Capítulo 14: Trojan Horse Roy
King Axel was not surprised because he expected it when he heard his changes yesterday. Queen Camila, on the other hand, was shocked. The prince fooled everyone for 10 years.
Edgar was kneeling while looking at the floor. His tears kept pouring down as he continued acting. "As you know, Duke George was very powerful before he was destroyed by father. His power rapidly expanded because grandfather trusted him. He wanted to control the royal court through father by closely cooperating with you. When you finally sat on the throne, you severed your cooperation with him. The duke was furious and I was assassinated. Although you took revenge and warned the duke, I still felt that my life was in too much danger.
At that time, I realized how powerful the duke was, and I would keep suffering assassination because the duke did not want a wise heir. When I was approached by the sons of nobles, I realized the chance to slowly change and become an incompetent prince because I knew that those nobles were sent by the duke. I am your only son, the duke wants me to become stupid so he can control me when I become king!"
The king and queen were shocked that the prince was already very wise when he was young. The queen had teary eyes. She felt sorry for the prince. She can't imagine how much suffering and humiliation the prince had endured. Why did we not see the true intention of the prince? This question was running through the king and queen's minds.
"We are very sorry that you have been suffering alone for so long. Why did you not tell us? Your acting has no flaw. No one can tell that you were just pretending." Queen Camila's heart was aching.
"There was no flaw because Van was not acting!" thought Edgar. He was amazed that Duke George succeeded in turning Van into a waste. The prince was diligent until he was 10 years old but changed when he was influenced by the noble's sons under the deliberate arrangement of Duke George.
"Mother, the duke had many spies. If I want to fool him, I must fool my own family first." Edgar's reason was really convincing. The only flaw was his advanced knowledge, like the extraction of oil from soybeans, but he already had a quite acceptable reason.
"Where did you learn how to produce oil using franbeans?" King Axel was also surprised when he learned it. He was worried that someone gave the method to the prince in exchange for interest, which was not good for the kingdom.
"Father, when I was young, a prophet approached me and gave me a small book. He said that the book contains advanced miscellaneous information from the future, like the extraction of oil from franbeans, but it does not have any information on powerful magic or future events. He said that I have an important destiny in the world, so he is willing to help me," Edgar said with a serious face.
In Van's memory, there were prophets who predicted disasters, even the rise and fall of kingdoms and heroes. Edgar had many advanced ideas that he will show in the future, and he could only pretend that he learned them from a book given by a prophet.
The king and queen were doubting it, but they still let it go as long as it was not harmful to the kingdom. They warned Edgar that he should be careful of the prophet. He asked them if there was a god in the world. They were bewildered by his question, but they still answered and said they didn't know.
Edgar asked the king why his condition had worsened. The king said he was forced to damage his body and mana core when fighting with Duke George to win. The damage was so severe that potions and healing magic could not fix it. If Edgar did not become Van, the king might not pass away peacefully.
They continued to talk, but the king felt tired, so Edgar decided to leave. Before he left,the king reminded him that the force behind Duke George had the shadow of the Maginev Empire, and two dukes in neighboring kingdoms were secret allies of the Empire. Edgar was quite shocked, but it was not surprising for an empire to subdue dukes of kingdoms. He had seen those strategies many times in TV shows and stories on the internet.
He returned to his room and took a long breath, then lay on his bed. He felt very tired. His acting put too much stress on his mind. He quickly fell asleep.
In the morning, Edgar adjusted his layout for two kingdoms because of what the king said yesterday. Then he met the man named, Scyte, the chief of intelligence unit of the kingdom, Shadow Department.
"Here is the intelligence, your highness. The king expected that you would ask for the information so he ordered me to summarize it. If you need more detailed information, I can prepare them for you," said Scyte as he gave the papers.
Edgar nodded his head. "Thanks."
