Chapter 51

"Silence" said Gabriel in a calm and authoritative tone which made the room which was previously rowdy quiet down. "Like I said the mercenaries in our family cannot be trusted as there could be spies amongst them. The success in the attack of the fake Cornelia in and itself proves that there are spies in the guards of the family. I would rather trust my daughter with the shadow guards who had been guarding her since she was a child as they were trained by us from when they were young and every single one of them are competent and skilled. As for hiding this information from you, it's not that I didn't trust you guys but sometimes to fool your enemy you would have to fool even your allies".

Gabriel glanced at Jared Hall who was currently second most powerful member in the family when he said the words 'to fool the enemies' and Jared felt a cold sweat in his back while thinking 'Does he already know? Well it does not matter. The most important thing to do now is to get this news to the second Prince.' The other members were with mixed feelings. The people who supported Jared were unhappy while the people who supported Gabriel and people who were neutral were impressed by Gabriel's way of thinking.

Soon the members dispersed and the room became quiet. 'I have done all I could to help you Cornelia. With this plan you had completed the majority of the journey without getting assassinated. The rest is all up to you. I can only trust you and the first Prince and hope everything goes well and trust that the first Prince would win the fight for the crown. If the first Prince looses, the Hall family will send another one to the Prince who would win the battle for the crown, however It wouldn't be from our family and I would no longer hold the position of head' thought Gabriel and sighed in the extremely quiet room.

———————— Arcadia city —————————

The snake palace is known to be designed by one of the famous designers from Leymann Kingdom which was similar to Arcadia Kingdom located around 3000 Kms north of the Arcadia Kingdom and Second prince's mother Lorraine Leymann was the princess of the Leymann Kingdom. The buildings were designed like a group of snakes entwined into each other making the layout of the building complex. The snake palace was located in the edge of the Arcadia city away from the sight of the royal family similar to the water palace which belonged to the first prince Voight.

Currently, inside a private Hall, the second prince Lux was having a gathering with various Heads of powerful families. These were his core faction members who supported his battle to the throne and they were the people who his mother had close contact with. The second prince had recieved the news regarding the successful assassination of Cornelia from his death squad and was elated by the unexpected success and had decided to throw a party to celebrate the success. This was also an occasion for the second prince to show his capability to his faction members and not a person who has grown under the shadows of his mother. This was important in order to continue receiving their support especially now that his mother was ill. Just as he finished giving the speech, which was more like a brag, about successfully assassinating Cornelia and asked his supporters to partake in the sumptuous dinner he had prepared while also saying that this success was only the beginning, a man who was covered in black robe and wearing a silver mask came out of the shadow and whispered in the ear of the second prince. Everyone knew the man wearing the silver mask known as Faceless is a subordinate of the second prince trained by the prince's mother from a young age to create a spy network throughout the kingdom and seeing him move so urgently made everyone nervous thinking that something had happened.

After hearing the report, the second prince could no longer maintain his composure. Though his composure was lost, thinking of where he was, the second prince quickly regained his composure to make sure the others don't find anything wrong. However he was too late as everyone being heads of various powerful families could easily observe the change in his emotions, but chose not to comment on it. "I'm sorry gentlemen it seems like there has been some development" said Lux as he got up from his seat and proceeded to clap his hands. Seconds later his servants brought a group of scantily dressed girls ranged from 16-20 years of age and the girls lined up before the members of his faction. "Today is the day of celebration. Let's not make my absence be a reason to not have fun. There is no need to hold back, please enjoy your evening gentlemen. Unfortunately I cannot accompany any further, as you know, there is no rest for the wicked" said the second Prince Lux with a smile and walked out of the room.

The heads of the families knew that there was some unexpected development and deduced it was about Cornelia Hall. They had been sceptic about her death the second they heard it from the second Prince, after all Cornelia had the protection of the Hall family, if she could be assassinated with such ease in her own residence then Hall family would not be considered as one of the oldest and most powerful family in the kingdom. However the heads had no intention of helping the Prince as they considered this to be a test. If the Prince could not achieve this much even with the entire forces which had been given to him by his mother, then he simply would not be worth their time. The sole reason these families had planned to help the second Prince to ascend the throne is because compared to the first Prince he was much easier to control and had powerful forces, enough to ascend to the throne. With him being the figure head, these families could enjoy monopoly in many business and also start the illegal business which was currently suspended due to the present King. However even figure heads require to have ability. In other words this was a test for the second Prince Lux.

