Kill The Old Ones!

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Gabriel concluded his meeting with the GMU representatives with a blank expression.

If those representatives were trained to gauge and predict the movement of people around them through their expression and mood, they certainly couldn’t read Gabriel’s intent.

Despite the news they brought, which at the very least earned some varying levels of outrage from other City Lords they talked to in person, Gabriel showed none of that. His face remained mostly blank throughout the discussion. After they said all they needed to say, the meeting was concluded.

What they didn’t know is that Gabriel was truly affected by the news; he just didn’t show it. His face had long since frozen into cold indifference due to all of the storms he weathered trying to maintain this city alive.

He’s jaded, but that doesn’t mean that he’s heartless or unable to feel anything.

Not long after they left, Gabriel summoned his council for an immediate meeting. The notice rang throughout the entire city lord mansion, alarming everybody.

After five minutes, his council arrived. All 12 of them. A group of men and women who chose to side with him, to rise and fall with him, people he could trust his life with.

Gabriel wasn’t one to waste time. As soon as his council arrived, he told them to sit down and he immediately relayed the message he received from the GMU representatives.

”Two men from GMU came here and requested to meet me,” he began. ”They said a lot of things, but the key point is that they discovered that the Cult of the Lost Lambs were starting their activities again.”

His mention of the Cult of the Lost Lambs earned some raised brows and concerned expressions on his council’s faces. Gabriel ignored most of these and continued.

”They told me it’s the Martial Gods who discovered their activities. Now, the GMU are alerting every city lord about it, expecting us to pay attention and report our findings.”

He then swept his gaze to his council, who didn’t cower from his eyes.

”Anything useful to tell me?” he asked.

The council looked at each other, but none of them spoke. At least, not yet. Some of them were thinking hard, trying to recall if they missed any leads or something suspicious.

”Did they suspect that it’s the cult who caused the recent overflow, Boss?” one of his council members asked for starters.

”Yes, they did.” Gabriel nodded. ”But it’s mere suspicion. They don’t have any credible proof that it’s them who did it. I assume they’ve already reviewed the surveillance on the Archstone Plaza. Had they found something, they would’ve informed me of that. There’d be wanted posters and bounties posted. People would’ve been arrested; I wouldn’t have been left in the dark.”

”But there was nothing of the sort. I didn’t receive any reports on my table. And I trust that none of you will fail to deliver something like that to me directly.”

There was not a trace of suspicion or doubt in Gabriel’s tone as he implied his trust with his council. Everybody who ended up in his council was hand-picked and tested by him personally. Gabriel wouldn’t allow wolves into his own home.

”Let’s start a round of reports, yeah? Anything vital that happened this past year, no matter how mundane or ridiculous, don’t hesitate to tell us. More eyes for critique might just reveal more information to us. Maybe we did miss some signs.”

Just like that, his council began reporting vital information that passed through their area of responsibilities one by one.

None of them spoke over each other. One person spoke at a time. The others quietly took notes and decided to leave their questions until everybody was done with their reports.

Gabriel sat back in his chair and paid attention. He didn’t need to talk, didn’t need to tell them what to do, and didn’t need to interfere.

This is the council he’s proud of. He raised them this way, so well that they could function on their own. They are Central City’s heartbeat.

After everybody was done with their reports, the round of questioning began. One by one, everybody raised their concerns and critiques. Nobody raised their voice, argued, or outright disagreed with the other’s way of handling their department.

They knew each other, not just as part of the council but as an extended and found family. They don’t put each other down; everybody uplifts everyone in whatever way they can.

There might be differences in the way they handle things, but that’s to be expected; not all of them are the same, after all.

In this discussion, three things were exposed that all of them missed.

”Okay, so first of all, before the dungeon overflow began, the casualties of dungeon explorers increased by 5% throughout the entire kingdom without us noticing it. It wasn’t until we looked at a bigger picture that we even noticed it.”

Gabriel’s secretary took the spotlight here and highlighted the things they’ve discovered so far.

”That’s highly unusual and suspicious. But it’s also normal for us not to notice it since we mostly just pay attention to our own city instead of the kingdom as a whole.”

”If this was done by the cult, they must’ve planned it long ago and only executed it recently. It must be why they laid low for a couple of years before we heard from them again.”

”This didn’t have too much of an effect on our city since the increase in casualties are spread all over the kingdom, and because the risks of death and accidents are fairly common in the dungeons anyway.”

His secretary paused for a bit before continuing, ”The next part is the surprising rise of conflicts between cities.”

”There are five ancient martial arts clans, four ancient martial families, three martial sects, two guilds, and us—the City Lord Faction in this city.”

”Two of the five ancient martial arts clans just recently had some conflict, which didn’t make it to the public’s eyes and ears. The other three had conflicts with other clans and families outside of our city, and those had been escalated due to various reasons.”

”The four ancient martial arts families are considered rivals, but recently, things had been rather tense between them. There had been some real casualties, and their rivalry was starting to escalate beyond control.”

”The three martial sects also compete with each other, and their conflict escalated because of one person. This person started as a disciple of one of the sects, who then betrayed them with the other and betrayed the one he just transferred into again.”

”Reportedly, he stole their core inheritances, and then he ran away. He’s now wanted by all three sects, and the damages he caused left whatever closeness between the sects to become irreparable as he reportedly revealed the secrets of the martial sects to the others.”

”As for the man himself, he reportedly just disappeared. No bounty hunters returned with him so far. Nobody knows where he went.”

In the previous discussion, this started out as a vague rumor. But then, through the gradual reports of each person in the council, they weaved the full picture, and what they found out turned out to be more than just some rumor and casual drama. It’s a whole fiasco, and a very suspicious one at that.

”And finally, there are the reports about strange idols appearing all over the city.”

”The idols are made from an old and unrecognizable type of wood. They’re palm-sized and look to be a carving of some lady whose face is covered with a hood and veil. She has gnarled fingers and the lower body of an octopus.”

”The wooden carvings started appearing just this past year. So far, we’ve received a total of 10 cases that indirectly involve them.”

”It didn’t raise any suspicions because these wooden idols seemed innocuous, and nobody in their right mind would suspect a wooden carving to have an influence on the activity of a person. At most, it’s just a decoration.”

”But in these reports, the reason was all the same. The conflict began when the culprit received the idol and returned it to their homes. Everybody who brought it home showed gradual changes over time, leading them to do something irrational and uncharacteristic of them.”

”The strange part is that this idol had never been found or seen by our investigators. Everybody who reported the incident knew that the culprit all had the strange idol, but when their homes were inspected, there was no trace of the idol.”

”It’s as if it just vanished out of thin air.”

”It’s only because of our recent discussion that we even paid attention to this. This detail is so innocuous and dismissable. Plus, the events are properly spaced to create the least noise.”

”We currently don’t know how many idols are out there, but there shouldn’t be more than five. There might only be one, actually, but nothing’s conclusive yet.”

”These are what we discovered so far,” the secretary said, turning to Gabriel and asking, ”Shall we begin our investigations, City Lord?”