Chapter 88: Chapter-88

They stood to leave. Elara stopped them.

“One more thing.”

They turned back.

“I built this operation from nothing in six months. Starting with no money, no support, and everyone assuming I’d fail.” She looked at each of them in turn. “You helped make it succeed. If I don’t return from the capital, don’t let anyone take that away from you. This is yours as much as mine.”

Dimitri’s eyes glistened slightly. Mira looked down. Even Gregor seemed affected.

The beast knights remained motionless, but several tails twitched—the only sign of emotional response they allowed themselves.

“Dismissed,” Elara said quietly.

They filed out. The fox knight lingered.

“Your Highness?”

“Yes?”

“The beast knights. We…” He struggled with words. “We don’t want you to die.”

“Noted.”

“I mean it. You’re the first person who ever treated us like we mattered. Gave us real responsibility. Paid us fairly. If you die, we lose that.”

“Which is why I’m making sure you keep your positions and pay regardless of my status.” Elara looked at him directly. “You’ll be fine.”

“That’s not…” He stopped, ears flat. “Never mind. I’ll help coordinate the transition training.”

He left.

Elara sat alone in the empty meeting room, surrounded by organizational charts and contingency plans.

Ten days to make everything sustainable.

Ten days to prepare for a succession battle that was far more complicated and dangerous than anyone publicly acknowledged.

The chair didn’t wobble. The sun was rising. Port Crestfall was waking up to another day of normal commerce.

And somewhere in the capital, her sisters—both the living and the supposedly dead—were probably planning her elimination.

Good.

Let them plan.

She’d spent six months building power they didn’t know existed and allies they couldn’t predict.

If they wanted to kill her, they’d find she was much harder to kill than the weak Fourth Princess they remembered.

Ten days.

Then the real fight would begin. of them were panicking. None of them were begging. They knelt silently, hands bound, expressions carefully neutral despite the twenty armed beast knights surrounding them.

The oldest was maybe forty, with gray in his beard and scars on his hands. The youngest couldn’t be more than twenty-five, though his eyes looked older. The third was somewhere in between, missing two fingers on his left hand.

Elara stopped in front of the oldest one. “Who hired you?”

Silence.

“I can have you tortured,” she said calmly. “It won’t be pleasant. Or you can answer my questions and die quickly. Your choice.”

The man looked up at her, eyes calculating. “You’re the Fourth Princess. Princess Elara Blackwood.”

“Yes.”

“You weren’t supposed to be this good.”

“I’m aware. You were told I’d be an easy target. Isolated. Weak security. Predictable movements.” Elara tilted her head slightly. “Who told you that?”

The man smiled slightly. Not friendly. Just acknowledgment of a trap well-sprung. “Clever. Feed false information through a compromised asset, see who bites.”

“It worked.”

“It did.” He shifted his weight, testing his bonds. They didn’t give. “What do you want to know?”

“Who hired you. How much they paid. What they told you about me. And whether there are more teams coming.”

“That’s a lot of information.”

“And you’re in a poor negotiating position.”

The man glanced at the beast knights surrounding them, then back at Elara. “Quick death? You promise?”

“I promise nothing. But I value efficiency over cruelty. Answer my questions, and you’ll die faster than if you don’t.”

He considered this. Then nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Who hired you?”

“Don’t know. Never saw them. Instructions came through intermediary—a woman in the capital. She provided intel, payment, target description.”

“Description of the intermediary?”

“Mid-forties. Well-dressed. Spoke like nobility but tried to hide it. Called herself ’The Broker.’”

Elara filed that away. “Payment amount?”

“Two thousand gold. Split among the six of us. Half upfront, half on completion.”

Substantial. Professional rates.

“What were you told about me?”

“That you were the Fourth Princess Blackwood. Unfavored. Operating independently in Port Crestfall. Building some kind of market operation. Vulnerable due to limited security and predictable schedule.” He paused. “They were very specific about your morning routine. Said you’d be at the eastern docks, dawn, small guard detail.”

“Did they provide maps? Schedules? Detailed intelligence?”

“All of it. Very thorough. We thought it was solid information.”

“It was false information. Provided by someone I control.” Elara crouched slightly, meeting his eyes at level. “Are there more teams coming?”

“Not that I know of. We were contracted as a complete operation. One team, one target, one attempt.”

“But you don’t know for certain.”

“No. We’re just executors. The Broker handles strategy.”

Elara stood. “Last question. Why did you take this contract? Two thousand gold is good money, but assassinating a princess carries high risk.”

The man shrugged. “They said you were weak. That you were in the succession battle but had no real power. That the other princesses—especially the First and Third—wanted you eliminated before you could become a problem. That even your own father wouldn’t care if you died since you weren’t favored anyway.”

Elara processed that. The succession battle. They knew she was competing for the throne.

“They were wrong,” the man added, looking at her directly. “About all of it.”

“Yes. They were.”

She turned to the fox knight. “Execute them. Quick and clean like I promised. Then dispose of the bodies where they won’t be found.”

The three assassins didn’t protest. The oldest just nodded once—acknowledgment or respect, hard to tell.

Elara walked out of the warehouse before the executions began. She heard three quick sounds behind her—steel through flesh, efficient and final—but didn’t turn around.

Outside, the fog was starting to clear. Dawn proper was breaking, turning the sky pale gray.

Dimitri appeared from around the corner, looking worried. “Your Highness, I just heard—are you alright?”

“Fine. The ambush succeeded. Six assassins neutralized, three dead in combat, three executed after interrogation.”

“Gods.” Dimitri’s face went pale. “And you were here, in person—”

“The fighting was over before I arrived. I came to question the survivors.” She pulled off her cloak—it had gotten damp from the fog. “We confirmed the intelligence leak is working. They acted on Lisa’s false information exactly as predicted.”

“So the double agent strategy worked.”

“Yes.” Elara started walking back toward her residence. “Which means we can feed them more false information and they’ll believe it.”

“What did you learn from the interrogation?”

“They were hired through an intermediary called ’The Broker.’ Woman, mid-forties, noble background. Payment was two thousand gold—professional rates. They believed I was vulnerable and that multiple princesses in the succession battle wanted me dead.” She paused. “And they don’t know about other teams, which means there might be more coming or this was the only attempt.”

“How do we find out which?”

“We don’t. We assume more are coming and prepare accordingly.” Elara checked her pocket watch. “I want security protocols maintained at maximum level for the next two weeks. No relaxation even though we won this round.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

They walked in silence for a moment. Then Dimitri spoke carefully: “Your Highness… you had them executed very quickly. No extended interrogation, no attempt to turn them, just—”

“They were professionals. Turning them would be nearly impossible and extremely risky. Interrogating them extensively would yield diminishing returns.” Elara’s tone was matter-of-fact. “I extracted the information that mattered and eliminated the threat. Efficient resolution.”

“You’re not… concerned? About having killed six people today?”

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