First Meeting After Confrontation

Sh*t Flower Guy = Lotus from Diamond Kingdom

Salaryman = Rhya

Crazy Girl = Fana

Bean Pole = Licht

***********

After the fight that happened and the first proper confrontation with members of leaders of Eye of Midnight Sun, Wizard King has tasked Wilhelm to prepare a report…again.

The one who was happiest due to this was Julius, who did not have to do any paperwork anymore, Marx was neutral, happy that the work was getting done, but unhappy because Julius was not the one doing it, so to make amends he started to pay Wilhelm a lot more than he was promised.

Wilhelm himself too was neutral about it because the work he was given was nothing compared to the school work he used to do, and he was getting one too many benefits, so he was happy either way.

This leads us to the place where all of the Magic Knights Captains were gathered about a week after the incident. This time, every single captain was present, including Kaiser Granvorka, the replacement for Gueldre of Purple Orca, and Mereoleona Vermillion, the replacement for Fuegoleon of Crimson Lion.

Julius was sitting at the head of the table with Marx standing by his side, with a gigantic book in his hand that was actually the report Wilhelm had given, with his hands shivering as he looked at Julius who was smiling amicably like his mortal enemy.

Giving everyone on the table a look and nodding appreciatively that every magic knight captain was present, he began.

"I am pleased to see that all of you are present here, and I would like to formally welcome Mereoleona Vermillion, the acting Captain of Crimson Lion, and Kaiser Granvorka, the new Captain of Purple Orca, for their first meeting as the captains of their respective squad."

"I am moved by your warm welcome." Kaiser said curtly, being the gentleman he was.

"Yeah, now tell me the reason why you asked me to come when I was busy whipping sorry excuse for magic knights in my squad into shape." Mereoleona said bluntly while Yami prayed internally for the poor souls.

'May they rest, because peace will never find them.'

"Haha, I am enthused by your vigor and am pleased to hear that you are working diligently as the Captain of Crimson Lion." Julius said with a brief chuckle before he said something that took everyone bar Yami by surprise.

"Yami and Black Bull fought with Leaders of Eye of Midnight Sun…"

"Wha-?"

"...and they managed to kill 2 of the 4 leaders."

"…"

"Tell us everything." Nozel said firmly as he clenched his hand.

"I think it would be fitting for Yami to speak since his squad was involved in the matter." Julius said pointing to Yami who placed the cigarette bud that he had smoked through on the table.

"Well…let's see…what happened? Oh, I remember, we saw 4 idiots and divided them by 2."

"Sto-"

"Stop wasting my time." Mereoleona growled with a glare leveled at Yami who sweated in his seat and quickly started to speak.

"Yes ma'am. My squad engaged with the portal guy and a crazy girl from Eye of Midnight Sun, when they were attacked by their leader, Licht who is the user of Light Magic."

"Light Magic!? Just like the one the Royal Family has?" Kaiser gasped in surprise.

"Yup, mustached teddy bear. Same Light Magic.

Anyway, just as that Bean Pole was about to kill my squad members, I along with my ride, and Mr. Creepy entered. Mr. Creepy ran away, while I fought with Bean Pole. We kept on exchanging blows until he was about to finish us."

"He was about to kill you?!" Charlotte shouted to the point that all the eyes in the room settled on her.

*Cough Cough*

"He was about to kill you?" Charlotte asked as she settled back into her seat.

Looking at her with a weirded-out gaze that did more harm than anything could, Yami continued.

"Anyway…where was I…? Yeah, Bean Pole was about to wipe us from the face of the earth when one of my members reflected his light back at him.

We captured him when 3 weirdos teleported. A furry, a salaryman, and a crazy girl who was left at the wedding altar. Furry seems like a close combat kind of guy. Nothing is known about salaryman other than that he can use Spatial Magic and Light Magic too."

"Both of them?" Nozel asked at the absurdity of the statement. People having more than one type of magic was extremely rare, and its users could be counted on one hand throughout the Clover Kingdom's history.

"Kekeke! Seems like something fun to cut has come." Jack gave his input, which was wisely ignored.

"Also, the girl is the person that the fire spirit is in contract with." Yami said dropping another bombshell, but before they could interrupt him again, Yami continued relishing in their astonished looks.

"Then, Mr. Creepy did his thing. Appeared as some noble, fooled them into thinking that the life of their leader was in danger and the only way was to teleport.

The salaryman listened to his suggestion and created a portal. Mr. Creepy who had killed Scrawny person had taken his Spatial Magic and overlaid his own portal over theirs.

They all jumped into the portal to meet with Mr. Creepy's attack waiting for them. 2 died, rest 2 escaped with heavy injury."

"Did you send their bodies? There must be something that could still be found from their corpse." Nozel asked at which Yami, after taking a long puff of smoke said, "Nah, no remains were left. Mr. Creepy bombed them to kingdom come."

"Then how are you sure that 2 were killed at all? I hope it is not a gut feeling and you are wasting all of our time."

"N-no Bigsisleona, Mr. Creepy stole the magic of two among them. Mr. Creepy has the ability to steal the magic of those he kills." Yami said sweating a bit seeing Mereoleona who growled at being called Bigsisleona, but her expression changed after hearing what Yami had to say.

The same was true for the rest of the captains, among whom, Jack said cackling, "Kekeke~ I would have fun cutting him up if he was in my squad."

And the ones who were the most impacted were Nozel and Charlotte who had long enough interaction with him and truly realized the potential of the person with the ability to steal the magic of those the person kills.

Especially when they are given an enemy that is fair game.

"So we learned nothing from them?" William asked getting into the conversation for the first time since the meeting began.

Giving him a once over and staring at him, Yami said, "Well, I think these people are from Diamond Kingdom."

