When Simuel awoke that following morning, there was chaos in the mansion.
Apparently the prisoner they had detained had broken out last night.
Simuel could feel his blood run cold. He knew without a doubt that the prisoner they were referring to was none other than Matthias Braunt, it couldn't have been anyone else because as far as he was concerned, Donellan didn't make it a habit of keeping prisoners in the dungeon for too long. They were either sent to labor camps or executed.
How was it even possible for Matthias to escape such a heavily guarded dungeon. There were guards surveilling not only the inside of the dungeon but all around the property around the clock. Had he really escaped on his own?
No. There's no way he could've run away on his own. It must've gotten help.
"The Syndicate." He thought out loud.
Simuel quickly grabbed a robe and ran to find his father. At the same time, Gwendolyn was making her way towards his room and she saw him run out.
"Young master?!"
Simuel ignored her and kept running until he got to his office.
"Dad!" He yelled.
Donellan was a little startled by his abruptness. Hecate who was also in the room with him was startled as well.
"Young master? Why aren't you..."
"Young master Simuel!" Gwendolyn yelled. She had caught up to him and was now out of breath.
"Gwendolyn." Hecate called giving her a hard look.
"I apologize master. The young master was already running out of his room by the time I went up to wake him."
"...It's fine." Is all Donellan said before giving her a stern look.
"What is it son?"
"I'm sorry for my rudeness but I heard Matthias escaped. How is that even possible?! You would never let him escape unless you..." A look of realization was now seen on Simuel's face.
"Y-you let him escape..."
"Yes I did. We are exacting your plan remember? There's no way their plans can come to fruition if they don't have their most important piece on hand right?"
"Right." Simuel was now embarrassed by the state he was in.
"Hurry up and get changed. You still have lessons today don't you?"
"Yes." Simuel then left, his face bright red with embarrassment.
"Goodness young master. You gave me quite the scare." Gwendolyn reprimanded him.
Simuel started to feel a little bad. He almost got Gwendolyn in trouble because of his hastiness.
"I'm sorry Gwendolyn. I didn't mean to scare you or get you in trouble." He apologized.
"It's fine. You had a reason for that. Even I would've been surprised if I was you."
"C'mon, let's get ready for the day."
..................
As promised, Donellan got straight to work in catching the Syndicate in the act.
He purposely let Matthias escape in order to help the group with their plans. They didn't realize that the Earl was setting them up.
He also made sure to send a message to alert the King of their plans. The King in turn organized a small group of talented and most importantly trusted individuals to aid Donellan with the capturing of the traitors.
He sent Donellan a message saying that he would give him free reigns to do whatever he wanted. The only thing he wanted was to make sure there would be no casualties or at very least, few. Donellan was also in agreement. He thought it would be senseless to shed blood over such a trivial matter.
And just as planned, the Syndicate started their attack by implementing a guerrilla warfare tactic in order to distract the Elders and the King.
They would be busy sending troupes to resolve the chaos all over the country and the King would be left vulnerable. They then chose the first day of the month which is a day every month where all the important leaders and the ambassadors for each country come to Novellus for their monthly meetings.
Mithridates was told it would be the best time and only time to strike since it was quite rare to have all the leaders in the same room. He decided to put his trust in Mr.F since he was a high ranking noble and knew the ins and outs of palace.
They received a detailed blueprint of the castle and the exact location of the great hall where all important meetings took place.
Since most of the King's knights have been deployed to various places, Mithridates was even more confident in their plans. And if all else failed, they had Matthias with them.
He was a powerful manipulator and could easily manipulate a large group of people with no problem. On top of that, they had the Military Police and the Aristocratic Party Knight Order on their side as well. Even if Donellan Grey tried to interfere, his knight order would pale in comparison to their numbers.
Unfortunately for them, they weren't aware of the actual number of knights Donellan had. Officially The Silver Tiger Legion had 200 knights. Now this number might seem low in comparison to Templar Knights that had about 500-800 knights in their order, but these were knights personally trained by Donellan Grey himself.
Those 200 knights could complete feats that a group of over 1000 knights couldn't. So nobody questioned their numbers. Most people believed that the reason why they had so few knights was because it was such an exclusive and hard to get into order.
What the people didn't know was that The Silver Tiger Legion was actually made up of over a 1000 knights, 200 knights belonging to 5 different companies.
There was also an extra 100 knights reserved exclusively as shadow knights. Donellan Grey had enough manpower to take over the Kingdom if he really wanted to. That's how powerful he was and the real reason why King Asmodeus put so much trust in Donellan. He never batted a single eye when threats of overthrowing him came his way because he knew Donellan Grey would take care of it.
Simuel always wondered why such a powerful man was merely an Earl when he had the power to be King if he wanted to. After taking lessons with his teacher Mr.Leox, he reaized how much of a power imbalance they Kingdom would have if he were to be promoted at a higher rank.
He still thought it wasn't fair. He should at least be promoted to a Duke.
So you could imagine Mithridates' surprise upon entering the hidden tunnels of the palace when he was being surrounded.