Chapter 298: Baiting The Elite Part 4

After the biggest part of the meeting was discussed, what followed was the process to decide who would be doing what: those who would be in charge of planning, those who would be sent ahead to debate on which neutral ground the summit would be held at, and the various personnel who would be in charge of security, among others. 

All this couldn't be decided within a single day, and sometime around 4 PM, the meeting adjourned. After taking a momentary break, Tara, as required by her duties, prepared for a few press conferences to address her people. The same was true for the high-ranking officials, who would be asked various questions on the matter. 

Arias, the true main target for the media, was nowhere to be found. As immediately after the meeting had adjourned, he disappeared—quite literally. 

No one seemed to know where he had gone. Yet at this point, most officials knew not to question his whereabouts, and if someone asked about Arias, they were businesslike in their response. Unlike those closest to Tara, the people, including the media, did not know much about Arias aside from the fact that he was incredibly wealthy and influential. Because of that, the media saw no real reason to fear him, and thus their vulture-like ways remained. Their insistence on his whereabouts even went as far as to ask rather inappropriate questions, such as if it was true that he was the true ruler of Markovia.

The person in question, Arias, had already arrived back at Markovia's castle. Despite the heavy security presence, he strode in as if it were his own home, with guards stationed at various places simply glancing at him from the side, not daring to say a word about the oddity, which was incredibly strange due to the fact that even the Queen herself would need to announce that she was arriving ahead of time so that security would know that it was truly her. For other officials below Tara, there would be various channels of verification before they would be allowed entry onto the premises. No one dared to stop him as he casually reached the main entrance where a guard stationed there opened the door for him without stating the native language welcome.

Arias kept a smile and walked in, and upon doing so, he glanced at his phone, which was constantly buzzing with various alerts involving him, Markovia, and the new information that President Ross could have easily contacted Tara and displayed the same intent toward her, and she would have simply brought it up with him. But not only did he choose to contact him, President Ross also purposefully chose to reveal the information as if to tell the world Arias was in charge, so that if anything disastrous happened, the blame would be put on him. Another likely reason for doing this was likely an attempt to incite public outrage within Markovia; after all, no one likes to hear they were being led on.

Arias was sure that President Ross intended for the various high-ranking officials of Markovia to speak up against Arias due to his presence and principles of power over Tara. Arias, however, did take note of the intention, and he fully intended on paying back. For now, however, his focus was elsewhere. Before he could think on such focus, he turned his attention away from his phone and looked forward to a familiar figure standing not too far from the door.

"Supergirl, so you decided to visit the castle yet again. From what Mercy told me not long ago, you absolutely refused to even get near it. Why the change of heart?" Arias asked, as a smile appeared on his face, because hovering in the entranceway just a few meters away from Arias, Supergirl hesitated to answer, glancing around at the various uniform guards stationed at each passageway. 

Arias gestured in the direction and gave a nod, waving at them to leave. Without hesitation, each one of them gave a bow and marched away.

This prompted Kara to frown even more as he spoke, "So it's true what they say, you are really in charge."

Arias maintained a smile and shook his head, "Whatever led you to that idea? I like to think of it more as the them respecting their Queen's father, nothing more."

"That's baloney, Arias!" Kara's frown deepened as it made her feel he wasn't taking her seriously.

"Baloney?"

"You know what I mean." 

Arias couldn't help but chuckle, "You're so innocent, it's almost comical. Just say what it is you want to say, stop beating around the bush. Unlike you, my time is actually valuable."

Arias's words cut deeply, but she indeed went ahead and got to the point, "Free the people you kidnapped—the children, wives, and other relatives of the members of the US government."

Arias showed a face of realization at the demand, "I see. I take it your big cousin reached out to you and asked this?"

As Arias said this, Kara kept up her frown, which prompted Arias to pause before shaking his head, "No, he's too stubborn to reach out to you for help. Must've been Gotham's very own caped crusader."

At this, Kara's expression faltered for a bit, but she did her best to maintain it. Arias, however, now knew he was right. He couldn't help but chuckle, "Interesting. He must've had suspicions and reached out to you for information. Well, given how terrible you are at hiding it, he must've been able to conclude after talking to you, even if you didn't outrightly say it."

"It doesn't matter, Arias. I did as you asked; I came here and helped protect the people. But I'm not going to keep doing that, knowing that I'm helping a mass kidnapper get his way. I don't care if I need to fight everyone—I'm going to get you to free those people, one way or another." 

Arias smirked at the threat. "My, how noble and righteous of you. Fine." his immediate acceptance caused Kara to frown and doubt. "Really. Just like that?" 

"Yes, however, we'll do it on my terms."