The room was already tense before Monty Ward walked in.

He didn't have to do much to read the auras of everyone here because they were practically leaking most of their emotions into the air. Boredom, dissatisfaction, anxiety, suspicion, amusement… it appeared as a melding of colorful mist filling the room. Monty took it in, his nostrils also picking up the different scents.

When their eyes turned to him one by one, he read the blatant displeasure on their features.

No one at this meeting wanted him here. It made sense because this was supposed to be a meeting for the Hero Association Board, and Monty was only a B-Rank Hero.

One who could effectively read their minds.

Monty's gaze fell on Stella Firebringer first, who was here representing the Firebringer clan. Her initial emotions revolved around boredom, but upon seeing Monty, they became tainted with discomfort. She was uncomfortable with Monty's presence because she had a fair idea of what he could do. Nevertheless, her feelings of discomfort paled in comparison to the sheer distaste coming from the rest of the room's inhabitants. Probably because out of all of them, she had the least to hide.

Next to her was Kento Skysoarer, from District 5 where the Skysoarers took residence. Like Stella, he was also annoyed about being dragged to a meeting this early in the morning, but he covered it up with a laidback smile. He was extremely uncomfortable with Monty's presence, but that was more so because he, unfortunately, had the intimate experience of having his mind scoured after he was captured and tortured by Monty's father. When Monty walked in, he stiffened and tried to shield his thoughts and pull back his aura. He drew it into himself, the wall of blue retreating.

That was not an easy thing to do. He must have learned it out of desperation so he didn't go through what he went through again.

On the other side of him was Thor Groundsmage of District 3. Thor did not have much to hide and he eyed Monty steadily to show he wasn't scared of him. The Groundsmages were the last of the Elementals to awaken elemental powers, and the lineage of power had only just begun with Thor himself. As such, he had still not entirely assimilated into the group and he didn't trust most of them. He trusted Stella because he viewed her as a verbal sharpshooter, just like him, but everyone else, he watched with a suspicious eye.

He covered his suspiciousness well underneath boisterous laughing and an easygoing demeanor.

Next was the mysterious Nikola Shadowsbame who had come all the way from District 8. He was the most uncomfortable with Monty's presence, likely because the man had the most to hide. Ages ago, the Shadowsbane family was discovered to have been secretly helping the tyrants who had launched the Great District War, in which District 8 sieged mana bombs on District 9.

Lillian Shadowsbane, the matriarch who was behind it all, had been captured and taken out by the association, and though the rest of the family claimed not to know, the act had earned a stain on the Shadowsbane name that the current Lord Shadowsbane was still trying to wipe off.

He and Stella got along as well as could be expected but their families had played big roles in the war and had been on opposite sides. There was historical bloodshed between the two and while the Firebringers came out as the victorious [Heroes], the Shadowsbanes were named and shamed.

Lord Shadowsbane was trying to reform their reputation but it would take a lifetime of good deeds to wipe the blemish off.

Monty could tell that most of the other Elementals did not trust the Shadowsbane except perhaps the Wavelost, represented today by Kaia Wavelost. She sat, cool and implacable, the emblem of the Wavelost clan emblazoned on her blue robe. If there was anyone who was an expert at hiding her expression, it was Kaia. The Wavelosts lived on their own sovereign island, somewhere between District 5 and 6, and they controlled Hero activity in that area.

The others at the meeting were of course, the head of the anti-corruption unit Silas Creevy who was annoyed, Jerry the vice president who was making a grocery list in his head, Headmaster of Victoire, Arthur Journeyman, whose mind was as busy as his twiddling fingers and of course, the man at the head of the desk, Dominic Vacek.

Vacek was the one person that Monty could never read, no matter how hard he'd tried. It wasn't like with Aiden Sparrowfoot who had actively resisted pathway manipulation. Even then, Monty could sense his despair, his grief, and his rage.

But with Vacek, Monty sensed nothing. It felt like the man was a black void that exuded nothing, no color, no taste, no emotions, but that wasn't true. Monty had seen Vacek express anger and frustration on several occasions and even happiness once or twice. He'd simply never been able to sense any of those emotions using his powers.

