Reverse Villainess

Bad News.

For a last few days, Aurora has been hit with a string of bad news. 

First, James, who had been temporarily locked in the tower, ran away. Unfortunately, the information provided was vague. In the first place, his violent actions were not revealed to the public, so it's not surprising that information was limited. But Aurora feels there is more to it.

While blaming everything on Nova may seem unfair, Aurora's instincts still told her that Nova was behind James' release. This makes sense because James might be the only ally she has now, setting aside any connections she may have with the second prince.

After that, Bad news arrived from Lyra. Upon checking the situation, Nicholas discovered that a large number of magic crystals had been purchased by an unknown individual. As Aurora had predicted.

I'm sorry, but Nicholas failed to find out who bought it," Lyra said. "Or why."

"It's fine," Aurora said.

While more information is always better, this much is enough to confirm Aurora's suspicions.

It's possible she bought it indirectly, using someone as a proxy. But since magic crystals are expensive, that was a huge lead. Only someone with wealth like the Duke family, such as Nova, would be able to purchase so many of them.

Still, while Aurora found out this much with little information, it's unfortunate that she failed to notice it sooner, so she failed to intervene. That's annoyed her a little.

And then, the reason why Nova bought a lot of magic crystals is probably connected to the next piece of bad news that came from Sera.

Sera had been in contact with her parents and family as promised. Although there is no new information about the forest itself, something has happened there. The day after James was rejected by Sera, a group of mysterious people was seen entering the Molten Forest several times. Sera's parents even found several corpses, half-eaten by monsters, all over the forest.

"And my parents said they caught a glimpse of a young man who looks like the knight captain," Sera said. "I believe that was Finnick. But I don't know why he would be there." 

Aurora knows why.

Most likely because this mysterious group is the remains of rebels, the Black Knight. Finnick is there because he is hunting them for revenge.

This makes Aurora wonder, has Finnick already figured out that Nova is in cahoots with these rebels? Or not?

"I... I don't get it," Sera said. "Why have suddenly a lot of people become interested in that creepy forest?"

"Probably because of the Cristal Muncher you told me about before," Aurora said. "That unique monster only lived in the molten forest. I believe they are going there to catch these monsters."