Lone took in the way all of the elders were reacting to his words. The eighth, fifth, and third elder, all looked slightly ashad and uncertain. The seventh elder looked annoyed, while the rest looked completely unphased.
The seventh elder was the one to reply. "I thought this was ant to be a eting, not an interrogation. I refuse to participate in such."
"Do you all feel the sa way?" Lone asked coldly.
The other elders either didn't answer or nodded slightly, with the exception of the first elder who said, "We should stop this 'eting'. Your emotions have got the better of you. You are free to peruse our records at your leisure. Now th-"
"Nothing Vortex is what it's called," Lone interrupted.
"What?" First Elder Lelgu was confused, as was everyone else except for Breena and, while not in the know, Gilbert had enough information to not be caught off guard completely by Lone's seemingly random statent.
"It is the Primal skill I was gifted by Void for becoming its avatar. Using it, I killed Lady Carnation, an X-ranker, in less than ten or so seconds. Her being was torn to shreds, consud by the void. Her existence was erased. All that remains of her is the mories that she ever was in the first place. Gilbert," he stated.
"... He's telling the truth," the guildmaster responded hesitantly.
"I have enough MP to use that skill to kill everyone in this room, and enough resilience to avoid death myself in the process," Lone said. "Gilbert."
"... Again, he's telling the truth," Gilbert answered, as was his duty.
"Your collective hesitation to answer my question was in and of itself an answer but I will not take silence or refusal so peacefully again. These are no longer questions. They are demands. This is no longer a eting, it is a hostage situation. If I am not satisfied, you will all die today and I will personally go to retrieve those innocent Crimson Foxkin. Trust , you do not want to do that, even from your graves. You are all terrified of awakening, and even more so are you fearful of the dreaded few who have awakened to Void. What you hope to accomplish by avoiding answering not an awakened but the avatar of that very Primal is beyond . Now, do not test the avatar of not only Void, but of three more of your gods again. Am I clear?" Lone bood.
Could he win a fair one-on-one with an X-ranker, even a weaker one? Probably not. But a life or death fight was very different from a fair spar. A small part of him was hoping they would attack him for his 'arrogance'. The power he would gain through Growth Accelerator with the deaths of eight X-rankers and maybe even two XX-rankers... It was the most tempting thing he had ever been faced with before.
Still, his logical side hoped the smart and innocent mbers of this council would prevail and speak up. That would be the gateway that would lead to him manipulating the clan into actually saving those 17 kids and perhaps any others he hadn't learned about. That mattered more than his own selfish desires right now.
"I..." First Elder Lelgu hesitated before suddenly finishing, "... understand. It may not be a satisfactory answer, but the few people we have not recovered have not been returned because of the potential political ramifications."
She glanced to Gilbert who nodded slowly. "She is telling the truth."
"So that's it? The clan is scared of backlash caused by reclaiming individuals who were kidnapped and sold into slavery? So what you're tell is that I can kidnap as many clan mbers as I am able to do so and so long as I find powerful people to sell them to, you won't do anything about it? Pathetic. Okay then, why have the culprits not been dealt with yet?" Lone questioned.
"You don't get to 'okay then' us after saying sothing like that!" the seventh elder shouted. "Having morals is well and good, up until it gets you killed. Do you even understand who owns those children right now? It would be suicide for the clan to demand they be returned."
Lone narrowed his eyes. "I get it. It was speculated in the report I received that the clan likely hasn't taken action to get those 17 due to where they are. Eight are enslaved to the Travelling Bazaar, which is owned by a Divine. Five more are enslaved to a triple-X-ranker who claims to be very close to ascending to Divinity. Two more are scattered, belonging to this or that organisation, each of which have loose ties to powerful groups of X, XX, and XXX-rankers. Still what's your point?"
The seventh elder cald significantly. "So you do understand... Attempts to buy their freedom have been made, as have polite requests for their return, all of which were refused. Your anger is rited bu-"
"Let reiterate," Lone interrupted as he pointed to Breena. "She was owned by a C-ranked summoned hero who himself belonged to a weak kingdom with only five SS-rankers to its na. One of the remaining kids is enslaved to a D-ranked noble whose mother is an SSS-ranker, and the last one that we know of is the property of an S-ranker. What's your excuses for them?"
The seventh elder was going to respond but was beaten to the punchline by the first elder.