The truth of Vacek's abilities was largely a mystery to most. As a triple S-Rank, he was one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the universe, rendered even more so by the nature of his magic–the frightening ability to neutralize any magic that was turned against him.

It was a good thing he was a hero because if not he would be terrifying as a villain.

"Sorry, I'm late." Monty cleared his throat, more than a little nervous to be in a room with all the big shots. "I wasn't sure what room the meeting was being held in and I got a little lost:"

"I said it was on the top floor," Vacek said.

"Yeah, but the top floor is like three hundred rooms… anyway, that's not important."

He waffled a little about where to sit. Most people didn't want him here, much less next to them. He wanted to be considerate of that, even though it stung a little.

"Monty," Vacek warned that he was wasting time.

"Right. Sorry." In the end, he finally sat next to Jerry who gave him a wry nod. Jerry's aura was mild and his thoughts were probably the simplest to understand. What you saw was what you got most of the time and right now, he just wanted to go pick up groceries and go home to his wife and kids.

"Alright. Now that everyone's here the meeting can start," Vacek said. "We have many things to hit on the agenda today, so we'll run through them in systematic order, and I plead with you all to enable this to run smoothly."

Stella snorted. "Is that your way of telling us to behave? We're not children, Dominic, of course, we'll behave."

Vacek didn't look like he held much stake in her words, but he nodded anyway. He drew up the large holographic screen hovering in the middle of the desk and opened the first file. "The first order of business is the Fae Ambassador's impromptu visit. Stella, what was that about?"

Stella sighed. "Who knows? He says that he has some important things to do on Earth, but so far he's only lounged on my Island wearing my husband's bathing suit and drank fermented orange juice. Any mention of what this important business is gets derailed into conversations about my children, or one of his wives back home who he's avoiding for reasons I'd rather not get into."

"You think he came here to escape a family spat?"

"Something like that. Or at least that's what he wants me to think. It's hard to tell with the Fae, even with Tynrae who is more human than most."

Vacek nodded, and Monty wondered if this Ambassador Tynrae was one of the Fae who had some admixture of human inside him. Monty had not met many Fae, but typically the ones he met had difficulty showing emotions at least in the way humans did, and had confusing pathways, to say the least.

"Ambassador Tynrae-Ha was one of the first human-Fae experiments of the last century," Vacek answered the question he read on Monty's expression.

"Ah," Monty nodded and Vacek turned back to Stella.

"So, what do you suspect he might be here for? And why would he extend his stay to do nothing?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"Did he arrive with anyone?"

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"A few attendants. No other dignitaries."

Vacek rubbed his chin and blinked slowly.

"You want me to take a look at him?" Monty asked, reluctantly.

"Absolutely not." Stella's eyes flashed. "That would be an insult to my guest and trust me, you do not want to insult Tynrae-Ha."

He held up his hand, flushing. "Sorry. Just asking."

"That won't be necessary, Monty, " Vacek said, as Monty fought waves of indignation and embarrassment. Stella had reacted like he'd wanted to invade the guy's mind. Most people didn't get that he almost never wanted to use his powers. He just felt like he had to.

"Do you think he's here about the unstable dungeon?" Vacek asked next. Though the unstable dungeons seemed to have disappeared, Vacek was still on it, investigating. The fact that it had resolved itself so quickly after his return only made the whole thing more suspicious.

"He never mentioned it," Stella said. "I'm not sure he's even aware of it."

"We'll need to keep an eye on him. Something is going on."

Stella nodded but Monty was a little confused. If anything was going on with the Fae, Vacek would be the first to know, considering how much time he'd spent on the Fae Planets with Fae dignitaries. He never spoke about what he did on those visits. Vacek did not speak much about anything at all but he was especially tightlipped about what he was up to on his interplanetary missions.

But he always came back from them with a renewed sense of urgency.

"And speaking of unstable dungeons, that's the second thing on our agenda. Silas, where are we with that?"

