrella. She focused on doing work from Riva that had been piled up due to the assassination attempt. There was a lot of work to do so she busied herself even though Ferdinand told her to rest.

She didn’t want to be the only one doing nothing while they were busy catching the culprits so she wanted to work hard too. Ferdinand thankfully agreed to let her work, though, only after a lot of convincing.

After she was teleported to Estrella, everyone set out to do their tasks to capture Jacob and Adolfo and rescue the Prudencians they were hiding.

But even though midnight came, there were still no reports so Arabella continued working.

Arabella began to get nervous as another hour passed with nothing. She distracted herself with more work when she began thinking something may have gone wrong. But she soon ran out of work to do. She unbelievably finished all the work that had piled up.

When she had nothing else to do, she got even more on edge.

Rendell and Aletha both told her she should sleep. But with how nervous she was, Arabella was sure she could not sleep.

However, when her eyes, hand, and back hurt from all the work she did, she decided to lie down for a bit and get some shuteye.

Surprisingly, she fell asleep and when she woke up, it was already morning and Ferdinand was beside her. He was watching her sleep as usual.

"What happened?!" Arabella instantly sat up.

"What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" Ferdinand was alarmed and sat up as well.

"Oh, nothing. I didn’t. I was just eager to ask about how everything turned out. You didn’t get hurt or anything, right?" Arabella scrutinized her husband.

He was just wearing a robe and it probably got opened while he was in bed. She could see his chest and abs were fine. She decided to open it further to check his arms and back too. There was no sign of any injury.

She pulled the sheets away to check his lower body as well but recalled she could not possibly open the robe further or else she would seem like a pervert. Or should she?

But then, she noticed a bulge between her husband’s legs.

’Right. It’s morning,’ Arabella covered it back with the sheets pretending to have not noticed it.

She felt the heat rise to her face when she looked up and met Ferdinand’s eyes. He was smiling at her weirdly.

"Should I remove everything for you, My Love? Or would you like to undress me completely instead?" Ferdinand inquired playfully.

"I- I was just checking in case you had injuries," Arabella quickly explained.

"You are worried about me?" Ferdinand’s grin further widened. It could have reached his ears. "Don’t worry, I didn’t get a single one. And Alwin would have healed me immediately if I got hurt."

"Oh, right! Why did I forget about that?" Arabella’s face turned even hotter.

How could she have forgotten Alwin would not allow Ferdinand to get hurt? And he would indeed heal Ferdinand instantly if he did get injured. And even if Alwin didn’t, Ferdinand could have done it himself when he returned to Estrella.

[She was that worried about me?] Ferdinand looped an arm around her waist and pulled her against his bare chest. He could do so with just a single arm and it looked so easy.

Sometimes it was both annoying and amazing how he was so strong.

"Why won’t you continue what you were doing earlier?" Ferdinand whispered in her ear.

Arabella could almost see him smirk as her body involuntarily shivered at the sound of his husky voice and the feeling of his breath against her skin. He had begun to understand how her body reacted to things and he was maximizing it whenever he had the chance.

"As I have said, I was just checking you for injuries. More importantly, how did things go? Were you able to catch them?" Arabella returned them to the topic before they get distracted.

"Of course. We have them imprisoned. I will tell you the details later. But first," Ferdinand wrapped her in his arms. "I want to hold you in my arms."

Ferdinand was already erect so he was already distracted.

"This human body is quite troublesome. It had a lot of needs," he even used his human body as an excuse for his desires.

They ended up getting intimate first since Ferdinand was already in the mood and he tempted her too. Arabella gave in since she had actually been worried about him all night.

She didn’t even understand what she was getting worried about. She already knew her husband was so strong and he was unlikely to get hurt. But somehow, she simply could not help it. It was like this as well in her previous life. She worried every time he went to the borders or did some hunting in a dangerous forest even though he was said to be the strongest man in Eliora.

Once they were done with their naughty time and had some rest, Ferdinand finally told Arabella what happened.

First of all, in Crux, Riley’s group successfully rescued the Prundencians. There was a lot of resistance since Adolfo had a lot of mercenaries. He even had some magicians to ensure that his "goods" would not run away or get stolen.

Some of the knights got injured due since Adolfo’s men were quite strong due to his line of business. However, in the end, Riley and the knights succeeded anyway and all the injured on their side were healed.

The Prudencians were healed, cleansed, and fed properly. They were staying in the Magic Tower in the interim for further observation.

On the Grand Knight Commander’s part, he also successfully raided Adolfo’s base in Medeus and rescued the Prudencians there.

Adolfo’s men were not able to put up much of a fight because the magicians had cast spells to weaken them and lessen the fighting since they were in Medeus.

The Prudencians were also brought to the Magic Tower.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand and Alwin confronted Adolfo and Jacob.

Jacob and Adolfo’s guards instantly prepared to fight when Ferdinand and Alwin teleported to Adolfo’s study where the two were having a meeting.

Ferdinand easily eliminated all of Adolfo’s guards while Alwin fought with Jacob.

Adolfo tried to escape on his own through a secret door when he realized Jacob had his hands full.

However, Ferdinand easily caught up to Adolfo. Adolfo fought with Ferdinand. He even used magic items he obtained through underground auctions while some were made by Jacob.

The magic items worked to some extent but Ferdinand caught Adolfo in the end. Adolfo surrendered and did not put up a fight anymore when he realized their difference in strength.

Meanwhile, Alwin’s fight with Jacob took longer because of the other spirit in the latter’s body. Jacob was getting support from it. Thus, Jacob was able to use magic that far surpassed his abilities.

When Jacob realized he could not win against Alwin, he decided to escape. Jacob repeatedly teleported all over Medeus in order to escape but Alwin followed him wherever he went.

As a last resort, with the last of his mana, Jacob teleported to Crux thinking that Alwin would not be able to follow him at such a great distance. However, Alwin still followed him and caught Jacob who was out of mana.

Alwin used a special barrier to imprison Jacob so the other soul inside him would not be able to leave either. The soul did not try to leave though so it meant they still had a backup plan. It was confident it could escape later not knowing that Alwin already blocked his escape.

Adolfo and Jacob were imprisoned in the Magic Tower and would only be teleported to Medeus once the Council issues a trial for them.

More pieces of evidence were retrieved from Adolfo’s offices both in Medeus and Crux.

And since the culprits were caught, Ferdinand returned to Estrella and let Raymond do the explanations.

Raymond crashed into an emergency meeting of the Council members. They convened in order to ask King Neville what happened when they spoke with Ferdinand and to discuss what to do after learning that Ferdinand attacked someone’s mansion the previous night.

Raymond had the magic devices Alwin had gathered with proofs. In case necessary, he would reveal some of the results of Alwin’s investigations in order to explain since the other rulers already received news of Ferdinand mobilizing his knights that were supposed to be just guarding the mansion.

The Council readily believed what Raymond told them after the pieces of evidence he showed.

The King of Crux was rather devastated since he did not know Adolfo was the one who plotted the assassination attempt.

Crux was now in a tight spot after angering Ferdinand twice. The Kingdom itself had no part in Adolfo’s plot this time, however, he was still from Crux so other nations already began distancing themselves from the King and Queen of Crux to prevent friction with Valeria.

King Neville as the current Head of the Council issued the official order for a trial. It was set in two days.

.

.

.

_________________________

A/N:

I thought I would be able to upload another Chapter but I had to do some more cleaning. I’m too exhausted to edit another Chapter. I will upload more tomorrow. Hehe.