--White-Wood city--

Standing by the castle walls of White-wood castle, a stilhoute could be seen looking over ther city.

The man had dark black hair and an overconfident smile on his face. however, hidden deep within his inky black eyes, a hint of anxiety could also be seen.

Eli Barn looked at his most trusted knight, Zarius half-kneeling in front of him and asked.

When Zarius arrived earlier he gave a letter to Eli while doing his salute. Without opening the letter Eli asked.

"Is it done?"

"Rest assured my lord, we made sure that his highness Landon was poisoned with 'Nalat Wisp' before he left the Capital." Zarius replied.

"Perfect....how long will it take for my trash of a brother to die?"

"My lord, this poison is a slow deadly one...there is no cure for this poison...it will kill him in 5 months time...by then no one would even suspect my lord for his highness Landon's death.....I left no evidence my lord"

"Hahahhahahahahhah....good....zarius you have done well...that stupid brother of mine is the disgrace of my royal family....even if they found out I did it, so what?....father wouldn't care much..hihihi..he's already a dead man walking.... afterall, everyone would think he got killed fighting over food or something.....hihihihi" Eli said while smiling and laughing.

Zarius looked at his lord with a confused gaze....why had his lord gone through all the trouble just to kill Landon Barn....everyone knew he would die sooner or later so why the rush?

"My lord...why kill him?"

Eli looked at Zarius and smirked.

"I need his land as a secret base for my knights.....I plan to be king within the next year and a half...the sooner that baffoon of a brother dies the better..... as for father, he would never suspect me of anything..so I'll take advantage of that and kill him when he least suspects it"

A trace of violence flashed in his pupils as he spoke...Zarius looked at his lord in surprise. It was a genius idea... Even if they killed Landon Barn, they wouldn't let the empire know.

By doing so, they could secretly use his territory as a base to gather and train more knights.

King Barn sent his officials as spies to all parts of the empire. There are tons is spies in Eli's territory. The only way to train or get more knights without the king's knowledge was to use Landon's territory.

It was the perfect location. King barn had made his officials leave Baymard so as to prove that he wouldn't support the territory. The king believed that Landon would never pose a threat to him so he didnt see the need to send spies over there..... hence making Baymard the ideal location.

Also King Barn had made sure that no one controlled more knights than he did in the empire... If the king knew Eli wanted to train and gather more knights, it wouldn't be long before he guessed what his son was up to...at that point King Barn would definitely kill Eli.

The funny thing is that Eli is already the crown prince and his father's most favored son. So doing all this was really unnecessary. Greed is a fatal human flaw afterall.

Zarius' entire body trembled while looking at his lord, Prince Eli. 'His highness sure is vicious', he thought.

"What about the assassins we caught earlier?" Eli asked.

"My lord, 5 of them killed themselves but 2 survived and 1 escaped.....from what we gathered your second and third brother's are working together to get rid of you, my lord." Zarius replied

Eli smiled coldly

"So they plan to get rid of me first before killing each other over the throne?.....hmm not bad brother's"

"My lord, should we send our men to retaliate against them?" Zarius asked.

Eli shook his head while saying...

"No need....doing so would only alert my father and make things difficult for us as well...dont forget our new goal....a year and a half before I become king.....anyway, it's only my brother's. What harm could those Cub's pose to a full grown lion...Well...let's see how long they can keep this up shall we?..I dont mind being a star in their play..hahaha"

Eli remembered that he hadn't opened the letter in his hand yet....he opened it slowlyand began to read it.

"My sister Jenette wants to visit me from the Capital....My, my, my..this family just gets better and better", Eli said with a smile.

"My lord, do you think she knows that the assasination attempt failed?" Zarius asked

"I doubt that she would know...I'm sure my brothers haven't seen her yet and won't pass such serious information on paper...most likely she just probing to see if I'm still alive.....I should reply here, no?

Zarius smiled and replied.

"Its only proper my lord"

Eli smiled while looking over the city once more and thought

'It won't be before I rule the entire empire. By then all of them would die for sure."

--Drapern City---

in a well lit fancy room. Three men could be seen talking to each other. Two of the men were sitting down while the other was half-kneeling as a form if respect.

"Are you sure the rest killed themselves?" asked Connar Barn

"Yes your highness. while escaping, I saw it with my own very eyes", the escaped assassin replied.

"You may leave now". Connar replied with a cold voice

"Yes my lords"

After they made sure that the assassin could no longer be seen they both looked at each other deeply.

"Second brother, what do we do now?..if father hears about this...he wouldn't let us off!!" asked James Barn

"Relax, I'll send first brother a letter saying that we want to come over for a visit....it would be better to be absolutely sure he doesn't suspect us of it." Connar replied.

"I agree", James replied

"Also, it would be best for you to stay in my territory for the time being..if he really knew, he would try to assassinate us together"

They both nodded and decided that this method would be the best way to find out whether Eli knew or not.