"Are you okay, son?" Reu's voice cut through Red's concentration.

When Red looked up from sharpening his shovel, his eyes were filled with a focused intensity that Reu couldn't help but find amusing.

"If you could see your expression, you'd understand," Reu said. "Everything in Ceren is working out, so why the face?"

Red nodded but said nothing as he set down his shovel. He was satisfied at the rate of how things were going, but something was wrong.

Despite the success of his plans, a nagging unease persisted within Red. It was as if a crucial puzzle piece had slipped his mind. Why did he feel like something was amiss?

It'd been a few weeks since Red started working to mess with Ceren's infrastructure. He'd organized a group of malcontents to mess with the alcoholic partiers. That group consisted of Ece citizens and more.

It didn't take much encouragement to get the Ceren addicts to spend more gold than they could afford. That debt wouldn't be paid because Red was messing with the finances of the lushes. Most of them were young nobles who relied on their family money or had their own businesses attached to Ceren.

Security was lax because the Ceren was a city under the guise of partiers. That is, to the untrained eye, it was unprotected. It didn't take Red long to notice how a lot of morning-after drunks were disguised watchmen who were there around the clock.

It wasn't well known how deep the pockets that ran Ceren were. The port made it the perfect location for ships, and some of the world's best shipwrights stayed in Ceren. Red only realized the extent of Ceren's wealth once he started his underground operation.

Hakan went to great lengths to hide his wealth and the young lords he had in his arsenal.

It made sense why there was a lot of upheaval when Hakan was awarded the region. Red remembered Vera making the biggest stink about it.

Vera didn't want Hakan to receive Ceren as a province and had done everything she could to interfere. Hakan got it, and Red suspected the how, but he didn't have confirmation of that. Their father had made his decision, and no one could undo it, not even the Consort.

Ceren was full of parties that went a little wild, but Red wanted them to burn through money as fuel. His group started egging on, faking parties, and doing whatever they could to ensure gold was tossed around recklessly.

The long winding bill these partiers were going through would bankrupt Ceren at the rate they were going. Red would ensure that this would go down.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

So again, why did he feel like something was wrong? Red was doing everything he needed to to kill his brothers one by one. His plan was working.

Red glanced down at his hands before turning away to spot his reflection in a copper mirror.

His red eye was uncovered and glowing, and that brightness reminded him of what he had forgotten about. The man who had a pair of two glowing orbs.

"Any word of my father?" Red said. Merin was tucked away safely, but he'd used her healing powers as bait to lure the scarred man out of the cracks of darkness. Red didn't want him slithering out while he wasn't nearby to kill the man.

"The Sosia is the same, but no spotting of the Emperor. The shipping route was a dud route. Every route we've attempted to follow up on has failed." Reu said.

This was bitter news that bore repeating. His father hadn't lost his edge and still pulled everyone by the nose.

Red ran a hand over his face. This strange feeling in his heart bodes ill for Merin. He couldn't stop what he was doing in Ceren, so it was out of his hands. There was only one solution to his problem.

"You look like you want to start the purge of Ess," Reu said with a smile.

"Let's get him to squeal and make him their target," Red said. There wasn't time to waste. His instincts kept him alive; if he ignored this, the consequences could be dire. If they finished everything promptly, he could return to the capital before Merin gave birth.

Once two more of his brothers died, it wouldn't matter how he returned to the empire. To lose that many sons in succession would allow Red to spin whatever tale he wanted about where he'd gone. The citizens would be on his side if he played his cards right. It wouldn't hurt that he'd return with everyone's favorite dragon.

It was time to start moving what he stole. Red's primary target from day one wasn't just the nobles but the ships.

The vast ships boasted enough space for hundreds of passengers to lounge on the top deck. It was indeed a waste of creation to create something so important for drunken sprees.

Red had already stolen some of the schematics for the ships, and Ess was going to take the fall.

Ece and Ceylan are just two countries that would love to get their hands on this kind of ship. Red and Reu spent days painstakingly redrawing hundreds of schematics and spreading them across the land with the assistance of spies.

If everyone had proprietary knowledge of Ceren, no one did. Ceren would no longer have an edge over the rest of the world.

"Alp, put down the human!" Merin said to the baby cub, who had grown a little too much.

Alp had taken Zoltan into his mouth as a toy. The jaguar cub dropped the man and darted off.

"My thanks, Russus," Zoltan said.

Letha put a hand over Zoltan's mouth to stop it from moving. The three of them were in the backyard of their new dwelling. So they weren't out in public, but uttering the word Russus anywhere would attract attention.

Zoltan must have done something to Letha's hand because the proud bronze woman turned the shade of an apple. The two started whispering to each other, and Merin looked away to stare around the yard, which was supposed to be beautified. It was not supposed to be the breeding ground for two horny people.

She wandered away from the love scene to inspect the area Alp ran off to. Trees, bushes, and other plant life obstructed the backyard from the direct eye sight of outsiders.

Merin grew still as a minor tremor below her became bigger. She grabbed her pangolin, who'd been peacefully napping for support until the earth stopped shaking.

"That's an ill omen." She said as she crossed her chest in a gesture her father had taught her.