Raised From The Wild-Chapter 131: The Man In A Red Hood

"Emperor, we were caught by surprise. They were very fast. It was too late when we pulled them out." One of the twelve men replied fearfully.

"Apprise me of what happened." The man, whom they addressed as Emperor, went to an exquisite golden throne in the middle of the room. The throne was elevated, so he looked down at the twelve men who were kneeling down and not daring to look at him.

"Emperor, a lot has happened in the two months that you went into seclusion. The First Princess of Lireya, whom everyone thought perished in the plane crash sixteen years ago, was suddenly brought back by a business magnate from Usturia. His plane crashed on the same island where the princess was marooned." The middle-aged man paused, waiting for a reaction from the man with the red hood.

"Continue," he said impatiently.

"The incumbent crown prince has a twin brother called Ibrahim. He was also on that plane, and he survived. The Princess, who was just two years old at that time, survived probably because of Prince Ibrahim.

"Interesting. I did not know that Ibarra had a twin brother. But it is water under the bridge now as he is already dead. He posed no threat." The emperor, in his early thirties, stroked his goatee while thinking deeply. He wondered why Duncan had hidden the fact that he has twins. "Continue."

"Almost two months ago, the Princess was brought back from Usturia, and the whole of Lireya welcomed her. She also brought back the remains of Prince Ibrahim in a golden coffin."

One of the monitors lit up, and a video of the motorcade where Prince Ibarra was standing side by side with Amaya was shown on the screen. The scene changed; Ibrahim’s coffin and his portrait appeared.

"She is as pretty as her mother. Unfortunately, she has the eyes of the Rocas." The man on the throne sneered.

"She turned eighteen a few weeks ago, and the first thing she did was sign the deed of sale of the Anishton Estate."

"Idiots! Why did you let it happen? Didn’t you buy the island from the Earl?" His voice boomed over the place.

"Emperor... the Earl was so stubborn. We sent a few people to pose as buyers, but they were unsuccessful. We were surprised when we learned that the island already transferred ownership to Princess Amaya. Marx Skylar helped her, and that’s why the purchase went smoothly.

"Marx Skylar?" He raised an eyebrow.

Another monitor lit up. It showed the video of the press conference when Marx just returned from the Island of Miraga, where he announced that Princess Amaya had saved him.

"So, he was helping her because she saved him. That’s fair enough. I would do the same if it were me," the emperor said in a serious tone.

"We heard that the princess bought the island because she missed her previous home. Besides, she was also looking for a new home for her pets. The island’s location was convenient. It was very near the capital. They started exploring the small mountain. We let them be because they are on the other side of the mountain."

"Pets? What kind of pets would a princess raise?"

The monitor showed a clip of Amaya playing with her pets in the zoo.

"Hmmm. This woman piqued my interest. She has tigers and wolves and an ape for a pet." the emperor started tapping the armrest of the throne. He was in deep thought.

"There is an ongoing construction at the foot of the mountain. It looks like the princess has plans to stay on the island."

The monitor displayed an aerial view of the construction site. It was taken by a drone.

The emperor said nothing, so the man continued, "The other day, when they were on the peak of the small mountain, which Princess Amaya had named Mount Daya, they deployed a drone to Mount Ibra."

"Mount Ibra? Isn’t it called Mount Agillus?"

"Princess Amaya changed its name to Mount Ibra in remembrance of her Daddy Ibrahim. That’s what she called her uncle."

"She is a bit nosey. Did they see anything when they deployed the drone?"

"No, Emperor. They saw a few ordinary animals, and then the drone was destroyed by our bear."

"In the attack earlier, how many of the animals were killed?"

The men became silent. It made the emperor furious.

"Are you mute? Do you want your tongues to be cut off?" He barked angrily.

"They killed a total of one hundred..." the man who was farthest from the emperor spoke. He was in charge of the deployment of the animals.

"What? That many?" An ashtray placed on a table beside the throne suddenly flew and hit the man on the forehead. Blood flowed from his wound and trickled down on his face.

"I beg your forgiveness, Emperor. I will replace those that we lost in the next next five days." His bleeding forehead touched the white floor tainting it with red. He felt dizzy but he kept himself conscious. He would never see the light of day if he passed out in front of the Emperor.

"Leave my sight now. Your blood disgusts me."

The man stood up with difficulty. He swayed but force himself to stand still and hurried out of the room while applying pressure on his wound to stop the bleeding.

"The beasts have bombs installed in them right? Did those bastards die with them?"

"Emperor, they found out about that," a middle-aged man wearing a black-rimmed eyeglasses spoke boldly. "A snake coiled on one of the dead animal and it triggered the mini-bomb to explode. They were not ordinary mountaineers, Emperor. Only two were mountaineers, the rest are from the Marines."

The Emperor became even more furious. "Then, did you detonate all those 100 dead animals? The volume should be enough to kill those in the vicinity."

"Yes, Emperor, we detonated them, but we also lost visuals. We have deployed the drones to check on the vicinity."

The emperor’s mouth stretched sideways. It was a sinister smile.

***

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