The Second Prince Palace

Hegel, the 2nd prince of the Mulan kingdom, was currently sitting in the huge living room of his mansion. As one of the most prominent princes in the Kingdom, Hegel had his own palace which was not too far from the Royal Palace.

Even though there were at least ten more people within the living room with the 2nd prince, the living room didn't seem crowded at all.

At this moment Hegel had a worried look on his face, including the other ten men that were sitting in front him. However, none of them dared to say a word as they were waiting for some news.

" Your Highness, it's been an hour since they left, do you think that they have failed." The person that just spoke was an old man around his sixties. If Shad was there, he would have recognized this man within a single glance because he was a high official within the royal court of the Mulan kingdom that had participated in his welcoming banquet.

Not Just the old man, almost everyone within this room had attended the banquet as well. They were all nobles and wielded a great deal of power within the Mulan kingdom.

Some of them were from ancient noble families that were deeply rooted in the Mulan kigdom for centuries. If any of these people were to rise up, the whole Mulan kingdom would be shaken. Even the King himself did his best to avoid them and did not dare to provoke them. Yet some of them were waiting on the 2nd prince of the Mulan Kingdom, and they had a look of reverence on their faces when they were looking at him.

" it's unlikely they would fail, the mission might have been tougher than anticipated but I don't think they will fail. The Black Bear is the one overseeing this mission, and you all know how ferocious he is. He is known for his unbreakable defense, not even the three imperial knights would be able to kill him that easily, not to mention they had three middle-rank warriors as well a senior mage with them. It would be impossible for them to fail." Answered Hegel with confidence.

No one in the Mulan kingdom would dare to make a move against the 4th prince of the Djage Empire within the royal capital, except for Hegel, not even the crown prince or the king.

However, Hegel had the power to do so. Unlike the other princes, Hegel mother was the queen of the Mulan kingdom. Roman's mother was the queen but she had died mysteriously than his mother who was a concubine at that time, had taken her place after she married the king officially.

Even though he was the 2nd prince of the Mulan kingdom, Hegel wasn't or didn't truly consider himself as a true citizen of the Mulan Kingdom. All of his can be traced back to his mother, Hegel's Mother was from a prominent noble family from the Nicholas Empire. She had agreed to become the concubine and even married to the King of the Mulan Kingdom due to some political reason and scheme.

The most suspicious thing was, that family happened to be the same family that the mother of the 3rd imperial prince of the Nicholas Empire had come from as well. Which means, the 2nd prince of the Mulan kingdom and the 3rd prince of the Nicholas empire were practically family. This was a secret that not even the King himself knew about it.

Everybody believed that queen came from the Andres family which was one of the powerful noble families from the Mulan kingdom, but none of them had any idea that the Andres family was just a puppet of that powerful family from the Nicholas empire.

This family was like the Kalel family from the Djage Empire, a powerful ancient noble family that could rival the Imperial family, and this family was known as the Montilus.

Hegel clearly knew all about that as he was the most important factor of their scheme which was why he had become a pawn of the 3rd imperial prince of the Nicholas Empire.

As for the other powerful officials that were with him in the room, they had no ideas about all these as well. They were all here due to the enormous reward, power, lands, and prestige that the 2nd prince had promised them if he becomes the new king of the Mulan Kingdom.

Listening to the assessment of the 2nd prince, none of them dared to refute him. However, they still had an uneasiness in their heart.

Hegel really wanted to kill Shad because he was like a wild card that could tear down everything that his cousin the 3rd imperial prince had built as well his mother's family have been planning for decades.

He did some research about Shad and had also heard about him from his cousin. The 4th imperial prince had no desire for power or fame whatsoever, which made him unpredictable. He didn't care about his noble reputation or the public opinion.

Hegel knew about the Merit or achievement departments of the Djage empire which was a system of how they choose their future Emperor, yet the 4th prince didn't participate or even takes missions in order to build up his merits.

For example, either being the emissary of the Mulan Kingdom and uprooted the bandits that had occupied most of the territories of the south of the kingdom were considered as an A rank mission from the merit departments, yet he 4th prince agreed to do it without expecting any reward or the merit points in return. As such, he wasn't afraid to fail or succeed which will make him more dangerous. He won't care about what methods to use, as long he gets the job done.

While the 2nd prince was pondering about the 4th imperial prince, a man in black, about 30 years old, entered the living room while scratching his head as stuttered out a few inconsistent words, " Demon, he is not a human. The demon will come after me." he was quivering and his face was pale and filled with fear.

" What is it? What happened?" seeing the terrified look on this man's face, the people within the living room including the 2nd prince instantly felt nervous.

They all stood up at the same time.

" The people who went to ambush the 4th imperial prince, they all died. they were single handly slaughtered by the 4th prince himself. It seemed like their heads had all explode and their bodies burned by the lightning bolt." The man was quivering, " Furthermore, they were all killed by just one strike each. they were killed instantly!"

" They didn't even have the chance to strike. not even the Black Bear as he was captured by the 4th imperial prince."

" What! What did you say?" The 2nd prince slapped the table in front him hard and stood up at once.

The others looked at each other in speechless despair as they were done listening to the man in black reports.

They felt shocked, as they couldn't imagine that the 4th imperial prince was that powerful. Not only that, he has been hiding his strength and fooled everyone, Even the people of the Djage empire because they had some spies over there as well.

They knew earlier what strength the people that they have sent had. In fact, it was why they were shocked when they were told that they were killed by a single strike, to make matter worst, they were killed by the 4th imperial prince himself.

The 2nd prince was so shocked that his mouth was wide open. He even felt a bit dizzy at the moment.

" The 4th imperial prince." The 2nd prince humped heavily and his eyes were filled with coldness. " Tell me. How did it happen?"

Without wasting any time, the man in black explained everything that had happened without leaving a single detail behind.

" Two lightning swords that appeared in his hands, no magic circle, no casting spells, One strike." Everyone gasped fearfully.

They had no way to confirm whether this explanation was true or not because it sounded so unbelievable. It was the first time they have heard of somebody using lightning or any element without the use of the magic spell, even void mages have to use the magic spell.

Suddenly,

" So, this is where you lot were hiding. it seemed like I hit the jackpot." They heard the cold voice of the 4th imperial prince reverberated above the 2nd prince palace.