Second Arc (His Art of War) - 76. Cheap Lies
Meanwhile, in the Scarlet Stone Castle's study room. Angel sat behind King Eudon's desk with several documents in his hand. King Eudon's aides stood on one side of the room, lowering their heads in fear. Meanwhile, several of his troops were on guard in the room.
His eyes moved from side to side to read the documents. Since he already knew that the agreement between Zephyrus and Asteria was only carried out verbally, he only examined rebellion reports that occurred recently, especially regarding the court's pros and cons. Now, he knew that Ilex got the poison by tricking King Eudon, and also knew that Ilex worked with rebels for a long time to take over Zephyrus.
But what was confusing for him, with Ilex's position as a prince of Asteria, if he was really serious about helping the rebels, Zephyrus should have already fallen into the rebels' hands by now. That's why he guessed that Ilex actually only used the rebels and had no intention of helping them. Now that Asteria had fallen, Ilex changed his mind and planned to reclaim his kingdom using the rebels' help. But of course, Ilex had to help the rebels seize the kingdom of Zephyrus first before they could help him.
Fortunately, the Heart Family's assassination was unsuccessful. Angel was also grateful that he had given up his intention of killing the Heart Family earlier. If he did, it would be the same as helping the rebels to take over Zephyrus which would end up detrimental to him.
Therefore, instead of gathering the nobles as he did after conquering Asteria, Angel searched out who was involved with the rebels, including the nobles who opposed King Eudon. He planned to finish off the rebels to the root, to make sure Ilex didn't have a chance to build up his army in Zephyrus. In addition, he had also sent a Magic Messenger to Gaia to keep a closer eye on Ilex. Yes, even though Ilex was clearly guilty but instead of getting rid of him right away, he decided to make Ilex confess all of his crimes to the public before executing him. This was done to avoid accusations that Euphorion had violated the agreement that could result in another war as well as to clear Angel's name.
The knocking sounds came which was followed by the sound of the door opening. Frost and King Eudon entered the room. Frost bowed. While King Eudon spoke.
"Why did you call me?" he said without further ado.
Angel placed the document in his hand on the desk and turned his gaze to King Eudon.
"Take a seat," he said casually.
King Eudon approached and sat in front of him, while Frost stood behind him.
"Leave us," he ordered.
The guards lowered their heads before exiting the room one by one. Meanwhile, King Eudon's aides exchanged glances briefly before returning their gaze to King Eudon. Their worry was clearly visible on their faces. Just like Rose, they also thought Angel intended to kill King Eudon.
Since both of them hadn't moved from their position, he shifted his gaze to them.
"Is my order unclear?" he said in a cold tone.
They startled but they insisted on staying.
While seeing that his two aides were still in their position, King Eudon turned his gaze to them.
"Leave us, this is an order!" he said in a stern tone.
After hearing King Eudon's command, the aides bowed and exited the room reluctantly.
Once the door closed, Angel began their conversation.
"I want to ask you a few questions. I hope you can answer it honestly."
King Eudon smirked.
"I also want to ask some questions to you and I hope you can answer them honestly." His eyes stared at Angel sharply.
"I'll answer it as best as I can." Angel didn't know what King Eudon was going to ask but he guessed it had something to do with the previous incident.
"Likewise with me." Meanwhile, King Eudon guessed that Angel would ask about the agreement between Zephyrus and Asteria.
"Where do you keep the Slyhelm's rebellion report?" he asked without further ado. Even though he already knew that incident clearly through the elite Asteria troop's memory earlier, that was not enough. He still needed more information about the rebels. Meanwhile, he had checked several reports relating to the rebellion but did not find any information about that incident.
King Eudon frowned since he didn't expect that question.
"Why do you want that document?"
"As long as you haven't answered my question, I won't answer yours either."
"You won't find it because I never received that report," replied King Eudon.
"What do you mean never received that report?" The incident had passed several months ago and even involved a princess. There was no way the military leader in charge had not made any reports.
King Eudon sighed at his negligence.
"According to Rose, the report was already made but it looks like someone stole it before I could check it."
Angel was silent for a moment as he deep in thought. He knew that rebellion was handled by General Ferand and he was dead, so Angel had no choice but to ask Rose to find out more about this rebellion.
"What about the captured rebels? Did they say anything?" he asked again.
"Nothing. They were only some armed villagers. All of them didn't understand anything."
'It's worse than I thought.' Angel fell silent again as he returned deep in thought.
Seeing Angel fell silent, King Eudon decided to find out about his true identity.
"Angelus Raizel Reinheart, is that your real name?" asked King Eudon suddenly.
"I'm not a Reinheart anymore," he replied in a cold voice.
"Since you are from the Reinheart family, may I know why you have magic power?" This was the main reason why no one realized he was the second prince of Asteria. Because everyone was fixated on that statement.
"If I say I got this power from the person who killed my father, would you believe it?" he said in a cynical tone. Fifteen years ago, after he woke up, he had already told everyone about the shadow and the crystal. But even his own family didn't believe him, accused him of lying and said he was crazy. Since then he decided not to say anything about this matter to anyone.
"Do you think I'll believe that nonsense?" said King Eudon in the same tone as Angel's.
A breath escaped from his mouth accompanied by a smirk. He didn't take it personally because he'd expected it.
"I already told you the truth, believe it or not, it depends on you."
King Eudon sighed, of course, he had expected Angel couldn't possibly tell it. But he didn't think Angel would lie to him with such cheap lies.
As he saw King Eudon's displeased expression, Angel decided to continue his questioning later after he had come up with a better way to face the rebels.
"I think that's enough."
"Then I'll excuse myself." King Eudon just got up from his chair but Angel stopped him.
"Wait, there's one more thing. Come with me," he said as he got up from his chair.
"What do you want?" asked King Eudon unhappily.
"I told you to come with me. It was an order, not a request." He walked to the exit. While King Eudon let out one more sigh before following him.