Chapter Forty: Evaluate

Nathaniel Valour, the prince that had to become the king of Audaznimo at a very young age due to the strange and untimely passing away from his father.

The fact that he wasn't there when his father passed away was one of his biggest regrets in life but it wasn't like he could be there.

He passed away on the second night of an expedition trip just after eating his dinner and lying down to get some rest.

Nathaniel was devastated when he got the news but there wasn't anything he could do about it, the only thing he could do was take up the mantle of ruling Audaznimo and continuing his father's legacy.

The man standing beside him was his right-hand man, someone like his advisor, he had been around since the time of his father and he was still around, the man who went by the name Liam Hearminus.

"How are you doing Elena? I see you've done a good job in my absence." Nathaniel finally spoke after a while.

"A good job? Is that your way of trying to make me feel better?" Elena uttered before crossing her arms.

"No, I was merely speaking the truth."

"What truth, father?" She interjected. "A little girl was murdered in front of me after I made her say something about this place called the black market, the public hearing had to come to an abrupt end because of that and they even tried to assassinate me. What part of that screams good job?"

Her voice was a bit shaky as she poured out her feelings in front of her father and after listening to her, he couldn't help but let out a deep sigh.

"Yes, Elena I am aware of that but most of the time, things like this happening are beyond our control, the fact that only one person died is a good enough reason why you did a good job." The king maintained. "I'm just glad that you're okay."

"You didn't get the point from what I just said, did you?"

"Huh?"

"What I'm trying to say is that there's a place, an organization, or whatever that's been running illegal activities in this kingdom and they killed a little girl today just because she spilled their secret in front of me." She spelled out.

"Killed a little girl?" Liam muttered with a confused expression on his face as if he didn't hear her mention it earlier.

Nathaniel also had an aghast look on his face which Elena found to be pretty odd.

"Do you have any proof to back up the statement you just made?" He asked.

"Huh? What do you mean? They killed the little girl just after saying what she said and then they tried to kill me."

"Yeah, but you're forgetting something, princess," Liam remarked before taking a step forward with the tip of his staff now on the floor. "We were also attacked on our trip and according to the woman you caught they are from the same father, whoever is behind this was obviously trying to take out both you and your father and there's no proof that it has anything to do with the black market."

He was making a pretty good point but there was just something eerie about the way he spoke that Elena did not like.

"Yeah, but…"

"No buts, princess, the statement you provided from your interrogation had nothing to say about the black market, is that not right?" He interposed.

"Yeah, but that was because she refused to say anything about it." She replied the composure in her voice slowly diminishing.

"Yet she managed to spill everything else that points at anywhere else but the black market and you still choose to blindly believe that it had something to do with the black market," Liam interjected with a snap.

"That's enough, Liam." Nathaniel snapped.

"I'm sorry Your Highness, I just needed to set her on the right path before she made a mistake." He apologized before slowly stepping back to where he was standing beside him.

There was a little moment of silence in the room as the king kept her gaze on the floor for a while before raising it to look at her daughter who was still standing there waiting to hear his piece on everything.

"Just like Liam said, Elena, there's no proof that everything that happened today has anything to do with the black market. I understand trying to believe that because of how everything happened on your side but that is simply not how things work." He expressed.

"And what about the things the girl said about them? I know you've read my report now." She inquired, still not admitting defeat.

"I am going to look into that although there's a good chance that it was all false."

"It was all false?" She gasped with a baffled look on her face.

"Just leave everything to us, Elena, you don't have to worry about anything, I'll get to the bottom of this before you know it." He assured her.

At this point, she knew that there was nothing she could say to convince them and it wasn't like she had anything to refute their points with.

"Fine." She sighed before slowly turning to the exit. "I'll take my leave, then."

Nathaniel didn't say anything as she made her way to the exit but he couldn't let her leave without a word of caution.

"Elena." He called just before she could walk through the exit.

She came to an abrupt stop after hearing him call her name but she didn't bother turning around.

"Please don't try to do anything careless, I won't be happy with you if you end up getting yourself hurt."

"I'll keep that in mind." She replied a second later before slowly walking through the exit.

She took the left turn down the hallway and although there seemed to be a hooded figure by the side, she didn't pay any attention to whoever that was.

_______ ______

Back in Devon's room, Erina was finally able to snap out of her state of shock to ask proper questions about what she just saw.

"Did you already know about this before now?" She inquired with a voice ridden with curiosity.

"Well, yeah, sort of." He dragged his words there with his hand on the back of his head.

"How?" She asked before leaning closer to him.

He didn't have the time to answer that question because someone came badging into the room at that moment and that person turned out to be John.

"Oh, sorry I didn't know you two were doing something in here." He said with an awkward expression on his face before slowly closing up the door while he was still outside.

"What do you want, John?" She sighed before slowly moving away from Devon.

"Well, if you don't mind being disturbed, Krayan just got back, he got stabbed in the arm and needs you to take a look at it." He replied after opening the door once again.

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" She uttered abruptly before quickly getting up from her bed.

"Well, because you seem to be busy here." He shrugged.

"Can you try to not think about perverted things all the time?" She sighed before turning her gaze to Devon. "You can come over to the treatment room later, I'm still not done with your wound."

"Okay," Devon responded with a nod.

With that said, John made way for her to quickly leave the room.

"You're quite the lucky guy, Devon," John remarked a few seconds after she left the room.

"Huh?"

"Anyway, I still have something to finish with Alvis, later." He said before slamming the door shut, leaving Devon with a confused expression on his face.

'I should stop taking him seriously.' He said subconsciously before crashing down on his bed.

With everyone gone now, it was time to check the messages that had been in front of him for a while now.

[ 900/500 Mystic points ]

[ Level up ]

[ Congratulations you are now at level six ]

[ New skill unlocked ]

[ Evaluate ]

'Evaluate.' He muttered subconsciously.

At that moment he felt something against his neck and when he checked the area with his hand, it turned out to be a silver coin.

"I wonder how that got out."

[ Object: Silver coin ]

[ Worth: 25 Mystic points ]

'Huh? So that's what it does and it also activates on its own without consuming energy.'

*****

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