(Author’s Note: Gray’s previous life’s name was Damien, so he will be referred to as Damien in this chapter. It will be explained why it is like this within the Story chapters)

*Forty years and three months ago*

Damien (Gray’s birth name) got up from bed and instantly started cultivating, golden flames surfacing on his body and forming a faint lion’s roar through his room.

After cultivating for an hour, he left his room and went through the complicated halls of the castle, which was designed to be like a labyrinth in case of invasion.

Finally, after a whole minute of movement, he came to a massive hall where he saw his father sitting on the throne going through a pile of papers with a bored expression.

“Ah, what good timing! Damien, I have a few things for you to go over and check.” His father laughed when he came into the room and gestured towards a smaller pile of papers on the table near the head of the table.

Damien went over and took a seat, looking at the papers strewn about in front of him with his eyes constantly darting between the words.

It looked like he was just skimming over the papers, but anyone who saw him doing this wouldn’t even dare to think that, because it had already been proven that a casual glance from him could memorize almost anything he saw and he could also instantly spot patterns and inconsistencies.

In the end, he put down all the papers and wrote out a few messages of his own before sending them back in response to the ones he had gotten.

He didn’t even need to consult his father on any of these matters, and he took care of them quickly and efficiently.

Just as he was about to get up and leave, a guard burst in the door with a message in his hand.

“Urgent news for Crown Prince Damien to analyze!” He announced according to what was written on the message.

Damien got up and quickly walked over to the guard before taking the message and gesturing to him to leave and wait outside the door.

“What’s wrong?” His father couldn’t help but ask. It wasn’t uncommon for messages to come specifically for Damien to analyze considering that he was even better at recognizing hidden messages and threats than his father, but he was still the king and wanted to know what was going on.

After reading over it a few times, Damien sighed and clenched his fist, instantly and completely incinerating the message.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Nothing wrong. Just some idiots thinking there was a hidden message in a normal message. If that’s all, I’ll be heading out scouting.”

His father simply nodded and went back to work hearing that, trusting that his most accomplished son could handle it well enough. If he wished, Damien could escape even from king and queen level combat powers.

“Cedric!” He called out loud enough that his voice boomed through half the castle, instantly alerting Damien’s oldest brother, Cedric, that his father was calling.

He then went into the room where Damien had just left, appearing before his father. “You called?”

The king tossed a tightly rolled piece of paper towards Cedric, who caught it in the air. “I need you to take your men and go investigate why the 17th battalion isn’t responding. This is their last contact and their last known location. Find them and bring them back.”

“Yes, Father.” Cedric performed a bow, then turned to leave the room. However, the king didn’t notice the imperceptible smirk that had snuck its way onto his face upon hearing this news.

‘Soon, the position of Crown Prince will once again be mine with the top genius dead, and then the whole continent will be mine!’ His thoughts didn’t align with his outward appearance at all, and he quickly gathered a group to head to the position stated in the scroll.

They instantly set out as soon as they were ready, leaving less than ten minutes after the order had been given.

Meanwhile, Damien quickly and silently slunk through the forest at a seemingly impossible speed, his body moving so fast that you could barely even see it while being seemingly glued to the shadows.

Every step of his was as light as a feather, not even leaving a print, while his aura was so far retracted into his body that it truly felt as if nothing was there.

However, he wasn’t even focused on being stealthy right now; it was his instincts doing so.

Instead, he was focused on something completely different. And that was the message he had received earlier.

That message, while seeming simple on the outside, had not only three decoy hidden messages, but also a specific way that you had to stitch together the three decoys to get the true message. It was so genius that nobody other than him could’ve ever spotted it other than the one who created the message.

As for what the true message was, it was a location and time for a meeting, and also a threat on his fiancée’s life. There was no further information provided, but he was absolutely sure that he knew why he was being called to this meeting.

However, he truly had no choice but to go, because the Blood Order had never failed to kill someone that they set their target as, and if they were targeting her, they were sure to succeed.

It wasn’t stated, but he knew clearly that it was a bargain that would be struck. Neither he nor the Blood Order could afford to attack each other all out at this time, so he was being forced to stop destroying their forces in the dark in exchange for having his fiancée live.

What he couldn’t figure out was how they had figured out that he had been destroying their forces without anybody knowing.

There were only a few people privy to that information, and he didn’t feel like any of them had betrayed him, so just how?