Scheme to counteract the scheme

 "Well… It's indeed strange. But what are you trying to suggest?" Slightly startled by Layn's words, Irea leaned her head to the side while sitting on the edge of the bed. Judging how she had trouble moving from the bed to the chair and back, it was simply reasonable for her to give her body some time to recover.

"It's pretty simple. You said yourself that there are low chances that some random group of inner academy disciples could afford to make such an offer. That's why, rather than bringing it to the prince who would be able to punish them for faking an offer, they brought it to us. The question is, what would happen if the prince caught the wind of us trying to make a deal behind his back?" Once again, Layn's lips formed a satisfied smile. It wasn't the first time for the archmage to deal with this kind of stupid scheme, yet the fun of turning said schemes around was still quite nice.