Second Arc (His Art of War) - 66. Change Of Plans

Meanwhile, at Ironwall City's gate, the guards stopped a carriage for inspection. A servant immediately got down and opened the door for them. A guard looked in and could see a dark blue-haired man in nice merchant clothes with a white-haired man in assistant clothes. Across them, a middle-aged woman leaned weakly on the black-haired woman's shoulder next to her.
"What's your business in the capital?" asked the guard.

"I want to treat my mother, sir," answered the merchant.

The guard's gaze shifted on the middle-aged woman. Her body looked stiff and difficult to move even though she was not bound by any rope, her mouth was also tightly closed like a mute. But despite her condition, her eyes looked at the guard sharply.
"What is wrong with her?"

"She has a strange disease. Therefore I want to give her the best treatment in the capital."

The guard threw his gaze once more at the woman.
"Just take care of her well. Do not spread a strange disease in the capital." Then the guard closed the door.

"Nothing suspicious," said the other guards who had just finished checking the carriage.
"You may pass."

The carriage moved forward through the gate. Of course, there was nothing suspicious because Angel had smuggled many things before. Some of his troops had entered this city two days ago in the same way as him or infiltrated the capital at night.
"I told you, you wouldn't be able to escape from me." Angel's eyes were on Queen Thea who was staring sharply at him with an angry expression. Her body was still bound by his dark aura including her mouth, which was why she couldn't speak. He planned to take her to the castle and asked Princess Rose to treat her. He took this dangerous plan because according to Dark Agent's report Princess Rose usually treated and examined her patients in the tower near the castle since commoners couldn't enter the castle easily.

Also, he had ordered his troops who were already in the capital to prepare an ambush around the tower since every time Princess Rose treated her patients, King Eudon also ordered a platoon of his troops to guard her.

Their carriage had arrived at the castle gate and the guards stopped them.
"Halt! You can't enter this place without permission!" said one of the guards.

Angel and Frost got off the carriage.
"Good morning, sir. I'm a merchant who came from far away to ask Princess Rose's help to treat my sick mother," said Angel.
The guard showed a displeased expression.

"Tomorrow is Her Highness' engagement day, she doesn't have time for you."

"That's why I have to see her now. Tomorrow is her engagement day and after that, she will go to the kingdom of Draconis. I may not be able to see her again," he reasoned. He had expected this from the beginning and wanted to use it as an excuse so he could meet her immediately.

"Her Highness can't be bothered now!" said the guard in a firm tone.

"Sir, we really need her. You can check how bad our madam's condition is," said Frost, gesturing to the guard to check inside the carriage.

The guard looked into the carriage and saw Queen Thea leaning weakly on Flare's shoulder. Seeing her condition, the guard changed his mind.
"Fine, I'll report it to Her Highness but you can't force her to meet you."

"Thank you," said Angel.

The guards entered the castle while they waited outside.

"I heard besides your medical ability, you also have good fighting skills," said Artheur, his feet moving slowly as he enjoyed the garden view.

"That's just a rumour, my fighting ability is not that good," answered Rose with a smile.

"But the fact that you could fight is already extraordinary," said Artheur. Although all the princes on the Andromeda Continent were fighters, princesses were different. All of the princesses were treated like the finest diamond that men would fight over. That was the reason why the princesses usually spend their time in the castle to study or socialize with the nobles, they had their own knights and were prohibited from touching weapons, which made learning how to fight was almost impossible for them.

"Prince Artheur, you compliment me too much," she replied, giving him a slight nod.

"Just call me by my name. Tomorrow we will get engaged, you will need to get used to it."

"Alright."

Just a few seconds after the words left her mouth, a guard approached her and bowed.
"Your Highness, a merchant asking for your help to treat his sick mother."

"Where is he now?" said Rose. For her to treat the sick was already her duty.

"He is waiting for you in front of the castle gate," the guard replied.

Just when she wanted to ask the guards to escort her, she remembered he was with Artheur. She turned to him, asking for his approval and Artheur understood her gesture.
"Let me accompany you," he said.

"Thank you."

"Where are you going?" asked King Eudon who suddenly came along with King Esteve behind them.

Rose, Artheur and the guard immediately bowed to them.
"Your Majesty," they greeted.

King Eudon turned to the guard.
"Tell the merchant, Princess Rose is too busy to meet him today."

"Very well, Your Majesty," answered the guard.

But just when the guard turned around, Rose stopped him.
"Wait!" she turned towards King Eudon.
"Uncle, tomorrow is my engagement party and after that, I will go to Draconis. That merchant will not have the chance to see me again," she insisted.

Seeing Rose's determination and remembering that the guard said the merchant had come to treat his sick mother, Artheur decided to help her.
"Your Majesty, I hope you can give her your permission. I am willing to accompany her and guarantee her safety."

"No. Both of you will get engaged tomorrow, you still have to prepare a lot of things," replied King Eudon.

Rose showed a displeased expression, while Artheur tried to speak again.
"But-"

"Artheur, this is your engagement. You must be more responsible and show your quality as the crown prince of Draconis," interrupted King Esteve.

"Yes, father," said Artheur.

King Eudon waved his hand, ordered the guard to carry out his order and the guard obeyed.

"We will try on your clothes now."
They turned and walked, while Rose and Artheur could only follow the two kings in front of them. Artheur noticed the gloomy expression on Rose's face and held her hand slowly. Rose gasped in surprise and tried to pull her hand away from Artheur but he held it back. Then her eyes shifted on him.
"I promise to accompany you to meet the merchant after our engagement is completed tomorrow," he whispered.

Seeing Artheur's good intentions, Rose smiled as her mood improved.
"Thank you."

At the front gate, Angel and Frost waited anxiously since they had waited too long. Even though they had disguised themselves but there could be someone who recognized them. But a few seconds later, a guard approached them.
"Sorry sir, Her Highness cannot see you. She's very busy right now."

Angel sighed in disappointment, he did not expect his plan to end in vain.
"It's fine, thank you for helping me."
He returned to his carriage and whispered to the coachman.
"We will regroup with the others."

"Yes, sir," replied the coachman.
Frost closed the door and their carriage moved.

"Change of plans. Frost, withdraw our troops from the tower. We will attack them directly tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Angel sighed once more, his plan to use Princess Rose as a hostage to make King Eudon surrender faster failed.
'Looks like I'll just have to carry out my first plan.'
His first plan was to kill the entire Heart family because they were a great potential danger to Euphorion.

Actually, he did not want to kill any royal family, because if he killed them then a power struggle would occur. The nobles would compete with each other to take the throne, chaos would occur everywhere due to their competition and of course, people would be neglected and had no protectors. Whereas if he took the king position as his own, the aristocracy structure would change. All the nobles in that kingdom had to hand over their title and become commoners, which would possibly trigger a long war. Moreover it would break the ancient agreement.

But it was,different for Zephyrus, that kingdom was often hit by rebellions from the beginning. In fact, he had heard that the court and the nobles of Zephyrus were divided into two. Instead of struggling to force King Eudon to surrender and confess, he could use this opportunity and say Zephyrus needed a better ruler than the Heart family. He just needed to appoint one of those who deserved to lead Zephyrus and of course, that person had to obey him. In other words, he only needed to replace King Eudon with a puppet king. That was easier to do than letting them live. Because as long as the Heart family was still alive, even though King Eudon surrendered, he had to keep an eye on the Heart family at all times. As for the ancient agreement, he could use the Heart Family’s secret poison as an excuse and said if King Eudon could do that to Pearl Gate City, someday, another kingdom's city would become his next target. Angel was sure, other kingdoms would definitely be terrified by the poison, since he felt the same way.