“It has been a long time since I was last here.” I whisper to myself. Boats come into Ante transferring goods to be sold at the market. The city hustles and bustles along with a pace familiar to me. I hear the uncanny sound of somebody from Monza trying to speak Arrian.
Despite the nostalgia within me I feel a distinct urge to return to Belnuo. That is where I made my home. It is the life that I chose. At least I don’t need to worry about making it a seem natural. The more people that know about this and the sooner the better.
The people of Ante will fall in line after remembering that nobody is out of the reach of the emperor. I slowly walk towards the castle. There is a secret entrance into the castle only known to a select few people.
Once Inside I will merely have to blend in. I begin practicing my accent. Years living in Belnuo has softened my accent to make it hardly noticeable but with a bit of practice I should be able to get back into using it.
I walk into the forest just outside of the city. I don’t remember the exact position that it was placed but it shouldn’t take long. I am just looking for a specific rock.
Ah, here it is!
I walk through the passageway. Before entering the castle I put on a brown wig and dress into the clothes of a guard. Hopefully they have slackened their standards. Nobody would get away with this in Belnuo but, in all fairness, it is rather difficult to pretend to be a member of the royal guard.
I quickly make my way to where the guards rest. I just need to get my bearings and keep up the lie until nighttime. I walk into the room and greet some of the guards there. They just grunt in response. They are too tired to even care who it is.
“They just keep making us work double-time. The stupid archduke is being paranoid.” One of them complains, the rest just make an affirmative sound in response. “Does he really think anyone cares what he does here? I am sure everyone in the east wants to pretend we don’t exist.”
“Haven’t you heard?”
“Heard what? Day in and day out I just stand there at watch, nothing happening.” They all just laugh, I cover my eyes and pretend to sleep. They hardly have any schedule as demanding as that of a royal guardsman.
“The Emperor has been fighting with the chancellor, rumors have it the archduke is planning on making an attempt at the throne.” One of them informs him. Information seems to spread slowly. I am just going to assume that it is because the people of Ante like to keep to themselves and mind their own business.
“Wait, what?! For real? Wanna place a bet?”
“Twenty silver coins that the archduke takes the throne.” One laughs and one after of another they all place their bets on the archduke. I am getting a bit peeved that nobody is betting on Michael. I am here to assassinate Antonio, how stupid must they think their emperor is?
“Fine, a gold coin on the Emperor, you guys are a bunch of loons.”
“We are loons?”
“Yes, the Emperor is probably dealing with this as we speak. Planning for all possible outcomes.” The rest just laugh and brush him off. I think I hear one say that this was a sad bet, they would hardly earn anything from it if only one person was dumb enough to bet on the emperor.
“I’ll join then, I place two gold coins on the emperor.” I say handing over the coins.
“Haha, go back to dreaming you sleepy head.” I merely sit back down and close my eyes again. The rest of the people grumble and join me in resting. A person in charge shows up and orders us to do stuff but I just silently bide my time until it is midnight.
Once it is I change out of my guardsman uniform and change into a dark blue cloth that should hide me. The moon isn’t out tonight and this causes it to be very dark. I slip through the shadows until I am below Antonio’s window.
After about half an hour I have managed to climb into the room.
I have the distinct urge to start yelling at the discipline but wisely choose not to. Taking out my vial I dump the poison into Antonio’s mouth before quickly covering it and his nose. He struggles in a futile attempt unaware of what is happening for a few seconds before the poison takes place.
I then turn him over and look at his back to make sure he has the imperial sigil. Once this task is done I quickly take my exit. I will have to write a letter to informing him of the good news.
Finally out of this place. Only took me one day to do it too.
A/N: This will be the only chapter today. Got some HW to do. Why I chose to do summer quarter is beyond me. Say hello to Matteo again, be a bit before he returns from this trip. Literally took him 14 chapters to get here. I mentioned that Arria was a fairly large place, right? One of the few advantages Allonia has over Arria. Travel is much faster because of safe waters. I have slightly explained a bit about the pirate issue but not a lot because for the most part Arrian's don't care. Only reason you would need to bother with them is if you were making a trip from Casterso/Alle to Ante. Shorter trips tend to be relatively safe.
Michael will probably find this an issue later because the sea would be the easiest way for him to further centralize the empire. Some of you may have found this anti-climatic but a lot of politics are kind of anti-climatic. Part of the extension would be going over how this decision affected Ante.
I get why you mentioned that the sigil makes people immune. It will look like a poising to most but those in the know will realize it was the prince that did this.
Forgive me for not understanding. What do you mean it will look like a poising to most but those in the know will realize it was the prince that did this? Do you mean most people will assume it was poison but the people who know will understand the emperor did this?
Thank you for the comment.
@Mizu He was murdered by suffocation, but there was posion added. The sigil gives immunity to posion. Said immunity isn't well known. Plus the only other party I'm aware of knowing about this wouldn't kill Antonio due to him being a possible replacement to the prince.
@awake1122 Okay, I get what you are saying now. Absolutely brilliant analysis but I must give you one bit of information. Antonio did not die of suffocation, it was the poison given to him in this chapter that killed him. I can't say much because I have literally been trying to subtly set this up for a while and just giving out information would ruin it.
@Mizu guess I guess I just misunderstood how the sigil works then.
@awake1122 It does provide immunity to poison. The sigil does this no matter how diluted the power, it is one of the basic powers associated with it. You understand it completely.
@Mizu I'd say that is a bigger hint to the identity of the mastermind behind this assassination as few would be aware of what kinds of poisons could slip past the sigils power.
@awake1122 That is the thing: No poison can slip past the sigil. Michael is never worried about eating poison because it just doesn't work on him. He knows the taste of poison, to him it is kind of just a flavor.
@Mizu I feel like I have the answer, but I don't want to say it. It's more fun to see it in the story anyways. This is a great story.
@awake1122 DM me and I will tell you if you are right. I am really hoping somebody gets it before I say it.