Heiress Unmasked: Shaking the World With Geomancy novel Chapter 2136

As planned, Elowen continued going about the palace in the disguise of Grace. Adelaide returned after her recovery and was somewhat dazed to see the latter.

Elowen met Adelaide's gaze—the woman who was, at least in name, Grace's mentor—with little more than a faint nod, then casually strolled off in another direction, entirely at ease.

She didn't seem the least bit concerned that she might be exposed as an impostor. Or rather, she simply didn't care.

Fortunately, Adelaide chose silence after her initial shock. She didn't know who that lady was, but one thing was certain—this was not her apprentice, Grace.

Grace… was long gone.

And so, Elowen continued to wander the palace with Grace's face for two full days. Yet, contrary to her expectations, the hand behind the scenes never appeared.

In fact, that array, previously only damaged, fully collapsed that very night. Its power unraveled, and with it, the malice sealed within vanished as well.

The same group of four sat beneath the maple tree in the courtyard where Shannon resided, cards in hand.

Laying down a matching pair from her hand, Shannon said calmly, "Perhaps the other party never intended to repair the array in the first place, or perhaps they realized we were setting a trap and destroyed it themselves to avoid exposure."

She glanced at the others across the table and concluded, "Regardless, it means the array wasn't all that important."

At least not the key piece.

Elowen listened with half an ear, her attention fully on the cards in her hand. Without looking up, she muttered, "I'd warned you about your tricky method. You should've just had Lucan destroy it from the start.

"Let the culprit see exactly whose ground they're trespassing on. If they run, so be it. But if they dare to show their face, we strike first and leave nothing standing."

With that, she slapped down a pair of twos.

Lucan and Benjamin, of course, didn't follow her lead. But Elowen wasted no time. With three quick moves, she played the rest of her cards and declared triumphantly, "Victory is mine!"

It was only then that she learned that phoenix eggshells were highly nourishing to their kind. Newly hatched phoenixes typically consumed them to absorb the latent power within and to aid their rapid growth.

So, despite having eaten nothing else these past two days, Velquin had already grown noticeably, his chubby little form expanding by the hour.

Watching her underling clapping so enthusiastically in support of her win, Elowen decided to reward him with a proper show of generosity befitting a boss.

She picked up her milkshake and, with a casual tilt of the wrist, poured what remained into Velquin's half-eaten eggshell.

His eyes lit up with glee. He raised the oversized shell with both hands and began downing it. Then, he held up the shell and chirped, "Sweet! More!"

This time, Elowen didn't even need to move. Trevaris, in his miniature form, had already zipped over to the stove, grasped the milk pot handle with his talons, and flew it over, pouring the warm drink neatly into Velquin's shell.

Velquin beamed, alternating between nibbling the shell and sipping his warm milk, completely in his element.