Meeting

Translator: CinderTL

---

Antonio Griffin, clad in a black robe, slowly entered a dimly lit hall.

Thick drapes covered every window tightly, blocking all external light. Inside, only a few candles flickered weakly, casting mottled shadows on the walls with their yellowish glow. The air was filled with a faint scent of wax, quiet and mysterious. The high vaulted ceiling of the hall was shrouded in darkness, with only the flickering candlelight illuminating the intricately carved beams and pillars.

Antonio walked to the center of the hall where a large round table stood. Ten others, also dressed in black robes, were already waiting there. Upon his arrival, they all stood up and bowed to him—more precisely, to Antonio Griffin as the leader of the Arcane Order, rather than as the Emperor of Gabella.

Antonio slightly raised his hand, signaling them to take their seats.

He sat down first, his chair's backrest slightly higher than the others', marking his status as the leader.

"Ahem!" Dorati Maite, a member of the Ten, cleared his throat. Within the Arcane Order, his position was second only to Antonio, and he handled most of the organization's day-to-day affairs.

This meeting of the Ten was also presided over by him.

Dorati Maite announced the first topic of the day. "Your Majesty, everyone, the first matter we need to discuss today concerns Bennett and Odanel."

"What's there to discuss!" another member of the Ten, Enoch Christopher, blurted out. "Those two haven't shown up for ages. Either they're dead or they've betrayed us. Just remove them from the organization and be done with it!"

Bennett, a master in the field of Enhancement Spells, had been missing for nearly a decade. Odanel, a master in Mental Spells, had also been absent for a long time.

Both had already been stripped of their positions as members of the Ten in absentia, and their places had been filled by outstanding practitioners in their respective fields.

Although curious about what had happened to them, the Arcane Order had sent people to search for them, but so far, no clues had been found.

After replenishing its ranks, the Ten, now complete again, had not been too persistent in continuing the search for the two.

While the spellcasters who became members of the Ten were undoubtedly more powerful than ordinary people, they were not gods.

The Arcane Order had never imposed strict constraints on its high-ranking members, only holding regular meetings to discuss important matters.

For any member living in isolation, any kind of accident could happen.

They could fall ill and die, jump into a river in despair, encounter thugs but fail to prepare the right spells and be killed, or even be bitten to death by a suddenly appearing stray dog while walking.

Especially someone like Bennett, who had always been eccentric and often secretly carried out his own plans without telling others, later claiming it was to surprise everyone.

However, many of the things he had done in the past had indeed greatly benefited the Arcane Order. It was just unclear where he had gone wrong this time.

The only thing everyone knew was that Bennett had last mentioned going to the northwestern bay of the Aldor Kingdom to cause some trouble for the Aldor royal family. After that, there had been no news.

A war had indeed broken out among several lords in the northwestern bay, likely related to Bennett, but who knew if he had already left there for some other place?

It wasn't as if the Arcane Order didn't care about the fate of its members. After all, two heavyweight members—Marianna and Odanel—had been sent to the northwestern bay to investigate Bennett's disappearance.

But according to Marianna, who had returned, nothing conclusive had been found.

Not only that, Odanel, who had been sent to investigate along with his student Derson Plant and another mental spell apprentice, Andy, had not returned either.

This was quite baffling, as Marianna had no idea where Odanel and his group had gone.

At the time, Odanel, with Derson and Andy, had formed one team, while Marianna, with Nathan and Edward, had formed another. They had traveled separately and were supposed to return separately. Marianna's group had planned to head south to the Horn Bay to assist the New Faith Alliance in their war with the Horn Bay Church, while Odanel's group was to return directly to Gabella by land.

But even after the Horn Bay war ended and Marianna returned to the capital, Odanel and his group, who should have returned earlier, were still nowhere to be seen.

Since Antonio had effectively seized control of Gabella's military and political power, the Arcane Order was no longer his sole source of strength. He had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the lax attitude of the high-ranking members and had thus established various rules, making the constraints on the organization's leadership increasingly strict.

The most important of these was that the whereabouts of all high-ranking members must be known to the organization. Where they were going, what they were doing, and when they would return—each member had to report these details clearly before taking any action.

The members of the Ten whispered among themselves about Bennett and Odanel.

Marianna, dressed in her black robe, sat silently in her seat, saying nothing.

As the hall grew noisy with the discussions, she leaned back alone in her carved wooden chair, like a frozen flame. Her wine-red hair cascaded over her shoulders, shimmering with a dull copper hue in the candlelight. Her eyes were closed, her long lashes casting shadows on her pale cheeks as she sat quietly, resting.

Among those present, only Marianna knew what had happened to Bennett and Odanel.

Odanel had gone mad. In his attempt to uncover the truth about Bennett, he had tried to plunder the memories from the mind of Marianna's eldest son, Paul Grayman. But something had gone wrong with his spell—a rare occurrence for a mental spell master like Odanel—causing his own mind to suffer severe damage. From then on, he had become a babbling madman.

His student Derson, who had assisted him in the spell, had also become somewhat abnormal—he had suddenly turned into an ardent admirer of Paul.

"Ardent admirer" was putting it mildly.

As for Bennett, after Marianna and Paul had confided in each other, she had learned from her son what had happened to him.

After the Usurper War ended, Bennett, unwilling to accept his failed investment, had lain in wait to teach Paul a lesson but had ended up being shot full of holes by a musket.

Marianna was determined to keep these two secrets for her son and would not reveal even the slightest hint to her companions, even though she herself was a member of the Arcane Order.

She had also sternly ordered her other son, Nathan, not to speak a word about Bennett and Odanel.

(End of the Chapter)

---

📖Read (FF) on Pa.treon@CinderTL - c878. [+1]

🔑Early Access at $5.

✍Translated (6) Series, (3K+) Chapters, (4.2M+) Words.

💥Flat 30% Discount on All Tiers Available Till 26th July, Use Code 3KCHAPTERS to Avail.