"On what basis?" Charlotte asked in a steely tone because this was not an accusation to be thrown around lightly.

"Well…the crazy girl had a grimoire that looked exactly how Mr. Creepy described the grimoire that belonged to a guy from Diamond Kingdom. Also, the intel we received from that sh*t flower guy tells something about human experiments on children.

So, if the crazy girl is from Diamond Kingdom, it is also possible that Diamond Kingdom is probably behind it."

"Hmm…I think your reasoning is correct." William said followed by a thoughtful expression which only seemed to heighten Yami's stare on him.

"Oh, I guess it did not take much to convince you." Yami said to which William replied amicably, "Of course Yami, I trust your instincts."

"Umhmm…while you are at it, I want to ask you, are you capable of doing light magic or any spell like that?" Yami asked the question that made Jack, Nozel, Charlotte, Mereoleona and Julius catch up on what Yami was trying to say, the latter of whom just kept his usual expression while others looked at William with heavy skepticism.

"No, I am afraid that, unlike your precious squad mate, I am incapable of using more than one magic." William replied without acting out at the insinuating tone.

But Yami did not stop.

Leaning forward on the table he asked, "Also, where were you during Magic Knights Decoration Ceremony? Since three of your squad members were to be awarded, why weren't you there?"

"I was busy dealing with an enemy." William replied.

"An enemy that requires you to personally deal with? The enemy must be quite strong. Why didn't you call us?" Yami pressed on.

"I did not want to disturb any of you."

"Why did you not tell anyone about it after you dealt with your 'enemy'?"

"I forgot."

"Hmm…you forgot, huh? Then by any chance are you forgetting if you can use Light Magic?"

"Oh no, I am quite sure."

As the conversation went on, the atmosphere in the room continued to become stifling. That was especially true for Rill, the youngest Magic Knight Captain who looking at it thought.

'Oh no, it looks like a fight is about to break out. I need to make things return to norma-'

But his thoughts were stopped by a hand that was placed on his shoulder belonging to Yami.

"Not now kid." Yami commented with his eyes continuing to bore into William's face for what seemed like an eternity when…

"Hm, maybe you are right. I did not have a good sleep last night." Yami said suddenly diffusing all tension and leaned back into his seat.

"That must be it. Please make sure to take care of your health." William replied.

"I will." Yami replied nonchalantly completely ignoring the atmosphere that had been settled moments ago which somehow only seemed to weird things out.

Then, Julius hearing what Yami was insinuating said, "Anyway, now we have answers to many questions that we got from the captured prisoners and the fight with leaders of Eye of Midnight Sun."

Everyone straightened up.

"First, Fuegoleon was the real target of the attack on the Clover Kingdom.

Second, the attack was to steal the stone that his necklace had.

Third, he was defeated by being caught in a trap by Licht, the leader of Eye of Midnight Sun.

Fourth, there were a total of 4 leaders of the Eye of Midnight Sun and 2 of them are dead with proof that I can believe.

Fifth, Gueldre betrayed the Clover Kingdom and sold plans to them which made the whole attack possible and we can assume that they have more secrets of the Kingdom. Due to this, I would be changing the plans and working on many things for Clover Kingdom.

So keeping this in mind, I want you to move forward. The meeting for today is adjourned. All of you are free to leave. Yami, please stay behind, I have something to talk to you about."

Hearing this, everyone nodded at Julius and made their way to their respective squads with seeds of doubt against William in their hearts.

As Julius said, Yami remained seated when Mereoleona passed by him and placed a hand on his shoulder which was followed by a sickening sound of crack.

"I will be waiting for you."

"Please don't." Yami murmured terrified for his life.

"What did you say?" Mereoleona breathed down his back.

"Don't worry Bigsisleona! I will come as quickly as possible!" Yami said with a resolute tone as if he was taking an oath, to which Mereoleona nodded and moved past Charlotte who was looking between Yami and her before her expression steeled and she too walked out of the room.

"…"

Finally, Julius and Yami were in the room alone.

"What did you want to talk to me about Julius?" Yami asked casually without the use of any titles seeing that they were alone.

Chuckling at his bashfulness, Julius replied with a genuine smile on his face, "Well, I wish to give you a mission."

"Oh?"

"Let me correct myself." Julius said as he became serious.

"I want to assign a mission to Black Bull."

"But why my squad?" Yami pressed.

"Haaah…*Sighs in disappointment* …right now, I don't know who to trust. Many traitors must have infiltrated all of the squads that take many members each year. They cannot be trusted with it."

"And we can be trusted?" Yami asked with a quirked brow.

"Yes, you can be." Julius said before expanding as he clasped both his hands together over the table.

"Your squad does not have the nicest of reputation and has the lowest members. The only members you have taken recently are Noelle, Wilhelm, and Asta.

Noelle is someone I know about and can rule out as someone to suspect.

Asta is a righteous person who reminds me way too much of the Wizard King before me until that incident occurred. While his upbringing will resonate with the message of the enemy, he does not seem to share their idea and has it made it clear after fighting to the inch of his life and jumping into danger head first.

The person who I am conflicted about is Wilhelm. His past records which do not start until a few years before show that he has swindled people of their belongings many times.

Though he does not have a penchant for random killing, it is a positive.

He is not actively against the Clover Kingdom but is not someone who would die for it. I can see that much. This would make me doubt him, if not for the fact that he actually dealt a serious blow to the enemies, including their leaders, and did save the citizens of Clover Kingdom in time of peril. He does not seem to have a favorable opinion about the nobles of the Clover Kingdom but this is hardly the thing that I can hold against him.

So, as of this moment, I trust no squad other than yours."

"That, and the fact that my squad is not important enough to infiltrate." Yami said to which Julius chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, and here is your mission…"

***

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