With a smile on his tired face, the king’s brother red through reports. His nephew had somehow managed to eat a pill that gave him a continuous erection. Out of shame, he had stayed at the palace, which made him more manageable. He would rather have the prince occupied with fornicating than destroying the palace. Even when he went through the entire stack of reports a second time, he couldn’t find the reason for a meeting with the spymaster.

As he walked down the long hallway, he counted down the problems with his fingers. “The prince is content, Sensei is dead, sensei’s revolution is dispersed … Why the meeting now? The fight within the council? No, he wouldn’t call me over such a small matter.”

With a swing in his step, he rounded the last corner and went into the king’s bedroom. The spymaster once again sat on the side of the king’s bed and he took a seat on his usual stool. Trying and failing not to sound annoyed, he asked: “What is it? You better not have woken me up for nothing. Couldn’t we have convened not in the middle of the night?”

His demeanor changed when he saw the spymaster wetting his lips. “Sensei isn’t dead.”

The news made him seize up with horror, which the spymaster took as a sign to continue. “It is widely known street talk that sensei has survived. The previously low morale of the young revolution has increased to new heights. Their inner members have increased by two hundred. From our informants, we heard that sensei has increased the revolution’s funding. He will even come to support them himself. Their leader has boasted about an increase in sensei’s powers. I will cite one of our informants: ‘Sensei is really amazing. He can fly and he can make gold out of thin air. If he wants to, he can carry twenty boys while flying faster than an eagle.’. If we connect that revelation with an incident that happened only about thirty minutes ago, we come to a terrible conclusion. Akila had invoked our contract Article 63b. It allows her to dispatch one fighter to remove direct competition. A new restaurant had opened and Akila sent out one of her officers to get rid of the perceived competition. Apart from the fact that the reason for the invocation was invalid, the A-Rank officer sent to do the job got into a conflict. The elite guards noticed the disturbances but played it off as the agent destroying the property. The focus of the aether destruction got farther and farther away from the property. Yet, the elite guards were playing cards on duty and didn’t much care. I have punished them already. Only when a sudden bang resounded through the entire district, they investigated. Akila’s officer was found dead. That wouldn’t be alarming by itself, but listen to the description of the scene.“

The spymaster pulled out the report and began to read.

”The entire torso of the target was spread out over a fifteen-meter radius. From where the remains of the two feet lay shredded on the ground, a tunnel had been carved out of the cobbled street. At the end of which, a human-shaped indent was left in a nearby wall. The force used to propel the human body could have been put out by an A-Class elite guard trainee – That is alarming but it doesn’t warrant this meeting. What should disturb you is the fact that no one known in Trianon could push out the aether in such a short amount of time. Even the commander who is currently at the high S+ Tier thinks he can’t put out that much aether at once.”

Total silence reigned between the two of them until he finally spoke. “It seems like the princess has hired one aether user. Good and bad news. The fact that he could fake the fight between him and the prince only continues to accentuate his finesse.”

Both of them were staring at each other for answers until he broke off eye contact. “Let’s talk about the most immediate problem – the prince. He will find out one way or another.”

“That is correct.”

“Then, let’s tell him first. From what I have heard from the court rumor mill, the princess is fond of him. Let’s spin the prince a story about how he is only interested in her because he wants to marry and fuck her. We can have him spin a story about how we sent southerner assassins to kill her savior and they have him detained. The prince will then force her to sign a contract that makes her unable to marry or have sexual intercourse. Let’s give him his imaginary revenge. The princess will be mad and the contract will be annulled, but only after the prince has won the king’s tournament. We will drug the new king, as usual, apologize to everyone and release the princess. We will have to make reparations to the kingdom of Osma, but it will pay off in the long run.”

The spymaster looked thoughtful and then nodded his head. “Simple, but effective.”

Again, silence reigned the room. Both of them knew that they were scooting around the main topic. After thirty minutes of staring, he broke and said: “What do you think about increasing the elite guard patrols once again? We tell the city guards to look out for his face as well.”

The spymaster smiled and bowed. “I will execute your orders with all haste.”

Grumbling, he stood up and left the king’s room. “That spymaster is too good at his job. If something goes wrong, I will receive the blame. I might have to remind him soon what happened to his predecessor.”