Chapter 81: Round Chair
The day of the meeting had come, and apparently, Lucas had decided to hold it smack dab in the center of the town, where they’d all been summoned.
Such a decision wasn’t inherently bad, per se, but there were a few things wrong with it.
Mainly, the lack of privacy…
Hundreds would be present. Even if they hadn’t been invited, Lucas had made quite a show of announcing this meeting. The sheer number who’d stop by to watch would make those with bright ideas hesitant to share; for others, it would simply be hard to hear over the crowd.
But there was another, much less pressing matter bothering Zayn…
And no, it wasn’t the fact that he hadn’t caught the pickpocket despite devoting the previous day to looking for her — time that would have been much better spent trying to establish a cultivation technique. No…
The guild was named Camelot. They were holding a ’round table’ meeting… But there was no table!
It was just chairs.
Worse, Lucas had made each attending guild bring their own chairs despite being the one who had called the meeting.
It was a bit pitiful, but at the very least, almost all of the largest guilds had responded to the summons. Or rather, they had made verbal promises to show up.
Currently, Lucas was sitting with Amaya to his left, Shen Xiao to his right, and Maks beside Amaya. The rest of Camelot stood behind them, with Zayn and Leora directly behind Lucas.
Leora still hadn’t entirely recovered from Axel’s death, but she’d made some progress in bottling up those feelings. Not that it was a particularly good thing… but at least it temporarily allowed her to prepare as she needed to survive the upcoming trial.
In any case, the first guild arrived, then another. They awkwardly dragged their chairs over and settled a little ways away.
One guild in particular caught Zayn’s attention…
It was the first to arrive, led by a woman who sported bright green hair cut in a short bob. She’d introduced herself as Zéphyrine Thayer, leader of Zephyrus.
‘A bit conceited and narcissistic…’
But who was he to judge…?
A man who murdered could only ever murder for his own sake. He’d committed the most narcissistic fallacy of all.
However…
The core of each guild consisted of people who wanted to stay together after their respective trials. Those around her had agreed to follow her. They’d also accepted the name…
‘Probably.’
However, it wasn’t Zéphyrine who caught his attention, but two of the three people by her side. Paul, one of the strongest from the Goblin Trial, was someone who didn’t think too fondly of Lucas. The other was a girl with long black hair and a freckled face.
‘It’s you…’
The Alina lookalike who’d ‘accidentally’ appeared at his door was also the one he suspected the pickpocket had been chasing, based on the terse description.
As more guilds arrived, so did other familiar faces.
Ilya, the one-armed, white-haired girl, had arrived with a guild named Vulcan. Unlike the others who’d abandoned Lucas, she seemed indifferent toward him.
Speaking of Lucas…
Cory, one of his top two haters, had also arrived, this time as the leader of a guild.
Zayn didn’t catch its name because Cory remained absolutely silent, intent on merely listening. From what the others said, however, the guild had been formed from those who didn’t like the ‘leaders’ in their initial trial. That was his whole marketing campaign to recruit people.
Of everyone from Zayn’s starting trial, only Cynthia was missing.
In total, fifteen guilds seemed to be present, with most only bringing a few representatives. Some had brought more members, though.
While waiting, they made small talk. The most prominent guilds — the largest and most talkative — were Lohan, led by a woman with tan skin and long, silky brown hair named Calier; Vulcan, led by a guy named Klein Schnell; and Blue Moon, led by a tall girl named Ying Yue, who had long, pin-straight black hair.
Seeing that no more guilds were arriving, at least none intending to sit within the circle, Lucas clasped his hands together and stood. As he did, Zayn couldn’t help but notice several people flinch as if Lucas had just made a move to attack them.
In any case…
Lucas began the discussion:
“Thank you for coming here today. I am Lucas of the Camelot guild and have called you all here for a strategy meeting.”
The second he spoke, the plaza grew eerily quiet as even the spectators settled down, curiosity and anticipation bubbling within them.
“While we all may be under the banner of different guilds, letting that divide us will only lead to our collective destruction. So don’t let the apparent separation of being in another guild sunder our relations. It is imperative that we work together to thwart this incoming invasion of monsters. I called you here to share the information we have gathered. I will have Amaya and Maks” — he pointed to his left — “tell you all about the theories we have about the incoming monster invasion. After that, we can talk about how to act in this upcoming trial.”
Lucas sat down and beckoned for Amaya to stand.
Amaya rose sedately, revealing the book in her hand.
“While Lucas said theories, I believe what we learned was more akin to facts. This diary details…”
Amaya summarized its most important passages, explained how they related to the trial, and concluded with their main suspicion: they needed to “finish what Adsagsona failed to do. Visit the graveyard and destroy the specters.”
Wasting no time, Zéphyrine spoke the moment Amaya sat down, reintroducing herself before asking:
“I’m Zéphyrine Thayer, leader of the Zephyrus guild… While this does sound important and, for convenience’s sake, I’ll believe everything you said, are you suggesting we focus mainly on this?”
