Chapter 675 Masterminds
"Haa…"
Adrien exhaled deeply as he left the grand tent that hosted the meeting between the important figures of the Camp.
Upon getting out of the stifling place, he let the stale wind blow on his face, causing his dark hair to flutter gently while also inhaling the breeze with a small smile on his face. His eyes were closed for a second, but that didn't last long either.
He couldn't afford to enjoy the moment.
'Once again… my escort lurks behind me.' As his thoughts trailed, he glanced to the area behind him, where a certain pink-haired Dragon Commander stood still.
Her eyes watched him keenly, and while she had an official aura about her, the palpable tension between the both of them could not be ignored.
'Ever since I arrived here, she's been placed in charge of me. She watches my every action, especially the ones I make when I leave my tent.'
She was also very good at her job.
'I guess that's the perk of having an amazing bloodline and a powerful Skill to boot.' He grinned.
Of course, Adrien knew that he could evade her power if he wanted to. However, that would only be more suspicious and energy-consuming. 'Right now, there's no real suspicious aspect about me that can be brought to the light through her constant surveillance.'
The only reason her presence bothered him was because it was the symptom of a much bigger problem.
'The Dragons still don't trust me.'
This was an inevitable situation, and he was already prepared for this much. Still, he had committed to a lot in order to get much closer to their operations.
Still… it seemed they were yet to budge on the trust part.
'Well, trust or not, I'll get what I want from them. That's only a matter of time…' He began to walk towards his tent, with the Dragon Commander trailing right behind him.
The stale air brushed over his skin, and he found himself indulging in the exercise.
Even though he could get to the tent in a moment, Adrien decided to immerse himself in thoughts and enjoy his walk.
'Things have been working out well so far. My occasional calls with Justin keeps me informed on the current state of the Capital.'
The Capital was still under construction, though they were already making good progress with it. No real incidents had occurred as of yet, and things were relatively peaceful there.
The information was consistent with what he had learned from the Dragons during his stay here.
'Seems they aren't allowed to attack the Capital for a while. They've also reduced the intensity of their attacks on mankind… though that's only temporary.'
As for the other information he received from Justin, he had no real way of verifying.
Still… Justin could never lie to him.
'Rey is still asleep, apparently. Same with Alicia. The Otherworlders being recognized is a pretty nice step up. None of those improvements affect my plans in any way, though…'
Still, being aware of the current state of the Capital gave him some leverage in terms of information. His cautious self had to be aware of all the variables in order to determine the constant.
Only then could he be confident in the success of his plans.
'All of this means I can focus on my deal with the Dragons and swiftly conclude the extermination of those Elves.'
Once the Camp was destroyed, and the Dragons had quelled the last flames of resistance, his job was done. The colonization, slaughter, or whatever the Dragons planned on doing to the rest of the Elves, was none of his business.
'If there's one thing I don't particularly like about this entire arrangement, it's the limitation of my Skill on those Elves…'
Adrien didn't know why, but he couldn't make Undead Elves. He had tried several time, but the effects were always nullified.
'I've reached such a level of mastery where my success rate is a hundred percent when it comes to entities weaker than me. Yet… none of them have succeeded.'
To call the whole thing frustrating would be an understatement on his part.
'Still… I have an army of Undead Dragons and Monsters at my disposal already. That's more than enough to get the job done.'
Each individual Undead could be classified as an A-Tier threat, and he also had S-Tier entities sprinkled in. With such quality, his forces were practically invincible.
"Huuu…" Leaking out misty breaths from both his nostrils and lips, he finally opened the door to his tent and made to enter.
His eyes spotted the Dragon Commander watching him as he went in, and he only smiled upon noticing.
'All in due time…'
*************
[Meanwhile…]
"Good job, Justin. Keep me informed if there are any new developments in that regard."
The voice of a certain young teenager oozed out of Ater's lips as he held a certain black box in his hand—a Communication Device of the utmost quality.
He had a wide smile on his face as he heard Justin's voice respond to him with hints of subservience and respect. "Anything else?" He added.
