Supreme Monarch

*Clap!

"Alright then, I hope we won't get sidetracked any further. Let's get right to the issue at hand."

With a clap, Willow completely silenced the room as she spoke. However, her intensions didn't seem to have gotten through to everyone here.

"Well, it's because someone was late that we haven't heard about anything until now."

Still failing to read the mood in the atmosphere, Teyla's rude retort was met with a few disappointed gazes but no one bothered to engage her only for Lix to respond sincerely.

"That was a mistake on my part. Do pardon our tardiness."

pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 Lix lowered his head in apology, a gesture which seemed to anger the beastgirl who sat next to him as her eyes narrowed at Teyla, a dangerous glint in her gaze.

However, Tyler had not thought of the consequences of his casual action due to his current status even as a Magician. It was his plan to arrive fashionably late to begin with yet he had instinctively wanted to apologize for his actions.

He had experienced this sort of thing before during one of his part-time jobs as a retailed salesman, where certain meetings could only begin once everyone had arrived.

Thus, he had suddenly found himself reliving that situation the moment the girl had complained angrily about it. A wave of disappointment suddenly washed over him as he felt a bit embarrassed by letting the words of a stranger almost completely shatter his carefully crafted persona of Lix in an instant.

However, giving his godlike level of body control, Tyler immediately controlled his demeanor and expression in order to salvage the moment by maintaining his sincerity.

When contrasted with Teyla's hostility and constant jibes, Lix's sincere apology made him seem even nobler than the one who was supposedly raised in a noble household.

"Oh please!"

Teyla scoffed angrily as her scowl deepened because she was well aware that the general opinion of her had fallen even further thanks to this one move.

However, there was someone who was even angrier than her.

"...Shut your mouth! Have you forgotten in whose presence you are? One more interruption and you'll be escorted out of this room."

To no one's surprise, the one who spoke so harshly to a Rank 7 Magician as though they were beneath her, was the lady seated proudly at the city lord, Nullen's right-hand side.

As Lix could recall, the lady's name as introduced by Nullen earlier was Willow, one of the four closest people to the Lord of Winged city. Meaning, technically, she outranked everyone here including the two guild leaders.

As those words left Willow's mouth, the atmosphere in the room grew stiffer and even the overbearing Teyla was forced to back down as she inclined her head slightly in apology, albeit with a bit of resistance in her eyes.

Lix, understandably was confused as he observed Teyla's reaction. Given the hostility she had shown him just now, it would not have been strange for her to break into a childish tantrum after being so harshly berated because of him.

However, after only a brief moment of thought, he came up with the answer. Or rather, he was given the most likely possibility by the handy little A.I in his head.

At this point, what's a man without his trusty A.I assistant with the power to end the world at her fingertip. Figuratively speaking of course. Maybe. You can never be sure.

Now then, back to the matter at hand. Why Teyla had so easily back down after Willow had gotten involved.

According to Uriel, the answer was simple, reputation. What would people think of Teyla if she were to be thrown out of a quest meant for only Rank 7 and above Magicians while a couple of novice Rank 2 magicians were allowed to stay.

Or rather, what would the world think of her Magician party, Thunder.

Even if a reasonable explanation was given, there would still be rumors spread around that she was kicked out for being useless and her Magicians party would immediately be discredited, tarnishing their standing within the guild.

Not only would they find it difficult to work with other parties, they would soon have no choice but to leave the city and start all over somewhere far away.

Everything she and her friends had worked so hard for would be wasted because of her beef with a complete stranger.

Hearing this, Lix completely understood why she hadn't hesitated to take a step back after that.

With Teyla finally silenced, Willow decided it was time this meeting got to it's crux as she stood up and reached for the file in front of Nullen and spoke.

"To summarize the reason why we are all here today, this is the report containing the known details of the unsanctioned quest completed by the Hunting party known as Unrivaled, alongside Mr. Lix and company. To put it simply, after Mr Lix and the platinum ranked Hunter party reported the unexplored Grade 3 Gold mine they had discovered in the Farbelt Pass to the previous Lord. He had foolishly not chosen to report it back to the family in time and had underestimated the report on the Green eyed devil."

At the mention of the word 'Devil' everyone's expression changed in an instant as they all knew, any mention of devil's in history has never led to something good.

It really didn't matter how strong or weak the devil's were, their immerse intellect and deviousness always led to catastrophe wherever they went. This did not include the lesser devil's known only as mindless minions of the late demon king.

Before anyone could get sidetracked though, Willow's intense glare caused them all to pay close attention to her as she continued.

"In his hunger for power, Aur decided to enlist the two guilds he could still influence and organized an extermination party to claim the mine, perhaps in an attempt to booster his standing within the family despite his lack of talent."

