--Indomia City, The Empire Of Arcadina--

.

'Aishhhh!'

"Be a little gentle will you!!" Said a young man who was currently in pain.

The immense pain had taken up a portion of his brain, as if dealing with it was expending all his brain power.

For some reason, although the injured part heart a lot... his brain kept receiving pain flashes, as waves of unbearable pain had washed over him, making him want to scream out in agony.

His entire body felt like it had been run over by 20 horses.

His butt felt like it had several boils on it, and his entire body felt like it would break apart any minute now.

He couldn't eat, he couldn't sleep.... he couldn't sit.

And because of all these things, the man had become unbelievably cranky.

The healers around the man were also somewhat helpless with the situation as well.

They had been scolded by the man, who had wanted his injuries to heal up by the end of the month.

But that would be sorcery.

From their point of view.... given the severity of his injuries, he would need at least 6 months before he was fully healed.

They could only sigh helplessly at his antics.

He indeed looked pitiful.

The man's left cheek was swollen hard, as it had a very vibrant reddish purple color to it.

It was clear that whoever punched him, must have definitely used his full force.... as even the injury had another injury on top of it.

There were several torn patches of skin on the man's swollen cheek, making it look a poker dotted injury of purple and red.

And that was not all....

Leaving his face and trailing down to his lower body.... one could see that the young man had other purple welts scattered across his chest, back and right arm, like a contagious disease.

At this point, even breathing to him was somewhat painful for him.... as his ribcage was almost broken by his enemies.

From the looks of it, he was stabbed with a sword at his lower belly, shot with an arrow at his right arm and back... as well as punched multiple times in different locations.

Who was this man who had been beaten to a pulp?

Hehehe..... he was indeed the cowardly bootlicking 3rd prince of Arcadina, James Barn.

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James truly aggrieved with his current situation.

He had requested for the the empire of Terique to handle Eli, and had even promised to give them 60% of Arcadina's land.

But how come Eli was fine, while he was lying here barely being able to breathe?

Dammit!!.... he should've never believed those Terique Scoundrels.

Back to his situation, when he was sleeping in camp..... he had meet with 6 assassination attempts, all of which had left him with several injuries all over his body.

He felt like those assassins were thugs rather than professionals.

They would punch him, and laugh... while poking his eyes, and stabbing him here and there.

Sure, he was a scumbag... but did he really deserve such treatments from his enemies?

They had even slapped him and stepped in his neck and ribs multiple times.

Funny enough, they said that they were just there to play with him.

In his mind.... he only had one question: [which of his brothers did it?]

After thinking for a while, he had decided to pin all the blame on Eli.

Connor often told him all his secrets and was also stupidly good to him.... So in his mind Eli was the culprit.

He had been deceiving and fooling connor into telling him all his plans, so for him Connor was indeed a fool who would never harm him.

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Once the healers were finished with their work, James hurriedly called his second in command over.

Since the men from Terique couldn't really aid him in killing Eli anymore.... as Eli was presently around the heavily guarded Central part of Arcadina, James had decided to hire a professional.

"How was it?" He asked impatiently.

"Your highness...he agreed..... Mr. DEATH has agreed to see you."

"Hahahaha..... excellent!!!

If I can get the number one assassin to kill that royal brother of mine, then I'll finally be one step closer to the throne." James said excitedly.

The knight looked at him and sighed.

This was the way noble families were.... talk less of royals.

Everyone always wanted the throne, and killing for it was a normal phenomenon.

"Ermm... but do you think that he will agree?" James asked anxiously.

"Your highness.... for me what I know, he only agrees to jobs that pay well.

If you have the money, then he will agree." The knight replied.

This was indeed a problem for James.

Previously, he had spent most of his money in buying the loyalty of the citizens, as well as bribing the ministers and noble families..... So he was really low on cash now.

It seemed like he would have to borrow it from his brother Connor.

Normally, he would've asked his mother.

But ever since his useless sister Jennette died... his mothers situation had gotten a lot worse.

I mean... if she wanted to die so badly, why couldn't she have done it next year or the year after that?

Right now, father was displeased with mother.... so how could father favor him?

His stupid sister had died and made his standing worse.

And his mother who used to be smart, had somehow grown a melon brain.

The dead can never come back, so why suffer yourself so much?

He had seen his mother's disgusting appearance a while ago, and immediately understood his dad's point of view.

Ugh... she looked hideous, and even the smell she oozed out could kill a rat.

Maybe it was because he grew up understanding that women are beneath him, so he didn't have any sort of special feeling for his mother.

After all, when he was younger, he could see her only about 4 times a week.

At that time, she was busy planning and scheming on how to be Alec Barn's most favored woman.

And now... she was almost a stranger to him.

Anyway.... after thinking for a while, James immediately made up his mind to get the money from Connor.

Hiring Mr.Death was the only way to guarantee Eli's death.

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--Drapern City, The Empire of Arcadina.

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Connor was deep in thought.

Surprisingly while he was fighting at the borders, he met with no assassins.

It seems like his brothers didn't care to take care of him at all.

He knew that James wouldn't do anything, but he was surprised that Eli didn't attack him as well.

It seemed like he was the only one who was wary of them.

What a bunch of Idiots!!!

Yes... during that time, he had sent assassins to both James and Eli.

He sent assassins to play with James, as it would be suspicious if both brothers died at once.

He had hired them to break James body, so that he wouldn't be able to walk around for a while.

For Eli, he had requested for them to kill him.

Is plan was simple..... when Eli died and father saw that James was badly injured, father would have no choice but to make him the crown prince.

But who would've thought that Eli would survive and ruin all his plans?

He had to think fast.

Right now, he had already got a reply from the number 1 assassin Mr. Death.

Long story short, he also needed several bags of coins to please such a man.

Unfortunately, he was somewhat short of cash.

Afterall, he too had bribed people to his side a while ago.

He reckoned that judging from the large sum of money used for his campaign... he would only be able to recover it all by the end of next year.

He had gone all out, and at the end..... the crown prince was still Eli.

What a pity...

In his mind, he had concluded that he would borrow the money from his mother instead.

No matter what, Eli had to die.

Hence, he was willing to spend any amount to kill him.

And just like that, both brothers had been granted an audience with the Famous Mr Death.

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--WhiteWood City, The Empire Of Arcadina--

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While his brothers were busy plotting on him, Eli was rather relaxed as he was looking forward to something else.

Before he left the borders his men had told him about how they were disgraced by his bastard brother Landon.

Surprisingly, he was still alive.... but thefunny thing was that he was now a bonnified savage.

He had heard that his clothes and shoes were so tattered that they looked like a dog had chewed on them.

Previously, he wanted to wait until he came back to the Capital before sendinghis men to attack Landon.

But his subordinates pleaded that they wanted to go ahead and deal with the brat., so he had sent them on their way with 1,300 men several months ago.

And judging form the distance from his camp, to Baymard....they shouldbe arriving anytime soon.

'Finally, Baymard would soon be mine.'