The second Prince entered his study room followed by the man with the code name Faceless. "What the hell is going on. How the hell is Cornelia still alive?"

"Our spies from the Golem city had witnessed the carriage having Hall family symbol and after investigation Ms.Cornelia was spotted accompanied by two guards. There also seem to be other shadow guards hidden in the dark and the exact number is unknown your highness" said Faceless without much change in tone.

"Who the fuck did we kill back in the Hall family residence if this was Cornelia and why is she only spotted after coming to Golem city?".

"The one on the Hall family residence is likely to be a fake wearing transfiguration mask. We don't have spies in small towns and villages and the journey between the Artemis city and Golem city does not have any city and is filled with either villages or forest, it isn't a surprise we only received the information after she entered the Golem city" said Faceless while inwardly thinking 'she most likely showed her face to let her enemies know that she is in the Golem city. In other words, this is a trap'.

This speculation was soon proved to be true when the second Prince received a call from Jared Hall through communication talisman. Jared recounted what had happened during the meeting with Gabriel and other members and specifically stated that the woman who was killed during the assassination attempt is a fake. The second Prince was livid after hearing this and abused Jared for his incompetence but did not go overboard as he knew that even if he killed Cornelia, he would still need the support of the Hall family to win against his brother. Back then when he was at loss for not being able to win the support of the Hall family and loosing Cornelia to his brother, Jared had approached him with an alliance on marriage with his daughter and help to obtain the head seat in the Hall family in return for Hall family's help in his fight for the throne.

The call ended with Jared profusely apologising and also promising to take care of Gabriel on this side and claiming the head seat to provide help to the second Prince while the second Prince gradually calming down. After the call, second Prince Lux gave orders to Faceless asking him to get the death squad ready to kidnap Cornelia if possible or assassinate her. Faceless did not give any of his input and just accepted the order and had most of the death squad members in the cities surrounding the Golem city to organise troops outside the Golem city. By night a total of 70 death squad members could be seen within the forest, each with level 4 to 6 while the leader with level 7, leaking killing intent in a blatant manner. These death squad members took temporary shelter within one of the caves which was present in the forest after setting up traps within the forest to ambush Cornelia and her forces tomorrow.

The entire forest was enveloped in darkness by the time the death squad members finished setting all the traps necessary for the big battle and they had also set up lookouts various corners to check for spies, however unknown to them a pair of eye was watching them coldly from within the darkness and unless he makes a huge movement, not even a person who stands beside him would be able to notice his presence as the man was completely blended in darkness and there was not even a sound of breath.

Watching this scene he relayed it back to a middle aged man wearing ink blue robe with a white mask who was currently inside the water palace which belonged to the Crown prince Voight. Hearing this piece of information, the man wearing blue robe entered the crown prince's office after recieving permission and conveyed the information to Voight.

'Looks like my brother is as rash as ever. I had prepared a few other strategies for him but never would have thought that he would fall for the first strategy I prepared. If he had been calm and prudent he would have seen through the obvious bait I had prepared. Unfortunately he was too shaken by the fact that Cornelia had slipped out unnoticed from Artemis city and appeared at Golem city unnoticed. Well this is good, I wouldn't have to waste too much of my energy on this idiot.' thought the crown prince and said "I hope you made adequate preparations. Get ready, we will move according to the strategy prepared before. Team 1 will move along with me to attack the snake palace from the outside while the spies we have set will attack from the inside. Team 2 will attack and take hostage of the sons of various heads who support my brother's faction. Finally team 3 who have been stationed at the Golem city will attack and kill the death squad. Cornelia's safety is of utmost importance, make sure that team 3 protect her at all cost".

"Yes your highness" said the man in blue robe and walked out of the room.