"Your highness, do you think the rat will still come?"

"Naturally!!"

"__"

Eli was currently within WhiteWood City... which was his official Base that was given to him by his father.

And right now, he was trying to do a little pest control within his city.

A few weeks back, they had discovered 3 Teriquen spies within the city.

And from the looks of it, those bastards had moved in long ago... when he was still at the borders.

In addition to that, since the city was extremely close to the Capital city... these spies could only come in small numbers of 2, and at most 4.

Hence they had almost succeeded in blending in with the rest of the peasants and civilians around.

But sadly for them, they all got caught at the end.

It all happened on their way back from one of their information gathering missions within the city.

Basically.... .... they had gathered somewhere where they believed to be quiet, for a secret meeting to discuss their findings.

And unfortunately for them, there was a 14 year old peasant boy there..... who had heard bits and pieces of their conversation while he hid.

He, the little peasant boy.... had just gotten up from sleep when he heard their conversation.

Yes... he had made a secret sleeping area, by hiding a barrel deep within the bushes and trees.

As he used this place at least once a day, before going back home or back to work.

He was one of the numerous stable boys within one of the famous Noble families here.

Typically, he started work at 5 A.M and stayed there till 5 P.M again.

That was 12 whole hours, of washing thousands of knight horses, carrying horse dung, delivering horse babies... and so on.

In short, anything related to horses were their duty to fulfill.

Usually... after 12 hours of work, he would typically go to this secret hideout and sleep.

And by 10 P.M, he usually woke up again and went to his second job.

As a peasant, they were typically poor.... and his entire family was a massive one.

They were 9 in total, with him being the first child.

Hence, he had to work hard so as to help his parents in feeding his Juniors and his grandparents.

Anyway, midway during his rest.... his subconscious had woken up, when he heard the word 'Terique'.

And as an Arcadinian, there was no way that he wouldn't know about the place.... as both empires were always at odds with one another.

Hence he paid close attention to their conversation.... and spied on them through tiny breathing holes, that he had made around the barrel.

He had discovered that those 3 had a leader within the city.... and that they were here to gather information on Eli as well.

And now fast forwarding to a week after that incident, he had finally pinpointed where those men lived within the city... and had quickly made his way to Eli.

But unfortunately, the leader was still unknown to them.

For this matter, Eli wasn't really worried at all..... as he had a hunch about who the leader really was.

But what truly worried him, was another matter entirely.

"Your highness..... do you think that it's true?" Asked Zarius, who was Eli's most trusted knight.

Eli sat in silence for a while, as he tried to calm his blazing nerves down.

Even before these Teriques had confessed, Slytherin had already sent him a secret message about the matter.

It was just too unbelievably iodiotic!!!

Eli fisted his hands in furiously, as the anger within him kept boiling up deep within his system.

The fires of Fury and hatred completely smothered him, as he swiftly slammed his fist against the wall besides him.

'Bamm!!'

'Very Good Brother!!!!

It seems like you've truly forgotten the consequences of my fury.'

Of course the brother Eli was talking about, was James.

Who else could be stupid enough to offer 60% of Arcadina's land off?

Eli was so angry that he felt like if he ever saw James again, he would strangle the dude to death.

How dare the fool give out his property just like that?

When Slytherin had sent home the report, he had almost died from anger.

You want to kill him for the throne?... That's fine!!

In fact, he'd even say that he'd respect the fool's guts a tad bit.

But to give off a big chunk after killing him was just stupidity!!

I mean..... what was the point of killing him for the throne, if you would just share it away like ordinary food?

Just thinking about it made him feel like James was definitely not his brother.

For sure!.... third mother must have cheated on father, for him to have such an idiot for a brother.

But that wasn't what was truly eating Eli up.

For him, the most annoying part of it all... was that his idiotic brother, had brought in a new enemy in the mix.

The new king of Terique.

And this could definitely ruin all his future plans.

"Your highness, please quench your temper.

Soon, Sir Slytherin will arrive with the rest of the knights.

And by then, we'll be able to move forward with our plans."

"Yes.... I suppose you're right.

There's not much Terique can do to me from here.

So for now, there'll be no more assassination attempts from their side for the time being.

Oh... and that reminds me, I need you to keep a lookout for any letter from Baymard.

If I'm not wrong.... it should be arriving 2 weeks from now, or sometime within September."

"__"

One should know that the war was fought in mid May.

And so with a 4 to 4.5 month journey, of course everything would come around that time frame.

Again.... there were official rider guilds protected by the empire that would deliver the message.

So the letter would switch hands at every city and town .... if the rider needed to sleep.

And in this way, the message would travel without any delays.

So to put it simply, when using the messengers... Eli could receive the messages in 3.5 months time, since the message traveled nonstop.

But if his men were to come back, it would be 4 to 4.5 months, as they would stop to camp every 2 days within their Journey.

These people were used to being sleep deprived.

Hence around this time frame... Eli was expecting good news about Landon's defeat, any moment from now.

He had sent more than enough people to Baymard, to handle a measly 300.

So there was only one possible outcome within his mind, and that was his victory!

A smile slowly crept up in Eli's face... as he thought about Baymard.

Soon, he would be able to move onto phase 3 of his plans.

Soon, he would be king!