Conundrum... an organisation no one with sane minds would even think about going against. And usually, no one did so either. They were the ones to choose their targets and eliminate them. To them, it didn't matter who they had to put an end to.
It could be a regional ruler or a peasant, so literally, anyone as long as they were deemed as a danger to the throne. Once the target had been marked, they would be taken care of... silently.
Most people thought their existence was just a myth, a hoax, a rumour. No one had ever seen them, so why should they believe in them? But the important thing was... just because they did not believe in them, didn't mean they didn't exist.
Well, anyway, it was in their interest that they weren't known among the general populous.
But who were these people? How much authority did they possess?
Well, no one had the answer to any of that. The organisation was so secret, even the members of the Conundrum did not know the identity of each other. Only the one rising above them all was aware of every member of the conundrum. This person simply went with the name, "The Head", while its members were known as 'fingers'.
Their sole purpose was to eliminate anyone or anything that could threaten the safety of their kingdom. They had been doing this ever since the kingdom was built on the corpses of innumerable humans and werewolves alike.
Also known as the shadow ruler, 'The Head' was responsible for inducting new members into their cult and showing them the ropes. This time... they had decided to induct the closest person to the one they had deemed as a threat... The Bismarckian mistress.
Unlike what the king said to fool himself and the ministers around him, the Head had no doubts that their king had a weakness or his daughter. That was the only possible reason, the king did not punish her severely or end her altogether despite getting numerous chances to do so.
As a result, the political and battle strength of the mistress had grown so much she could easily rival any noble in the empire... even the king himself. All of it was because the weak king allowed her to roam free and do as she pleased.
The King could have fooled everyone else, but not someone like the Head. Since the king was not prepared o handle the mess, The Head decided it was time for the Conundrum to step in and handle everything by themselves.
As a result, a week ago, they invited Donovan, the mistress's closest aide to try and make him defect to their side. The head knew how loyal he was to the mistress and thus was surprised when Donovan agreed to their proposal of getting 'rid' of the mistress. But on his terms.
"I will deal with her. I won't kill her, but I'll make sure she doesn't cause any problem to the kingdom anymore."
Those were his exact words. However, his readiness to join forces with them left a bad taste in their mouths. Even if the mistress and Donovan had a fallout, what Donovan was doing made little to no sense to them.
But considering that the Mistress would never even think that Donovan would betray her, it was the right choice to let Donovan by their side... for now. After giving promising the strength and support from their side, Donovan left to enact the first phase of his plan.
The plan to finally get rid of the bastard who had been responsible for all of it... a plan to kill, Ashton. At first, Donovan thought it would be difficult to get him killed during the examination, which also happened to be the best time to do so.
Every couple of years, someone always died during those weird tests. But everyone seemed to overlook that fact because most of the time, only halfbreed and mutts were the ones to die. People about whom no one gave a shit about anyways.
Killing Ashton inside would have been difficult because... well, Donovan had no connection switch the other noble families or their wards. However, the Conundrum easily solved that issue, and to his surprise, Donovan realised Ashton was already on the hit list of several noble families. Especially the Gruntas and the Wrings.
As a result, Donovan did not have to put any effort into uniting the families to complete one task. To get rid of Ashton. But his plan would not have been successful if the Mistress stayed in Contingent. He had to get her out of there first and foremost.
That's where Disha became a member of his plan. Despite how much Disha was loyal to the Mistress, she was and always had been loyal to Donovan more. Why? Because she had feelings for him. Feelings that Donovan never acknowledged before.
It was for that reason why at first Disha was hostile to Ashton but then as per the mistress's order and considering their upbringing, she decided to get close to Ashton. But even then, the moments she had spent with Ashton were nothing more than her pretending to be happy around him... As her hatred for what Ashton had done to Donovan were still on her mind.
Since Donovan was aware of the feelings Disha had for him, he decided to use them to his advantage. He promised to accept her as her 'Luna', the primary mate if she did something for him.
Disha jumped at the opportunity. She had been waiting for that moment all her life and readily agreed to do anything as long as she could have Donovan accept her.
So by using Disha, Donovan let the Mistress know that he was leaving her as someone who got defeated by a kid, he did not feel like he was someone worthy enough to stay by her side. That was the reason why the mistress had been upset the day Ashton asked her for some gear.
It was all, Donovan's ploy to throw the mistress off balance and remove her focus from Ashton. Leaving him alone with Disha. The plan worked as the mistress left Contingent and back to Maddencreek, much earlier than she had planned to talk to Donovan and knock some sense into him.
However, Donovan wasn't in Maddencreek at all. He had been in Contingent for a couple of days now. Planning and plotting for every single scenario to end Ashton during the exam. Once that was don't, in a couple of days, he would overthrow the mistress with the help of the Conundrum and make her realise the weight of her choices.
That way, everyone will get their win. The nobles would get rid of Ashton, Donovan would get rid of the mistress, and the Conundrum will have their threat eliminated. But first, they needed to get rid of Ashton.
"Don't screw it up. There's more at stake here than your childish squabbles." Donovan reminded the Grunta twins before they disappeared into the arena.
"They will do our job. You should just focus on doing yours." Their knight, Sir Alexander Jaeger, retorted, "Don't think just because the conundrum trusts you, we will as well."
It was Disha's first time seeing the famed knight and to be honest, his built even put Donovan to shame. She even wondered how the hell did someone of his physique become a knight? He would have been better off as a tank or brawler.
Not only he was a literal 6'9" giant, but the swords strapped onto his back were also just as huge. His shoulder-length brown wavy hair matched with his copper-alloy armour. If someone saw them, they would think that both Donovan and Alexander were born to oppose each other.
"As suspicious as ever, Alexander." Donovan smirked, "Didn't I tell you before... to shut your trap? I am the in-charge of this operation. So if I were in your shoes, I'll be really careful about that I said."
Rather than replying to him, Alexander just smirked and left along with the rest of the knights. Even though it pissed Donovan, he decided to remain silent. There was a saying among the knights, 'The knight who used his mouth to talk, was the weakest of them all.'
It essentially meant, as a knight, they should use their blades to do that talking for them. Only the weak used words, the ones who were truly strong only believed in proving themselves using the might of their blade.
What Alexander did there, was the prime example of that saying. Donovan knew that because they had trained under the same blade master who only ever taught the two of them. One could even say that they were like two flowers of the same plant who cultivated their strength from the same source. That was until Alex betrayed him and their master.
'Smile all you want Alex,' Donovan cursed under his breath, 'I'll get rid of you soon.... very soon.'
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