I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 459 Doubts
As Charles expected, the player found the other three nobles to be assassinated and attacked in the following day and night; of the three targets, two died.

Only Baron Mario, who was hiding in the noble district and had a large number of guards, survived.

The reason he survived was simple: he was protected by so many people that it took more than 30 players from the Little Erlang Backpack Group a considerable amount of time to break through their blockade during the raid.

During this precious time, Baron Mario wisely did not flee, but instead hid in a secret room in his residence.

Even after the player rushed into the house and dug it up, they still couldn't find the mission objective.

The players in Xiao Erlang's Backpack Team didn't have much time. Before they could find Baron Mario after their enraged rampage, noble private soldiers surrounded them from all directions and killed them inside the house. Except for the members providing support from the outside, none of the assault team members survived.

Thus, three of the four targets Charles set for himself died within two days.

The deaths of these three men caused the nobles, who had previously shown signs of division, to immediately reunite.

Nobody's a fool. With these successive assassinations, coupled with the previous conflict with the Imperial Guard, the nobles who hadn't yet left Treasure Island City quickly realized that someone was up to no good in the dark.

In this series of conflicts, it wasn't that no one managed to capture the attacker, but unfortunately, the attacker who was captured was too stubborn and didn't care no matter how much the interrogators tortured him.

He could even laugh heartily during the beatings, as if the flesh and blood being stripped away bit by bit were not his own. His nonchalant attitude chilled onlookers to the bone.

In the end, the nobles were at their wits' end with this guy. After the interrogation, they tried using honey traps and the lure of wealth, but he remained unmoved and eventually uttered lies that wouldn't even fool a three-year-old...

“We’re Chris’s men… Okay, okay, if you don’t believe me, I’m actually Charles’s man…”

A man of His Majesty Chris of the Kingdom of Bagnia?
That's a possibility, but that answer is meaningless.

And the second answer... who doesn't know that Charles is dead?
The nobles were convinced of this, not only because they had spies in the palace, but also because of the attitude of the Royal Guard. If Charles hadn't died, how could they have had such an attitude?
If Charles hadn't died, the negotiations the day before yesterday certainly wouldn't have even been able to begin.

So, who is the mastermind behind this?
The nobles' first suspects were the generals of the Royal Guard, who were also hereditary nobles and certainly had no shortage of manpower if they wanted to carry out an assassination.

But there's no reason or logic to it.

……

The atmosphere in the temporary council chamber for the nobles was even more tense and suspicious than before.

The velvet curtains were drawn, leaving only a few crystal chandeliers for illumination, which clearly revealed the ever-changing expressions on the faces of the nobles seated around the long table.

The news of the assassinations of the Duke of Laporte, the Earl of Hawke, and the Viscount Leonard was like three heavy shackles around the neck of every surviving nobleman.

The chilling feeling of "the rabbit mourns the fox's death" has not yet dissipated, and an even greater cloud of suspicion has already descended... Who will be next? And who is the mastermind behind it all?
"The Imperial Guard?"

An elderly count with gray hair broke the silence first, his voice hoarse.

“They have the ability and the motivation… If we all die, they can better control the island, and even kidnap the Little Prince to seize power.”

This hypothesis is logical; the Guards do indeed have the capability to carry out such a precise assassination.

But someone immediately objected.

"That doesn't make sense! If it really was the Imperial Guard, why did they confront our people in the streets the day before yesterday? Wouldn't it have been easier to keep us outside the city and then strike in secret?"
Furthermore, if they truly intended to do so, why didn't they kill Mario as well? Why leave one alive?

This woke everyone up.

Yes, the fact that Baron Mario survived is itself a huge mystery.

If the purpose of the assassination was to eliminate all the nobles who entered the city to divide the spoils, then there should be no one who escaped.

"If it's not the Imperial Guard, then who could it be?"

Another young viscount tapped his fingertips on the table in frustration.

"The Bagnians, Chris, that warmonger, would he resort to such despicable means?"

"possible."

Someone agrees.

"Duke Rapol died from a tiger-squat cannon; that was indeed Bagnians, and they've always coveted our land..."

"but why?"

The old count raised his questions again.

"What immediate benefit can the Bagnians gain from intervening at this time, other than making things more chaotic on the island? Their main force is still fighting the Snake People. Do they have the capability to send elite squads deep into our territory to carry out such a complex assassination mission?"

If His Majesty Chris wants the land, why doesn't he send someone to contact us?
Having married Her Majesty Elena, he could easily become the joint king of the Kingdom of Bagnia and the Kingdom of Minicia. Killing us would only hinder his rule over Minicia.

The council chamber fell silent once again.

Each hypothesis seems reasonable, yet each contains inexplicable contradictions.

"So, it really was Charles who did this?"

Someone raised a question. "Charles?"

A nobleman chuckled, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.

"That dead man? How could he send people? Did he crawl out of his grave to give the orders?"

His words elicited a low, suppressed chuckle, but the laughter quickly subsided because the matter itself was not funny at all.

"is it possible……"

Baron Mario, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. His face was pale, clearly not yet fully recovered from yesterday's ordeal, but his eyes were unusually bright.

"Charles...is he really not dead?"

The idea was so audacious that everyone was stunned and turned to look at him.

"This is impossible!"

Immediately, some people objected vehemently.

"Our informants within the palace have clearly reported..."

"What does the eyeliner report say?"

Mario interrupted him.

"Is everything they saw with their own eyes absolutely true?"

He looked around and raised his voice a few decibels.

"What if... what if there was a problem with all of this from the very beginning?"

For example, was it just a body double who died? Or, for instance, did young Charles take over his father's power?

He pointed to the three empty seats.

"We couldn't have sent people to kill these three noblemen ourselves, could we?"

Mario's speculation sent a chill down the spines of all the nobles.

"But the performance of the Imperial Guard..."

The old count still found it hard to believe.

"Perhaps the guards, like us, believe that Charles is dead."

Baron Mario's voice was icy.

"Don't think too highly of the generals of the Imperial Guard; they are us too..."

Once the seeds of doubt are sown, they quickly take root and sprout. The nobles began to re-examine everything, and as they thought about it, they came to believe that Charles was still alive was the most likely explanation.

Secondly, like his father, Charles Jr. is a cunning and ruthless fellow.

“We need evidence, to send people into the palace to determine Charles’s fate, and secondly…”

The old count slammed his hand on the table.

"Who has little Charles in their hands?!"

"In the hands of the Imperial Guard."

"Send an envoy to make contact and see little Charles in person, and at the same time..."

He looked at the other nobles, his eyes turning fierce.

"If we have really been deceived... then all our previous agreements are null and void."

The atmosphere in the council chamber instantly turned tense and menacing.

If Charles is indeed alive and orchestrated all of this, then this is no longer just an internal struggle over dividing the inheritance, but a life-or-death war.

The nobles temporarily set aside their differences, and a cohesion based on fear and anger began to form.

They must act immediately to find out the truth, otherwise, they might be the next ones lying in a coffin.

Meanwhile, King Charles, whose fate was unknown and whom they had repeatedly mentioned, was hiding deep within the palace, listening to Grey Shadow's report about the nobles' suspicions and the start of a joint investigation. A twisted and excited smile appeared on his face.

The chaos, just as he had expected, was escalating further.

(End of this chapter)