The Rise of the Black Plain

"Oh?"

Mirya then explained to Minos. "I don't know the whole truth about this matter, as not even the Snow Kingdom royal family knows about the motivation or the culprits for what happened."

"But the information that exists and is known to the large regional families is that that young man in question offended one of the regional powers. After that, he ended up accepting the refuge of his great 'friend'..."

"And since the prince never agreed to give in to the demands of the enemies of that young man who had participated in the Spiritual Tournament... Well, I don't need to say what happened, right?"

Hearing this, Minos understood how this had developed. "So, the prince ended up paying with his own life to protect this mate from him, huh? And what happened to this person? Was he killed too?"

Mirya shook her head, indicating no, and then spoke again. "No, at least his death hasn't been confirmed, and there's been no news of him since it happened."

"Looks like he took full advantage of the chance created by the prince to disappear..." She said without much emotion. "But anyway, after the death of the second prince of the Snow Kingdom, some things changed in that state, even considering that he didn't have an active participation in the royal family's business."

"What happened?"

"After he died, as there was no other contestant for the first prince, he was crowned the heir to the royal crown shortly after it happened."

"At that time, that young man promised in his speech that he would avenge his brother's death, starting with that state's actions against the group of assassins behind the death of the second prince."

"The Scourges of the Devil!"

Neither the Snow Kingdom royal family nor the other regional powers in the north of the Central Continent knew of the identity of the perpetrators of the crime or the finer details of what had happened. All they knew was that this young man who had participated in the Spiritual Tournament was the cause of it all.

But it wasn't tricky for that big Snow Kingdom organization to discover the involvement of this group of assassins in the death of the second prince.

Furthermore, they knew that none of the Scourge of the Devil members would unreasonably attack the second prince of the Snow Kingdom, as there was no problem between the parties.

That young man had abdicated political positions from a very early age within the royal family. Therefore, he had no contact with the decisions of that organization. Consequently, hardly a Spiritual King from that group of assassins would have a disagreement with that prince, to the point of doing what was done.

So, there was only the possibility that another power, or individual, was behind the assassination of the second prince of the Snow Kingdom.

"He said he would start this by going after the Black Market, an organization funded by some members of the Scourges  of the Devil, and make it his personal mission to destroy that organization!"

"Hmm, I see... That is quite a change!" Minos muttered in a low voice, realizing the importance of this news.

The Snow Kingdom was one of the states in this region that did not prohibit the presence of the Black Market, and consequently, the business made by that organization in its state. But with such a change, now that state could become the second to ban such power!

Beyond it was the Kingdom of the End, where not even slavery was allowed!

But in addition to the Black Market, there were other organizations financed by that group of assassins in this region, which would also be pursued by the revenge of the crown prince of the Snow Kingdom.

And that was a big plus for Minos!

'Oh, how unexpected! I never thought that such a thing would happen in that state, while I...' He was thinking about something when he suddenly stopped his thoughts in the middle of the path, remembering an old piece of information.

'Royal... Royal...'

"It can not be!" He exclaimed in surprise as he looked up at the ceiling of that room and realized something crucial in this matter. 'When I invaded that Chambers family base, there were letters related to hiring an assassin to do a job in the Snow Kingdom!'

"The Chambers family ordered this!" He muttered in a low voice as a smile slowly formed on his face.

"What?"

...

After that moment between Minos and those two women, hours passed. When this young man returned to his work in his office, he had already outlined what he should do with such information.

He only had the letter found at that Chambers family base as evidence, so he didn't believe the Snow Kingdom royal family would act abruptly just because of that.

But that didn't mean he couldn't do anything...

Contrary to that, Minos thought that he could use this information to generate a 'spark' of distrust from that royal family towards the Chambers family, and in the future, he could use it to his advantage.

According to what he had taught, the young man involved in all of this was none other than Maxwell Mayer, one of the competitors in that competition, whom Minos had saved!

That matched very well the information Minos had, including the motivation for such an incident!

The Chambers family was unable to avenge the death of one of its most important members of the younger generation because Minos had joined one of the Flaming Empire sects... But it was entirely different for the people who young Stuart had accompanied.

That is, Maxwell and Peter.

Furthermore, because the Chambers family investigators were unable to locate Peter, all of the Chambers family's vengeance was left to this lone young man who had sought refuge with his friend.

Finally, realizing all this, Minos knew that if he found Maxwell before this young man died, he would have a crucial witness to the Chambers family's involvement in this matter!

With that, he intended to direct the hatred of the Snow Kingdom royal family towards one of his many enemies, the Chambers family!

Anyway, soon, the young Stuart gave his orders to Mia and some army soldiers about this subject.

...

Finally, the day was moving to a close in the Dry City, when by this time, the sun was slowly fading from the horizon, leaving a faint orange streak and an increasingly darkened sky.

Meanwhile, the lights from the many posts and local squares were already illuminating the public areas, making this city gain its nocturnal charm, much appreciated by the inhabitants.

But the movement on the city streets was even busier than at other times of the day, with several carriages coming and going while the local shops were operating at their maximum capacity.

At the same time, Ralf and Railan were walking along the main avenue of the Dry City, with apprehensive expressions and completely dark countenances.

The two had not enjoyed local services. After all, neither of them had enough crystals and weren't citizens of the Dry City to qualify for local discounts. But even so, father and son had learned enough about this new city, especially concerning things related to their mission there.

First, there was no longer a Black Star Academy in this city, as the Dry City Preparatory Academy had completely absorbed that organization. Second, the former local guard, which had only 30 members before, had now become an army with thousands of people!

With that, these two, despite not knowing these soldiers' average strength, knew it would be futile to try to talk to Lee and Alison.

This city had become very good for people to live here, and even Ralf and his father couldn't help noticing that there were things here that weren't even in the Gill family's hometown!

So, even though they thought the Gill family was definitely stronger than the local Dry City forces, they didn't believe those two would want to change due to the massive difference in numbers.

After all, those two youths would be much more valued in a newly created and rich force, like what they had learned about the local Dry City forces, than in the Gill family!

"Father, what will we do?" Ralf dubiously asked while he looked a little regretful this time.

"Let's go...."