The atmosphere became warm and no one spoke to give the family space and time. The hug lasted for a few minutes before Levhon let go of his son but Everleigh don't have that intention and continued to hold on to her brother.
"I'm glad to finally see you Dreigh," Levhon gave him a warm smile and the happiness he was feeling that moment can be seen through his eyes.
"I'm home," Dreigh answered and a rare smile bloomed from his usually impassive face. He softly patted Everleigh on the back to reassure her that he was really home.
Dreigh did not forget to introduce the people whom he considered as friends and also family to his father. They warmly greeted Levhon and politely ask how they were doing to which Levhon happily answered.
Everleigh did not let go of his brother and sat with him on one of the seats available inside the study. She remained silent and clutched his brother's arms while she looked at the people who were with his brother.
"We are greatly relieved to know that you are all safe. Ever since the news about you and the others defecting and apparently betraying the military, we became worried and I can't even sleep peacefully at night." Levhon started as he drank a cup of tea to calm his nerves from all the excitement and anxiety he felt before he saw his son.
"We did not betray the military though and did not attack General Rozen without any reason. If he did not want to kill us, we would not have fought back. He even let himself be possessed by some kind of evil power and if Arthur did not intervene, we might have been dead along with the other remnants that general had killed." Vira was extremely discontented and angry at the story they fabricated which made them into criminals. General Rozen was the criminal and yet all the blame was thrown unto them and now all of Glasfale was out to capture them. Without Arthur they might be caught already.
"We know, we never believed any of the news that was passed to every city and towns of Glasfale but it had created a big impact on the relationship between the remnants and the common people," a grave voice spoke from behind them, Mr. Mazir had a frown on his face as he said these words.
"We heard about it but we don't know the extent of it," Arthur had been collecting information through his wind spirits all throughout their journey to avoid any soldiers from finding them and one of the wind spirits had reported that the situation between remnants and the non-remnants are not in a good condition. Everybody was tense and some arguments had started to arise between these two groups. That was all he knew since he did not have time to gather more information during their days with the werewolf clan.
"On the surface it looks like everything is civil but several officials of the government had voiced out their dissatisfaction with the remnants. In this city, General Emrys had control of this situation but I don't know how long this balance will remain. Although General Emrys has greater power than any of the officials in Westdenn, he is still a general of the country and if he continues to oppose those officials, this matter will certainly reach the Supreme Commander," Mr. Mazir explained in a worried tone. He was concerned that this matter will not only harm the remnants but also implicate their families and friends. "If this stand still is to be broken, I'm afraid that your families will be implicated."
The remnants around the table had frowns on their faces, they did not know that this matter had caused such an impact to Glasfale. It was supposed to be the matter of the military institute only but even the common people were mysteriously drawn in to this situation. They were completely lost at this moment, how come this matter had suddenly become a kingdom wide issue?
"How did this suddenly happen?" Rond voiced out the question everyone wanted to ask. They wanted to know why this matter had suddenly divided the people of Glasfale.
"We don't know how exactly did it happen but in the case of Westdenn, someone had spread a rumor that remnants are actually cold blooded killers because they had killed soldiers and injured one of the kingdom's general, that they might suddenly ran amok and massacre people and the rumors had even exaggerated how remnants can be unstable and without reason. Similar rumors had continued to circle around right after the news of General Rozen being injured and some soldiers dying were revealed to the public." Levhon explained in a dissatisfied tone. "As we all know, people would easily believe these kinds of rumors since they had a hidden fear against something or someone they perceive as different from them and in this case, this fear is directed towards the remnants who carries great power beyond their comprehension."
Hearing this explanation, the remnants were indignant and had a difficult time accepting all that is happening.
"Who would spread such malicious rumors? And what is their purpose in spreading these lies? What would they gain by doing all these things? Is this the only thing they are doing behind the shadows?" Dreigh voiced out these questions to which none of them knew the answer. If there was someone orchestrating all of these behind the scenes then what had happened between General Rozen and the remnants of the military institute might not have been that simple.
"You've said a while ago that the general was possessed by something evil, can you explain how did this happen?" Levhon remembered Vira's words and wanted to know more about the incident. They might also find important information in this incident.
The four remnants looked at Arthur and let him explain what had happened since he is more knowledgeable about the matters of the supernatural than them. "The general had gained the power to control shadows. These shadows are beings that had gained life after the falling of the stars twenty one years ago. These shadows could be lethal and if someone had the ability to control them, then these shadows can certainly create a massacre and that is what General Rozen had used to kill all of those remnants and even the soldiers." He started to explain and everyone was intent on listening.
He then explained that an ordinary human cannot control a shadow unless someone made it so and that someone can either be someone extremely powerful or a remnant with that kind of ability but he don't know of anyone with these kind of powers. The only conclusion he can come up to is that there was someone with powers that was beyond them working in the shadows. As for the reason, they were not able to come up with anything.
"We can't do anything about that, let us focus on the things we can do right now and at the top of that is to make sure that nobody discovers that all of you are currently here at Westdenn." Mr. Mazir let out a sigh and looked at them for confirmation regarding this plan.
"Yes, that is the first priority we need to do. You can temporarily stay here at Mr. Mazir's place since it is the safest place at the moment and it is privately owned by him so no one can easily enter this place. We will continue to gather information around and relay them to you. This time I might also seek General Emrys's help," Levhon agreed to Mr. Mazir's suggestion and the group doesn't have any opinion about this.
"Be careful though when you make contact with General Emrys because there are too many eyes watching us right now," Mr. Mazir reminded Levhon to which the latter nodded.
"Uhm, by the way is there a way for me to see my family?" Endo raised his hands to get every one's attention because he truly wanted to visit his family.
"Don't worry, we will see what we can do," Levhon gave him a smile. He knew how it feels to be separated with someone dear to you so he would do his utmost to help the young man meet his family.
"I will also help so you don't have to worry, though it might take a while since we need to avoid the eyes keeping watch of our every move," Mr. Mazir cleared up the situation to let the young man understand the situation.
----
"All characters are in place, so when do we do it? I want to see what will happen. All the first candidates we had failed and just turned crazy and even useless." Valkyrie mumbled as she sat beside the man whose eyes were currently closed.
"You are really impatient, we only found him and had tested him a few times to make sure that he is the right person. We need to take this slowly, if we hastily move those people might notice it and interfere once again." The man simply answered. He was not like the woman beside him who was eager to do things and in the end fail. He prefers to take his time to make sure that everything was in perfect place.
"Okay, I'll listen to you for now just make sure that you don't disappoint me," Valkyrie smiled and the man opened his eyes in time to see that seductive and at the same time dangerous smile.
"When did I ever disappointed you?" he did not smile nor gave any reaction but the coldness and madness in his eyes had said enough.