When Nathaniel finally regained consciousness, it was already evening.
Outside his room, Lycas and Bryce stood vigilantly with a team of elite guards.
Nathaniel’s mother, Cynthia Spanner, stood anxiously at his bedside alongside several imperial doctors. As soon as she heard that her son was unconscious, she rushed over with the doctors.
Nathaniel was her only son. She had devoted herself entirely to raising him, giving him the best of everything. And fortunately, he had lived up to her expectations. He stood out among the other princes and had earned the right to compete for the throne.
Cynthia had been making plans for Nathaniel’s future recently. But just as everything seemed to finally come together, this sudden crisis left her shaken.
Thankfully, it wasn’t anything serious. He had only fainted from the stress.
“Nathaniel, how are you feeling? Are you alright?” Cynthia asked.
When her son opened his eyes, she moved quickly to his side, concern written on her face.
“Mother, what are you doing here?” he asked. He rubbed his throbbing head and slowly sat up.
“I heard something happened here, so of course I had to come and check on you,” Cynthia replied.
She took the medicine from the maid and carefully brought it to Nathaniel’s lips. ”
Drink this. It will help you to recover.”
He nodded and drank it in one go.
“Even the most priceless treasure isn’t worth risking your life over,” Cynthia said, trying to comfort him. “If you want it, I’ll have someone find another one for you.
What matters now is your health.”
“I know,” Nathaniel replied. “It’s just that everything happened so suddenly, and in the heat of the moment…”
His words trailed off as he clenched his fists, and his face darkened. After years of collecting those treasures, he lost most of them in a single night. It was enough to make anyone snap.
“I already know.what happened,” Cynthia said. “You don’t need to worry about it anymore. Leave the rest to me.”
“What? Have they caught the thief?”
Nathaniel asked, his eyes narrowing.
She shook her head. “No one was caught, and we’re not in a position to pursue them.
“Mother, what do you mean?” He frowned.
“You were set up,” Cynthia said with a sigh. “You rushed in and were blinded by ambition. That’s why you fell into their trap. Consider this a lesson.”
“Set up?” Nathaniel’s frown deepened. ”
You mean Logan set me up?”
He might not have had proof, but he wasn’t naive. His vault was broken into right after Dustin gave him the Dracan essence. No matter how he looked at it, all signs pointed to that man.
The place was loaded with traps and heavy. security. Nathaniel was convinced that only someone of Dustin’s caliber could have triggered the alarms and escaped without a trace.
But even if he suspected Dustin, he couldn’t take action against him without evidence.
“He’s just the muscle. There’s someone else pulling the strings behind him,” Cything said, her voice becoming serious.
“Then, who is it? Who’s targeting me?” Nathaniel growled.
He gritted his teeth as fury burned in his eyes. At this point, only Matthias and Tristan stood in his way. If either of them were scheming against him, he swore they’d pay for it.
But Cynthia seemed to read his thoughts and shook her head. “It’s not Matthias or Tristan. If I’m not mistaken, your father is behind this.”
“Father?” Nathaniel froze, disbelief written on his face. “That’s impossible. He’s always favored me. Why would he send someone after me?”
Cynthia let out a weary sigh. “Nathaniel, your father always puts the nation first. The Dracan essence is tied to the fate of the entire nation. It’s not something you should be involved with.
“If you had handed it over, you might have left a good impression on him. But now that you intend to keep it for yourself, you’ve committed a grave mistake.
“You’re not the crown prince, so you’re not qualified to bear the burden of the nation’s destiny. That’s why he had to take the Dracan essence back.”
“Even so, he could have just told me. Why do it like this?” Nathaniel frowned.
He couldn’t understand why Valon had gone to such extremes. If his father wanted the Dracan essence, he could have just sent someone to inform Nathaniel.
“The king’s mind is hard to read,” Cynthia replied. “Your father has his reasons. For. now, drop the matter. Just pretend it never happened, do you understand?”
“Mother, what if you’re overthinking this? What if he doesn’t even know about it?” Nathaniel asked. He still couldn’t accept his mother’s explanation.
“Nothing in Oakvale slips past your father. Without his order, who would dare to steal from your mansion?” Cynthia reasoned.
While Nathaniel was unconscious, she’d already sent people to investigate. Since only a handful of people knew he possessed the Dracan essence, she thought it would be easy to trace where the leak had come from.
But her efforts yielded no results. Even with the influence of the Spanner family, she couldn’t uncover a single solid lead.
All she found was that whoever was behind this had an intelligence network far stronger than her family. And in Dragonmarsh, only the royal family had the means to overshadow the Spanners.
Grace oversaw the royal family’s intelligence network and only took orders from Valon. This meant the king implicitly endorsed everything she did.
That was why Cynthia urged Nathaniel not to investigate further and act like nothing had happened. Otherwise, going up against Valon would only end badly.
