╚╩╩╩╝ Camparn ╚╩╩╩╝

I thought that I knew what I was getting into, when I started to push the prince and the Evane girl together, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that I was in over my head.

After his involvement in the reclamation of Renae, the king awarded the young prince with more authority under the crown. He would lead a small army in this part of the country, staying in a resort owned by the royal family.

At first, the boy had relied on me for simple guidance. Now, he came to me for very specific things. Things that were, frankly, more than what I was prepared for.

But it was all worth it. The more that the boy relied on me, the more power I held over him.

Sitting in my study, I stared down at the documents that were spread over my desk. They ranged from simple requests and reports to things that were of the highest secrecy to the country. Any ordinary person would be sentenced to death for simply glancing at these pages, but I was given full authority to review and sign them.

A knock came from the door. I knew immediately that it was the young prince. None else would dare to disturb me while I was here.

“Come in.” I said, sighing as I gathered all of the documents together.

The door swung open and Pierce rushed in. He was dressed in his military uniform, donning his medal of honor proudly.

“What is it?” I asked the boy, leaning back in my seat.

“Lord Evane has sent us an invitation to his daughter’s birthday celebration. I wanted to know if we were planning on attending.” He asked, eyes glittering with hope.

“It is next week, correct?” I asked.

The boy nodded furiously and held my gaze expectantly.

“Very well. You may send a confirmation.” I sighed.

The young prince practically leapt out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Rubbing my temples, I tried to soothe the headache that the boy had brought with him.

“What am I going to do with him?” I muttered to myself.

“Is this not what we were hoping for?” My benefactor asked.

“It is. But I was not expecting for him to become this unhinged.” I groaned. “He’s been performing well in every aspect up until now.”

“That girl has almost as strong a hold on him as you do. As long as you rein him in, it will do exactly what we want.”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“You’re right.” I nodded. “But will I survive long enough to see the end of it.”

“Your exaggerating is growing quite tiresome. Were you not much like him when you were young?”

Sighing, I got back to my paperwork.

Pierce was placed in charge of putting together a force to hunt down all criminal activity in this side of the country. Such activities had risen greatly in the years that followed the fall of Renae and the rise of Evane. Unfortunately for the king, he had put the authority for this job into the hands of the one responsible for it all.

Slowly, my forces would worm their way into every aspect of the peoples’ lives. We would break the foundation of the country that he fed off of. He would watch everything he worked to build up crumble to nothing, and I would be right be his side when it happened.

Only then, when he was at his lowest, would I have his precious children kill him.

I had expected it to take longer for me to replace the king as Pierce’s father figure, but he had latched onto me within a month. What kind of father was my dear cousin for his own son to abandon him this quickly?

Pausing, my thoughts turned to my own son. I hadn’t seen him for a while. Perhaps I should bring the boy here and give him some work? Maybe he would enjoy working as an officer? Or would he prefer acting as my son?

Turning back to my paperwork, I tapped my foot against the floor in a specific pattern, on a specific section of the floor. Moments later, a small part of the floor dropped open. It was large enough for a person to stick their head through.

I didn’t care to see who it was who had answered my call, instead simply speaking to them. “Bring my son to me. I’d like to speak with him.”

“Yes, sir. We’ll find him.” The man replied quickly.

A week passed by relatively quickly. I’d managed to finish all of my work a few days before the Evane girl’s birthday, so I had a few days to relax and do my other work. Sylas had been doing very well with guiding the organization while I worked aboveground, but there were still things that I needed to do, myself.

The Arkan trade was going very well. Our reach had spread across nearly the entire continent, mostly thanks to Lior and his vast network of tunnels. We could transport our product from one end of the country to the other completely unnoticed.

The profit wasn’t anything to sneeze at, either. Nobles on both sides of this war paid a hefty price to have their very own Arkan. What they did with them, I didn’t care. I did, however, make sure to catalog which family had purchased what.

Even the Evanes had participated in an auction.

Riding the most decorated carriage we had at our disposal, we arrived at the city’s center plaza. The family had opened the celebration to everyone inside of the city, regardless of position. It was all posturing, though. They were trying to win over every citizen as soon as possible. No doubt trying to do the very same thing that I was, though at a smaller scale.

The boy immediately ran from the carriage to present his gift to the young Evane girl. Letting the boy have his fun, I hung around the drinks table, eagerly partaking of the alcohol provided.

Several nobles came to my side, trying to strike up a conversation. They were all very obviously hoping to form some kind of connection with me, thus connecting with the young prince. I happily obliged, though they would be hard-pressed to find any kind of sympathy in the future.

Oddly enough, Lord Evane seemed to be the only one who had not come to my side during the entirety of the party. The man was nowhere to be found, strangely enough. I would be able to find him, though. I had eyes everywhere.

Staggering toward one part of the plaza, one man that I vaguely recognized hurried up to me, pretending to strike up a conversation.

“Sir, we have an urgent report.” The man said.

“What… what is it?” I said, trying to sober up.

“Your son is missing?” The man explained. “No one has seen him for years now.”

“Hamil? Missing?”

Peculiar.

“We don’t have time to worry about him, right now.” I shook my head. “Just assign some people to look for him and focus on the mission.”

I have other, more important things to worry about.