Council 3

The other council members were whispering to each other, but Liam shut that down quickly.

"Let's vote right now; this matter is of utmost importance, so we need to come to a decision today," he echoed, looking at Lucius.

Who nodded with a smile, grateful to the vice president for his quick wits. If they let everyone discuss too long, Matthew could try and spin it in his favor, and he might use that to let him stay in this discussion. He is a very influential man governing the educational institutions and magical artifacts.

"Okay, now then, everyone who agrees with Matthew being excluded from this decision, raise your hand." Lucius said, looking around the room.

One after the other, they slowly started raising their hands, and by the end, almost everyone had raised their hands.

Lucius started counting. "Okay, so the verdict is in favor of excluding Matthew from this decision; it's ten against four." Turning toward Matthew, he continued, "Thank you for your input, Matthew, but I will have to ask you to leave the room now."

Matthew's hands clenched into fists so tight his knuckles turned white. Looking around, his eyes flare, practically glowing with inner fire, infusing magic power into his voice, he snapped. "You all will regret this when that monster goes around killing innocent civilians again! Mark my words!"

"That's enough!" Lucius commanded, his tone final and absolute. "Leave now, Matthew; your personal bias is not welcome right now; this is a serious situation."

Matthew just snorted and left the chamber; after slamming the door, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Liam looked around and started. "Now that he has left, go on, Selene. Did you have any other arguments you wanted to present? Or were those two the only two?"

Selene stood up straight, breathing in and out slowly. She stepped forward again. "I have one more positive argument, and that is the squad he is part of, the elite extermination squad," she said, going to the next slide on the projections.

"He is a vital member of the squad and is well liked in the squad. So even though he might not be well liked everywhere else in this elite circle, he is, and he is a very important member of it. His skills make him suitable for a wide range of dungeon clears, which lessens the burden on the other members significantly," she finished.

The council members were whispering to each other, discussing what they had heard and seen.

Malika Yerachmiel, a young woman wearing a white suit with a black skirt, was scrunching her brows. "Uh, madam Selene, so these are the positives. Are you now going to mention negatives? Or are there none?" she inquired, gazing at Selene suspiciously.

"Because if you say there are no negatives, I believe you are not being very professional," she finished.

"Of course I am going to mention those Malika," Selene replied, then clearing her throat, she continued. "After all, I knew you would be present, and as the director of covert operations and gathering intelligence, you would not let me spread false stories. I was just going from positive to negative, and after I will give my honest opinion."

Malika nodded, seemingly satisfied with Selene's reply. "Good, because this is a very important decision. Especially with his sensitive identity." she said, sighing.

The council chamber grew quiet as her words sank in, the members exchanging knowing glances as they recalled Matthew's outburst.

"Okay, thanks for your input, Malika," said Lucius, breaking the awkward silence. "Now continue, Selene, with the negative points. The positives were very good, but we'll have to see how they compare to the negatives."

Clearing her throat Selene projected some more data in front of the council.

"As you all know, one detriment is his reputation with the other hunters and populace; he is known as a violent and dangerous hunter among them. And giving him the S-rank could put the association's and the council's good reputation at risk if he doesn't improve his attitude." she said, pointing toward one of the projected screens.

She stopped talking for a bit to let everything sink in and let them read the projection.

"So I and my team did a lot of research as to how bad his reputation actually is and asked some lower-rank hunters their opinions. And as you can see, it's not unfixably bad," she stated, then pointing toward another projection. "It's mostly the civilians that think he is very dangerous, because they don't really know much about hunters and dungeons."

Malika raised her hand. "Can I ask a question?"

"Yes," replied Selene.

"So you say it is mostly the civilians that give him a bad reputation and not so much the hunters. How so? Like, what proof do you have to back up that claim?" She inquired, looking Selene straight in the eyes.

"That is a good question," Selene said with a smile. "Because Teo has never failed a dungeon clear, and he wants to enter as many dungeons as possible, he has made a name for himself among the hunters. They still fear him quite a bit for his violent temper and uncontrollable attitude, but they know they can depend on him in times of emergency or if there are dungeons that need to be cleared that no one else wants to take on."

Saying that she turned toward all the council members, "And for the civilians, because they only see his violent temper and fiery behavior and don't know anything about his achievements or how he is seen as one of the most reliable hunters, they lean more toward fearing him," she finished, showing some statements of hunters and civilians on the projections.

"Thank you, that makes sense," said Malike, thoroughly reading all the statements.

And the others were also thoroughly reading the statements. Murmurs were heard throughout the room as they started forming opinions on if Teo should become S-rank or not.