The fact that ‘Harpies’ were behind the captured spy, naturally, reached the princess's ears first. The Imperial Palace office. Princess Isolde's brow furrowed as she read through the report.
"This is..."
Normally, she would have immediately rooted out those behind it and struck their base. But the opponents were Harpies.
"Catching Harpies... is tricky..."
If things went south, all they had to do was spread their wings and fly off into the sky. Chasing them on horseback was futile; you couldn't follow a Harpy flying over a mountain range. Because of that, the location of their main base was unknown.
There had been incidents where they attacked humans, leading to several investigations, but all had failed. The biggest problem was the random nature of their attack locations. Even if they searched the surrounding areas based on witness accounts, the Harpies would simply move their base elsewhere.
Whew.
The princess put down her pen and let out a deep sigh. Just then, a thesis lying on the corner of her desk caught her eye.
[The Optimality Theorem of the Method of Least Squares] "Ah...!"
The princess's eyes flashed.
"The method of least squares...!"
Using this, she might be able to find the Harpies' lair without having to run around on foot.
‘So it could be used for something like this...!’