The Empror's Trap

When Kenji returned to his Spring Peace Palace, he caught Lina cleaning his bedroom.

Although Kenji originally had dedicated servants to clean his rooms, sometimes Lina would help tidy up as well. For Kenji, Lina's cleaning was the most comfortable because she understood his living habits, and arranged many things exactly to his liking.

However... this kind of cleaning sometimes provided quite a visual shock.

Like right now.

Kenji stared in disbelief as Lina effortlessly hoisted the wooden desk on her shoulder.

The desk was less for working and more for displaying royal elegance. The entire desk was two meters long, carved from a single piece of wood, with its base following the natural shape of tree roots, intricately carved with patterns of flood dragons, phoenixes, and auspicious clouds.

Logically speaking, carrying a table wasn't particularly remarkable—some tables aren't especially heavy and can be carried without much effort.

But what was truly outrageous was that this desk in Kenji's room was made of "iron-sink wood," a type of tree that grew in foreign countries with extremely heavy and hard wood, dense and solid, displaying a unique reddish-brown color. Just how heavy was this thing?

If you threw it in water, it would sink straight to the bottom like a stone.

Such a large iron-sink wood desk would require a crane or forklift to transport in Kenji's original world, yet now, Lina had simply hoisted it onto her back and was carrying it away.

"What are you doing?" asked Kenji, shocked by the scene before him.

"Oh, Young Master, didn't you mention earlier that this desk's position was inconvenient? After finishing my work today, I thought since it needed to be moved anyway, I might as well do it now."

As Lina spoke, she walked forward with the heavy desk on her back, which immediately made Kenji hesitant to approach—with this weight, if Lina carelessly turned around and hit him, he felt his head might explode...

Of course, this was just Kenji's own thought; in reality, he wasn't that fragile.

"Alright, alright, just put it there. You're my bodyguard, not hired labor." He pointed to where the desk should be placed, then said.

After setting down the desk, Kenji gestured for Lina to sit beside him, then said: "Regarding the trading company matter, Her Majesty already knows. Although she didn't say it explicitly, she naturally hopes the Gray Scales Division will continue investigating thoroughly."

"I understand. I'll continue the investigation..."

"No, hoping that you continue investigating thoroughly is Her Majesty's intention. My suggestion is not to investigate further."

"Why?" Lina asked curiously.

She wasn't questioning Kenji, just curious about his thinking. She wanted to know why Kenji didn't want to investigate completely.

"Lina, if we follow the trail completely now, at most we'll discover the true mastermind behind this incident. By my judgment, at the end of the investigation, we'll find it was basically the Holy Church's doing."

"Right now, we need these threads from the church. Currently, the church hasn't been fully investigated by us, nor have they been provoked by us. They probably already know about the Old Frent Trading Company's affairs. They'll become extremely vigilant next. If we investigate thoroughly, I fear that before we reach the end, the church will have already destroyed many other pieces of evidence unfavorable to them."

"The Old Frent Trading Company is just the tip of the iceberg of what the church is doing in Camelot. We can't alert them for just this tip. Otherwise, once they become vigilant and temporarily withdraw from Camelot, without sufficient direct evidence, we'll be at a disadvantage when dealing with the church in the future. What I want is an opportunity that gives us legitimate reasons to impose severe restrictions on the church. So we can't provoke them now."

In simple terms, this was about letting out the line to catch a bigger fish.

"Then I'll interrogate them first, but not publicize what we find."

"Smart. You already know a bit about what you should do. But this method isn't appropriate because I suspect some officials in Camelot have already colluded with those Holy Church followers. I trust the loyalty of the Scale Guards; they're talents trained by you and selected by me. But the Gray Scales Division isn't completely closed off from external communication, so there's still a risk of information leakage."

"Therefore, the safest method is not to interrogate at all. The people are already in your hands; you can interrogate them whenever you want."

Kenji patiently explained to her.

Lina indeed wasn't very talented in this aspect, which is why Kenji appointed her as the commander of the Gray Scales Division rather than giving her other official positions—most official positions required understanding of human relationships and political maneuvering, which Lina wasn't good at. She was more skilled at the physical aspects of these matters.

But Kenji still hoped she could learn more, at least enough to avoid future disadvantages due to these shortcomings.

Kenji paid great attention to her development. Although Lina often seemed resistant on the surface, she was genuinely trying to understand and learn. She just wasn't naturally good at these things and learned rather slowly.

"I understand, Young Master. Then, what is the next mission?"

Lina had grown accustomed to Kenji's orders, so even though she had become an independent commander, she still sought his advice.

"There is one task. Her Majesty is now preparing to implement a series of policies, and some officials in the country are trying to prevent these policies from being carried out. The people on this list are all officials resisting Her Majesty's policies. Have someone watch them and try to find leverage against each of them—after completing these tasks, leave the rest to me."

"Understood."

As Lina spoke, she quietly shifted her body to be closer to Kenji.

Focused on the list, Kenji didn't notice Lina's movement as she gradually moved closer to him, then gently leaned against his shoulder.

To be honest, Kenji's shoulder wasn't comfortable—his military career and years of training had made his body quite solid, with rather firm muscles... leaning against it actually felt somewhat hard.

But for Lina, she didn't need a soft touch; she just wanted to be close to that familiar presence.

"Young Master..."

"I'm here. What's wrong? Are you uncomfortable?"

Kenji's tone remained as calm as ever.

Lina said nothing, just leaned there, then revealed a slight smug smile.

It seemed Kenji was still focused on the list, his tone flat, as if he were an emotionless machine.

But upon careful observation, Lina could see his reddened ears.

Hehe, how amusing.