After thinking for a while I decided I had to get rid of the eyes and ears in my house.
I knew from the story that the Student Council President of the Academy had put me under investigation and had some informants in Ford manor as well. The Student Council President was Celine Frost. The daughter of Duke Frost of the Northern Command.
But she was only able to use students and teachers in her faction and bribe the servants of the Ford house, in other words- amateurs.
She was limited in her resources for 2 reasons:
One, if she used her Duke Frost's network, Duke Ford's network would have been alerted as well as the dukes keep a close eye on each others movements. At that point it would become an open investigation and Leon would erase all evidence of his involvement before she could find anything.
Second, she did not want to use her father's resources. This was because she had 2 older siblings who were aiming for the seat of the Duke. She knew that if she wanted the Duke's position she would have to prove that she was capable on her own.
Armed with this knowledge I started devising a plan.
After thinking for a while I stepped out of the room walking around the large hallways with expensive looking paintings as I was looking around I heard a voice calling me from behind, it was James.
"Young Master do you need something?" He asked
"James could you give me the list of all the people the Ford house employed in the last 2 years" I asked.
"Yes young master. Anything else?" He asked.
"James, which part of the city has the most crime and disorder?" I asked after thinking for a while.
"The area near the markets at night." He replied confused as to why the young master would ask such a question.
"Okay, could you please buy one of the taverns at near the markets." I said
"Young Master may I ask why-" He started ask as if even more confused by my order.
"To catch some rats " I replied before he could finish the question
[Alex's POV]
Alex had been following Leon Ford for just over a month. He tracked all his movements outside the Ford manor but had never found anything unusual about Leon.
Just as he was heading home for the night to write a report on Leon, he noticed a carriage exiting the Ford manor. The carriage looked old and did not have the Ford's insignia on it. It did not look like a carriage a duke would own, it was old, dirty and falling apart. But he knew who would use such a carriage at this time, it was Leon. So, he started following it.
After following it for quite a while it finally stopped, it stopped near the town markets, it was a very shady place. He saw Leon getting out of the carriage before he covered himself with a hood
'Finally, a breakthrough!' he thought as he followed Leon into a tavern.
'The tavern is old and dirty. Certainly not a place any noble especially Leon Ford would come. This has to be the place where he meets his accomplices' Alex thought as he took a seat within earshot of Leon's table as he waited for his accomplice to show up.
He waited for a while but no one showed up Leon was on his own drinking some beer. Soon he heard the door of the tavern shut. He turned around and saw two huge men blocking the door of the tavern.
'What's going on?' He thought as panic started to set in. 'Where are the rest of the customers?' he thought as he realized that it was just the 4 of them in the tavern.
'It was a trap! I should have noticed the customers leaving Damn!' He cursed himself.
[Leon's POV]
'Truly an amateur' I thought as I looked at the rat I caught.
"Knights capture him." I ordered.
The two burly men at the door quickly subdued our guest. It was an unfair fight two experienced knights against an amateur.
"Put him in the carriage and take him to the dungeon." I ordered. Just as I was walking towards the door, another knight rushed inside.
"Master we caught another one outside" the knight said after bowing.
"Good take him to the dungeon as well. Good job today, I will tell father to give you guys a raise." I said and the knights gave a deep bow and started following their orders.
Back at the dungeon which was an underground structure near the Ford manor. It was a heavily guarded area, where there were 500 active knights guarding it, near a barracks of another 500 knights.
The rats were chained up in separate cells. I went into one of them.
"Wake up" I said as I threw a bucket of cold water on him.
He slowly opened his eyes and started looking around the cell until his landed on me and his eyes widened and his feet trembled.
"Surprising isn't it?" I asked in a mocking tone. He glared at me in response.
"Okay lets do this quickly, tell me since when have you been tailing me? What is your purpose? Who ordered you to do so? Who are you working with?" I asked in a calm almost indifferent tone.
"Hah!, You aren't getting anything from me." He said as looked me in the eye.
"Are you sure about that Alex." I said as an evil smile was plastered on my name. His eyes widened in surprise.
"You have a great resolve even though you are just a student." I said as the grin on my face grew larger.
Alex realized the situation he was in as a chill crept down his spine.
"I am not telling you anything. You are going to kill me either way." Alex said
"Kill you? Well that is not necessarily true" I said while looking into his eyes.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked with a flash of hope in his eyes.
"Well you see my main goal is to stop whoever is ordering you from investigating me further. So, even if I kill you they can send more. So, I want to make a deal with them and for that I will need as many bargaining chips as I can get. Right now I have only you so the deal probably won't work but, if I have information on all of their spies, the deal will probably go through and you can walk free." I said calmly explaining the situation. It was a good deal for a spy who already got caught and was at my mercy.
"You have a family too you know." I said in a cold voice when I saw him still struggling to make a choice.
"I will talk." he said after he heard my threat.
"You better not lie because we have one of your friends in the next cell." I said as coldly and walked out of the room.