"You are right. We have no excuses for your companion or those two. They all have, or in her case, had, loose connections to greater powers that are strong enough to be of so concern to us should a war happen over it, but there is a line between sensible caution and selfish fear. I believe we were on the wrong side of that line for those three. I will now propose a motion to my fellow elders that we make new requests for those two children of the clan to be returned to us, and should we be rejected, we reclaim them by force. All those in favour, raise your hand," First Elder Lelgu said, surprising Lone.
Gilbert spoke next, saying, "She's being truthful."
Every elder raised their hands, even the seventh elder, and thus, First Elder Lelgu said, "The motion has been passed. We'll begin our efforts as soon as this eting ends."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Lone could see Breena had grabbed the sides of her fire-orange cheongsam with shaking fists.
"That's it?" she mumbled.
"What?" the seventh elder said, having not heard Breena's words properly. "Speak up, dear, this is if you wish to be heard."
Lone narrowed his eyes in interest. Perhaps she thought the ex-slave talking instead of him would lead to less pointed accusations being made. He couldn't assu her motives for urging Breena to speak, but regardless, he didn't move to stop her. She had every right to say what was on her mind if that's what she wanted.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Freewebnovel. Please report it.
Breena turned to look at Lone, perhaps for permission or just reassurance. He nodded, intent on giving her all the confidence to do and say as she felt she needed. "I'll protect you, so get it all off your chest," he whispered.
Breena took a deep breath and then raised her head. "That's it?"
"What?" the seventh elder repeated herself. "You'll have to be more specific, dear."
"No efforts were made to rescue when your requests for my return were rejected. You just left to rot in that place under the control of that monster... because it was convenient?" Breena shook her head. "No... because I was inconvenient."
She stared directly at the seventh elder with a certain hateful coldness if her gaze. "I may have been five, but I knew you didn't like . You never did. You always preferred my cousin Tiera, didn't you? It was you, wasn't it, great, great grandmother? Y-You got them to kidnap and y-you made sure the clan never rescued , didn't you?!"
Confusion filled the seventh elder's eyes. "No. Breena died. I don't know what sort of trick this is or what misunderstanding you're having, but even if you share her na, I was assured my first great, great granddaughter didn't survive the journey to her intended destination. Three girls with the na Breena Redtail were kidnapped that night. You're not her, even if you think you are. I saw her body. Or... what was left of it."
"When did this happen?!" Lossa demanded. "Why was I never told about any of this?!"
First Elder Lelgu glared at Lossa. "Control yourself, Matriarch Lossa. You are known to be prone to emotional outbursts. We feared you would awaken a second ti, hastening your death, should we tell you the truth."
Lossa's fury upon hearing this revelation was quite pleasant to witness, Lone found, and he was quite amused given he knew for certain that Breena was, in fact, Lossa's granddaughter and not so poor girl under a deep misconception. 'I'll keep that to myself for a little bit longer though. Nothing like a little bit of infighting to sow dissent, right? Would be rude to step in early. Soone might spill sothing juicy too.'
"Of course!" Lossa shouted. "Because who would ever in their right mind tell a grandmother that her grandchild was dead?! Of course it isn't her right to know! The stupid bitch has already awakened to Life so we know she can't control herself at all! Primals forbid she awakens to Land due the deep depression she's bound to feel at the news! That's what you all thought, isn't it?! Did you even tell her mother?! You all make sick!"
Lone was enjoying this a lot but he imdiately ignored the entertainnt of this all when he noticed Breena looked incredibly upset. At what, he wasn't sure. Perhaps it was because she was being ignored, or maybe she was sympathising with her grandmother.
'She knows she isn't a fake. Her mories are real, after all. And she knows I'd have found any mind-fuckery what with all the tis I've recreated her body, so she knows her mories haven't been altered. Anyway, let's put a stop to this,' Lone thought.
He applied his Agility and then unapplied it so fast that before anyone could really register that he was now floating in the middle of the room thanks to a Blood Clone which he'd returned to his bloodstream, an ear piercing screech filled everyone's ears, forcing them to look at him and stare in shock.
After all, the seventh elder was being held in his left hand by the throat. The next mont, he wrapped both himself and the seventh elder in a Bone Armour Fortress Shield and then insulated that with two Blood Clone Fortress Shields.
