The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1403 Suspicious Intent

Crown Prince Lukas was immediately suspicious of Karl’s intentions. It didn’t take a genius to realize that he knew more than he was willing to share, so now that he was pushing for Rue to be made Crown Princess, his motives were definitely suspect.

Could it be that Karl wanted her to take over his position?

Or did he just think that Rue would make a good Queen?

The third possibility was the one that was truly disturbing, though. What if the Chaos Dragon had foreseen something that made it necessary for Rue to be Queen? Could there be some catastrophe headed their way that would be averted with certain people in just the right role?

Having the right person doing the job when things went wrong was the most foolproof method of saving citizens in a disaster.

But the not knowing was killing him.

“I will need to think about the best options, both for the Kingdom and for Rue. I get that political marriages are different, but I can’t condemn her to a life like the Queen has with my father, a loveless political union, if there is a better option.” He relented after a moment.

Karl shrugged. “It’s up to you. Do what you think needs to be done, and I will go along with it. I’m sure you already know that I’m not allowed to tell you the future that has been foreseen, but don’t let it stress you out too much.

What needs to be, will be. And I believe that we’ve already averted the very worst of it.

Probably,”

Now that he thought of it, there was still an excellent chance that Rue could turn down the dark path if another attack like this was successful, and she lost one of the few friends that she had managed to gain.

The loss of Mildred would have been devastating to her, and she would have never forgiven the Queen for setting up the attack, even if whatever “royal investigation” they did was to produce evidence to implicate someone else. It didn’t take a genius to gather that there was likely to be a cover-up to protect whoever had enough power to set that explosion.

In short, Misty had set him up. There was no easy way to ensure that Rue was going to take the light path instead of the dark unless he did something drastic that would put her so far from danger, or so far above her peers, that it would become impossible for anyone to act against her.

Before Lukas could answer, a strange training technique caught his attention. Cara was teaching Rue melee combat styles, but the current technique involved sliding forward on her knees and attacking with an uppercut. Only it was done with the hand open and claws extended.

“Is the badger teaching her to…”

Karl shrugged. “Almost certainly, yes. Cara does not believe in off limits attacks when it comes to self-defence. I seem to recall that you asked her about vital zones before.”

Lukas shook his head. “That would have been the black dragon or Barry. But I get what you mean. Interestingly, that fighting style doesn’t look ineffective. It’s brutal and crude on the outside, but the more you look at it, the more obvious it becomes that it is designed to avoid common attack patterns and sneak inside to do maximum damage on a larger target.

Cara would nearly always be fighting someone larger than she is, and Rue is also smaller than average for her age.

She might actually have been one of the best possible options to teach the Princess about close combat.”

Karl wouldn’t go that far. But Cara’s fighting style was effective, he would give it that much.

The pair watched the training for a few more minutes, while Karl tried to determine what it would take to get him through this mission that Misty had sent him on, and then the Butler came to relay a message.

“Highness, I have received word from the wall scouts that we have visitors coming up the mountain. They are not flying any heraldry on their carriage, but the beasts appear to be Raptors from the Palace. What rooms should we make ready?” He asked.

Prince Lukas frowned. They weren’t expecting to see anyone at all.

In fact, that was the entire point of them coming here in the first place. If they were just going to start receiving visitors from the Palace, it would be impossible to ensure the Princess’s security. And then they would either have to push forward all their planning, or they would have to take more drastic measures, like going into complete isolation.

That would be a pain for the Crown Prince, as he still had duties to complete while he was here, and the necessary outside communication could reveal any hiding spot that they might choose.

“As they aren’t showing any Royal emblems, prepare the Noble Guest rooms for them. I was not expecting guests, so they may have arrived uninvited to the Royal Retreat. Treat them well, but their intentions may be suspect.” Lukas explained.

The Royal Family had protocols for this sort of thing, where someone pursuing one of the Family members had no boundaries and was willing to pursue them anywhere to obtain whatever outcome it was that they were after.

Most often it was a marriage alliance, but Lukas hadn’t heard any recent rumours of them for himself or any ever for Rue.

Though, given recent changes, that might not be the case much longer.

“I can keep them lost on the mountain if you would like.” Karl suggested.

“How would you do that?”

“Illusionary Domain. They enter, drive in a straight line, only to find themselves back at the start, facing the wrong way. The road is too narrow to turn around a carriage, so they should be suitably confused.” Karl offered.

Lukas laughed. “We will save that for when we know that the guests will be an annoyance. These might just be curious, or they might be sent by someone who thought that they were being helpful.”

Like Barry or Dakkarian, Karl assumed. Though who they would send, other than blue dragons, was a mystery to him.