The Crown's Seduction-Chapter 363: All to Himself

"That took far easier than it should’ve..."

Ahmed let out a small smirk of satisfaction as he stared at the carnage he had caused at the northern province’s capital. While his plague still hasn’t reached its full potential yet, it had already done its job of goading Nikolai north to investigate its suspiciousness. He had made extra sure that the disease was suspect, even going so far as to plant a fake laboratory where the disease would’ve supposedly come from. And yet, he didn’t even need to play that card of his yet. Instead, the king had taken the bait and went inside the trapped capitol building and easily died for them.

"You’ve gotten rid of him, right?" Sage asked him as she took her spot by his side, her mask still on as they both watched the plague rampaging beneath them. "You made sure of it?"

"Of course, I did," he scoffed at his mother, his own mask now back on his face as he spoke. "There’s no way he could’ve escaped on his own."

Truly, they were lucky that the king had gone north without any sort of protection whatsoever.

Even his beautiful queen was nowhere in sight, let alone his usual lackeys as Nikolai foolishly strode forth all on his own. In fact, Ahmed didn’t expect it to be the case. It was why his mother Sage was there with him, after all. She was supposed to run interference with any and all support Nikolai had that could rescue him from the trap. They needed things to go on smoothly as planned.

"Is that so? Have you seen the body, at least?" Sage curiously asked.

"If there even is one, I doubt it would be a pretty sight," Ahmed smugly chuckled. "That’s on top of him having the entire capitol building being toppled right onto him. If my coordinated attacks didn’t work, then that surely would’ve killed him."

There was simply no way that their enemy should be able to survive against such odds. And even if he would somehow miraculously survive, then him and his men were already there to intercept him before he could even attempt to escape. After all, that was the reason why they were still waiting there, watching as the building collapsed right before their very eyes from the force of his attack.

"To be fair, he had survived worse odds than this," Sage shrugged as she gave their supposedly dead king some credit. "He’s strong. Stronger than all of us..."

"But clearly not as smart," Ahmed smirked. "He let his strength blind him. He thought he was invincible, and we took advantage of that to kill him here and now."

"Or so it would seem so far," she reminded him. "There’s no telling if he’s truly dead."

"Why else do you think we’re still here then? To just sightsee?" he snarled, rolling his eyes at the doubtful woman. "We’re here to make sure that things go according to plan. Nikolai could very well be still alive, so we’re here making sure that doesn’t come true, Mother."

Instead of replying, Sage simply crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned on the nearest wall. Adjusting her mask, she let out another scoff before turning her gaze back at the rubble where Nikolai’s dead body supposedly laid. "Say, how goes some of the plans? I’m sure there’s some setbacks in the other parts of the kingdom."

"To be honest, things are going smoothly," Ahmed admitted with a shrug. "Beyond the usual logistical issue and some resistance from those that refused our bribes, all are going well within calculations."

In fact, it was going too smoothly, in his opinion. He expected at least one or two of their current operations to be discovered and dismantled. Even more, he fully expected to be discovered by the enemy at least some weeks ago, and yet here he was still enjoying his anonymity like nothing even happened. Not even the fools Raul and Nikolai managed to crack him, and it seemed like it would only take him revealing himself to them for them to know that he had never been on their side.

"Oh? So we’ll be moving on with the next steps of the plan soon enough?" Sage asked.

"Depends on how things lay after the news of Nikolai’s death spreads," Ahmed hummed as he nodded. "Remember, Queen Mineah is smarter than the two brothers. She won’t go down without a fight. Or at least, until she has no other avenue other than to concede defeat."

It was also something he already calculated for. While she would be his queen eventually, Mineah would never take this lying down. And that was on top of her being a formidable opponent in her own right. She had resources that could rival his if she was pushed hard enough, and if she ever caught wind that there was a conspiracy surrounding her husband’s death, she would stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

From that moment on, they would be on a timer to enact their plans before she could gather enough strength to uncover and destroy them.

"Why are you even worrying about that woman?" Sage scoffed. "She’s powerless without Nikolai. And while she might be powerful on paper, without the king’s resources, she’s essentially helpless."

"Don’t underestimate her," Ahmed grunted. "She has her own agents. Of that, I’m sure. There’s simply no way that a woman of her caliber would be helpless without her husband’s power and resources. And even then, she has Ebodia’s backing. If she wanted to, she could contest Raul’s claim once we start our play for the throne."

Indeed, that was one of the many things Mineah could fight against them should they start their play without enough preparation. While Raul would have the legitimacy needed to rule, Mineah was still the sitting queen of the kingdom. Her word still had power, even if it would never be as strong as the king’s himself. She could delay things long enough for her to build a more powerful case against them. Even worse, if she was pregnant, then she could simply sit as the Queen Regent and bar them from ever getting the crown anyway.

"Then why not kill her then?" she pointed out with a frown. "If she’s that much of a problem, then let’s just get rid of her right here and now."

"And risk a war against Ebodia? What you’re asking is allowing the neighboring kingdoms to meddle in the affairs of Valcrez," Ahmed hissed. "Mineah’s tied to both Ebodia and Cordon, and we can’t take them both at once, especially while the kingdom reorganises from the chaos we ourselves caused."

Well, that wasn’t the only reason he didn’t want to kill Mineah. No, the truth was that he wanted her for himself, to have her as his queen and have her blood all to himself. It just so happened that he knew of the geopolitics currently surrounding their kingdom.

"Alright then? What do you suggest we do about her?" Sage dubiously asked. "We can’t kill her, and yet we can’t ignore her."

"Leave that to me," Ahmed vaguely replied. "I have a plan to deal with her."

"Are you sure?" she scoffed.

"Yes, I’m sure," he hissed at him. "Now let’s look for any sign of Nikolai’s survival. It hasn’t been an hour yet. If he’s still alive, he’s going to try and dig himself out of the rubble."

Cutting the conversation short, Ahmed kept his eyes peeled at clouds of dust now covering the ruined capitol building. While he could just look for Nikolai’s corpse himself, doing so would be too dangerous. Also, why bother endangering himself when he could let the elements get rid of the man? Even if the king somehow survived, he would soon suffocate from the lack of air. He was currently under tons of stone and heavy rubble, and that was surely enough to crush him to death.

"Do we really have to wait for longer?" Sage complained.

"Just a bit more," Ahmed sighed.

Minutes ticked by, and soon, it had been over an hour since the last dust cloud settled on Nikolai’s would-be tomb. If there was any chance that the king was alive, then his chance to get fresh air had already long passed. He was dead. Of that, he was sure of it.

"How about now?"

"Fine, we’re leaving," Ahmed sighed yet again as he rolled his eyes at his impatient mother. "We can look for the body later. For now, let’s cordon the entire area off to prevent others from further investigating what happened."

Ahmed could simply shrug as he turned around. It had been some time since he had disposed of Nikolai on these very grounds. With no sign or hair of Nikolai surviving, surely they could finally leave. And yet despite everything, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. That somehow, the king had survived, and was now currently plotting their downfall as they speak.