The contents of the meeting shocked everyone.
Some even thought about whether The Emperor had taken the wrong medicine.
The Emperor was always known as a wild beast attacking anyone who tried to defy him and his unscrupulous behaviour was known to everyone.
King Alex who had blasted the gates and fought his way to the throne room was punished to enter the academy, the news brought disbelief to everyone.
While many were wondering, what were The Emperor's motive and stance and what the future had in store for them, a gloomy atmosphere prevailed in a certain place which made it difficult for one to walk on a tightrope.
In the Second Prince Mansion.
A tall and dominating figure stood by the window staring at the scene outside. The rain was pouring heavily and the atmosphere was quite depressing, similar to his mood.
He was the second Sun of the Empire, Hex Von Stan. For him, the only contender for the Throne was First Prince Sean.
Both of them were on equal footing for now but the slight mishap that happened yesterday had already brought a great impact on him.
"General Shen, did you know what you did wrong?"
Behind him, a middle-aged man kneeled while bowing his head. His hairs were haggard and he seemed to be in bad condition.
"Your Highness, please forgive my insolence. I should have asked you before taking action. My greed took the better of me."
CLANG!
A wine glass hit his head and wine smeared his face.
"This isn't even the first time that your greed took better off you General Shen."
Major General Shen and Christina's father Ruth were good friends.
Unlike Ruth, he doesn't have excellent leadership qualities and as his friend rose in position, jealousy started to cloud his mind.
One day he came to know a shocking truth. Ruth has a family heirloom, a sword that grows with the user.
Shen who had been with Ruth since early days knew that Ruth wasn't as meticulous as he was in their early years of service and thought that it was the effect of the sword that made him what he was and if he could get his hands on his sword, he would get what Ruth had.
He made a deal with Prince Hex to become his subordinate and use the army at his disposal if he could help to eliminate Ruth.
Forging false documents and using other means, they were able to trap him and execute him. He got the sword and his position but unfortunately, he wasn't able to use the sword and it didn't accept him as his master.
8 years later, Ruth's daughter started to rise and with her strength, she was able to solve the mystery which possessed the chance to harm him as well as The Prince, so Hex personally took action once again and suppressed her, unfortunately, they weren't able to kill her due to the Emperor's intervention.
He thought of using Angus to lead Christina into Amidon and finish her but who knew Nevan would rise and suppress them?
And who knew that the assassination would also fail and Alex would be courageous enough to enter the Throne room with a head slandering The Emperor?
If he knew about this, he wouldn't have made the move without consulting Prince.
"Taking action without asking me isn't your mistake rather being unable to take care of things."
"Since you dared to take action why didn't you use all your force to nip the bud entirely from the root," Hex spoke with an angered tone.
"And on top of that, why did you free Angus instead of sending an assassin."
Shen lowered his head with shame and said"Highness, I looked for an assassin but none of them took the offer no matter the amount. It was as if a third voice intervened in it."
"Some took the order before but all of them were killed without leaving any traces and after that, no one dared to take the assassination order to kill Christina," Shen explained.
Hen's blank expression started to crumble and a panicked expression appeared on his face.
'A third party.'His eyes widened.
"You said a third party intervened and swept away the assassins swiftly."
He fell into deep thought.
A third force with the means to obtain information means that the force must have a huge intelligent network and capable people to kill without leaving any evidence.
He couldn't link any of the forces and even if there were, he wasn't able to guess their identity.
He doubted if Christina had strong support but if she had, she wouldn't be in this type of situation from the beginning and his family wouldn't have died.
Alex didn't have any connection and there was no doubt about it. The only powerful backup they have was the Lockheart's merchant group but there was no way they would act with such precision as all of them were monitored by the Emperor's forces.
After racking his head, a sudden thought struck him and an unknown fear rose from his heart.
He started to sweat profusely and his heart tightened.
After seeing his royal father stand on Alex and his motive to force him into the academy, there was a possibility that it might be he who acted secretly.
'Do father wanted to support him but this doesn't seem to be feasible in any way.'
'With so many good heirs, why would he choose someone who was already behind and is almost out of the race?'
'Or he is raising him to contend with them and nullify the Prince's forces.'
He didn't need to worry about it now, rather he should find a way to solve the matter because if someone traced this incident toward him then he was sure that he would be thrown out of the race.
Moreover, he wasn't sure about the third force identity and have to research it a bit.
"General Shen, find a scapegoat and the man shouldn't be ours."
"Make an excuse, that this wasn't an assassin mission and the guy coveted Christina and wanted to kidnap her but due to Alex's presence, the fight took place and he was killed."
"And he selected Angus because of his hate for Alex and Christina."
Shen nodded his head gently and got up.
"And remember, if this turns out to be a failure then just kill yourself otherwise if I decided to act, even your pleas for death would be worthless."
A chill ran down his spine as soon as he heard Hex's words.
He knew that he was just a pawn who would be discarded if he lost his value.
