The Royal inspection team had been investigating the attempted assassination of Lady Elara while Adrian stayed at the Royal Palace for some time.
One of the royal inspectors, Reynold, noticed something strange.
The 33rd Prince had departed earlier in the day, yet he still hadn’t made it very far.
Even if he had travelled at a moderate speed, he should have been much farther away by the time he got the news of the incident.
Yet he had returned rather quickly for someone who had departed a day ago.
Reynold couldn’t comprehend it.
The prince was still only four years old and obviously couldn’t have planned something like this.
Maybe it was the work of Ronald.
Or perhaps someone else.
To confirm his suspicions, Reynold asked the guards who had departed with the prince as to why they had been so slow.
Everyone gave the same answer.
The prince had some work in the city, which had taken some time.
Reynold, however, still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.
With no other choice left, he decided to question Adrian himself.
Adrian was about to leave for Valewood when Reynold interrupted him.
“Your Highness, what work did you have in the city that caused you to stop during your journey to Valewood?”
Adrian calmly replied,
“I went to recruit some guards. I felt that I didn’t have enough of them.”
The answer was satisfactory.
Yet Reynold still couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.
Adrian noticed it.
He looked at Reynold and said,
“You are good. Excellent, even. You just lack some confidence.” Adrian had never thought that someone would even measure the time discrepancy to catch the assassin and so he was genuinely impressed by Reynold.
No wonder he is a Royal inspector, were thoughts of Adrian.
Upon hearing those words, Reynold was bewildered.
What is this four-year-old prince even talking about?
How can he speak as though he saw right through me?
Suddenly, Reynold had the feeling that he should simply leave and not question the prince any further.
And so, he did.
After Reynold left, Adrian was impressed by his skills.
Evran asked,
“Should I take care of him?”
Adrian immediately replied, You are reading on g.com, the official source.
“Leave him be. He will be very useful one day.”
Reynold had a feeling that it was the prince himself who had planned the attempted assassination.
But he didn’t know why.
The prince had nothing to gain by assassinating his own mother.
In fact, he stood to lose many things.
Then it clicked to him.
The prince had been searching for guards.
Maybe he had arranged the assassination attempt so that he could increase the number of guards protecting him.
It was only a theory, however.
And the prince had already left for Valewood.
Reynold decided to leave things as they were.
After all, accusing a royal without proof was practically suicide for his career.
Now, Adrian finally set out for Valewood.
As he travelled through the forests, he encountered a slave merchant transporting slaves from one place to another.
Adrian immediately ordered his guards and Evran to attack and seize everything from the slave merchants.
The escort of the slave merchants was by no means on the same level as the Royal Guards, and they were defeated rather easily.
Adrian acquired all the slaves without spending a single penny.
He wanted to bring them with him to Valewood.
Adrian then had the bodies of the escort and merchant’s arranged in such a way that it would look like a bandit attack.
Ronald, seeing how the prince had mercilessly ordered the slave merchants to be killed, was shocked.
How had the sweet, nimble prince become so ruthless all of a sudden?
He questioned Adrian about his decision and why he had done it.
Adrian replied,
“They were trading women to be used as objects of pleasing carnal desires of others despite their own wishes. I could not stand it, so I got rid of them.”
Ronald wasn’t satisfied with the answer.
He knew the prince had some other intentions.
Ronald then asked,
“What does Your Highness intend to do with them?”
Adrian replied,
“Of course, we will free them when we reach Valewood.”
Ronald knew Adrian had another scheme hidden beneath his words.
Finally, they reached a village near Valewood.
They spent the day at a camp instead of going directly to Valewood.
When someone asked Adrian,’ Your highness,
Why camp here?
Why not go straight to Valewood?’
Adrian simply said that they would go there at night.
He deliberately wanted to arrive at night so that the villagers would not see that he had brought slaves with him.
If they did, it could lead to suspicion from the investigators.
The slave merchants had died on the road to Valewood, and the prince had arrived with several slaves.
That was far too suspicious.
When night finally fell, Adrian reached Valewood.
He freed the slaves.
Some of them immediately left.
Others didn’t.
They had nowhere to go.
They asked Adrian to let them serve him instead.
Adrian already had more than enough people, and adding more would only become a burden.
Since they were all women, Adrian told Evran to train them for his squad.
He had already planned this since the moment he had set his eyes on them.
Evran was overjoyed upon hearing this.
His long-awaited squad was finally beginning to take shape.
Their training began the very next day in the forests behind the village of Valewood.
Adrian had now finally settled into his mansion in Valewood.
Soon enough, the influential people of the village came to greet their new lord.
Many of them saw this as an opportunity.
The new lord was only four years old.
His mother was insignificant at court.
His territory was small.
And the people surrounding him were few.
They believed they could use the child as a puppet.
They had no idea what they were dealing with.
Because while they saw a child they could control…
Adrian saw a territory he could build.
And the people who thought they would use him as a puppet were about to discover that they had walked into the den of a snake.
A snake that intended to eat them alive.