WHACK !!
"Ouch !!"
"What the fuck were you thinking ?! Were you trying to wreck this house down ?!!" Charlotte scolds Albert right after she hit him on the head. It happened right when we were being teleported back to the living room of North Wing Tower.
"You !!!"
"Cut it out, Black!" Sara intervenes before Charlotte and Albert make another drama. If only Albert is not being "frozen" by me, I believe he would respond the hit and might hurt Charlotte by accident.
"Please, you two... can you calm yourselves down and set a side your problem, at least for now ?" Sara asks, al though soundeded more like orders, the couple.
"Okay," Albert snorts while Sara only nods reluctantly.
"Thank you. Now, please, all of you, sit down," Sara once again tells us.
"Would you set me free, man ?" Albert asks me. I glance at Sara. Once she nods to agree, I punch my index finger to the same spot where I froze him.
After we all sit down, Sara exhales heavily before starting the meeting. "Okay... Has anyone realized how long have we been together ?"
"Four teen years..." We, except Fred, answer almost in the same time.
"Right. To be exact, this year is our fifteenth year as Royal Knights," Sara says before exhaling again. "And do you remember what Madam said in her speech when we were 'crowned' to be Royal Knights ?"
We exchange glances before shake our heads.
"She said: Every fifteen years the organization chooses several prodigies to be the Royal Knight. Well, it was not exactly like that, but that's the point."
"And... ?" Lily asks.
"Actually, I've done a research, and we are actually the first group to be called Royal Knights. But this tradition really has been done for centuries al though the groups were called differently. It went on hiatus thirty years ago after the betrayal of the Seven Slayers."
"Okay, so... ?" I ask, still unable to put the two and two together.
"Well, I failed to gain any information about what happened to the chosen prodigies after they were being replaced by the new ones," this time it is Fred who speaks up.
"We know what happened to Seven Slayers," Sara continues.
"We can not conclude anything only based on that event. Seven Slayers betrayed the organization," Charlotte utters out minds.
"Beside.. there was no computer, even less internet back in the day," I give another reasoning to break Sara's analyis, "So it is normal if you couldn't gain any information about them." I stare to Fred and ask his confirmation, "Right ?"
"It is not when there was any other information about this chapter from centuries ago. I even managed to gain information about our predecessors when they were still on duty," Fred breaks my opinion.
"Where did you get it from ?"
Fred grins widely. "I happened to know the archive server of the organization. Surprisingly, the security is not that hard."
"You said it for yourself," I say.
Fred grins proudly.
"Anyway...," Sara brings the topic back , "As a rebuttal to your opinion, Black, the betrayal Seven Slayers did was only resigning from the organization. They did it because they had some internal affairs in the group. All of the remaining members became ordinary people after their resignation."
Fred then adds, "And, from what I found, the organization also records all predecessors had done, their succeed and unsuccessful mission, their mistakes..."
"Wow... do you think they have record about us ?" Alber asks.
"What do you think ?" Sara asks him back.
"If the organization considers the mistakes as their betrayals..." I purposely don't complete my words. My words is to scary to be completed.
"Well, I am doomed," Lily utters her mind while throwing her back to the back of the couch. "I'm not just have made mistakes, I have literally betrayed them by disobeying Madam's rules," she complains then chuckles in despair.
"And I helped you," Charlotte says then grins wryly.
"I covered you two," Bruno responds ends it with a chuckle.
I laugh. "How about me ? I was literally attempting to murder Madam."
They all laugh with my sentence.
"Well, after what I did to the forest today, my name is gotta be on the list," Albert says with a loud exhale.
"When they know who hacked their servers, I will be on the list, too," Fred replies.
"Yeah.. we all betrayed the organization," I say before turning my head to Sara, "Except you."
Sara shrugs. "I let you all did it," she says unchantantly. "Whether it was on purpose or not, I let you all made the mistake."
Sara looks back at me. "I let you went to Madam;s house that day. I knew what you're going to do. I didn't expect you would attempt to kill her, but I knew you wanted to confront her."
Sara then looks at Fred, "I asked you to get the information." Then she turns her head to look at Bruno and Lily. "Al though I didn't prepare for what you did, I asked Bruno to cover you up."
Sara exhales at the same time. "Well, let's not freak out just yet. It is still merely an assumption. The probability it would happen is still 50-50," She then says.
"So... what should we do to make sure it would happen or not ?" I ask her. I know for sure, she already has at least a plan.
"We try to read her mind," Sara answers me with a grin.
Everybody's eyes reflexively go to Charlotte.
"You can read Madam's mind ?" Lily asks her.
"Not as easy as I read yours. I can only go inside her mind as long as she is persuading," Charlotte answers.
"So... there will be a starting year celebration the day after tomorrow. Like always, we are being invited," Sara starts to tell her plan. "At the party, I will make a conversation with Madam while Black, you will be close enough from us but Madam should not realize your apperance. Then I will make a scenario so Madam would persuade me. That is when you read her mind."
"What is your scenario ?" Bruno asks.
"Hmm.. I'm thinking about asking her about our retirement. I'm expecting she would persuade me not to," Sara answers.
"Will it be enough time for you to read her mind, Black ?" I askBlack.
"It depends on how deep I should dig into her mind," Charlotte answers.
"So, Madam should persuade long enough for you to dig her whole mind, right ?" I ask again.
"Yeah..."
"I don't think your plan will give her enough time, King," I utter my opinion.
"I agree,"
"Yeah, I also think so."
"Beside," I continue, "Madam is always suspicious of you. So, I'm afraid, when you approach her and suddenly talk about our retirement, she would sniff something and guard her mind."
"You have a point there," Sara murmurs. "Do you have any idea ?"
We are in silence for few minutes.
"I will do it," I finally say to everyone who put their eyes on me instantly.
"Are you sure ?" Lily asks. "Aren't you avoiding her these passed years ?"
"Well, that's exactly why, right ? She will be excited to see me come at her party. And hopefully, it will make her off guard," I tell them them my plan then turn my head to Sara."What do you think ?"
"It's possible," She murmurs. "But how would you do to make her persuade you ?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'm thinking of having a conversation that will make me so emotional that will inniate a commotion so she would persuade me to not do anything stupid."
"Wait...," Albert speaks up. "You... being emotional ? Like really, what can make you to be emotonal ?" He asks in doubt.
"Death always being emotional about his loved ones," Lily answers indifferently but have a chuckle in the end of her words, "Don't you all remember that he was attacking Madam for Mila's sake back then ? Or the reason why he decided to rejoin Royal Knight ?"
I nod several times. "It's true. I always so emotional about ones I love." Bruno claps my thigh a couple of time to support me. "I am thinking to bring out my family in my conversation. But I need your help to arrange it well, King."
"But, Death...," Charlotte is saying with a frown on her forehead, "You do remember that I can not bend your mind, right ? It means, I can not undo her persuasion to you. What if she persuade you to do something that actually would endangers our mission... let's say... she would tell you to be the one who finish us ?"
"But it has the highest rate to work," Sara says.
"Yeah.. but isn't it too dangerous ?"
The silence once again conquers us.
"Hmm.. how about this," Sara finally breaks the silence after five mintes has passed. "I will accompany Death. So, when I knew that Madam's persuasion would be too dangerous, I will distract the conversation and safe him from the situation. How about it ?"
"Sounds good," Bruno and Albert agree.
"Yeah.. it's better, but still dangerous," Charlotte says, being agreed by a nod from Lily.
"Be careful, okay, Death," Lily says with a genuinge concern.
"Don't worry, I know my mother well," I say just to ease the worries in the girls' minds.