The Crown's Seduction-Chapter 370: A Certain Someone

The case against the Hades Coven was still in full swing, and Nikolai’s men were currently hard at work trying to figure things out. Of course, that meant gathering enough evidence to prove that the group existed in the first place. Sure, they already knew that it was a thing that somehow organized this entire plague and their king’s supposed death, but knowing and proving were two entirely different things.

And of course, such a difficult task fell to those the king trusted the most, which was why Luis and Fritz were doing their best to ensure that everything was properly accounted for.

"Why are we here again?" Fritz sighed as he fanned himself with his trusty fan. "It’s so hot out here. We should be in a building or something."

"And what? Do nothing and possibly let our men miss something that we could’ve spotted?" Luis sighed as he stood beside him. "Trust me, I don’t want to be here anymore than you do, but work is work, and our duties to His Majesty remain paramount."

Fritz let out another sigh as he stared at the work ahead of them. They were currently in a barn of some sort somewhere on the outskirts of the capital. It wasn’t hot or terribly far away by any means, but its location was just far away enough for it to be a pain to manage.

"And of course we get the furthest hotspot that needs investigating," Fritz lamented, shaking his head with a mocking frown. "Why couldn’t we get a warehouse somewhere within the capital itself?"

"Because they’re easy enough to search," Luis pointed out with a scoff. "In addition, I’m sure we’ll get to them eventually anyway, just to make sure that we left no stone unturned."

Fritz simply shrugged even as he let out a small breath at the task at hand. He wasn’t terribly inconvenienced, but it was still very much something that he didn’t like to do. He loved being outside, but being in the middle of nowhere felt like an insult to his time.

"At least you look like you’re having fun," Fritz scoffed at his fellow Scion.

"I’m not, really," Luis admitted with a faint smile. "I’m just doing my duties."

"And so am I," Fritz replied back. "But honestly, I can do that even back in the capital. And you too for that matter."

"And let the men just do the dirty work then," Luis chuckled. "At this current time? I’d rather not."

Fritz let out another sigh as he rolled his eyes. He really could be doing anything else other than mucking around in the dirt at some barn in the middle of nowhere. He could be helping with the relief efforts. Hell, he was gladly making his way through a list of suspects in his own time to try and see who were members of this coven they were trying to uncover. But nope. He just had to be here.

"Why are you being so grumpy anyway?" Luis teased him. "You’re not usually like this."

"I just think that my time is better spent elsewhere," Fritz blandly replied. "My talents are wasted here."

"Is that so? Are you sure you’re not just missing a certain someone back in the capital?"

Fritz raised a brow at the sudden question. It was so out of left field that he couldn’t help but ask, "What kind of assumption is that? I’m not missing anyone."

"That’s not what I think," Luis muttered. "You’ve been spending a lot of time with Minister Laura recently, correct?"

His eyes widened at that accusation, especially since he couldn’t really deny it in the first place. He was indeed spending more time with their new minister, and there was more to their meetings than the usual duties as well. However...

"We cooperate on a number of projects and cases, so naturally I’ll spend a considerable amount of time with her," Fritz casually replied, doing his best not to sound flustered. "Why? Is it not natural to spend time with co-workers now?"

"I’m pretty sure you do more than just work with her, Fritz," Luis teased with a straight face.

"And how do you know that? Are you stalking me now?" Fritz teased back in an effort to fight him off. "I didn’t think you swung that way."

"No, but you do something regularly enough times and someone will notice," Luis fired back with a soft smirk. "You started drinking again recently, correct? And with her, of all people."

"Again, we were simply talking business regarding a few of our shared investigations," Fritz rebutted with a twitch of his brow. "There’s nothing wrong with that, right? What brought this on anyway?"

"Nothing much," Luis shrugged. "Truth be told, I was just getting a bit bored."

Laura was right. It seemed that Luis was no longer mad at him seeing how the man could casually tease him like this.

Fritz blinked at the answer he just got. Somehow, he wanted to be angry at Luis for making him come up with reasons to be with Laura. Then again, he couldn’t really be bothered to be as such. It was already a pain being there in the first place, and being angry would just make his experience worse overall.

"You know what? I’ll let it go," Fritz shrugged with a sigh.

"Let what go?" Luis asked.

Fritz let out another scoff as he turned around and shrugged. "Nothing. Continue on with your work," he chuckled. "I might as well start helping out so that we can get out of this place sooner rather than later."

With his piece said, Fritz folded his fan into his pocket before setting his sights on the abandoned barn in front of them. So far, none of them have entered the place, so he might as well be the first one to do so.

"Be careful in there, Lord Fritz," Luis warned him. "The men haven’t checked if it’s safe in there."

"I’ll be fine," Fritz lazily waved his friend off. "We have to get to it eventually anyway."

Lazily waving his friend away, Fritz went ahead and did exactly what he wanted. After all, if they were going to waste their time in that place, they might as well get something out of it.