NOVPUB
Chapter 32 - 32. Arriving At The City.
The next day, Galen paced around in his room with a worried look on his face.
Galen was currently worried because he wondered how word of Crimson Moon's failed assassination attempt had spread within the inner court.
Although, the rumors within the palace didn't reveal his involvement in hiring mercenaries to hurt the fourth prince, but Galen was still puzzled about how fast the information concerning Crimson Moon had been leaked so quickly.
This meant that someone must be monitoring him closely without him even knowing.
But who could it be?
Galen pondered on this and concluded that it had to be one of his two elder brothers.
Only his brothers would be capable of doing something like that, and it made sense why they would.
They were probably waiting for him to be successful in murdering his younger brother before using this information to condemn him and possibly disqualify him out of the succession race.
"Yes, that's definitely what they had in mind."
It was a sneaky and steady plan but Galen knew it was something his brothers could definitely do.
This was because although fratricide among royal brothers was fairly common in this world, it was still a taboo in any dynasty.
People knew that Galen hailed from one of the few aristocratic families in the South, but the rest of the wealthy families in the South would only support a single prince that the Von Jurgen Household were supporting.
This was the extent of the power the Von Jurgen Household held in the South and it was also the reason why Galen was so determined to get their support because once he could have it, he'll have a lot of other families supporting him to become the Crown Prince of the empire.
But, if people were to discover that he had actively participated in murdering his own brother, Galen knew he would definitely be out of the race for the throne.
Until now, Galen had never been worried about this because just like him, his two older brothers had more than enough reasons to eliminate the fourth prince.
So as long, as he continued to do things in incognito, all three brothers would be equally suspected for the murder of the fourth prince and not just him.
But even if Crimson Moon were to be forced to reveal the truth, they would definitely protect their client as regard to the contract Galen had signed with them.
However, there were still some leeway within the contract where Crimson Moon could willingly decide to reveal the truth if something like last night had happened.
Hence why Galen had to visit the guild master last night.
But now that one of his brothers was closely watching him, Galen knew that he would have to stop all of his plans relating to Austin.
This was the best way to protect himself from being punished by the emperor and from being disqualified from becoming the Crown Prince.
Galen lets out a deep sigh as he plopped down on his futon.
"Ugh, I have to focus on other important things for now." He muttered under his breath as he stared at the ceiling with a determined look on his face.
He wasn't going to let his elder brothers get rid of him so easily and he was ready to fight for the throne, just as much as his two older brothers.
However, Galen also knew that he probably wouldn't have to be worried about this right now, if Austin had just died after drinking the poison he spiked into Austin's tea a few weeks ago.
The poison was actually Galen's initially plan to get rid of Austin but it was a plan that had also been structured in a way to prevent him from being discovered as well.
Even if the fourth prince had died the following morning after drinking the tea, most people would have not suspected he had been poisoned because Galen had used a subtle poison which could mimic the kind of symptoms found in people with illness or overexertion.
So if a physician had inspected the fourth prince's corpse, they'd probably would have suspected that the fourth prince had died a natural death and his visit to the Third Prince was simply coincidental.
But if, in a rare case, where some inner court members supporting his older brothers believe the third prince had really poisoned the fourth prince.
As long as no evidence could be traced leading to him, Galen knew he could always pin the blame to a servant of his who had acted without his permission.
After all, as long as his servants remained loyal to him, Galen was confident that they would be prepared to die for him if the occasion calls for it.
These were a few of the initial ideas Galen had thought of, after spiking the fourth prince tea but now that his plan had not only failed once, but twice, Galen couldn't help but release another deep sigh as he stared at the ceiling,.
With everything that had happened recently, Galen knew it would be better to focus on other important aspects of his life.
Days passed and Austin's caravan had safely arrived at the Western Estate without any mercenaries intercepting their journey.
The last couple of days had been peaceful but when they arrived at the city, Austin noticed the troubled look on his wives faces and he immediately knew something was wrong.
For the past few days, Lina and Mira's affection level had been stuck at level three.
At first, Austin had been worried about why their levels hadn't changed for so long, but now that they had arrived at the city, Austin finally understood why.
And so, with a grin on his face, Austin slowly wrapped his arms around his wives' waists, pulling them closer to him as a cute yelp came out of their lips.
"My ladies, since the two of you look so troubled right now, does it mean that you want me to plant a kiss on your lips?" Austin teased but neither of his wives said anything.
They simply blushed but Austin could still see the troubled look on their faces, so he decided to tease them a little bit more.
"Oh, my ladies are giving me the silent treatment huh. Then I guess that means you wouldn't mind me doing this....." Austin swiftly began to rain kisses on his wives cheeks and neck, forcing the carriage to be filled with their laughter and screams as they urged their husband to stop, but there was no way he was going to stop raining kisses on them until he was completely satisfied.
