The Girl Who Unknowingly Became Harem Queen! 3 Searching For A Way

"The archd.u.c.h.ess does not deserve to die!" shouted Maria, who was once again having another discussion with Light Maria and Dark Maria.

"Such a nice woman, definitely does not deserve to die," agreed Light Maria.

"Saying that she's a nice woman is not going to help us. I mean, how did she die in the novel?" questioned Dark Maria, who was floating in the air, eating a hamburger for some reason.

"Hmm, if I recall correctly, both the archduke and archd.u.c.h.ess publically died in a tragic fire that broke out at their manor, but we later found out that the archd.u.c.h.ess died from poison first, before the fire started," said Maria

"If the manor was going to be set on fire in the first place, why was the archd.u.c.h.ess poisoned?" questioned Dark Maria.

"It was stated that the archd.u.c.h.ess had some type of secret and that she was very strong. So I guess fire wouldn't be able to kill her, but poison would," suggested Maria, wearing her Sherlock Holmes costume as she paced in front of the two.

"The jealous heart of a woman can be quite scary," commented Light Maria, which the other two agreed with.

"So we somehow have to save the archd.u.c.h.ess and her family, but... just how much time do we have before she meets her tragic end?" asked Dark Maria who for some reason was sunbathing now, sipping on a tropical drink.

"In the book, they died on the fourteenth of August, two nights before the Diamond Academy Welcome Back Banquet," Maria remembered in the book that every year, Diamond Academy hosted its Welcome Back Banquet to welcome its returning and new students.

"So, we have two weeks before we can save the archd.u.c.h.ess. That's not a lot of time." Light Maria said the exact words Maria was thinking.

"There's also the problem of what poison killed the archd.u.c.h.ess. If she was killed with a certain type of poison, then only a certain type of antidote can cure her," spoke up Dark Maria, adding more to the discussion of things they needed to think about, if they were going to stop that tragedy from happening.

"If I remember correctly, in the book, Richard's investigation on the death of his parents revealed that his mother was killed by Winter Poison. The type of poison that's made by mixing a bunch of ice-cla.s.s toxin ingredients. Once it enters the body, it will freeze all of the victim's internal organs. The antidote to Winter Poison is SummerEve, which is made by brewing a petal of a Summer Flower and Lemon Gra.s.s. Lemon Gra.s.s should be easy to find, but I don't know about Summer Flower. I'll have to look up that later." Just as Maria said that, s.h.i.+rone knocked on the door.

"Ojou-sama, everyone is waiting for you downstairs for dinner."

Once Maria was escorted out of her room, she was brought into the large and luxurious European-style dining room. Every inch of the room seemed to sparkle to Maria, a girl whose soul came from an ordinary family. After taking her seat, Maria recognized both her brother and mother, but she did not recognize the handsome man sitting at the head of the table. Though after a quick glance, Maria knew that this man was none other than her father. The man seemed like the stern and strict type, who expected nothing but the highest of expectations from his children.

Seeing this, Maria couldn't help but gulp; she wasn't good with these types of people. Though she completely missed when the man looked towards her way, sympathy flas.h.i.+ng through those dark brown eyes of his. "Maria, I'm happy to see you're feeling okay." Maria couldn't help but jump at such a deep and authoritative voice, almost dropping her silverware, yet she still managed to nod her head, too afraid to speak.

As she sorted through Maria's memories, it seemed that the poor girl always held a sense of fear towards her father. First off Maria's father was a busy man, so it was kind of hard to form a father and daughter bond with the man being away most of the time. Then there was also this commanding, authoritative aura he gave off, added with that stern handsome face of his. Things only got worse, when one day Maria was about to visit her father's study room, only to hear him harshly scolding someone; that only made the young Maria's fear of him increase.

While Maria was too busy in her own thoughts, she completely missed the brief look of gloom that pa.s.sed through her father's eyes, receiving nothing but pity looks from both mother and son. After an awkward silence, it was Maria's mother who decided to break the silence, cheerfully beginning to speak about her day.

Maria was chewing on a piece of delicious steak when she heard her mother say, "Oh and Maria, the archd.u.c.h.ess invited us over on the twelfth for a small tea party she's hosting. She told me that she can't wait to meet you again." Meanwhile, Maria didn't know whether this certain predicament was a blessing or a curse.

'If this is a blessing, then I must save the archd.u.c.h.ess and her family. I really hope in this life, they will achieve happiness and not despair like before,' mournfully thought Maria as she stared down at her plate.

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After dinner, Maria made her way to the library located inside the family manor. Trying to dig up information about the Summer Flower, a voice close to her ear startled her and made her scream. After dropping the book, Maria turned around and saw that it was onii-chan who had frightened her.

"Onii-chan, what are you doing here?" Maria asked, trying to get her heart to calm down.

"That's the same thing I should be asking you. If you wanted me to read you a bedtime story, you could've just asked you know.?" It seemed her older brother thought that his cute little imoto wanted to read a bedtime story, but once he saw the cover of the book that had fallen out of her hands, he grew confused.

"Why are you reading a book about plants?" he asked as she began flipping through the pages again.

"I'm looking for information about the Summer Flower," stated Maria, hoping that onii-chan could maybe give her some clues on where it was located.

"The Summer Flower? Why do you want to know about that?" he suspiciously asked. Growing nervous, Maria scratched at her cheek, looking for an excuse.

"I'm just curious about it since I want to make another hairpin, using a Summer Flower this time," innocently said Maria, which made her brother chuckle for some weird reason.

"Maria, a Summer Flower is not just any regular flower, it's a plant-beast." After saying that, he walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book. Opening it, he began flipping through the pages before finding the right one and presenting it to Maria.

"You see this is a Summer Flower. They're only active during the months of June and July before going into hibernation," explained her brother, showing her a picture of a large sunflower like creature, which had razor sharp teeth and several thick green limbs. Looking at the picture, Maria thought one thing,

'I'm screwed!'