The Assassin and the King - SOTUS

The Tainted Scrolls

Arthit POV

I try looking through the scroll again, when I see nothing I throw it against the wall.

"Calm down Arthit."

"There has to be something." I say to Knott. "There has to be a trace."

"We will find it; they can't use something like that without leaving a trail." Knott says checking seals. "They must have something more happening."

"They planned this well." I think. "They knew about the procedure."

"Not only that but they have inside information, like who the King is close to." Knott replies.

"If mayor Lenaris son had been killed, that would have caused a fracture in relations with the King."

"They know what people know, not inside stuff though." Bright says lying on the pillows, checking a scroll.

"What do you mean?" Knott asks.

"Mayor Lenarie, everyone knows he's unorthodox." He says. "But they don't know who his people are, they didn't know about Knott."

That was true. Lenari trusted Knott, what had Knott said? He judges a man by his actions, not by his past. So when Knott and his men helped the small mountain village, the Mayor never exposed them.

"How did the Mayor's son get sick?" I asked. "Was that planned?"

"No." Knott says. "It was an accident; the river bank gave way after heavy rain. Kids crossing the bridge, fell in when it collapsed, he dove in to help."

Something like that couldn't be orchestrated, and in a small village, strangers would be noticed.l They had no way of knowing what happened. But when the wrong people came they got rid of them. They had no marks, it was clean kills.

"Where are the damn apples?" Bright says looking for them.

"Why do you want them?" Knott asks.

"I can smell them, ah apples the fruit of fruits. Of course, I like mangos as well but..."

I share a look with Knott, we dive for his pile. He grins at us, telling us we're welcome to them.

"Why are you sma..." He starts but I silence him with a look.

It's such a subtle hint, hard to tell, it takes a while to find 2 documents in his pile, we set them aside and return to our own. It didn't occur to me, it was such an old method to use, this guy has a sensitive nose. He realised we figured something out, once we find more documents we take some ledgers and head to the meeting room.

As I turn a corner, I see someone, I quickly move back, the other two stopping behind me. I make hand gestures, Knott understands immediately, but Bright looks between us.

"Watcher." I say in barely a whisper.

He gets that, quickly peaks around and sees, nods his head to us and walks around like normal. Once I see him walk in, the watcher is interested but inside you don't hear anything. I look towards Knott, it was Bright he would have been loud. The watcher walks away, angry.

"Precautions." Knott whispers to me.

"Inside." I say to him.

Kong really was clever, not only did he have important people, but he had things placed around the meeting rooms, so outsiders couldn't hear.