Lucas responded:
“That’s what we’re here to find out. The main task is to protect this town from the incoming monster invasion, so abandoning it would be utterly foolish. I believe the best course of action is to create an elite force and send them to the graveyard.”
‘Tch.’
That plan dredged up some bad memories for Zayn.
The half-bald, pudgy man with a long beard, Klein, spoke up:
“What if we do that and it yields no results? We’ll have to defend the town while the strongest people are absent. Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself— I’m Klein, leader of the Vulcan guild.”
A muscular woman spoke up:
“Name’s Calier, leader of the Lohan guild… Sheesh, that’s embarrassing to say out loud.” Calier paused for a moment, then continued, “Ahem… On the other hand, what if ignoring this leads to our deaths? I’ve seen multiple copies of that book. It’s too much of a coincidence to say that it means nothing. I think it’s being shoved in our faces, telling us that we have to do something about it.”
Lucas chimed in again:
“Though sending off our strongest may have too many drawbacks, as Klein suggested. So, as I said earlier, if we just send a few of our strongest to lead a team, it should be fine. I believe Zayn should lead it.” He pointed to Zayn. “Zayn was the strongest among the people in my trial and has fairly astute judgment. As long as he leads the team, I believe the operation will succeed.”
“Pinball is as strong as you?!”
Someone yelled from the surrounding crowd, and everyone tensed, staring at Zayn with newfound fear in their eyes.
‘Pinball…?’
‘Don’t tell me…’
‘It’s spread this much?! Ruby! What have you done?!’
Zayn looked behind him at the cloaked girl with puffy hair who pressed a knuckle to the side of her head while sticking out her tongue.
All he could do was release a defeated sigh.
‘Seriously….’
Lucas located the man who’d screamed and pinned him with his gaze:
“Pinball?”
The man trembled before shouting:
“Sorry! Zach, it’s just Zach! I meant Zayn! Aragh, don’t kill me!”
Then he ran away, leaving Lucas and Zayn equally confused.
Anyway… Lucas answered the fleeing man’s question for everyone else. Gesturing toward Zayn, he said:
“Yes… Zayn’s definitely stronger than me. You can test him in the arena if you wish.”
‘Wait, when did I agree to that?’
Ilya and Paul both confirmed his claim:
“He is.”
“Zayn is much scarier than Lucas.”
‘Scarier than him?!’
Not stronger, but…
‘Scarier?! Seriously?!’
That was an insult that cut to his soul.
All Zayn could do was accept it, given that it was undeniably true after what he’d done. Still, he had no idea what he’d shown on the surface to earn that impression.
In any case, the arena would be a good way to touch people without being creepy…
‘Ah, that line of thought is… horrifying! The height of creepy!’
At Lucas’s words, murmurs rippled through the guilds and surrounding crowd. It took a little while for them to quiet down.
Once they did, Lucas continued:
“If there are no objections, then I think we shall go with that. All that’s left on this topic is deciding how many will go with Zayn.”
Klein replied first:
“I don’t think we should send more than five. If this were so important, then it would be included in the task section.”
Klein swiped his hand through the air, most likely dismissing the blue box that had just appeared in front of him.
Calier interjected:
“We have at least a thousand people in this town, maybe more, not even including the natives. Surely we can spare a little more than five on a mission that may be integral to our survival.”
From there, a lengthy discussion followed.
While everyone had seemingly accepted the idea of sending a group, they disagreed over its size.
In the end, Lucas’s accepted proposition was:
“…I believe we should send out thirty-five people, including Zayn. They don’t have to be the strongest, but they can’t be weak. Furthermore, I expect one of the strongest members from each guild here to be sent.”
Nearly everyone agreed except Cory.
After a pause, Lucas delivered his go-to line:
“If you have any objections, feel free to voice them.”
Under his intense gaze, no one seemed inclined to speak against him.
When no one responded, he continued:
“Now that that’s settled, let’s work out how we’re going to defend the town. From the top of the wall, we could see various monsters in all directions. We’d have to react as the trial started, but I believe that this wouldn’t be a focused attack, but an attack from all directions…”
From there, an even lengthier strategy discussion ensued.
Zayn paid attention but spent the rest of the discussion scrutinizing everyone present, searching for potential Disasters or anyone wishing to undermine Lucas’s authority.
After all, Lucas was presenting himself as the guild leader of guild leaders. Even if following him was beneficial, someone who disliked him or sought power, like Cory, would be looking for any opportunity to bring him down.
Zayn noticed a few suspicious gazes throughout the discussion and committed their owners’ faces to memory.
As the official discussion concluded, something else caught his attention. Lucas cursed under his breath.
“Is she really going to hide from us? Or did something truly happen to her?”
‘Ah…’
‘I should have known this man had a reason for everything.’
This meeting had been held in the public square, with word spread far and wide in spectacular fashion, to make it easy for Claire to find them.