Chapter 7: Acting Guild Leader

In the conference room of Dehya Valley, Bishop Adra arrived late, just before the meeting was about to end, bringing shocking news that stunned all the necromancers: the Knights Templar and the Magic Academy had joined forces to eliminate a necromancer who had been lurking in the royal capital.

The reason for the necromancers' shock was obvious: they all knew who that necromancer was.

Master Aiden looked at the marquis, his usually calm eyes and voice now tinged with anger: "Inham. What's going on? Before you left, everyone warned you not to involve Sandru." Just a few days ago, he had been on the verge of death, but now he appeared revitalized, as if he had just awakened from a deep sleep and taken a hot bath. Even the arm he had lost had been reattached. In other places, this would be a magical miracle, but in Dehya Valley, it was commonplace. Here, there were top-tier white mages and experts in body manipulation who had studied the human body to an extraordinary extent. The abundance of high-level magical items and artifacts meant that reattaching an arm was a trivial benefit.

The marquis shook his head and replied calmly, "I'm sorry; I didn't know about this. As soon as the matter with Ronis was settled, I came back, as everyone knows."

The oldest necromancer among them spoke up. He coughed heavily before looking at the marquis and asking, "Inham. We all greatly admire your plan to eliminate Ronis… cough, cough…" He spoke a few words but was soon caught in another bout of severe coughing. His wrinkled face turned bright red with effort.

The others remained silent, patiently waiting for the old man, who looked as if he might cough up his lungs at any moment, to continue speaking. The room was filled only with the sound of his coughing.

His face turned from deep red to an unhealthy pale before he finally got a chance to catch his breath. He took a few breaths and slowly finished his sentence: "We all admire you very much, but this situation is somewhat improper. Please don't mind Master Aiden's outburst; there are things you young people might not fully understand."

"But Master Shante, I really had no idea about this." The marquis's expression carried a hint of embarrassment; anyone could see from his demeanor and tone that he was genuinely innocent. "I never expected Duke Murak would even know about Mr. Sandru, let alone lead a troop to surround him."

One necromancer spoke slowly: "If there are people on this continent we wish to avoid provoking, it would be the two former acting guild leaders. They agreed not to interfere with us when they left the guild. But now, if Sandru dies because of us, Agrenel will not stand idly by."

"Forgive my ignorance, seniors. You are all among the continent's most elite mages, and even if the other former acting guild leader doesn't intervene…" The young Bishop Adra's smile was charming and confident as he looked at the gathered necromancers. "What could they possibly do to us?"

Master Aiden replied flatly: "I can only say that if Agrenel wants to kill me, I will simply wait for him to do so."

"You're being too exaggerated," Adra said, covering his mouth, smiling at him. "After all, you are one of the ten most powerful mages on the continent."

"Yet Agrenel is the continent's top assassin, and he was once one of us, so he knows us very well. Mages need to eat, sleep, and their spirits can falter. I don't want to have to inspect every bite of bread for poisonous bugs cursed with dozens of curses, nor do I want to spend half a day checking each chair for deadly traps. I also don't wish to fear that I might never wake up again before going to bed each night." Master Aiden looked calmly at Adra. "If you don't believe me, you can declare that it was you who led the attack on Sandru. Then we would be a lot more relaxed."

"Oh, so he is that powerful," Adra replied with a smile that seemed almost shy. "It seems we should pray that the esteemed former acting guild leader, Mr. Sandru, can escape this calamity unscathed."

"That might be even more troublesome," another necromancer sighed. "Agrenel is just a killer. If Sandru gets angry… no one knows what he might do."

"Please rest assured," the marquis, who had been silent, stood up. His expression and voice were calm and unflustered, showing no sign of panic or worry. "Whether Mr. Sandru is alive or dead, regardless of who investigates, it absolutely will not fall on us. This is just a very simple political conspiracy."

"Is that possible?" Master Aiden scoffed. "Others might not know, but those two know that we have always wanted to deal with Ronis. If they catch someone who conspired with you, like that duke, they'll learn everything. I believe there is no one who can conceal the truth from them."

"There is no one who conspired with me, and absolutely no one will know that this matter was manipulated by me. No matter who comes to deduce it, the responsibility will not fall on us. Please rest assured. I guarantee it." The marquis's calm demeanor and confident voice left Master Aiden unable to refute.

"Haha, such a reassuring tone," Bishop Adra said with an enchanting smile directed at the marquis.

"I didn't realize that these two seniors possessed such determination. Now I finally understand," the marquis also smiled back, his smile equally charming, infused with a sense of enlightenment. "In the future, I will be more cautious and pay closer attention to these two seniors."

"Since the esteemed Inham can guarantee this, it seems we were overthinking," a well-maintained, chubby necromancer nodded. "However, to be safe, I suggest that we temporarily refrain from interfering in matters concerning the Empire of Einfast; let's wait and see how things develop."

"Indeed. It seems unrelated to us."

"Exactly. Let's avoid going there for now. We'll talk when everything is clear."

"However, thinking about it calmly, I find it a bit strange…" Master Aiden shook his head, indifferent. "Do you really think Sandru would be surrounded and killed?"

