World Development System 76 7. The Man on Throne.

***
Near the Imperial capital at Redwood city,
At the place where Blacktiger died, one of the inspecting men of the domain lord said after looking at all the corpses, "Its a work of a professional, clean and precise, from the wounds it looks that the assassin used a lot of potent poisons. He was most probably a speedy guy from how he could inflict these many wounds on Blacktiger. While looking at those other two guys they seemed to have died in an ambush, The assassin most probably targetted them first since they were weaker ones."
The guy who was speaking looked like a middle-aged tall man with long hair and a tan. His name was Rudolf.

The other man was Greg, He had an average height as a person and black hair. Greg spoke after hearing Rudolf's speculation, "Anyways it is good that he is already dead, we were already having enough headache with him and his men and them neglecting laws willfully over here. I was always pissed that we could never take action against his men."

Rudolf smiled a bit as he spoke, "Who knows maybe Lord himself was his patron and hence his stay over here. So all that headache may just be a ruse to fool everyone including his enemies."

As soon as Greg heard it, Greg made a funny motion with his fingers which told Rudolf that he should keep quiet and not implicate him with his words, "Shh. are you intending to kill yourself and take me along with you on your Journey to hell after speaking these words in public. Some things aren't intended to be spoken aloud unless you are powerful. It's good that it was only me who heard this over here. God knows what would if any of the other men heard it."

Rudolf smoked his Cigarette, laughed and spoke to him, "Do you think I am that dumb to speak this in front of others, I trust you enough that I can talk anything I like in front of you."

Greg grinned and said, "Who knows, I won't vouch for your dumbass behavior if someone asked me. Meanwhile, I heard a rumor that this guy was involved in the illegal slave trade of our own people during the war to recuperate his losses. do you think it is true? and if it is true why didn't anyone take any action against him."

Rudolf laughed mockingly and said, "Hmm... you don't understand the nature of war, there is not only one guy or mercenaries involved in this slave trade, but a lot of aristocrats are also involved in it. Many times some nobles are involuntarily involved as they would not want to be left out in that group, so many nobles have to pretend in the upper circles. We don't know for certain if our lord is involved or not. But I know for sure that a lot of them are involved in it. This is what I heard from the inner circles of our Lord. Anyways some people are coming in our direction. Let's not talk about this anymore."

Greg too hushed and spoke, "Yeah, we better not, Anyway, so what's your conclusion on the reason for this guy's death?"

Rudolf thought seriously and spoke his thoughts, "A professional guy, It looks like the Assasin tailed the bar owner to their hideout and started his ambush from the window. A silly choice however a very clean job.

Rudolf looked at the bar owner and said, "Our sources never knew that this bar owner was one of his men. He was pretty good at hiding his real identity. What do you think?"
Greg thought a bit and gave his conclusions, "It might be because he was recruited later on by Blacktiger, or they intentionally didn't contact each other for the initial years so people don't doubt him. As a bar owner, he has a pretty good source of information from all the people traveling here. So it is expected that he might be a spy of one faction or other since selling information is quite a profitable job."
Greg smiled and continued, "Don't you think the same?"
Rudolf rebuked frustratingly as heard about information brokers, "Hmph, However, it has its own dangers as well, like how he met his fate today because of being on the wrong side."

One of Grey's men were near them and spoke to each other, "Still no new information, the same old shit, a lot of people being involved in the previous slaving which included A lot of nobles, however, Blacktiger being someone's pawn is something new. We would have to investigate deeply to find something new. Blacktiger always gave the impression of someone who is wild and free. I guess everyone has masks just like us and he had one as well. Anyways let's report it to the higher-ups and get this job done as a lot of people are increasing in volume over here I bet most of them are from domain lord.,"
Another man nodded and spoke, "Okay, I will work on it immediately."

The big bearded guy Martin said after he heard their report, "It seems that Blacktiger was indeed supported by an aristocrat from the western part of the kingdom. This is what we can confirm as that incident took place in the Western Border. Most probably at least 2 big nobles of at least Marquis rank were involved in this scandal and that may also be the reason they were able to keep this under wraps. However, it is hard to guess because he did work for a lot of dirty work of nobles from what we know about the past deeds of his men. To others, it only looked like he was doing any work for good pay and it is also because of this reason our target had been cautious enough to not reveal any obvious links between them."

Grey heard him and said, "My gut feeling is telling me that someone even bigger is involved in this incident, and are using other small pawns as a medium to not get directly involved".

Grey seriously said as he continued, "There is another reason which is bugging me, Blacktiger didn't even flinch when he made his decision kill himself as he concluded that he would reveal more information if he was under Jake's interrogation for longer periods of time.
And as he was willing to die for him, this means that he either trusts his backer enough to keep his word or he is someone who is very strong and has enough authority that even Blacktiger fears him. This is what I can conclude if what that brat is saying is the truth."

Martin Joked a bit and said one of his conclusion, "Another reason may be because of your reputation, I mean our organization's reputation over here at Aelius kingdom that he didn't trust us enough when Jake offered him a way out."

Grey nodded seriously and said as if that was natural, "Hmm... I guess that hold's true as well. I would have most probably killed him after I got information from him. He needed a pretty good reason for me to spare his life."

Martin grinned as he heard Grey's answer and thought, 'I guess this joke never gets old.'

Martin spoke after hearing Grey and asked one of his conclusions, "Anyway, we still got something good out of this mission which may involve a big scandal and leave some leads. What do you think about the domain lord of Redwood city?"

Grey added, "Suspicious from what I know, Most likely a pawn in the bigger picture. Anyway, Report and send a coded letter about the current situation here and also make sure to report our findings to Vlad when another caravan heads towards North-frontier city."

Martin laughed a bit and said, " You don't need to worry, nowadays a lot of people head for trade and travel so its safe these days when it comes to sending spies."

***
In a certain Mansion near the capital,
A man's Shadow reflected as he said, "So Blacktiger was assassinated in the end, Don't send any of our men from now on to guess about any leads of the incident. It would only give others more leads about our involvement in that incident years ago. Try to gather information from other nobles as we are only interested in gossip. It would also prevent those guys who assassinated Blacktiger to not get any leads back to us.
Hahaha, Let them guess for ages." That man laughed at the end as he gave orders to one of his trusted men. His silhouette reflected that he was in luxurious clothes.
He continued, "As for his brother, Give him his medicine which we promised and feed him enough hatred about the guy's who assassinated his brother. it would be quite a dramatic scene between both the parties wanting revenge if they ever meet head to head and fight. This will also make us honor our promise to Blacktiger. I wonder how Blacktiger would feel if he knew about this plan, A pitiful soul indeed."

His confidant nodded and agreed with the man on the throne, "Indeed, a brilliant plan Lord, this would keep our enemies at bay with little to no information at their disposal. I would immediately convey these orders."

The man on the throne spoke as he seemed quite fearful of the man he was talking about, "Do you have any news on that mad man."

The Aide sighed as he saw his lord's fear of the man he was talking about and reported, "Nothing concrete yet, just that he was using a certain upstart to diss all the aristocrats in the capital. Even his own men don't know what he will plan in the end. Many times he works on instincts and changes his plans abruptly. He is someone who likes to flip the table."

Chapter end