Gregoria, whose tongue had just been healed, must not have been satisfied with the answer she received, for she was lunging forward to speak once more, about to shout at the man slowly disappearing from their sight.
"Enough, niece!"
Currently, there was only one person around who could silence her, and unfortunately, it was him who spoke.
"Uncle, aren't we going to learn the location of those two orcs who played with us?"
Galeno understood the young girl very well because he felt the exact same rage in his heart, but he also knew this didn't stem solely from hatred toward orcs. Although he was a lower-class person in his clan, he had raised his niece and nephew without letting them be oppressed in the regions under his command; even if the humiliation they just experienced wasn't new to him, it would touch the pride of the beautiful Gregoria.
"You can be sure they haven't crossed into the region belonging to the Lands of Light; even if the orcs thought of such a thing, that man wouldn't allow it thanks to his spies inside the Mercenaries!"
The Sacred Twin of the Golden Crown, who knew everything from the state of the region he left to what happened to the niece, was undoubtedly receiving constant information from his men among the people they were searching for.
Now, no matter how humiliated Lord Galeno was, he had to return and restore order to the region under his command; although the echo of what happened would be heard even from very far away, the middle-aged man was obliged to bow his head and do his job.
Currently, the Black Lily Clan he belonged to was already shaken by the news coming from the continent; on top of this, the meeting held by the clan elders would be a place where different situations would be laid bare.
"Third Elder, I hope you are aware of the latest actions of Galeno, whom you couldn't praise enough!"
While ten people gathered around a massive dark grey table with sullen faces, the silence would be broken by the speech of a man who was forced to sit on two chairs due to his weight. These words were almost like a north wind blowing in the dark days of winter; the temperature of the environment seemed to drop dramatically in an instant.
"Know your place, Seventh Elder! Who told you that the authority of the first three elders could be sufficient for you to question them!"
When a woman sitting directly opposite the target of the sarcastic remarks—possessing a cleavage brave enough to make hearts skip a beat—scolded him harshly, the Seventh Elder, who had spoken carelessly just a moment ago, would immediately offer his apologies.
"I bow with respect before the authority of the first three elders of our clan; I beg for forgiveness for my tactlessness!"
For someone looking at what happened from the outside, the events could be attributed to the strictness of discipline within the formation, but everyone at the table, especially the Third Elder, was aware that this was a bad play.
The purpose of today's meeting, which was the result of the infighting for position among the ten elders ranking below the Clan Master, was not to find solutions to the problems experienced; the entire time would pass with the attacks of the rival faction regarding the failure of Galeno, a man of the faction the Third Elder belonged to.
While the events on the Wild Swamp continent had become the gunpowder for various conflicts within the Black Lily Clan, they were also making the mouths of other rival clans water. How could other clans, eyeing the position of the Holy Blood Sect—which was seen as certain to fall from Sect status soon—not use this tremendous opportunity to wear down the primary candidate?
Of course, the crazy things done by the two orcs were not only talked about in the lands their victims came from; people who hadn't been in direct contact with them so far were also following with interest what was going on in the Wild Swamp continent.
At noon on another sunny day in the Lands of Light, two people sitting in the shade of arbors consisting entirely of vines were chatting heatedly.
"What do you say, could there be people involved in this business who cast a domination spell on the master's son?"
"Shut up, you idiot! How can you bring up this subject so openly?"
Although the vineyards seemed endless, adhering strictly to the saying "walls have ears" was the most logical precaution right now, for otherwise, the only end awaiting them would be death.
"You know that if this very secret information falls into the hands of another lodge, they can use it to diminish our power; mark my words, never open your mouth on this subject again!"
The eyes of the man listening to his friend's warnings opened wide enough to pop out of their sockets; you might think this was due to the harsh warning he received, but the tip of a sword protruding from the middle of his chest fit the situation better as an excuse.
A breath later, the blabbermouth would die; the person advising him, on the other hand, felt his blood almost stop flowing in the shadow of the majesty of the youth standing like a mountain before him.
"Your loyalty to the lodge is admirable; never stray from this path, I wouldn't want to kill you!"
The youth, disappearing as suddenly as he arrived, left the man staring blankly behind him where he fell, his knees having given way.
Although the sun almost never disappeared over the Lands of Light, darkness actually continued to sustain its life everywhere. Today, it would show itself inside the Bouillon Lodge; moreover, it had taken the life of a person talking about the lodge master's incompetent son being turned into a puppet in the city of Nikonya.
Of course, he couldn't achieve this on his own; he was harvesting his evil thanks to the people inside whom he had planted seeds for many years. Once, the darkness had hidden in the sword of the best friend of the young mage—sent to help humans who couldn't defeat a small orc army—whose life ended at the hands of the First Blood Warrior Sangre.
Speaking of darkness, it wouldn't be right to skip the gloomiest place in this world; we were going to the city possessing a single color where pitch-black buildings rose.
Führerbunker
This place, established around the massive building in the middle of the city, seemed built to perpetuate the honor of being the capital of uniformity forever. The identical streets, buildings, and gloomy weather suffocated a person so harshly that every breath taken in this city mixed into the blood like a slowly taken poison, killing its victim while they lived.
Führerbunker had the distinction of being the only city in this world entirely created by human hands; here, some of these humans were talking about a place very far away from them.
"Supreme Engineer Alarick, should we be concerned about the events taking place on the Wild Swamp Continent?"
The man with a plain black robe would answer the question directed at him in an extremely dull and almost mechanical tone of voice, in the same manner.
"Please do not pay attention to the actions of individuals who do not possess a caliber that would create any danger for either our Empire or our school!"
When the short speech ended, the cold stone walls seemed even more boring than they were due to the arrogance hidden within the words; of course, this assessment did not apply to engineers who had adopted doing everything exactly in moderation as a philosophy of life.
From this place where order, rules, and adherence to them were accepted as the greatest virtue, the names of Nafız and Alyon were also mentioned in different lands where life was built on completely different dynamics.
"Look at the state two orcs have reduced us to, you incompetent son of a bitch!"
The veins on the forehead of the man walking rapidly in full camouflage had become twisted with anger; even though the target of the words coming out of his mouth was his own son, he didn't seem likely to stop.
"The only dregs among my ten children... I took him and put him in the most pathetic place in the world, but the bastard still managed to cause trouble for me!"
This tall person, who combed his dark black hair back as if pasting it to his scalp, was the man at the head of the Grey Hyena Organization.