Chapter 198
That night, Alice and Cecilia stewed in anxiety while they waited in Demor’s mansion. Alice’s worries about how to finish her last few problems had been tossed to the back of her thoughts. The Society’s appearance – or, perhaps more accurately, their reappearance, cast Alice’s thoughts into disarray.
About two hours before Alice usually went to sleep, Allira and Ethan knocked on her door. Alice frowned, as the two led her back towards the common room. When Alice got there, she saw that Cecilia, Jonathan, Jonathan’s family, and even Demor were also sitting at the dining table.
Before Alice could raise her voice to ask, Allira sat down at the head of the table. She moved with such force that she nearly shattered the poor wooden chair that she had sat down on, causing Alice to wince as she heard the distressed creaks of the furniture. The [Strength] of an Immortal was incredible, even if Allira was young by Immortal standards.
“The Society is, indeed, behind [Scholar] Metista’s disappearance,” said Allira, with an angry huff.
Alice frowned. So they had confirmation now. Allira worked as something like Illvaria’s spymaster most of the time, so Alice was willing to trust Allira’s word if she said the Society was behind this. However, why was Allira so angry? The woman usually seemed polite, if emotionally disconnected. Seeing her get worked up was… unusual.
“So, are we going to rescue her?” asked Alice. “Or turn it over the local authorities?”
Ethan sighed.
“That’s the problem,” he said. “Nobody cares that [Scholar] Metista was abducted. Under normal circumstances, this case would have caused outrage. People would be demanding that the [Guards] of the city do something. I would have expected that [Soldiers] would be hunting down every possible lead, if only to stem public outcry.
“Unfortunately, these are not normal times. The government is in too bad of a condition to worry about the disappearance of a single [Scholar]. Thus, the ruler of Morendia has told us that the country can’t follow up on this case right now. We were told that if we solved this problem, Morendia would thank us and wish us good luck… but the country will not offer us any assistance in rescuing Metista. After that, we were basically shooed out of the throne room.”