Chapter 112: Haystacks are important
3rd person view
Balor walked into an office after he was called.
"What do you need from me, young master James?" Balor asked
James is a short man of 160cm tall, a bit on the chubby side, has blonde hair and blue eyes similar to that of his half siblings.
"I shall dive straight to the point then," he smiled "I want your help in getting rid of 2 people, you should know them, their names are Perseus Silver and Albert Golds"
"That's impossible! They are with their dragons at all times, forget it" Balor replied as he turned to leave
"Wait just a moment now" James stopped him "It's obvious that you know, me and several others plan on overthrowing our father and assume the throne, 1/3 of the noble household are on our side, and 1/3 is neutral, and if we can get rid of our 2 biggest threats, they will join our side. Dragons are strong, sure, but they're not invincible"
"How do you plan on getting rid of the dragons?"
"Well I need your answer first, will you help us? If we succeed, our side will promise to let your beloved princess, Eleanor, live and present her to you as your future bride. It is obvious, you know, we know you have feelings for her, you are chosen as one of the candidate for the position of her future spouse, but you also know of the other 2 candidates, with them in your way, you do not stand a chance."
"I won't be able to do it alone" Balor replied "And I need your word that your uprising or rebellion or whatever wins"
"I'll give you my word and I never said that you won't have help" James chuckled "Just get rid of the 2 and leave their dragons to us"
"What if I get caught?"
"We all know that this Perseus fellow is currently with terrorists, the backers of the red swords to be exact. You know that he's with them against his will, the kingdom can't do anything about it because they are too powerless to do so, if we can spin the narrative a bit and rope Albert in an accomplice, people will be begging for you to end their miserable lives...and your princess will have no choice but to be by your side" James laughed "Besides, I also think that claiming that cursed Charlotte as my own isn't bad"
"Isn't she your half sister?" Balor asked half-disgusted
"Well I won't be making her my bride, I just want her as a reminder of my victory"
*****
Albert was with his friends, chatting in a quiet corner with his friends
"What did the 3 say?" Eleanor asked
"They got no suggestions" Albert shook his head "But they will join our side if things get down to it, by the way, where's Balor? He's always with you"
"He apparently got called somewhere," Eleanor answered "I don't see him much anymore ever since I now no longer sleep in the dorms"
"Well I'm sure it was for security reasons" Aenon reassured her "The palace is much more protected, and your safety needs to be prioritized after the last attack and now with everything going on, staying in the palace is the safest place for you"
"Perseus' plan might not be so bad, now that I think about it" Lucas joined in "It might cause fewer bloodshed if we follow it from the way it's going. But man our kingdom is now in so much disarray, the rumors of the civil war is already spreading among us students"
"Yeah, maybe him and his family was right in moving away from Artia" Cecily sighed "When is he coming back?"
"We don't know" Albert answered "But we can't just rely on him and we can't rely on his plan either...at least not until we give it some more time"
*****
The 3 royal siblings are in Eleanor's room discussing their future plans.
"Let's just contact Perseus and hire him to do his own plan" Castor sighs "Father now knows and is trying to negotiate with their side, but he's just escalating it for the worse, they are far too hungry for power"
"But why don't we give it more time?" Eleanor argued
"We don't have more time!" Castor shouted back "I got spies and I have been doing these type of work for a long time in order to help Charlotte have a smooth path to the throne, we have 2 months at most before war starts"
"Contact him then" Charlotte ordered "I'm sure father will understand later"
*****
Albert and Aenon went to visit their home during the weekend on their day off like they usually do, they warped into the house but this time, they felt something was off.
-There's no one in the house- Helena alerted -I don't sense anyone!-
-If they left, they would've informed us and even if they forgot to do so, why is there no servants in the house, I have a bad feeling about this- Aenon added
Albert and Aenon then rushed in and search the whole house, all they found was a letter in his father's office. On the letter it just gave a location and a message.
'Don't tell anyone and don't bring anyone, just come with you and your dragon'
-It's a trap- Aenon commented
-We have no choice but to go, this is my family we're talking about- Albert argued
-At least, alert Perseus and leave him a message- Helena said
Albert then did as she asked.
*****
1st person view
"Are you sure that you don't need help?" Castor asked
"I'll be fine, give me the list of names and prepare a lot of haystacks"
"May I ask why you want them?"
"Just do it and ask no questions, they're really important for my plans"
-You only want them because you want to jump in them like those assassins- Dabria retorted
-Well I always wanted to do it, so...-
I then saw my amulet glow and got a message from Albert, it was a location and simply the word, help.
-Dabria tell the others to meet up, looks like our business partners needs our help-
"Well we'll prepare them and anything else that you need, but make sure to keep this a secret" He warned
"Yeah, sure, something just came up, I need to go for a bit, please prepare my money too, I don't like doing things for free" I then ended the call and prepared my equipments