Chapter 9:Isola Ravenscar

In the castle of Starless, one evening, a woman was sitting on the balcony, watching and enjoying the beautiful view of the garden. Basking in the sunlight while sitting at a round table, she wore an exquisite dress with neatly stitched patterns, a design proving that only a few among the nobles could afford it. She had blue hair, brown eyes, and a mature figure. She held a folding fan, fanning herself with a smile on her face, which showed she had been having a good day recently.

She was Empress Isola Ravenscar. She had married into the royal family as part of a political arrangement. Isola never loved Emperor Valen; she merely sought to increase the influence of the Ravenscar family, being the only daughter of Duke Ravenscar. After marrying into the imperial family, she quickly climbed the social ladder, garnering all the attention from the noble circle. But after the death of Valen von Starless, her family secretly stole a large amount of resources from the imperial family. Before his Valen was aware of Ravenscar family's, but Isola's sweet words kept him quiet. However, when Tharion became the new emperor, the Ravenscar family members panicked. Isola despised when things went wrong and regretted not giving birth to a son by Valen. To make matters worse, the attention she once received had shifted to Tharion's wife, Lina, a commoner. Isola was devastated; she was the daughter of the Ravenscar family and the Empress, accustomed to receiving attention and praise from others. Now, her status had fallen lower than that of a concubine, and she could not accept this.

To regain her status, she began scheming against Tharion and his family. She used the master-servant seal and poisoned Lina. After Emperor Tharion's beloved wife's death, he began neglecting some of his emperor duties. He rarely spoke to his son, Zarok, or any other person after that. Isola used the master-servant seal on some imperial knights and nobles of the capital. The knights would kill commoners and steal their money, causing civil unrest and proving that Emperor Tharion was not fit to rule the empire.

She was now sitting on the balcony, watching the scenery. "My lady, are you happy about something?" asked Isola's personal maid. Isola was cautious and wanted her plan to be perfect, ensuring it would not fail. Everyone in the palace who knew about her plan bore the master-servant seal, so if Isola died, they would die as well, ensuring they would do their best to protect her.

"The emperor has gone senile; he wants his son to participate in the succession," Isola said, then smiled again, fanning herself with her folding fan. "But I have a plan. When that commoner b*tch's son moves to his allotted land, he will be assassinated by my people, who will make sure to mutilate his body. When Emperor Tharion sees him dead, he will mentally collapse. At that time, the nobles I've assigned will make the statement that Emperor Tharion is not fit to rule the empire, and he will be forced to pass down the throne to my daughter. Then, the Ravenscar family's status will be equal to that of the imperial family," she said, fanning herself again. She was not afraid of retaliation because more than half of the imperial guard were with her. She had built her influence over the years and had more power than the emperor.

After some time, another maid arrived with a tray. Isola became alert because this maid was not bound by the master-servant seal. That seal had limits on how many people could be enslaved, or else she would have made every servant in the palace her slave.

Isola gestured to her personal maid, indicating to check the tea brought by the maid. As Isola had a cautious personality, this had become routine; Isola's personal maid acted as a poison tester for the food. The personal maid took a spoon from her pouch, dipped it into the teapot, took out a drop of tea, put it on her hand, and licked it, making a gesture indicating that there was no poison in it.

Isola nodded in approval. The maid then began to prepare the tea. She took the teacup from right bottom of the tray, poured tea from the teapot into the cup, added two cubes of sugar, and mixed it.

Isola took a sip, unaware of the impending danger. In the original plot, Lyanna was poisoned with the same poison by the Demon Lord of Poison. The Demon Lord of Poison announced it out of arrogance and confidence in his poison, but Isola had no knowledge of it, and her final countdown had begun. She was still lost in her imagination, thinking of the benefits of being the mother of the Empress. Isola was cautious but not as smart as Zarok, who came from the modern world. Who used poison not in the tea but the tea cup.

**************************

The next chapter will be how Zarock deal with Assassin's on the way.

STAY TUNED