Everyone could sense the disgust in her voice as she spoke about the previous City Lord despite her lack of any expressions. They could not help but pity Aur as Willow continued speaking with taking a pause.

"However, that was over a month ago now and no report has been received from them. We've already sent advance scouts into the Farbelt Pass and they've confirmed that the party had encountered and even engaged in battle against the King of the Pass and may have succeeded in wounding it but most likely at a price."

"Did you just say the King of the Pass?"

"To think those rumors were actually true, I've always suspected as much."

"Taking on the King of the Pass and even successfully wounding it, that's impressive."

"Tsk... For mere Hunters you mean. I'm sure my party could've done the same by ourselves."

Not minding the distracting comments of the group. Willow continued her briefing, not bothering to silence the chatter as the room instantly grew silent the moment she started speaking again.

"With the losses they may have sustained, we feel they may have ended up too short handed to handle the mine monsters and have somehow been trapped in the mine, fighting for their survival if they're not already dead."

Her casual tone when referring to the death og so many people as though it meant nothing to her made the minds of the Magicians shudder.

Willow on the other hand, paid no attention to their reactions as she casually read through the file as though it were a book.

"With that, the main objective of this quest will be to locate an rescue any surviving Hunter and Merchant but especially the Royal knights. As well as capture the mine if possible."

As he listened to the description of the events that had led to this, Tyler's hopes shattered like glass.

He hadn't expected his spontaneous action to replace Zelda with a summoned spirit so as to validate that Party's story of a devil to have such spiraling effect. He had only intended for the monster to scare the returning Hunters a bit before diapering and remaining a mystery.

Building up a legend of a powerful devil by the stories of the survivals so when he was inadvertently called upon the slay the devil, it would be the stuff of legends, allowing him to grow his ranks within the guild drastically and not just by one.

'I have no idea how things ended up like this, but things might go badly if I don't alter the memories of any survivors. I'll have to be careful in the mean time.'

It was indeed a shame thing hadn't gone according to plan as he had killed off the Royal Knights for this very reason but unfortunately, there hadn't been any survivors to spread the tale of the Green Eyed Devil.

So now he had to settle for such meager rewards for this mission. However,

As Tyler furrowed his brows, the discussion continued apace.

"Well I can't say I understand the situation perfectly but I'm starting to get the gist of it. Still, if you've already sent scouts to the area, why don't they also investigate the location of the Hunters as well as the situation with the Green eyed devil?"

The one who spoke was Evreux the leader of the Rank 7 Magicians party called Exodus, he could tell that everyone was thinking along the same line of thought as him. It was one thing to stage a rescue operation with little information, but it was a completely different story when a being as diabolical as a devil is involved.

"That is indeed an excellent question. However, our scouts are not equipped to venture that far into such a dangerous region as they only specialize in extracting information from people and not investigating uncharted territories."

"Well, I suppose that's to be expected. After all, exploration of dangerous territories was one the the reasons why the Hunter Guilds were formed."

Indeed, even for the Great Five, the exploration of the vast demon continent was quite an expensive endeavor. Hence why they could tolerate the existence of the three Associations.

"Then, gentlemen, do you have any further questions?"

"When you say 'Farbelt Pass,' where exactly do you mean in there? After all, the pass is quite extensive and will be impossible to search within a short time frame."

"Well according to the report, it's a place only a few hour's walk from the east entrance to the Pass. There are steeper cliffs and larger hills along the line, the mine being located in one of the larger caves. Is that accurate Mr. Lix."

After reading off the file, Willow's gaze sudden shifted onto Tyler as she asked coldly with an oppressive stare.

"That's correct."

Without hesitation, Tyler offered up a simple reply as the room went deathly silent for a moment before Severus asked.

"So, I suppose I understand the city's interest in finding the lost Hunters or rather, the Royal Knights, and finding out what happened to them especially with the King of the Pass incipient recovery. So, ...I'd like to ask, why have you brought so many Top ranked Magicians on board for just one Devil? Is there going to be a competition of some sort?"

"He's got a point. Rank 5 Magicians can deal with a single devil and sending in so many teams at once will only draw the attention of the King of the Pass and may just well be the intensions of the devil to begin with. So I have no idea why you've gathered so many Rank 7's for this. Including your personal guards, Lord Nullen, that seems to be an overkill."

Seizing the opportunity to showcase her worth, Teyla added to Severus thoughts as though she could read his mind. Her questions ignoring Willow as they were directed straight at the City lord himself.

"Well the answer for that is relatively simple: it is simply because that Devil is believed to be very powerful."

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