Ambush

I leaned my back deeper into the chair, dressed in black assassin robes with my hood up but also with the lower half of my ski mask pulled down under my chin. I was sitting comfortably as I looked up and enjoyed the night sky. There was something about the night that made me feel at peace, I have no idea why it is but I've always known that I was more of a night person than a day person.

In my sights was a large tower that seemed to pierce into the heavens as it stood dominantly in the center of a group of other towers. While not as tall as the main tower they were tall in their own right, they all had the same white and gold lion crest on their towers. This was the headquarters of the Royal Parliament, one of the big three, one-third of the three strongest factions in the academy.

"Bro, how the fuck did you even get Zantar to come out here? The royal's territory is far as fuck, if you didn't convince me to come out here early I would've never come at all." Kellian said as he was hitting a J that he rolled while we were waiting.

I honestly forgot that weed even exists in this world. Apparently, there is this high-class weed that is apparently the talk of the town. All the elites have been smoking it and I have just noticed, according to Kellian it's very rare and there are only two dealers that are selling the best strain called Ravaine. The dealers are apparently under the TP faction so he hit up Rizen and asked for some on the way here, I was a little heated that he didn't give me any...probably found out I fucked Calysto. Oh well, not my fault I'm sexy.

Kellian passed me the J and gave it some hits while I explained to him everything that went on behind the scenes in the simplest way possible, "I bribed the Vice Leader of the faction."

"Oh? That's slight I thought you were going to say something impossible like bribing the Vice Leader of the Roya---WHAT?!" Kellian shouted in shock.

I shrugged my shoulders and passed him back the J, "It wasn't hard at all."

"What did you do?" Asked Kellian

"I gave him the elixir I won in class."

"Makes sense. Only a treasure at that level would make him do something like this. But what makes you so confident that he will come through? The Vice Leader is extremely loyal to the crown prince and he definitely knows about the conflict that he and your brother have so why would he help you?"

I smiled and told him, "It's very simple, he wants an edge and a trump card against the crown prince."

"Huh?" Kellian reacted, confused about what I was talking about.

"You may not know this Kellian but since the Royal Parliament is exclusive to members of the aristocracy. Nobles are ambitious, greedy, and treacherous by nature and due to that, there has been an internal conflict that the faction is going through behind the scenes. Due to this, there are two factions, one which is headed by the crown prince and the other is secretly headed by the vice leader."

"How do you even know all of this?"

"He told me. He plans to have Royal Parliament be the undisputed top faction in the academy, while it seems on the surface that the royal faction is the strongest of the big three that is not really the case. They only have one advantage over the other factions and that is numbers. Since all noble geniuses in the academy join the Parliament they have an overwhelming amount of members. Tactical Pressure had the most capital and resources while Zero Tolerance has the highest quality of soldiers, they just have the least amount of members compared to the other two." I replied giving Kellian a shock

I was surprised as well. It seems that I have underestimated the ZT faction, the strength of an average member is comparable to an eighth stage Core Formation expert, leagues above the royals whose strength would be at the sixth stage while TP is at the fifth. I know Rizen is hiding strength but who is to say that the other two aren't as well? This gives me more reason to believe that the Dark Phoenix prince, the leader of ZT is the disciple of someone from the Nines.

"Not afraid that he will betray you as soon as he beats the crown prince?" Kellian asked with a sneer.

I laughed in pure amusement as a response, "Fuck no. The reason why I went to him and not someone else high ranked in the faction was to draw him out and have him ambush the crown prince prematurely. The crown prince is a lot more dangerous than he looks and he is cunning and deviously scheming."

"So a lot like you huh?"

"Pretty much, only I am a lot better and look good while doing it," I replied with a narcissistic smile.

"When the Vice Leader attacks and exposes himself as the leader of the opposing faction he will find out that he underestimated the crown prince, unfortunately, he won't live long enough to regret it. After the crown prince cleanses the faction I'll give him a visit."

"What will you ask?" Kellan asked with intrigue

"That is the million-dollar question, isn't it? What will I ask?"

Having the crown prince owing me a favor is one of the best things you could get in the Federation let alone the academy. Especially with whatever is going on behind the scenes it would be better to keep someone in such a position of power in my back pocket. As for him trying to plot against me behind my back...well he should know better, he's doing all of this careful scheming just to give Rizen a setback and that is an adversary he knows a good amount about let alone me where mysteriousness is my forte.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I sensed a person walking towards the headquarters and looked in a certain direction where I saw a man with such beauty that it would appear feminine dressed in blue with a smile of accomplishment on his face.

Kellian also took notice of the arrival of Zantar and asked with an unworried expression, "Think Duan Ru Feng will follow the script and cripple Zantar, or do you think that he will just kill him?"

A dark smile formed on my face as I thought about his future actions, "It doesn't matter what he does. If he cripples him my mission is done and I have one less enemy to worry about in Duke Valareian if he kills him then we make sure that Duan Ru Feng takes the fall on his own and we have one less adversary to worry about in him. Either way, I win."