The Crown's Seduction-Chapter 357: Sinister Plans

Raul took in a deep breath as he did his best to compose himself. He was on his way to meet with the Hades Coven again, and he had to make sure that he didn’t look as suspicious as possible. While he has maintained contact with them for a while now, he still had nowhere near enough evidence to try and arrest them all. For one, he still had no idea who they all were underneath their masks, and second, he couldn’t exactly prepare a raid when their meeting place always changed every time they actually met.

"This is such a pain..."

He shook his head as he stared at the mask he currently held in his hands. He couldn’t recall when he started wearing one of these hideous animal masks, but he did recall it being important enough that he accepted it after he was offered one by Fox.

"I can’t believe I’m still willingly wearing this thing," Raul sighed to himself as he put on the mask. "Couldn’t Fox pick a better mask that had actual holes in them?"

Speaking of Fox, the man still remained a mystery to him despite everything he tried to uncover his identity. From simply casual conversations to trying to pick up the man’s habits, nothing seemed to work as the man just remained too secretive for him to crack. It also didn’t help that whenever he tried to get close to him, Fox simply brushed him aside and deftly swept away any and all questions he tried to ask him. It was as if he was talking to a brick wall sometimes, and he couldn’t tell which was worse: that, or just punching the man and pulling off his mask just to get it over with.

Letting out another sigh, Raul stared up at the door to yet another meeting place that the coven decided on. This time, it was located in some remote barn well outside the capital, and it took him almost his entire morning just to make sure he got the right place. It almost made him regret taking such a roundabout method of uncovering this secret conspiracy group, but he supposed that he was in too deep now to give up. Besides, he was pretty sure he was finally being accepted into the coven’s inner circle based on how Fox and some of the more prominent members were talking to him more often. Surely, if he just kept at it, he’d finally have concrete evidence to arrest them all in the name of the crown.

Raul nodded to himself before he finally stepped inside the barn. With his mask partly obscuring his vision, he almost thought he was in the wrong place again until he saw a small hatch by the corner of the building. Kneeling down, he unlocked it, revealing a set of stairs leading to what was probably a basement of some kind. freёwebnoѵel.com

Seeing where to go, he descended the rickety stairs that would lead him to the Hades Coven’s newest meeting place. He didn’t know what to expect, but he at least knew that he was going to try something in today’s meeting just for the heck of it.

Yes, he was going to outright demand to see Fox’s face again.

It wasn’t a smart move by any metric, but it had been literal months since he joined, and his patience was running out. Well, that, and he had heard that they were planning something in the very near future, and judging from the plans they’ve discussed, he knew that it wouldn’t be good for Valcrez if such plans were ever allowed to come to pass. There was no telling if he would get another chance meeting like this to happen in the near future, so he might as well go all in now and try to stop this problem before it could grow near impossible to get rid of.

’I just hope this gamble pays off,’ he thought to himself as he saw the telltale torches that lit the way to the meeting area. ’I’m not going to make more problems for Nikolai if I can help it.’

After a few minutes of descending the stairs, he finally arrived at his destination. As usual, the members of the coven were all masked and robed up, all of them surrounding a singular stage in the center where Fox was currently standing and talking about something that he failed to catch.

"Ah, you’re finally here," Fox eagerly greeted him. "The meeting was just about to begin."

"Of course," Raul curtly nodded as he took his usual spot near the center of the group. "On your lead."

From there, Raul simply sat there listening as Fox began the meeting. As usual, it was filled with some of the more boring stuff like preaching about the glory of the kingdom and their right to rule. Nothing that he hadn’t heard before, to be honest. In fact, it almost sounded like a cult as Fox preached and raved about their supremacy. There were also talks regarding their group’s logistics and current status, and that was something Raul really paid attention to. After all, these were all the evidence he needed to compile, and while they might be outdated by the time they would be needed, they would at least help him locate some of their operations once an operation against them was finally launched.

"And with that, let’s have a quick break to gather our bearings and socialize," Fox declared. "We shall reconvene in around fifteen minutes."

Hearing the announcement of the usual break session, Raul stood up and made his way to intercept Fox on his way down the stage. As usual, the man greeted him with the same jovial-sounding tone, all despite his mask hiding the supposed smile that was supposed to be on his face right now.

"Ah, Raul," Fox greeted him. "Do you need something?"

"Nothing much, to be honest," Raul cautiously replied. "I just feel like this relationship of ours doesn’t feel... mutually beneficial."

"Oh? And why do you think that?"

Raul carefully thought of his next words as he replied. "For one, I still don’t know about the plans we’re going to conduct in the very near future," he began. "I know the broad strokes, but as someone that’s supposed to be very involved in it, I don’t know the specifics of it."

"I see," Fox hummed. "And I’m sensing another thing you want to tell me."

"I’d at least like to know who I’m working with," Raul added with a nod, confirming Fox’s guess. "If we’re to trust each other on this, it would only be fair that we all know each other, don’t you think?"

The leader was visibly taken aback before seemingly placing a finger on his chin as if to think about his words. All the while, Raul waited with bated breath for the man’s reply, hoping that all of this work he had done would finally pay off.

"I suppose you deserve to know," Fox shrugged. "However, I would like you to drink something first before I let you know."

Raul blinked at the leader’s words. Before he could reply, the man had already produced some kind of liquid in a bottle from beyond his robes.

"Drink this," Fox stated. "Then I’ll show you my face."

Nodding, Raul hesitantly grabbed the bottle from Fox’s hand. For a second, he thought that perhaps this was a trap. That he might be drinking poison without him even knowing it. However, he also knew that he was too valuable to kill. They couldn’t afford harming him, so it would be logical to assume that the liquid wouldn’t hurt him.

"Very well."

Bringing the bottle up to his lips, Raul downed the liquid in a single gulp. For a brief second, nothing happened. But then, something came over him. Something that he couldn’t shake off no matter how hard he tried.

"Well, that went easy enough."

In front of him, Fox chuckled as he casually took off his mask. It was then that he recognized Ahmed, one of Nikolai’s ministers as he leaned in to look him in the eye.

"Did you really think we didn’t know that you’re not really with us?" Ahmed gloated. "Well, not that it matters anymore. You’re under my control now."

Raul wanted to retort, but try as he might, he couldn’t even move his mouth to speak. It was then that another surprise came to him in the form of Sage. The woman looked at him in mockery as she laughed at him.

"What an idiot!" Sage gloated. "Well, I guess there’s a reason he’s not the king right now."

"Quite," Ahmed scoffed. "Still, we finally have the last piece we need for the plan to work."

"Indeed. We can finally try a coup for the crown," Sage hummed, obviously pleased with herself. "It’s been too long... We’ll finally have a kingdom that we can proudly call our own."

Raul could only listen as he stood there unmoving, trapped in his own body as he watched the enemies of the crown plan its downfall like it was nothing. Left with no other choice, he could only hope that his brother could prepare himself against these sinister plans.