Revenge of the Duchess

Chapter 21

A/N: I own nothing but the plot. Enjoy!

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What Nathan expected when he was tasked as a double agent was stealthily stealing information through attending the enemy meetings or wrecking scouting missions from the inside. Instead, he got assigned to reading letters of palace staff. How could secretly reading and intruding on the private lives of citizens compare to the glory of fighting on the battlefield? As a new recruit in the intelligence network, he wasn't even allowed to attend the most important meetings.

But the Nathan couldn't complain or else he could see his identity being compromised. He just had to endure. Now that winter had come, he actually appreciated being inside the warm castle and not freezing outside on dangerous missions.

Most of the letters were from the servants, writing to their loved ones. The staff letters held mostly mundane content, but the recruit ended up finding out a lot about the lives of the staff. Who was having a baby. Whose grandmother had recently passed away. Whose child had gotten admitted to the academy.

Then, there were the far more juicier secrets. Apparently the royal cook, whose wife was the head maid of Prince Jason's palace, was having an affair with the head gardener's daughter. But royal cook's wife in return was having an affair with the head gardener! Nathan quickly learned how to master a poker face as whenever he met the people involved, he took care not to show any emotion. But none of the affairs or small palace grudges was the type of information he was looking for.

The recruit picked up the next letter. There had to be considerable skill in opening letters without letting the receiver know that the letter had ever been opened.

Hmm? This letter's insignia was different, unlike the Cuora nation's insignia that the common folk of Cuora would use. Was this one of the foreign dignitaries'?

Before the Nathan could open the seal, the letter was plucked out of his hand. He looked up to see the boss' viridescent-toned eyes glancing down at the recruit coolly. Nathan gave the boss what he hoped was a clueless, harmless smile before he reached for an innocuous letter. Damn, he cursed. Looks like he would have to find another way of gaining the information in the letter.

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The first snowfall had come, so the citizens of Cuora were rushing back and forth to tighten down any last second cracks in their homes or stock extra food in case a blizzard made it hard to access the markets. Piper watched from her bedroom windows as the palace staff worked to keep the castle and its inhabitants warm and safe.

Watching the spectacle, Piper thought of the lack of response to the letters she had sent back home. She had been in the Cuora palace for three weeks now, yet not a single reply had ever come. Perhaps Queen Aphrodite was angry at her second daughter for taking the place of her eldest, or perhaps the queen was too worried about her eldest to even care for her second daughter. Not like her mother ever took much notice of her.

As such, Piper had no inclination of writing to the Cythera queen, but she did want to hear from her siblings. What was the situation like back in Cythera? Had Mitchell finished his knight training? Had Lucy managed to straighten out her teeth? Most importantly, was Silena and her bodyguard okay? Perhaps the snowfall was delaying the response even more.

Piper set outside the papers and stretched. The majority of the learning phase of the candidacy was over and the next phase would begin. Thankfully, Piper had caught up to the other princesses so quickly that her dissidents could not use lack of etiquette or education to pull her reputation down. In this second phase, each princess would get an equal amount of time to interact with Prince Jason.