"Well… there's nothing else to report. Rey is still not back from the whole Elf mission, and that servant of his, Ater, has been acting suspicious for quite some time… but you already know that. Also, I think there's some kind of political conspiracy going on at the moment. Things are so tense in the Royal Estate, with the Nobles still present. They're going to be leaving sometime this week, but… till then…"
Ater nodded slowly as he heard these words.
"Alright then. I suppose this concludes the session. At our appointed time, update me on even more information."
"Do you… suspect something big is about to happen?"
For a moment, Ater said nothing. He looked straight ahead, his eyes focused on a door that stood right in front of him. He had somewhere to be and something to do soon… but not yet.
"Do I suspect something big is about to happen? Haha…" He chuckled, his teeth displayed with his wide grin. "Why not just wait and see?"
"Still being so mysterious, huh? Why not just tell me these stuffs. It's not like I can betray you anyway…"
There was a long pause from Ater. He seemed to be suppressing a chuckle, perhaps from remembering something. Then… he spoke.
"Wait and see. Don't you just love surprises?"
"Well, I actually don—"
Before Justin could properly respond to Ater's final words, the latter ended the call very casually and made the black box disappear in a billow of smoke.
'Justin the traitor… what a rather interesting case this is.' Ater mused as he rose from his chair within the lounge that he alone occupied.
'There are so many ways to go about handling this matter. It almost makes me confused about what path to take. Which will lead to the most interesting outcome, I wonder…'
He licked his lips and walked towards the door.
'Well, I'll save my thoughts on that for later. For now… ' Opening the door wide, his eyes caught the appearance of someone who was waiting for him while keeping his head bowed gently.
'... Let's focus on the matter at hand.'
The man before him was Rebal Blanc, known as the Head of the Reaper Group. There wasn't a soul in the United Human Alliance who didn't know of him. That went double for those who had positions of power—whether great or small.
He was the most popular man at the moment; well, other than Rey Skylar.
And this man was bowing before Ater.
Why?
"All preparations have been made, Sir Ater. The guests are waiting in the lounge, and yours have yet to leave the place you left them."
Ater smiled and nodded in satisfaction upon heaing all of these things.
"Well, we can't keep both sides waiting, can we?" Before Rebal could speak, Ater was already walking towards the room where he kept his guests.
"Sir Ater—"
"You don't need to think or do anything. Just observe and leave everything to me." He told Rebal, sporting his usual smile and composed demeanor.
"U-understood."
They reached the end of the hallway and entered a rather shabby-looking room. There, they found two exquisite girls seated comfortbly in the filth. They had haughty expressions on their faces as they spoke to each other with confidence and composure.
"I can't wait till we finally meet those fools and get them to do our bidding."
"Master will be so pleased."
"And this waiting room isn't bad at all. It's definitely better than that hotel…"
"Indeed. Who would have thought humans could have such exquisite taste. I suppose Reta wasn't lying when she said she had connections."
"Speaking of Reta… when will she be back? It feels like an eternity since she went to fetch the dog that'll atend to us."
"Silly… it's only been like a few seconds. You're too impatient."
"Haha.. true… true…"
As these Dragon Ladies—Kat'erin and Shai'ya—kept speaking to each other, Ater and Rebal entered the room and they had no idea of their presence.
The latter had a horrified expression on his face. He could tell that the girls were confused about nearly every aspect of reality, and he began to fear that perhaps he too was under the same power.
What was real? What wasn't? He didn't know.
He couldn't!
He cast his gaze on Ater, who maintained his devilish smile as he drew closer to the girls. His shoes weren't touching the filthy ground, as he simply floated in the air.
"With this, they'll smell and look the part of slaves. Of course, I could simply make them appear so through illusion, but this is a lot more fun… don't you agree?"
"I-indeed, Sir Ater!" Rebal nodded and smiled, with beads of sweat falling down his face.
He was slowly understanding why his son, Asher, was terrified of this entity. There was no way such a being was human.
"Now that we've reached this point… shall we move on to the next stage?"