The Tyrant's Pet

In any country or empire, no matter how big or small, there were always places like the black market. When Aries ascended the throne, she realized that aside from other state affairs; the emperor had been monitoring the black market in the empire.

Abel could've completely vanquished it if he so pleased, but the reason things such as this existed in the empire was that he allowed it. In his defense, it shouldn't be just utter peace or total goodness. At that point, Aries wasn't surprised because she heard stories about rebellion and even read the records. If she didn't know better, she would think it was the natural cycle of any country.

But alas, Aries was aware some of those rebellions were incited by Abel's people — sometimes, Conan or Dexter would fuel the people.

The black market was the same, although it was centralized in drug trades, smuggled arms, and other illegal dealings, such as selling important information.  Only recently did this black market open up new market opportunities, which included child prostitution and human trafficking.

When the palace got a wind of this, there was a long discussion between the empress and the emperor.

The emperor wanted to obliterate the black market in one go. No mercy. No pity. The empress, on the other hand, wanted to keep it for many reasons. In the end, the two compromised and agreed to keep it, but sabotage the trades whenever they transport children, women, and men to their destination.

After many failed transactions, they concluded the reason those allegations toward Baron Clegg were made public was that those he was doing business with assumed he was the mole. Little did they know, the palace was just being patient until now to track down every single one of them and figure out who was the initiator of this business.

"Did we get enough information?" asked Aries as Abel plopped down beside her the moment Baron Clegg's screams disappeared.

"Well, of course, darling." Abel sprawled his arms over the back of the armrest, cocking his head to the coffee table. "It's all in there."

Aries glanced at the documents on the table in front of them, bending over to pick up the reports.

"The people in the black market had become increasingly sly," she said, straightening her back, eyes on the documents in her hand. "I didn't expect it would take us this long before we apprehend them."

"People are amusing, darling. If you lived long enough, you'd find everyone interesting. They just kept evolving — it's fascinating!"

"Is that why you kept bad guys around?" she cast him a side eye, only to catch him shrug indifferently.

"Not me, but Conan. He uses them as one of his cards to keep me busy every once in a while." Abel paused and frowned. "Now that I think about it, he kept collecting these cards and had been using them one after another without giving me a break. I think he's the main antagonist of this story. Should we punish him?"

"I can't blame him, since he needed you to stay still." Aries skimmed through the documents as she spoke. "Although he cannot claim innocence too, because he had kept all this stuff and is now backfiring."

"See?" Abel cocked his head. "We are paying for the price and have less time together."

"That's not what I meant by backfiring, Abel." She carefully flipped to the next page. "I meant people had taken advantage of how loose the empire was within the borders. Other countries wouldn't dare start a war with us, but inside? More and more people appear to take advantage of their privilege as citizens. It wouldn't be a surprise if some outsiders snuck inside and, after staying within the walls, they realized they could get away from almost everything if they were careful enough."

There was silence after Aries's remarks as Abel stared at her side profile. For the next minutes, they listened to the sound of paper each time she turned to the next page of this long detailed report.

"The destination…" Aries narrowed her eyes after reaching the most important part of the report.

"The destination of those trades was the fort of the Cez Empire," Abel answered, watching her turn her head to him. "According to Conan's intel, the trades would happen in Haimirich. They transport the victims, which they call goods, to the Cez Empire, and then another ship would pick them up. That ship would then disappear out of nowhere."

"The Cez Empire." The space between her brows creased. "I heard about it back then, and they should've got a wind of these shady trades within their empire. Unless they were involved in this, there's no way they would allow it. Are we going to war soon, Abel?"

"With the Cez Empire? No." His answer was quick and confident.

"How can you say that with such confidence?"

"Because I've lived long enough to know things such as this. The aforementioned empire was currently busy defending its borders for a few years now. I heard their strongest warrior, who was rumored to have a blood of a dragon, was the one defending it at the moment," explained in a knowing tone Abel, raising both his brows at her. "That also means the empire wasn't focusing on these things at the moment. In other words, whoever was doing these trades made a lot of consideration of their routes to hide their actual destinations. The effort was amazing, and I commend their diligence."

Aries pursed her lips as she absorbed all these pieces of additional information like a sponge.

"One interesting fact is that those people we sent to follow the ships and infiltrated them under a disguise never returned as well," he added in an amused tone, catching her attention as he folded his arms while leaning back. "They just disappear like magic."

"Abel, do you think this has something to do with…?"

"Yes, darling." His lips stretched as his eyes glinted with equal amusement and menace. "There are only a few places where things and people disappear without a trace. One of them is the mainland, darling. Interesting, isn't it?"