Technically, Minos had given his soldiers to her, at least temporarily, but even so, if he was eliminated, she would be allowed to keep them according to the rules.
This rule was quite hard to put into practice, after all who would give up their soldiers, their biggest bargaining chip. Hence, most people had forgotten about it, but she hadn't.
Of course, even with the rule in place, as long as Minos wasn't eliminated, nothing would change, and at most she could tempt their loyalty through whatever means she had on hand.
But why tempt them when she could do something even better? So after making sure Minos was gone, Princess Asumi couldn't help but sneak off with Anda as she explained her own plan.
…
"Anda, I want you to spread the news about Minos. Make it clear how much of a threat he is and that he is no longer under the protection of his own men." Asumi said quite callously.
"Are you sure Miss, after everything he's done for you?"
"He's done nothing for me, I'm just a tool for him, one he'll discard as soon as it's convenient to do so. It's only natural that I discard him first, and to think he'd give me such a good opportunity to do so!" Asumi said somewhat excitedly.
"But what if this is a plot? Both you and I know that Minos is very smart. If you can see it, why can't he?" Anda said.
"It's exactly because he's smart that he doesn't care. I'm certain he sees it, but he's so confident in his ability to avoid elimination, he isn't concerned. Now it's just a question of which one of us is more capable!"
"But what if he does manage to avoid elimination? He'll almost certainly destroy us once he knows the truth…" Anda kept asking.
"All opportunities come with risk, and this opportunity is just too good to pass up. This victory could very well turn the odds back in our favor!" Asumi explained.
"Bu-"
"No more buts, right now it's just you and me and our power is limited, only capable of listening to the others, but with ten new soldiers, we could take charge!"
"... Very well Miss, I'll do as you say." Anda said, though in his heart he disagreed tremendously with this plan.
But he already knew Princess Asumi quite well after these past few weeks, and he knew she was a risk taker, otherwise she wouldn't have decided on that first plan that had nearly eliminated them in a single go.
It was exactly this nature of hers that made her prone to extreme ideas, which he felt were exactly that, extreme!
He was much more of a steady person, so his ideas and approaches conflicted quite heavily with hers, but at the end of the day, she was his captain, so he could only do as told.
…
In a dark alley somewhere, Minos was waiting patiently for his signal, and soon enough he got it.
With a flicker, the hidden mouth tattoo by his ear came back into existence, Jiro's familiar voice reaching his ear.
"Sir, it's exactly as you've predicted! Princess Asumi has sent Anda off to spread news of your disappearance. It seems she wants to eliminate you once and for all!" Jiro said, his voice tinged with anger at her betrayal.
"Good, then let's give it a few days for the news to spread. Message me again once everyone has received the news, we'll strike then."
"As commanded!"
Deactivating the tattoo, Minos walked back into the alleys, his back disappearing into the shadows as he headed off to heaven knows where.
…
With Anda's hard work, news of Minos spread everywhere, and with his extreme exaggeration, he was painted to be the biggest threat in the game, even more so then the princes.
Even then, most people weren't actually all that interested, after all Minos was one person in a vast kingdom, even if they wanted to take him down, it wouldn't be easy.
However, just as everyone was beginning to forget him, who knew that Minos had arrived in front of the Fourth Prince's estate.
Up until this point, the Fourth Prince had been extremely quiet, mostly avoiding the battles up until this point.
But while he could escape the battles, the battles wouldn't escape him, and it was exactly his lowkey behavior that further incentivised the other groups to focus on him.
He seemed to be doing quite poorly at this point, nearly half of his force having already been eliminated in the past few battles.
If things kept going at this rate, it was only a matter of time before he was eliminated completely, possibly even being the first one to go.
His misfortune however, was Minos's opportunity, and he wanted to use his weakness to tie him to his boat.
Looking up at the large estate, Minos knocked heavily on the door a few times, a few eyes hidden in the shadows immediately noticing his appearance and noting it down.
"You are?" A voice asked from behind the door.
"Minos, you've likely already heard of me. I'm here to talk business with the Fourth Prince."
"... Give me a moment." The voice said, his feet stomping off into the distance before soon returning, unlatching the heavy door to let him in.
Walking inside, Minos looked around at the gloomy interior, the lack of lighting making it hard to tell one's fingers apart.
Following the large soldier up the stairs, Minos soon arrived at what seemed like a private office, an unremarkable looking man sitting on the other side of a desk, jotting something down in his notebook.
As if he hadn't noticed Minos, he kept writing, occasionally taking a pause as if looking for the words.
It was only after nearly half an hour of this did the man finally put his pen down, gently closing his notebook and putting it aside before raising his eyes towards Minos.
"How may I help you?" He asked with a bland smile, as if he was a receptionist talking to a customer, rather than a prince discussing business.
"Before I say, let me introduce myself." Minos said, but before he could continue, the Fourth Prince cut him off.
"I already know you, your news has spread quite far. From what I've read, you're a smart man with unpredictable means, quite the review." He said, still smiling, before continuing.
"But do you know what I hate the most? It's smart people… Truth is, I'm not very smart, but one thing I've learned over the years is that to a genius, silence will be misconstrued as brilliance."
"I don't even have to say anything, and others will come up with all sorts of brilliant schemes and plots for me, creating a monster out of nothing."
"And that is exactly what I am. I'm the imagined monster, taking advantage of other people's overactive imaginations."
"Why are you telling me all this…?" Minos couldn't help but ask with some confusion, his brows furled.
"Why? I just want to give you some clarity before I eliminate you. Of course, maybe this is a scheme in of itself?" The Fourth Prince said with a laugh, signaling his men who had already gathered in dozens by the door.
Minos wanted to escape, but other than the door, the room was completely sealed, not a single window in sight.
Deciding to make a last stance, Minos attempted to fight his way out, but against these extremely well-trained Forbidden Soldiers, it was a mute point, the flag on his waist soon torn off.
"You're going to regret this!" Minos said with ire, his face gloomy and enraged.
"Am I?" The Fourth Prince said with another laugh, tossing the flag back into Minos's hands before having his men toss him out.
Watching Minos get tossed onto the streets, his flag in hand, the spies watching this all unfold quickly ran off back to report the big news.
Meanwhile, Minos got up with irritation and anger, storming off into the distance and disappearing under everyones no longer interested eyes.
However what they didn't know was that Minos actually made his way through a few hidden roads and curved alleys before arriving at a small dark house hidden in the recesses of the kingdom.
Making sure no one had followed, he stepped into the house and shut the door firmly, his body soon starting to morph, shockingly turning into another person completely!
Within a few seconds, 'Minos' had turned into Ilgon, the same person Minos had reached a deal with a few days ago.
"No need to speak, I can already see how it went." The real Minos said with a smile, noticing the missing flag on Illgon's waist.
Still staying silent Illgon just looked at Minos, but it was as if Minos had read his mind, replying to his words before he could even speak them.
"Don't worry, I won't forget our deal…" Minos said, causing Illgon to finally leave with satisfaction.
Smiling, Minos watched as Ilgon disappeared, his chair twisting back to face the darkness as he reclined back in complete relaxation.
With everything in place, it was time to sit back and watch the show unfold, Minos especially interested in how Princess Asumi would perform.