"What are you planning to do with the information, your highness? Giving them to the kings of the two kingdoms might not result in the destruction of the two dukes. The two dukes have too much influence in their kingdom. They might launch a war against Baynard. We had just experienced a civil war. It will not be able to survive a war against two kingdoms."
Edgar smiled when he heard Scyte. "Don't worry, I will not use it that way. I will use those two Dukes so Baynard could survive and thrive. We will have more cooperation later, chief Scyte."
Scyte stared at the back of Edgar.
"It seems there will be a change in plan," said Scyte in his mind as his eyes turned sharper.
Edgar went to his study room. He read the intelligence report the Duke George had on two dukes. He felt glad that the empire was currently at war with the Morowind empire. The special geography of the central continent became the fuse of the war between the two powerful empires.
The eastern and western parts of the central continent were separated by mountain ranges. Many dwarves lived in mountain near the Maginev empire.
In the east of the central continent were the Maginev Empire, Ru, Fran, and Baynard kingdoms. In the west were Morowind, the Allied States of Sorranians, Deserted Land, Grassland, Eight countries north of grassland and some countries beyond the western mountain range of Morowind empire.
The Allied States of the Sorranians were composed of ten countries. It was separated from the Morowind Empire by the vast deserted land called Mudwar. Orcs, goblins, and some beastmen were living on Mudwar. North of Morowind was vast grassland where barbarian tribes lived. The barbarians were tall ogres with red skin, a muscular body with tattoos, and sharp teeth. They were very strong but small in population. They rode tall horses. They came as fast as wind and left as fast as wind at the borders of countries near the grassland.
The mountain range that separated east and west had a part with wide flat ground. The area was called Gap. There were two kingdoms, Osburg and Iglaria, in the Gap but they both surrendered to the empires. The two empires became direct neighbors, then a war started.
Edgar wrote his plan. Later, he met Albert and an eloquent man that he ordered to find.
"Your highness, it is my honor to meet you. My name is Roy Ackland." He looked like a gentleman. Although he was not a noble, he had the air of a noble. According to Albert, he met him in a restaurant when Roy visited the capital for an errand. His mouth had the power of persuasion.
"You will become a hero to the kingdom and your name will be immortalized. I will give you honor and wealth. The kingdom will protect your family for many generations. I can promise you all these if you succeed in your mission. The mission is very dangerous. Even if you fail, I will still protect your family and give them wealth. I will only tell you the mission if you agree," Edgar said seriously.
"Your highness, I am willing to go through fire if I can protect the kingdom. I have no talent in mana and aura. I am just an ordinary person who is good at talking. Your highness gave me a chance to prove myself. Either I die or succeed in my mission," said Roy. He was kneeling and crying. He did not expect the prince to put a very important matter in his hands, an ordinary man.
"Good! Stand up first and return to your seat." Edgar helped Roy stand up. His first impression of the man was good. "Your mission is to pretend as a secret descendant of Duke George. We will pretend that you gave me the method on extracting oil from soybeans to get my trust. You will contact the dukes in Ru and Fran kingdom. You will be in charge of cooperating business with those dukes. It will be easier to cooperate with them because they are allies of Maginev empire like Duke George.
You will sell wholesale cooking oil and let them be distributors. They will entice and threaten you to share the method of making cooking oil. Drag it first, then you will share it later to gain their trust, but make sure to keep the interest of the kingdom. Buy spies on their side. Put our spies in their kingdom. Gather information on people who could become our allies. Make contacts with their spies in our kingdom so we can feed false information and remove them later."
Albert and Roy admired the vision and plan of the prince.
"I will teach you business knowledge. You can move in and out of the castle to fool spies and prove your story."Edgar showed the written strategy to Albert and Roy. He and Albert discussed if there were omissions. He finalized the strategy, and Roy memorized it. He cast fire magic, and the papers that will shock the world were turned into ash. His memory had been very sharp since he became a magician. He completely remembered the written plan. He was planning to teach and train Roy for a period of time until he become a qualified Trojan Horse.
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