Chapter 86: Chapter-86

“Yes. Which brings me to you.” Elara leaned forward. “I could destroy you the same way. Present evidence, force property transfers, exile you from Port Crestfall. But you’re different from them.”

“How so?”

“You’re political, not economic. Your wealth comes from family holdings, not business operations. You’re connected to the succession battle through one of my sisters who could retaliate against me if I push too hard.” Elara paused. “And honestly, I don’t want another enemy among the other princesses. I have enough of those already.”

Marrs processed this. “So you’re offering… what? A deal?”

“An arrangement. You stop funding attacks on me. I don’t present evidence of your assassination attempts. We both pretend this conversation never happened and maintain polite neutrality.”

“That’s it? No property transfers, no exile?”

“Correct.” Elara pulled the paper back. “But understand: this offer has an expiration. If I detect any further attacks linked to you—directly or indirectly—I don’t offer terms again. I just destroy you and deal with the political consequences afterward.”

Marrs was quiet for a long moment. Her fingers drummed once against her armrest—nervous gesture, quickly controlled.

“Why make this offer at all?” she asked finally. “If you have evidence, why not use it?”

“Because I’m calculating cost versus benefit. Destroying you costs me political capital in the succession battle. Creates another enemy among my sisters who might otherwise stay neutral. Makes me look aggressive and threatening to other princesses.”

Elara stood.

“But leaving you alive and neutral costs me nothing. You withdraw from local politics, focus on your family holdings, and we never interact again. Clean. Simple. Efficient.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I file the evidence with the magistrate tomorrow, present it to the Emperor’s representatives next week, and you’ll be tried for attempted assassination of imperial family. Minimum sentence is death, but you might get lucky and only receive life imprisonment.” Elara walked toward the door. “Your choice. But I need an answer now.”

Marrs stood quickly. “Wait.”

Elara turned.

“If I agree… how do I know you’ll actually suppress the evidence? That you won’t use it against me later?”

“You don’t. You have to trust that I keep my word.” Elara tilted her head slightly. “But consider: I kept my word to Baron Kessler when he complied. The evidence against him is filed away, inactive. I have no reason to betray that arrangement—it serves my interests to have him afraid and compliant, not dead or fighting back.”

Marrs studied her face. “You’re very young to be this calculating.”

“I’m very practical to still be alive despite seven assassination attempts in six weeks.”

Another pause.

Then Marrs nodded slowly. “I accept your arrangement. I’ll cease all hostile activities against you and recommend to my contacts in the succession battle that you’re not worth the trouble of eliminating.”

“Confirmed?”

“Confirmed.”

“Good.” Elara opened the door. “One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“If you ever change your mind and decide to try killing me again—use better assassins. The ones you hired were disappointing.”

She left before Marrs could respond.

Outside, in the carriage, Dimitri looked stunned. “Your Highness… you didn’t destroy her.”

“No.”

“After everything she did—”

“She’s more useful as a neutral party than a ruined enemy. Destroying her would have created problems in the succession battle. This way, I neutralize the threat without creating new ones.”

“But what if she breaks the agreement?”

“Then I destroy her. But she won’t.” Elara looked out the window. “Marrs is smart enough to recognize a good deal when she sees one. I gave her survival and dignity in exchange for simple non-aggression. That’s far better than what Kessler and Carver got.”

“You’re treating different enemies differently.”

“Obviously. Kessler was economic threat, Carver was direct saboteur, Marrs is political operator connected to the succession battle. Each required different approach.” She checked her pocket watch. “Three enemies neutralized in one day. Different methods, same result—they’re no longer problems.”

The carriage passed through the market district. People were talking—Elara could hear fragments of conversation even through the window.

“—heard Merchant Lord Carver is leaving—”

“—Fourth Princess destroyed him somehow—”

“—wouldn’t want to cross her—”

Good. The message was spreading.

Princess Elara Blackwood was no longer the weak, ignored sister in the succession battle. She was dangerous. Capable of destroying powerful people without hesitation.

Let that reputation spread. Let it reach the capital. Let her sisters hear that the quiet Fourth Princess they’d dismissed was removing enemies with systematic efficiency.

Maybe it would make them reconsider the cost of killing her.

Maybe it wouldn’t.

But at least she’d cleared her local board of threats.

Now she could focus on the real problem—surviving the succession battle long enough to build something her sisters couldn’t destroy even if they killed her.

The carriage arrived at her residence. Elara stepped out, Dimitri following with his folders of evidence that had destroyed three nobles in a single day.

The fox knight was waiting at the entrance.

“Your Highness. A message arrived while you were out.” He handed her a sealed envelope. Imperial seal. Official document.

Elara’s fingers went cold as she took it.

She knew what this was before she even opened it.

The timing was too perfect. Too inevitable.

She broke the seal and read:

*By Imperial Decree:*

*Princess Elara Blackwood, Fourth Princess of the Blackwood Empire, is hereby summoned to return to the Imperial Capital no later than the twenty-fifth day of this month.*

*Presence required for imperial court proceedings and succession deliberations.*

*Failure to comply will result in official sanctions and forfeiture of imperial privileges.*

*—Imperial Administrative Office*

Today was the fifteenth.

She had ten days.

Ten days before she was forced back to the palace, back to her sisters’ reach, back to the succession battle where multiple princesses were fighting for the throne and at least two wanted her dead.

Elara read the decree twice, then looked up at the fox knight.

“Call an emergency meeting. All senior staff and knights. One hour.” Her voice was calm, clinical. “We’re accelerating the timeline.”

“Your Highness?”

“I’m being summoned back to the capital in ten days for succession proceedings. Which means we have ten days to make this operation sustainable without my physical presence.” She walked inside. “Ten days to build something that survives even when I’m gone.”

The fox knight bowed and left to summon the others.

Elara stood alone in her entrance hall, holding an imperial decree that meant her time in Port Crestfall was ending.

Ready or not.

Sustainable or not.

She had ten days.

And she was going to use every single one of them.

Because in ten days, she’d be back in the palace where the real succession battle was happening.

Where multiple princesses fought for one throne.

Where her strongest sisters—First Princess Eleana Blackwood and Third Princess Mingzhu Blackwood—had already tried to kill her and would try again.

Where being weak meant dying, and being strong meant becoming an even bigger target.

Ten days to prepare.

Ten days to survive.

Then the real fight would begin.

—

Six hours later, Elara stood before her assembled staff and beast knights in the largest room of her residence.

Dimitri, Mira, Gregor, Lisa, and fifteen other key personnel sat in chairs arranged in a semicircle. Twenty-three beast knights stood along the walls, including the fox knight who’d become her primary security lead.

All of them looked tired. It was barely past dawn.

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