Chapter 567: Densely Packed Fear

"I’ll have someone look into it," Quentin Blackwood said, immediately dispatching his people to investigate the matter.

By the time they finished their meal, all the relevant documents had already been delivered to him.

Quentin scanned the files and handed them to Ivy Sherwood. "According to the intel we gathered, the Princess and our mother shouldn’t have any connection."

The Princess grew up as the quintessential daughter of a prominent family, the pampered darling of destiny. Her family was extremely wealthy. As a bona fide heiress, she and Ovillette were childhood sweethearts. However, before taking the throne as King, Ovillette underwent a year of secret training—a standard procedure for every monarch. Later, he was crowned King and married the Princess. Their romance became an enviable fairy tale: childhood sweethearts who finally tied the knot.

The King and the Princess had always been deeply in love. They were widely known as a blissfully happy couple. According to the documents, neither of them should have ever crossed paths with Winter Mercer.

Ivy looked through the files as well, finding it strange. "If she doesn’t know my mother, why did she react like that? And what is she doing in Lustre anyway? Just sightseeing?"

She had no idea. The whole thing just felt incredibly bizarre. She decided to drop the matter for now.

"So, when are we heading to Aethelgard?" Ivy asked, returning the phone to Quentin.

"Whenever works for you," he replied.

"Tomorrow, then," Ivy decided on the spot.

"Alright," Quentin agreed. He then instructed his staff to prep the private jet.

Back in the hotel room, the Princess’s body was still trembling uncontrollably, as if she had just seen something terrifying.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" Ayre was beside himself with worry. He had even called for a doctor, but the physician insisted nothing was physically wrong with her.

"Ayre," the Princess called out to him.

"I’m here!" Ayre responded, thinking she needed something.

"Get out!" She pointed at the door.

Ayre was speechless. "I don’t feel comfortable leaving you alone in here. What exactly is going on? Could it be..."

He had just been searching her symptoms on his phone. In Calypsos, this kind of behavior was usually described as being possessed by evil spirits.

"I’m fine. I was just too cold earlier. I need to rest for a bit. Ayre, did I act too rudely just now? Please tell Ivy... tell her I saw the face of the person who tried to kill me, and he looked a bit like that man from earlier, which is why..."

Ayre finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I see. I’ll pass the message along to Ivy for you."

The Princess nodded and promptly shooed him out of the room. Once he was gone, her first instinct was to contact Jason Summers.

Did Jason know that Winter Mercer actually had a child, and that the child was Ivy Sherwood? If Ovillette ever saw her and remembered anything, they would be completely ruined.

Just as she was about to call Jason, another thought crossed her mind. She wondered if he had known about this all along and had been keeping her in the dark.

After a moment of deliberation, she looked up Ivy’s name online. The domestic internet here was different from the network abroad; she could easily pull up a wealth of information. It wasn’t just text about Ivy; there were also numerous photos. The only problem was that she couldn’t read the local language.

The Princess summoned a hotel attendant and asked for a translation.

The staff at this hotel were all fluent in foreign languages. The attendant wasn’t surprised at all to see Ivy’s face on the screen, having already consumed plenty of online gossip about her.

The attendant explained to the Princess, "This is a very beautiful and famous woman in our country. Her business, The Iris Brand, is incredibly successful, and she is apparently engaged to President Blackwood. Word has it that her family is a very powerful clan over in Elandra. She has the looks, the talent, and the background."

So, the people of Calypsos all knew what Ivy looked like, and they all knew she was a member of the Mercer family. It was obvious now: Ivy had definitely reunited with them!

That made things impossibly thorny. The Mercer family was growing more powerful by the day. As top-tier aristocrats in Elandra, they practically propped up more than half of the country’s industries. If they ever found out she had a hand in Winter Mercer’s death, they would never let her off the hook.

Given all this, Jason absolutely had to know. He had been hiding it from her on purpose. If even Jason couldn’t be trusted, who else could she rely on?

A suffocating blanket of dread enveloped her. The Princess suddenly felt overwhelmingly powerless. She didn’t know what to do. Lingering terror gnawed at her heart as her body continued to shake uncontrollably.

She wondered, "If I hadn’t made this trip to Lustre, would I have remained blissfully ignorant of all this?"

Meanwhile, Ayre called Ivy to apologize on his sister’s behalf. He explained that the Princess had been frightened because Quentin bore a resemblance to her kidnapper, which had triggered her extreme reaction.

Quentin was speechless. Did he really look like a kidnapper?

Ivy told him, "Take good care of her. We can always grab a meal together another time. By the way, are you two planning to stay in Lustre for a while, or will you be heading back soon?"

"I’m not too sure right now," Ayre replied. "I need to see how my sister holds up first."

"Alright. I’ll probably be heading to Aethelgard in the next couple of days, though. Even if I’m not around, you can still let me know if you need any help."

"Thank you, Ivy."

"Don’t mention it."

Ivy hung up the phone just as she walked through the front door of their home. "I guess I’ll spend the afternoon packing. If we’re going to Aethelgard, I’ll need to bring a bit more with me," she announced.

Since she wasn’t sure when she’d be back in Lustre, and her baby was already at the six-month mark, she figured she might end up spending her postpartum recovery directly in Aethelgard. Because of this, she wanted to pack all her most important belongings.

The packing process alone took the entire afternoon. Naturally, Quentin refused to let her lift a finger. Ivy only had to sit and give directions while he did all the manual labor.

"Bring this box too." Ivy brought out a jewelry box.

It looked familiar to Quentin. "Isn’t this..."

He opened the box, revealing the pair of earrings inside. Back when he gifted them to her, Ivy had given him a watch in return. He had been wearing that watch ever since. Ivy, on the other hand, rarely wore the earrings. They were far too valuable—and looked the part—making them unsuited for everyday wear. She did, however, wear the Buddha Beads constantly.

"You gave these to me, so I’m taking them with us," she said.

Quentin took the earrings out of the box and reached out to touch her earlobes. This time, Ivy didn’t pull away, simply letting him put them on her.

The icy metal dangled from her ears, brushing against her neck with a slight, thrilling chill. She shrank back slightly, but Quentin’s lips landed softly on her earlobe.

"Beautiful," the man murmured, lowering his voice.

It was as if the earrings had been custom-made for her centuries ago.

"Oh, right! There’s one more really important thing!" Remembering something, Ivy ran into her bedroom, her footsteps going PIT-A-PAT, and retrieved another box from a highly secreted spot.