"I also don't quite believe it…" The old necromancer leaned over, coughing again, forcing the words out. He finally straightened up and glanced at Adra. "Did you see it with your own eyes?"

"Master Shante, I indeed did not see it with my own eyes," Bishop Adra replied respectfully to the old man who had a habit of coughing. "However, according to the report from the Magic Academy, there were over a thousand people involved in the siege. The number one swordsman of the Empire of Einfast led five hundred members of the Knights Templar, and nearly everyone from the Magic Academy participated in the siege to avenge Bishop Ronis. Over a thousand people witnessed that necromancer explode alongside the corpses he controlled."

"Self-detonation… such a brave act doesn't really fit Mr. Sandru's style," Master Aiden said, glancing at the other necromancers. Two of them nodded with smiles.

"Right, he must have played some trick. The Robe of the Ghost King is in his hands, and he is a mage who has practiced true meditation. Once he wears the Robe of the Ghost King, I don't think even a thousand mages could handle him," one of the necromancers remarked.

"Oh? Does wearing the Robe of the Ghost King have such a great effect?" The marquis asked with a hint of surprise.

"Only someone who has practiced true meditation can maximize its effects. But true meditation… haha, I wouldn't dare to practice it myself."

Adra smiled and asked, "Really? Is that meditation technique so difficult? I've only heard about it…"

"You young people might not know this, but countless peaks in the Shadow Spiral Mountains have been flattened by those daring enough to explore the limits of necromancy, only to self-destruct during meditation. That's why, in the end, we had to carve our meditation rooms directly into the mountain itself. Haha."

"But the records in that book should indeed be of great benefit to necromantic magic. Over the years, only the former acting guild leader Sandru and the esteemed Master Shante have succeeded in practicing it, and they have both become the most powerful necromancers since Akibard."

"Succeeded? Cough, cough… I only got started and had to stop. It's really Sandru's talent and good fortune that allowed him to practice it halfway," Master Shante said, shaking his head with difficulty. "And the biggest regret of my life is practicing that book…" His coughing grew more intense, and he curled up painfully in his chair.

The marquis looked at Master Shante's suffering and sighed, "It seems that Mr. Sandru was right to bring that True Meditation and the Robe of the Ghost King out of Dehya Valley."

The chubby necromancer sighed as well, "Ah. I had originally wanted to find an opportunity to capture that woman who ate the leaves of the World Tree for research. But now it seems I should give up this dangerous plan to avoid being caught by Sandru, who might be waiting there. Haha. After all, there's still a whole leaf of the World Tree waiting for us."

"Right, it's better not to go."

"I thought I had brought some explosive news, but who knew it would quickly turn bland under everyone's wise analysis and discussion?" Adra laughed a bit sheepishly. "What important matters did you all discuss in the meeting before I arrived?"

"First of all, everyone praised Inham for completing such a difficult task on his own. Everyone has been delayed quite a bit these past few days, and now things are almost settled. There won't be much progress in the short term, and those members with matters to attend to should go back to handle their own affairs, so we've elected Inham to act as the guild leader. He'll be responsible for deciding how to handle various matters when we can't hold a meeting. You have no objections, right?"

"Of course I do," Adra said, smiling brightly. "How can you not give me a chance to cast my sacred vote for him? Haha."

Master Aiden snorted. "I personally still have reservations about this decision."

A necromancer chuckled and said, "Respectable Aiden, what does this little title matter? Can't we leave the tedious affairs to the more energetic young people to handle?"

"Next, we discussed the future of the guild. Our main remaining issue is about the gentleman who has gone missing with the leaves of the World Tree. Anyway, Ronis has already helped us put out a warrant for him, and now thousands of people are tracking the whereabouts of this five-thousand-gold gentleman. We just need to wait for these helpers to discover him, hunt him down, create a bit of commotion, and then we can easily go reclaim the leaves of the World Tree while eliminating this gentleman as well. But before that, we can only ask the radical Ms. Vadenina to rest a bit longer. After all, her time is endless, haha."

"Although this operation was successful, the blame ultimately still falls on us. The church still needs you two to handle it a bit; don't let things get too out of hand. As for those countries or organizations most eager to raise troops against Dehya Valley like Ronis, let's conveniently swap their leaders. Treat it as a little recreational game; it could be quite fun."

"Old Theodorus's orc city seems to be gaining some momentum, but for the interests and eyes of our noble group, it remains a vacuum. If everyone gets a chance, let's send some ears or something in there."

"Finally, there's the matter of finding the murderer of Aisri. Whoever has time should check into it. First, figure out who that person is, then we can talk about how to deal with it." The necromancer explaining this to Bishop Adra stood up and stretched. "Alright, that's all. I should head back now."

The other necromancers also stood up. "Okay. I hope that when we gather again, that elegant conference table will have the five-thousand-gold head on it and the most precious leaves of the World Tree."

"Honorable Acting Guild Leader Inham, please take on the burden. Haha."

"Rest assured, I will not let everyone down," the marquis said with a bow and a smile. "I will definitely surprise everyone."

A necromancer laughed heartily: "Haha. You truly are a reassuring young man. I feel like I can already smell the enchanting scent of the World Tree leaves."