Chapter 398

Chapter 398
Leo had spent years walking through his own territory without ever truly seeing the people who kept it running.

That changed after Kai showed him the strange warning hidden inside the recovered documents. Do not trust the first person who offers you the complete truth. The words had settled uncomfortably in his mind, forcing him to reconsider assumptions he had never previously questioned. Danger no longer felt like something arriving exclusively from outsiders. It could already be walking these halls, wearing a familiar face, blending seamlessly into routines nobody thought twice about.

So he started watching differently.

Throughout the ceremony's second day, Leo positioned himself strategically near various sections of the territory, observing not just visiting guests but the servants, guards, and long-time staff who moved through the estate with the kind of practiced invisibility that came from years of familiar presence. People his family trusted implicitly, people nobody would ever suspect precisely because they had earned that trust through decades of loyal service.

It was during one of these quiet observations that he noticed Martha, an elderly servant who had worked for their family since before Leo was born, moving toward the private family wing with unusual purpose.

Ordinarily, nobody would question her presence there. She had earned unrestricted access years ago, trusted completely with sensitive areas most staff members never entered. But something about her behavior today felt subtly wrong, the way she kept glancing over her shoulder, checking the empty hallway behind her before continuing forward.

Leo followed at a careful distance, keeping himself hidden within the shadows cast by ornate decorations lining the corridor. Martha moved with deliberate slowness, eventually stopping near a decorative statue positioned outside one of the private meeting rooms rarely used except during major gatherings.

He watched as she glanced around one final time, apparently satisfied nobody was observing her, before quickly bending down and tucking something small beneath the statue's base. Within seconds, she straightened again, smoothing her apron with practiced calm, and continued walking as though nothing unusual had occurred.

Leo remained frozen, watching her disappear around the corner before finally allowing himself to breathe again.

He waited several minutes, ensuring the hallway remained completely empty, before approaching the statue carefully. His heart pounded steadily as he crouched down, fingers searching along the base until he located the small envelope Martha had hidden there.

He opened it carefully, revealing a folded piece of paper covered in the same coded symbols and unfamiliar cipher system that Kai had described finding within the recovered documents. Near the bottom corner, unmistakably, sat the exact same strange symbol, interlocking circles that meant nothing to Leo but clearly held significant meaning to whoever was involved in this secret exchange.

His blood ran cold. Someone inside their own territory was secretly passing messages, using trusted staff members as unwitting or complicit couriers, exchanging information nobody within the family had any awareness of.

He tucked the envelope safely inside his jacket, quickly resealing the space beneath the statue as though nothing had been disturbed, before making his way immediately toward Kai's room.

He found his younger brother alone, still sorting through the earlier documents they had recovered from the storage building, and closed the door firmly behind him before speaking.

"I need to show you something."

Kai looked up immediately, noting the seriousness etched across Leo's expression. "What happened?"

Leo pulled out the envelope, setting it carefully on the desk between them. "Martha hid this beneath the statue outside the private meeting room. Same symbol as the one you found in that torn note."

Kai's face paled as he examined the envelope carefully, comparing the symbol against the small folded paper he had discovered earlier tucked between the notebook's pages. "This is identical."

"I know."

"Martha has worked for our family since before I was even born. She helped raise us. How could she possibly be involved in something like this?"

"I do not know if she understands what she is actually doing," Leo said carefully. "Maybe someone is using her without her full knowledge. Maybe she believes she is simply delivering something harmless."

"Or maybe she has been compromised somehow. Threatened, perhaps, or bribed."

They sat together in tense silence, both processing the unsettling reality that someone trusted implicitly for decades might be unknowingly or willingly participating in whatever conspiracy continued threatening their family.

"We cannot confront her directly," Kai finally said. "If she genuinely does not understand what she is involved with, panicking her could alert whoever is actually behind this. And if she does understand, confronting her openly gives them warning that we know."

"So what do we do instead?"

"We watch. Whoever placed that message expects someone to eventually collect it. If we monitor that location carefully, we might finally identify who is actually receiving these communications."

Leo considered this carefully, weighing the risks against the potential benefits. "That could take time. Days, possibly. And if whoever comes to collect it notices us watching, we lose our advantage completely."

"I know. But it is our best chance at finally understanding exactly who inside our own territory is working against us."

They spent the next hour carefully planning surveillance shifts, determining how they could monitor the statue's location without drawing attention from other family members or staff who might unknowingly compromise their careful observation. They agreed to keep this discovery strictly between themselves for now, at least until they had concrete evidence identifying whoever was actually behind these secret exchanges.

"We tell nobody else," Leo emphasized firmly. "Not Theo, not Lina, not even our parents. Not until we know more."

"What about Cole?"

Leo hesitated at that question, uncertainty flickering across his expression. After the warning discovered inside those old documents, after learning that someone deliberately wanted them suspicious of anyone offering seemingly helpful information, even his tentative alliance with Cole suddenly felt less certain than it had before.

"Especially not Cole," Leo finally said. "Not until we understand more about who we can actually trust."

Kai nodded slowly, though something troubled remained visible behind his expression, clearly processing the same uncomfortable uncertainty his brother now openly acknowledged.

They carefully returned the envelope to its original hiding spot beneath the statue, ensuring everything appeared undisturbed before separating to establish their surveillance rotation. Leo took the first watch, positioning himself in a location that offered clear visibility of the statue while remaining sufficiently hidden from casual observation.

Hours passed slowly as the ceremony's evening festivities continued elsewhere throughout the territory, distant music and laughter drifting occasionally through the quiet corridor where he maintained his careful vigil. Just as exhaustion began settling heavily into his muscles, movement finally appeared at the far end of the hallway.

A figure approached the statue with the same careful, deliberate caution Martha had displayed earlier, checking their surroundings repeatedly before finally crouching down to retrieve the hidden envelope.

Leo's breath caught in his throat as moonlight briefly illuminated the collector's face, and horrifying recognition flooded through his entire body.

He knew this person. Not a stranger, not an unfamiliar guest visiting from another territory.

Someone from within his own family's inner circle, someone he had trusted completely his entire life, was secretly collecting these coded messages meant to remain hidden from everyone else.

His hands trembled as understanding crashed over him with devastating clarity, and before he could process what to do with this shocking discovery, the figure suddenly looked up directly toward where he remained hidden in the shadows.

Their eyes met across the darkened hallway, and Leo realized with dawning horror that he had just been caught watching, with absolutely no way to explain away what he had clearly witnessed.