God of Tricksters

After returning to the city, Ana took the Poison Fruit with her and returned to Russia. Lorenzo had promised her to send the package over after they processed them.

Agata and Ava returned to the mansion and had a rest for the day. Theo decided to bring Nella around, showing her the city while enjoying his time.

At some point, Theo revealed his plan that he had mentioned back in the Dark Poison Swamp. Nella was dumbstruck as she never expected Theo to be giving her this kind of plan. However, there was no reason for her to reject his plan.

After all, Theo wanted to mess the Griffith Family up while Nella wished to weaken the elders, so Ray Griffith could fully take over the family, and she would be the sole successor without any more threats.

Everything went smoothly for a few days until the empress called Ana and Alea.

In a small pavilion, Ana and Alea were sitting next to each other as they were exchanging looks. They thought the empress was angry and planned to punish them for any problem she found in the mission.

"Cough." The empress let out a cough to grab their attention.

Ana and Alea immediately straightened their backs and looked at the white-haired woman in front of them. Despite her age, she looked like a woman in her thirties. Her braided silver hair rested on her chest as she was looking at a piece of paper. She had been staring at this paper for a while, making them look nervous because they thought this was a report from someone else.

The moment she opened her mouth, they felt chill down their spines.

"As much as I want to say good job, I can't." The empress squinted her eyes. "There are too many things that I need to address to both of you."

"What is it, Mother?" Ana gulped down as she carefully asked.

"Well, I shouldn't scold both of you too much since even I wouldn't be able to think something like this. Even if I'm there, I won't be able to know it easily. This little bastard is like that old fox, Leonardo. Though, this one is more shrewd." The empress fell silent for a moment. "If Leonardo is a strategist that creates a path to victory, this little bastard is a man who uses chaos for his victory."

"Are you talking about Theo, Master?" Alea asked for confirmation.

"Who else?" The empress pinched the bridge of her nose. "After listening to your report about the mission and seeing this, I have realized a few things. First of all, he's like an angel to his friends and a demon to his enemies. That's for sure.

"After all, he could create something like this on the spot…" The empress bit her lips. "He used the entire process to get your trust in his plan. Then he utilized that trust to his advantage and got what he wanted. Ana, have you ever thought why Alea is getting the second farthest fruit?"

"Eh?" Ana was taken aback by the question and looked down, contemplating her answer.

While waiting for her, she turned to Alea, "Alea. Tell me why he's not using his clone the whole time? He can simply use his clone to get all the fruits."

"But isn't that because the Poison King…" Alea didn't finish her answer as she felt something was wrong.

Suddenly, the two dropped their jaws and realized the answer.

"Did you forget his job?"

"Illusionist." Alea and Ana answered at the same time as they looked down, not daring to look at the empress' eyes.

They both finally realized the sounds and the roots were nothing but illusions. They forgot the fact Theo was a guy known for his illusion that could alter reality. Even Alea knew that Theo could make her feel the weight of his illusion despite it wasn't real, so why didn't she think Theo would be able to affect her hearing too? She gulped down in panic. This was also the reason why Theo gave her that position. It was to prevent her from looking at his expression.

"You told me that he agreed to use Teleportation after you decided to hold the rear. Well, I understand that your experiences are not on par with mine and that kind of adrenaline rush was clouding your judgment, so I won't scold you for this. You can blame the monsters for noticing you guys and shifting your thoughts, but I hope that you won't make the same mistake."

"Y-yes." The two girls nodded furiously.

"Then, there's that Griffith Family. Have Nella Griffith made contact with Theodore Griffith?"

"Ah!" Ana facepalmed as she knew she fucked up. "I heard it from Luka. He told me that Nella jumped on him and passed on a note. Only Theo's assistant read that note, so no one knew the content other than Nella, Theo, and his assistant, Liza, was it?"

"…" Ana fell silent while sweating, noticing the fact that the two might have collaborated before the mission even started. That was also why Theo had no hesitation in joining hands with Nella after that.

"Anyway, I just want to tell you two of these things. I am not planning to scold you because he's a madman. I already said, even if I was there, it wouldn't be that easy for me to notice this." The empress sighed and continued, "What you need to do is to know how to realize this trap early? As for me…"

The empress tossed the paper to the table, so both of them could see what she had been looking at this whole time.

Their jaws dropped the moment they realized the paper wasn't a report but a picture. And this wasn't just any other picture; it was a picture of Nella and Theo.

If that was the only case, it wouldn't annoy her so much. What frustrated her was the two fruits they were holding in their hands. With a big smile on their face, they were clearly showing this to mock her. After all, the fruits were none other than the two Poison Fruits they failed to take.

There were two sentences above the picture, saying, "I always make sure my plan won't fail. But well… Allies are the best things since we can share the joy with each other."

This only implied one thing, and the empress said, "Fuck that Zhilov.. Fuck that Griffith Family."