The shopkeeper was not a magician, so he did not know how to enchant paper. A while back, he had run out of his last enchanted paper to send the letter and had to restock.

That was why he used a messenger bird to send his letter. He tired his letter to the pigeon's claw and looked at it desperately.

"Listen! You are my only hope! Please take this letter to the place it is intended to go. I am counting on you."

The bird looked at the count with its beady eyes before it took off. The magic it was bonded to would ensure it reached its destination.

Or, that was what was supposed to happen. But the bird never reached its destination as Layla shot it down before it could take flight.

"Tsk, I need more practice with the gun. A single shot shakes my arm like I did some heavy lifting."

Layla huffed these words out as she tried to get her arm to stop aching.

She had used a gun a lot in her past life, but she had never felt such aches in her body. She could only attribute this to her body not having sufficient muscle mass to handle the gun.

"Oh wow! So, that was how you use a gun? This looks fun. Can I try to do this as well, miss? I promise I will be careful and only shoot at something that deserves to be shot."

Mary asked with sparkling eyes. She looked excited to try the gun out, and Layla had a feeling that a disaster would happen if she gave her maid her weapon.

"Let's think about this later. For now, get the bird I shot down. I saw something tried to one of its legs. We might need that letter."

Layla changed the subject to what was happening, and Mary did not question the sudden change in topic.

The maid quickly got up before running forward to get the letter the bird had dropped in its hurt state.

It did not take the demoness long to find the letter and bring it to Layla. However, opening the letter was a different problem.

"It has been sealed with magic. I thought that the shopkeeper did not know magic. He must have used some kind of sealing tool for this."

Layla looked at the letter and the way it had been sealed. She could not open the letter without destroying it.

She could only follow the name that the sender had written to the receiving address.

"Minister Calam's head butler? Then, does that mean that the one who is holding me back is someone named Minister Calam? Mary, do you have any idea who that person is?"

Layla asked in a tense voice as she pocketed the letter.

"Hmm, Minister Calam? That name does ring a bell in my mind…. ah, I know! He is one of the court members who is close to the imperial family. I only know his name and face and nothing else. Shall I look into this for you, miss?"

Mary asked with a blood-thrust smile on her face.

'Ah, so it will be an investigation that would require a lot of blood to be shed? Somehow, I don't think I would mind that much.'

But as much as Layla wanted to let her maid have some fun, there were other things to take care of first.

"We can do that later, Mary. First, we should wait for Raziel to return and give us his report. Maybe we will find out more than we need if we wait."

Her maid pouted at those words, but Layla was not that worried about her. She had a feeling that she was about to face a difficult trail, and if so, having every bit of information helped out a lot.

...

Raziel returned when the sun started to set. He had spent the whole day asking and looking around, and his expression was one of satisfaction.

"So, what did you find the kid?"

Mary asked Raziel as soon as he stepped inside the room.

The divine energy user quickly sat down, placing his hands under his chin and leaning his face and body forward in a tense manner.

"It is Minister Calam. He uses his power and influence to make the smaller businesses listen to him and refuse to deal with us. He is doing this because he has a bone to pick with Duke Lockhart.

But the rumors say that the royal family is behind this. They secretly ordered the Minister to cause trouble for us like this."

The news did not surprise Layla. She had expected something like this to happen from the start.

"I see. So, this is the hand that the royal family chose to play? It is quite clever. This way, no matter which side won, they won't be implicated."

Layla pointed out with a small frown on her face.

She hated to say this, but the royal family was cunning like a fox. They were also amazing at getting what they wanted from the people.

"So, what are we going to do now? As long as the Minister is in charge and has a firm hold of this port, we won't be able to grab a strong foothold. Do you have a solution for this problem?"

Layla asked, and Raziel hesitated before he brought up another piece of information he had uncovered.

"We might be lucky. A small group of people have been gathering around, trying to overthrow Minister Calam's influence in this area. They have some lands that are in prime locations.

They might be willing to sell them to us if we give them a reason. Would you like me to find out more about it, miss?"

Raziel asked tensely, but his words jolted Layla's memory.

She suddenly remembered that the story had something like this brewing before the original novel completely threw it out. Instead, she focused on the crown's power, solving this problem for the main couple.