Crimson Wealth

PROLOGUE

The first step was always going to be the biggest. And the first step would only lead to a series of other infinite and endless steps.

The bright summer sun gleamed through the curtains of Masonberry Hall, illuminating upon the faces of the determined founders of Kasilria's newspaper companies as they left the building, filled with suspense and yearning.

The Ministry of Communications, which was held and run by the House of Bell, had announced its undying desire to pair up with one of the newer national newspaper companies to be their main source of media communication. This opportunity would allow the winning company to gain endless amounts of profit as it would continue to be used from time to time.

Matthias Axelson was an aspiring young boy. Born from the noble family of the House of Axelson, who was, at the time, working for the Ministry of Defence in the Department of Weaponry Commerce, he was determined to be the head of at least something. Working under the Ministry of Defence, which was run by the House of Aster, certainly didn't make him nor his parents satisfied. In their heads, they still had a thousand steps to go to reach the top of the food chain.

Matthias was 18, and he was still studying Communication & Media Studies in the University of Ivelshin, the kingdom's top university, and yet he had already built a start-up newspaper company named Royal Express. He signed up for the competition, with only one goal in his mind: to win.

Deep down, he knew his chances of winning were slim, provided the fact that there was another skilled young boy, Hugo Brown, who had also started his newspaper company, Kasilrian Chronicles, at the same age as him. And as far as he was concerned, during Brown's speech, he had delivered his visions and missions with an initiative and clear perspective, including the idea of creating a specific channel for feature articles created by the citizens.

This had, in fact, swayed the judges, who were all executives in the Ministry of Communications. Aside from them, there was also Duke Janson Bell, the Minister of Communications and head of the House of Bell. Matthias knew that the judgment of all the other judges would not matter as much as Duke Janson's, and so the beginning of his wicked plans began.

The results would be released a week after the competition, and Matthias sat restlessly in his room for hours that night after the competition. He had finally gathered the courage to put on some leather gloves and go into the pantry, stealing rat poison, which contained arsenic. He walked out of the house, passing through all the guards with ease as they did not have the right to ask him regarding his business.

Matthias had commanded the guards to stay put and not follow him, and he then walked out of the house in the midnight moonlight, fully certain of his plans. Knowing the security details of every single noble house, the young boy sneaked into the Bell Manor flawlessly. He thought he was dreaming, as if it was a fantasy that he was doing such an insane thing, but he had found himself already inside Duke Bell's work office, which he had remembered its location correctly from the time he visited the place to celebrate Lady Bell's 12th birthday.

The blonde man entered the room, finding a warm teacup placed on his table, and thus, he had mixed a few drops of rat poison into it, enough to kill a single man in a few days or so, and quick enough to make him faint on the spot.

He then hid inside a cupboard as Duke Janson came back into the office after accompanying his daughter for a small game of late-night chess before her sleep. The man sat on his seat and began to open the files of the competition that day and he skimmed through them one by one, reading thoroughly the judges' comments and entering their score at another paper, where each criteria was over a total of 20 points, scored according to his interpretation of the others' judgements.