(2) Living as the Villainess Queen

Chapter 205

A knock sounded on the door.

“Come in.”

The man entered and approached Rodrigo, who sat behind a desk completely shrouded with various documents and books. Barely tearing his eyes away from the three open pages in front of him, he looked at the man standing before the desk with his head lowered.

“Yes?” Rodrigo prompted the man to speak.

“I found that there are insufficient articles after reviewing those you asked for. While I can stock up on others within a few days, the Blue Flower Danggui is too rare an item.”

“Is there no one who will sell at a higher price?”

“Since it is very rarely sold or bought, no one handles the item because the earnings will not cover the expense.”

Rodrigo let out an irritated sigh before replying. “It cannot be helped. I need to send a person to bring one to me directly. Find a fast and useful messenger, someone experienced will be better since it could be a long-distance errand.”

“Yes, sir.” He nodded before leaving the study.

Rodrigo looked down at the documents he had been reading after the man left but found himself annoyed. He threw a wooden pencil holder on the wall in front of him. The loud sound the object made as it hit the floor made his insides boil instead of relieving a bit of his stress. A courtier had visited Molly’s residence with sad news a few days back, after the royal group had returned from the desert. They relayed Molly had died of an unfortunate accident during the journey and brought the objects Molly had been using and her clothes as her keepsakes for her family since the funeral had been held in the desert. Rodrigo had been thinking of tasks he would assign to Molly after she came back and now felt faint at this sudden news.

‘She killed three Tanyas! How can she be a saint?! She’s a horrible witch!’

Rodrigo’s teeth clenched even more at the fact that he had to prepare the fourth Tanya, as things had not ended yet. Tanya was a title for specially trained warriors ready to die as martyrs for the cult. They were guided through rituals secretly handed down through generations. However, preparing Tanyas was complicated, as it was a demanding task to select devout believers and many of the items used for the ritual were rare.

He needed a way to contact the queen since he had heard that the Anika was an important connection for the Mara to be summoned to these lands by the High Priest.

The messenger would bring the Blue Flower Danggui from the Flake Kingdom around the end of the dry season. On top of that, there was no way to contact the queen and prepare for an important ritual. Rodrigo’s head ached already thinking of excuses he would have to make to the High Priest. The Blue Flower Danggui was a poisonous plant that grows in a cold area, and the Flake Kingdom was known to be the home of this plant. Hashi, the nation located in the northernmost regions was based on the Holy City, and Flake was located in the southernmost regions. The distance between the two kingdoms was the farthest from Mahar.

Rodrigo vented out his anger for a while before sighing and leaning back in his chair. Maybe it was his age but being angry exerted him. He could only spare himself a moment of relief and lowered his gaze to the desk, glancing over the spread documents before taking an old record out of them.

‘It is because a few rushing servants had committed a foolish act.’ The text said.

The High Priest’s message kept playing in the back of Rodrigo’s mind. He was researching relevant data because he had a guess what the ‘foolish act’ had been for the High Priest. The Cult of Mara was divided into several branches, but it was not because the authority had been divided into numerous sections due to the cult’s strength. Actually, each branch moved according to each branch’s governing priests because a center did not exist.