Chapter 420: Straight To The Point
10 minutes later, Lucas and Braxton Levitt arrived, both of them smelling somewhat like ash and grease.
From their dirty, disheveled appearances, it was obvious they had just been through some kind of ordeal, likely involving something blowing up, but neither of them looked particularly disturbed. If anything, there was a noticeable twinkle in their eyes, as if they had just accomplished something great.
There were a few who were curious what exactly this eccentric pair had been up to, but no one tried to ask any questions.
From the cryptic way Celestina had been speaking earlier, it was clear that whatever her First Disciple and the family’s best Spirit Blacksmith were up to was still a secret.
For his part, Lucas noticed how the room got really quiet when he and the stubborn old man next to him walked through the doors, and how everyone was shooting him looks filled with amusement, but he also knew that he wasn’t going to get anything out of these people directly, so he didn’t even bother to try.
Making his way over to his Junior Sisters, Lucas tried to take a seat next to them, but was quickly shooed away as the smoky smell coming from him really was too strong.
As for the old blacksmith, he simply plunked himself down on a chair near the back of the office and closed his eyes, as if he had fallen asleep then and there.
Seeing how everyone she had planned to inform about tonight’s matter had now arrived, Celestina clapped her hands loudly and declared, "Let’s get started."
All the whispers, banter, and laughter ceased immediately and was replaced by a quiet solemnity as they waited for the Marquess to make whatever announcement she had.
Seeing that she now had the room’s undivided attention, Celestina got straight to the point, "The Darr Kingdom is preparing for war. We don’t know who their intended target is, but given the history between our countries..."
There was no need for Celestina to complete her sentence.
The animosity between the Darr and Rockwell Kingdoms went back centuries and had never been fully resolved.
While it was true that the last great war between the two kingdoms ended 117 years ago in 760 NE, minor skirmishes and disputes along the Rockwell Kingdom’s eastern border had basically never ceased.
A few of the individuals in the room were already aware of this reality, and a few others had begun to suspect this might be the case based on the unusual orders they had been receiving recently, but the majority were taken completely by surprise.
The ones who had been ignorant up until this moment reacted precisely how one would anticipate, with a mix of shock, fear, and anxiety.
"War..."
"How can that be..."
"No... why now?"
"Are you serious?"
"How certain are we?"
"Are we sure this isn’t some kind of mistake?"
The voices started as hushed whispers, but rapidly grew into a chorus of disorder that threatened to drown the room in confusion and panic, but before that could happen, Great Elder Pauline, who was also hearing this news for the first time, shouted, "Silence!"
Under the stern glare of the Great Elder, the room settled down once more, though it was clear that everyone was still feeling uneasy.
The adults were mostly able to regain their composure as many of them had severed in, or at least lived through the last war, but the members of the younger generation were having a much harder time remaining calm.
Eris and Christina were no exceptions, both of them having been taken off-guard by their Master’s blunt and startling statement.
In fact, only one person under the age of 25 present remained perfectly calm.
"Did you know, Lucas?" Eris whispered quietly, noticing how her Senior Brother hadn’t even flinched when her Master spoke just now.
Christina was also directing him a pointed look, as was Timothy, the leader of the Balfour Family’s younger generation.
Feeling all these gazes fall on him again, Lucas simply nodded.
There was no point in trying to deny it here as his reaction had already given him away; besides, Lucas had nothing to feel guilty about.
When he was delivering one of his regular updates to his Master about half-a-month ago, Celestina had asked him a couple of unusual questions, and then ordered him to change the priority of the projects he was working on.
That, along with what he had observed the other leaders of the Balfour Family and Raging River Legion get up to ever since the former queen left Misty City was enough for Lucas to deduce the truth.
Lucas had confronted his Master about it at the time, and she had confirmed his suspicions, not even seeming surprised he had managed to put it all together so quickly.
That was one of the reasons Lucas had left all of his ongoing commercial projects to his Head Manager, Victoria, and focused entirely on working together with Old Braxton, spending numerous sleepless nights trying to create a certain machine, one that would certainly be critical in transforming the Rockwell Kingdom from a primarily agrarian society, to an industrial one.
Obviously, from the boy’s soot-covered appearance, things weren’t going so well, but that was hardly surprising seeing how Lucas only had a vague idea of what he was doing.
Trial and error, accompanied by lots of experiments, and lots of failures; that was what Lucas was depending on to get this top-secret project up and running.
In any case, although Lucas had figured out what was going on and why, he knew well enough not to go running his mouth everywhere about such a sensitive subject, even to his friends and his Junior Sisters.
His Master had determined that it was alright to inform him, but not them, a decision Lucas didn’t even think to question.
Seeing Lucas nod his head, the other youths in the room felt a bit complicated in their hearts.
Lucas was the youngest and weakest of them all, yet only he was told about something so important while the rest of them were kept in the dark.
Of course, they understood why Lucas was told and they weren’t.
Putting it bluntly, there was a point in telling Lucas as he could be of help. On the other hand, there was basically nothing any of them could do even if they knew the truth.