Chapter 416: Panic
The Twelfth Elder glanced around the obsidian council table, his confidence wavering at an all-time low, as he lowered his gaze and sheepishly began his account of how his team had failed to retrieve the scroll.
"As the Fourth Elder rightfully pointed out, my team did indeed fail to bring the scroll back... and I accept some responsibility for that shortcoming," he said, his voice steady but his tone tinged with self-reproach, as murmurs and subtle nods began to ripple across the room.
"As all of you must already know from the mission report I circulated prior to this meeting... The Dragon Candidate Leo Skyshard fulfilled his part of the assignment with remarkable precision.
Not only did we manage to infiltrate the Serpent Vault undetected, but we also succeeded in stealing several of the most priceless artifacts in the known universe, delivering a critical blow to the Serpents’ reputation and financial reserves.... so to call the operation a complete failure would be an oversimplification," he added, making a measured attempt to salvage his standing and defend his nominee.
"That being said, I will not deflect blame where it is due... for the truth remains that I selected a team unfit for the difficulty of this mission, and a more capable unit might very well have succeeded under the same constraints. For that grave miscalculation, I offer my sincere apologies to the Council."
With that, he bowed his head once, and then turned deliberately to offer a separate bow toward each of the other eleven elders in the room, fulfilling tradition and acknowledging fault without excuse.
"However... I must firmly disagree with the Fourth Elder’s recommendation to withdraw Leo’s nomination as Dragon Candidate.
Despite the team’s collective failure, I believe Leo himself demonstrated immense clarity of thought, courage under fire, and a degree of individual excellence that no other operative of ours has come close to displaying in decades.
And for that reason, I still consider him more than worthy of the Dragon title.
I urge this Council to evaluate his candidacy not through the lens of the team’s failure, but through the undeniable brilliance of his individual role in the heist," Noir concluded, his tone more resolute now, as the words hung in the air longer than expected.
Across the table, the Fourth Elder already started to fume under his mask, for he had not expected the Twelfth Elder to still press Leo’s candidacy despite the mission failure.
Yet, even so, he remained unconcerned, believing the argument lacked real weight, and that the tide of the Council had already begun to shift.
"While I have no desire to waste another four months of the Council’s time, waiting in vain for the scroll to be retrieved when I already know in my heart that it may never be," Noir said, his voice calm but edged with urgency, "I instead propose that we evaluate Leo Skyshard’s candidacy through a different lens."
He paused, letting the weight of his next words gather, before continuing with a faint raise of his hand toward the ceiling and a subtle tightening of his voice.
"A perspective I deliberately left out of the mission report.
And one that, in my opinion, makes Leo far more deserving of the Dragon title than Aegon Veyr ever could be."
"Like the Fourth Elder already acknowledged, the odds of the Cult recovering the scroll in the near future are growing increasingly slim. And if that scroll is truly lost to us, then so too is our only remaining access to one of the most feared and fundamental skills of the Timeless Assassin—the very technique that elevated him beyond the realm of mortal killers, and into the annals of legend."
"But under such grim circumstances, we have discovered an unexpected glimmer of hope... in the boy."
"For Leo Skyshard, during his brief and perilous time within the Serpent Vault’s inner sanctum, managed to commit the entire scroll to memory.
Every diagram, every verse, every fragment of technique, absorbed and engraved within his mind, waiting patiently for the day he reaches the peak of the Transcendent Tier, so that he may finally begin to learn it." The Twelfth Elder revealed, as his revelation caused quite the stir within the council members, who couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
"The entire purpose of the scroll was to pass down the secrets of that technique to the next Dragon—a technique that can only be mastered by someone who carries the blood of the Timeless Assassin. And Leo is one such boy."
"In my eyes, that makes him the ideal candidate to inherit the title of Dragon, and I strongly urge the council to view him the same way," the Twelfth Elder concluded, his words hanging in the air for only a moment before the chamber erupted into chaos.
Voices exploded across the council chamber, as several elders rose from their seats all at once, their robes sweeping the air while their fists slammed against the table, unleashing a clutter of overlapping protests, demands, and startled gasps that all bled into one another until it became impossible to discern who was speaking and who was simply shouting to be heard.
"He memorized the entire scroll? Are you serious?"
"That cannot be possible! According to your own mission report the scroll was put behind 7 layers of glass, how did he even reach it to read it?"
"This changes everything. We must not decide on who the next Dragon should be with such haste! Let’s wait another year to make this decision."
"No! We vote today!"
"Enough! Lets see some proofs first! How do we know the Twelfth Elder didn’t fabricate the entire tale to buy time?"
Amidst this eruption of disbelief and scattered conviction, the Fourth Elder sat frozen, his heartbeat growing louder in his ears with each passing second, as a cold dread slowly coiled through his gut, dragging his confidence down with it like an anchor hurled into the sea.
He had walked into this chamber thinking the battle had already been won, believing firmly that the votes had long been secured and that today’s session would be little more than a ceremonial act to affirm Aegon Veyr’s rise, yet now, that illusion crumbled before him with every new voice that discussed Leo’s candidacy seriously.
He had not seen this coming.
He had not accounted for this variable.
The revelation that Leo had thoroughly memorized the scroll was not just unexpected, it was potentially devastating, for in a single stroke, it had cast a doubt over everything he had so carefully orchestrated until now.
’No! No! No! I can’t let the Twelfth Elder set the narrative like this.... I must take charge!’ He thought, as his breathing grew uneven and his lips trembled.
For a while he waited to see which way the wind was blowing, only to realize that he could no longer tell, as even his staunchest allies like the second elder seemed to discuss this topic with passion, which made him realize that his advantage was slipping.....
Forcing him to intervene at once.
"BULLSHIT!" he suddenly roared, his voice cutting through the storm of chaos like a dagger across silk, as the other elders fell quiet for a moment, all turning to look at him.
"How do we even know whether what you said is true or not?" he snapped, his voice high and ragged, betraying the rising panic he was no longer able to hide.