"Unhand , you vile abomination!" she wailed loudly enough to almost burst his eardrums.
He stared into her eyes and said, "You are weak. Be silent. Answer only when spoken to. Do otherwise, and I'll kill you. Struggle, and I'll kill you. Attack , and I'll kill you. Do you understand?"
Perhaps as a result of the shields that she likely knew even War Leader Clari struggled to penetrate, aning her rescue would take longer than Lone would need to kill her, or maybe as a result of so instinctual self-preservation thod within herself, she shut up and nodded.
Lone smiled. "Good fox."
He didn't have any sound magic as of yet, which was unfortunate, so he instead used so freeform force magic to amplify his voice as best as he could. "To the remaining seven council mbers and our two hidden observers, if you attack my Fortress Shield, I won't hold it against you, but I will kill the seventh elder and then leave this place. I can do both of those things with ease. Gilbert, confirm that for ."
A couple of seconds later, he spoke to Soph. 'Did he?'
Soph replied. 'Yup. It's kinda hard to listen to sounds with Mana Sensing, but yeah, he said 'What are you doing, Son?... He's telling the truth.' By the way, will Breena be okay? Don't you think this was rash?'
'She'll be fine. They have no reason to attack her or anything, and no, this wasn't even remotely a rash decision. I have more than enough information to confirm this woman was the person or one of the people who allowed the kidnapping to happen a decade ago. These won are too cautious to attack unless I actually kill her. I reckon the suspected XX-ranked observers are even more cautious. I'd bet good money they'd sooner allow the entire council of elders to die before they would risk engagent with a wildcard like ,' he replied.
'Okay... They're bickering about what to do, by the way,' Soph said.
Lone chuckled, terrifying the X-ranker whose neck was warming his palm. "First thing's first, let's set the record straight. The Breena Redtail underneath is actually the granddaughter of Matriarch Lossa. I have the world skill Full Body Diagnostics, I've used it on both of them previously, and I've confird that they share the sa DNA and the sa blood to a point of closeness that could only belong to close relatives, not a distant mber of the clan."
'Gilbert's confirming your words. Lossa gasped and put her hands to her mouth. She's, uh, crying too. Ah, she's rushing to Breena to... hug her? Breena's backing away. Lossa looks hurt, but isn't saying anything or trying anything else. The elders are arguing. The observers aren't doing anything. I felt them for a second when you grabbed the seventh elder but I can't feel them anymore... again. They're too sneaky... I couldn't see them in the void, by the way,' Soph explained, being Lone's eyes and ears in this mont.
'Huh. Gotcha. Keep posted,' Lone responded.
He then projected his voice via force magic again. "Tell plainly, seventh elder. Did you orchestrate the mass-kidnapping a decade ago? Yes or no. Anything else, and you die."
He made sure to focus his freeform force magic on her as well to ensure everyone in the hall below his Fortress Shields would hear her answers.
She looked like she wanted to resist giving a clear answer but obviously, she could see the lack of rcy in his eyes so she reluctantly said, "... No."
The seventh elder was a bit shocked at the volu of her words but she didn't comnt, clearly quickly picking up on the fact that it was Lone's doing.
'Gilbert said she's telling the truth,' Soph relayed.
Lone frowned. 'Well, that's a bit unexpected.'
"Okay, let ask this instead; were you aware of the attack before it had happened?" he questioned.
The seventh elder looked fearful and extrely hesitant. "Yo-you have to underst-"
"Yes or no," he interrupted, squeezing her neck, resulting in a violent fit of coughing. She still seed reluctant to say anything so he spoke instead, saying, "I will kill you in two seconds if you don't answer. Silence is nothing more than an unwilling yes. You understand that, don't you?"
"... Yes... Okay, yes. I was aware, but you have to under-"
Her words were cut off again by Lone reaching into her mouth with his free hand and ripping her tongue out rather violently. He then dispelling his three Fortress Shields. He no longer needed them.
The other seven elders looked on in horror as he slowly floated back down to Breena's side with the seventh elder still in his grasp, flailing madly, screeching like a banshee, and bleeding profusely from the mouth.
"Nothing like a bit of honesty, huh? It really brightens my day when I get to the bottom of a good ol' conspiracy," he said with a chuckle, addressing the elders. "Now, I wonder who else in here might have been aware of the attack from a decade ago..."
Reviews
All reviews (0)