Once Upon The Life of The Wise King

The Spies

ONCE UPON THE LIFE OF THE WISE KING

Volume 2

The Fall of The Royal Family

Chapter 40 - The Spies

King Wenhart wrote a letter back to General Huns. He asked about the slaves that were sold into the Jin Kingdom. He wanted to know if they were any chance to get their freedom back.

When General Huns received the letter, he also thought of the slaves at the Jin Kingdom. He already talked to his subordinates about it, but they said that the slaves were not actually sold to the Jin Kingdom. The Kingdom merely became the location of selling the slaves. Currently, they did not have any idea as to where they were sold to. They need to do more investigations.

Going inside the tent, the General sat in his table and started writing a reply to the King's letter. When done, he asked one of his soldiers to deliver the letter to King Wenhart.

The next day, at the palace, Prince luciel sat in his lessons. The old lady in front of him discussed about the history of their Kingdom. She went on about how the First King of the Luciel Kingdom build their nation. At the mention of the First King, the Third Prince suddenly felt himself inclined to listen.

"King Luciel was the most powerful back then," the old lady gushed. Her eyeglasses glinted, and her hands were clasped together as she imagined herself with the First King of the Luciel Kingdom.

Prince Luciel also thought of the First King. Since we have the same name, and he also had white hair like me, then most likely I am destined for greatness! he thought to himself. "Hm!" He nodded his head. "That is right!"

"Huh?" The old lady turned her head as she was suddenly pulled back from her train of thoughts. "You were saying something?" she asked.

"No, ma'am." The Third Prince shook his head. "Go on." He gestured for the old lady to continue with the history lesson.

The old lady coughed on her fist and continued their lessons.

After reading the letter, King Wenhart decided to pull back his soldiers. However, he also had some spies gather more information about the slave trade. Leaning back on his chair, he let out a sigh.

"Are you okay?" Sitting beside the King was Queen Cielisse. She noticed how tired her husband lately and he seemed older than before. She knew they were getting on in years but she can not help noticing how fast he was aging. Maybe it is because of that disease, she thought, thinking of the price paid by each heir of the Luciel Kingdom. Now that she thought of it, she wished she could share the burden with him.

"I am fine. Just a little tired lately." The King took a breath. "Also, after all these years we have not acquired any information of possible spy within our ranks."

"You are right. Maybe there really was no spy to begin with. In any case, we only need to focus on what is in front of us and be more flexible just in case sonething we never thought came up."

The King hummed. "I agree with you, Cielisse," he said.

At the Jin Kingdom, Azazel sat in the throne room, smiling to himself. Back on the day before he released General Huns men, he engraved the symbol of goat on their tongues. With it, those people can live like normal people. They only need to avoid getting severe injury or they will be exposed. Also, with his mark, he can easily read their memories and will know the happenings at the Luciel Kingdom any time he wanted which was a great advantage to him.

As of the moment, Azazel knew that the King of the Luciel Kingdom decided to pull back his men. After that, it was easier for him to infiltrate.

"Just a little bit more and I can get my hands on that heir and take his majika. Ahahahahahaha!" His laughter echoed in the throne room like madness.

The situation at the southern border was just like what Azazel knew himself. General Huns informed his men that their duties in the southern border was done. He ordered them to packed their things up and depart in ten minutes. Once they were all ready, they began their journey back to the Luciel Kingdom.

Along the way, General Huns could not help feeling that something was amiss. The other day, he sent a letter to the Jin Kingdom, asking the King if he can return his soldiers to which the King replied telling him that he still needed them on the construction site. To make it believable, the General received letters from his men that he believed were staying at the Jin Kingdom. The hand writing matches with what he remembered, so he did not doubt it. However, he failed to inform his King about it. His Majesty will be upset about this for sure. I should have told him about this earlier, he thought with a long sigh.

Back at the palace, Prince Luciel was training. His older brothers, Prince Colin and Prince Alphonse, were at the sideline watching him. Unlike when he was showing his majika skills, when his brothers watched his swordsmanship, he could not help feeling tense. For some reason unknown to him, Prince Luciel felt more nervous. He kept repeating the same mistakes when General Calver taught him the foundations of sword fighting and strategic planning even though he already learned it before. It had been so long since he was taught of it and he forgot it already, but even so he believed it should be easy to remember the lessons again. But he did not expect that his brothers will be watching him and it made him insecure.

"I just told you, Your Highness. That posture is wrong," General Calver reprimanded the Third Prince.

"I know that already!"

"Then, why are you repeating the same mistake?"

"It is because of them!" He pointed at the two Princes. "They are making me nervous!"

"His Highness is nervous?"

Prince Luciel blushed. "No. I did not say that. You know that feeling when someone else is looking at what you are doing and you can't concentrate? That is it! That is right! I can't concentrate with them here!" With that said, the Third Prince stomped his way to his brothers and told them to go back inside the palace.

"Why are you like that? We are here to see your progress," Prince Colin said.

"I don't believe you." Prince Luciel narrowed his eyes.

"Brother, were you not used to having audience when you performed at the town? Where is that vigor gone to?" Prince Alphonse asked, showing an innocent face.

"Tsk!" Prince Luciel felt his pride poked. "Whatever!"

The Third Prince stomped back at the center of the training ground to resume his training. His mood was getting darker and he still kept making mistakes.