At the Royal Palace in the capital Ayala, King Ramon and the Crown Prince were meeting the representative sent to the Thanatos territory, Princess Amelia.
"Amelia, this is a big mess. You had simple orders," said the king.
"Father, I don't know why Jonathan behaved the way he did. He has been in our family for more than a decade. I-"
"Sister, are you going to blame this on a mere servant? He was part of your delegation. Are you saying that you have no control over the people working under you?" said the Crown Prince in a demeaning tone.
"I-"
"Amelia, you failed your mission of building an amicable relationship with the Baron," the King noted decisively.
The princess lowered her head. The whole situation was weird. Her father and brother had sent her to the Thanatos territory, but she didn't select the delegation. Only her personal maids were picked by her. Especially Jonathan was picked by the King himself; he was a close aide of her father for more than ten years. Now, that servant had disappeared, and the King laid the whole fiasco on her.
"You are dismissed. Your brother will take over the relationships with Lord Thanatos from now on," the King added.
"But Father, we should offer help to Lady Helena to search for Lord Thanatos. I promised her that the Royal Family would help!" Amelia pleaded.
"Then you shouldn't promise things beyond your powers. If Lady Helena wants the help of the royal family, she should send an official request to the palace, and we will discuss the matter in due time. There are many other things of higher priority," answered the King. Of course, putting a request to the palace would take several months.
Amelia resigned. She bowed and left the throne room. She knew that her father was being unreasonable. She felt wronged; like all odds were stacked against her from the beginning.
This was probably another trick from the Crown Prince to embarrass her. It has been going on for years -- he sabotaged every move Amelia made. At first, she was baffled by this -- why would he care? Amelia was not eligible to claim the throne. Her only value to her brother, the future King, was as a bride. He would marry her with a high noble to create links to the Royal Family and gain favor. Her father did the same with her aunts, one was married to a Duke, and the other became the second wife to the King of a southern kingdom.
She only realized the reason after talking to one of her aunts. A weak princess without any political strength could be forced to marry any noble the Crown Prince wanted. He could marry her to a foreign kingdom or even a 70-year-old noble to be his n-th wife. Nobody would object or support her. However, a Princess with substantial political clout could influence the marriage plans. She could even affect the candidate list! If Amelia could gain strong support, she could even marry a person she liked! With these thoughts, a certain black-haired Baron came to her mind. She blushed and felt her face heating up. She clenched her fists with new determination.
"Nora," said the princess sharply as she left the throne room.
"Yes, my lady," one of her maids responded immediately.
"Keep investigating Jonathan. Also, check for connections to the Duke of Alambra, the Church, or other kingdoms," ordered Amelia.
The maid nodded and disappeared. Nora was part of Amelia's intelligence group. Geddes, the Captain of the Royal Knights, was Amelia's maternal uncle. He helped her train several maids in secret for her protection. She needed to be able to collect information and act independently of the royal security forces that were under her brother's control.
= * =
In the throne room, a voice was heard behind the king,
"That kid could prove to be troublesome."
"Tsk. Maybe instead of commenting on my house, you should be checking your house, Archbishop? What does this make, the 3rd failure to kill him?" answered the King with a frown.
"Don't provoke me, Ramon. Do I need to remind you who backed you up to be in the position you are now?" answered the Archbishop irritated. A man in his 60s, wearing all white garments and holding a familiar scepter in his hand, walked out from a ray of light. This was one of the many divine powers bestowed on him through the scepter -- he could blend into any light source and remain invisible.
"What happened to Jonathan? Is he alive?" asked the Crown Prince, trying to diffuse the situation.
"Dead. The scepter returned alone. Given that it was soul bound, it means Jonathan died," the Archbishop added.
"How do we proceed? You tried with soul-crushing spells, with raw power, and with divine magic. Nothing worked," the Crown Prince asked, clearly irritated.
"For now, we wait. The boy is in the Endless Forest. There are many dangers lurking in its depths, he might never return. If he returns, we have other ways to deal with him," said the Archbishop.
The King nodded and walked out of the room first. This was an uneasy alliance for him, but since he accepted the Church's help to secure the throne 20 years ago, he has been unable to free himself from their influence. He couldn't really understand why the Church wanted the Baron dead. To the King, the Baron was a highly valued asset. Before the Church approached him for help, he had thought of marrying his daughter to the Baron and getting a hold of the new technology introduced in the Barony, and gaining a new military trump card. His daughter was brilliant and capable; she would be able to influence the Baron to the family's benefit.
However, he now had to cooperate with the Church to kill the Baron and lose an invaluable card.
"What a mess," muttered the King as he walked into his next meeting.
= * =
"Archbishop, how will you proceed? Are there any moves we can make so that he doesn't return from the Endless Forest?" the Crown Prince asked as soon as his father left.
"Yes. Unfortunately, we'll need to rely on those vile unclean creatures. But it can't be helped. We need to make sure he doesn't return," answered the Archbishop.
A thousand years ago, the Church was waging a holy war and had victory in its grasp -- the total annihilation of those unclean creatures. But the Goddess of Life intervened and saved them by transporting them to the Endless Forest and out of reach. Over the last several hundred years, the Church has been looking for ways to get to those creatures and destroy them. However, the Forest was indeed endless and inhospitable for humans.
They finally managed to put one tribe under their thumb -- the Lizard tribe. When they found the tribe 100 years ago, they were only a bunch of savage lizards cannibalizing each other. Instead of destroying them, the Church supplied weapons, training, and magic tools. The tribe became subservient to the Church and their inside tool. Using this tribe, they slowly started killing off the rest of the tribes. Lizard people were so stupid; they never realized they were being used.
"I'll take care of that. You need to make contact with his sister. You know how to proceed, right?" asked the Archbishop.
The Crown Prince nodded, and they parted ways.
YOU ARE READING
Death's Favorite Child
FantasyHe was a highly trained killer, serving a 1000-year-old secret organization on Earth. He was betrayed by the people he served all his life and left for dead. His entire team gone. He took his revenge, reducing them to ashes, and died in the process...