Silas, whose expression always appeared grave, looked even graver.

"As you already know most of the evidence was pointing to GLITCH as being the ones behind the unstable dungeons," he said. "Our records show that there were less stable dungeons last year and more unstable ones, which suggests that the stable dungeons had been turning unstable. We traced the problems back to the mercenary guild and going through their logs, we found that one group was returning to already raided dungeons for reasons they couldn't articulate. Perhaps to hunt for the core? That could be one possible reason for the instability. Another odd thing was the increased occurrence of mana stones on the market, as well as their derivatives."

"Mana potions?"

He nodded. "Sophisticated ones. We're not sure exactly how they're getting them, but we do know that they're using stones gotten from already raided dungeons."

"I don't understand," Thor Groundsmage spoke up. "If the dungeons are already raided, how would they be getting mana crystals from them?"

"Because, while mining dungeons, there are certain things we do to ensure that we don't disturb the dungeon core. Like mining too close to the core, for example, which is strictly forbidden. But this group who are returning to the dungeons aren't paying attention to that and whatever they're doing to extract those extra mana stones is destabilizing the dungeon and creating unstable dungeons."

"How are they getting access? Only heroes and mercenary guild chiefs have that."

"One of our Unsealers was taken," he said. "We also believe the head of the mercenary guild might be compromised. He's being investigated as we speak, and we're uncovering a lot of instances of laundering and other criminal activity."

"It's definitely him," Groundsmage said. "That greedy bastard is probably running the whole operation."

"We can't be sure about that," Silas said. "And we can't make accusations that we're unsure of. The fault could just as well be coming from our end. There might be an imposter or a traitor in the [Heroes] association. After all, someone was tampering with the reporting database."

"Do you have anyone in mind?"

"I have suspects. One in particular but I would rather trail them for longer. Anthony Royal may also be involved but he's not the mastermind. We're getting close. We just need a few more months to wrap everything up."

"Good. Keep working on that," he said. "Alright, next thing. Journeyman."

The man jumped because he'd probably not been paying attention the whole time. He constantly looked dazed like his mind was far away, his pursed lips framed by his cropped white beard as he ran his hand through his pure white hair.

"Yes?" he answered.

"The new Year Ones should be done moving in now," he said. "Any standouts?"

"Well," he cleared his throat. "It's nothing like last year when we had a Skysoarer, Firebringer, Wavelost, Groundsmage, and Shadowsbane in the same year. But it is something. We have a Lightlark for the first time in...gosh, I don't even know how long."

"Yes, I heard. Is the girl showing promise?"

"Yes. She's an S-Rank and has the potential to be powerful. But she hasn't made up her mind about whether she wants to use that power on Planet Fae yet. Her mentor is currently showering her with luxury in an attempt to change her mind."

"He needs to dial it back," Vacek said sternly. "It has to be her decision, made with a clear head. I will not tolerate any coercion, no matter how light it may seem."

Journeyman smiled wanly. "Yes, but we can make the choice easier for her. You can't deny that it will be a good thing to have another Lightlark on the Fae planet."

"Or have one stay on earth," said Wavelost. "We might need a Lightlark pretty soon if more eldritch creatures escape from dungeons."

Journeyman shook his head. "They're more valuable to us there than here."

"I heard Sparrowfoots daughter was of age now," Groundsmage mentioned and the auras in the room got thicker, some changing color. Just the mention of Sparrowfoot made several people in the room uneasy. It wasn't all animosity. Some of it was regret. "Did she apply?"

"No," Journeyman said. "We did not get an application from her."

"That's odd," Vacek said. Monty was surprised himself because Vacek had been pretty sure the girl was going to be a [Hero].

"That's probably because she's a C-Rank card user," Stella spoke up and the shock reverberated throughout the room.

"What?"

"You're joking," Kaia said.

"I'm not."

"How do you know this?" Vacek asked.

"I'm not stalking her if that's what you're asking." Stella sounded annoyed. "You and Aiden were pretty clear that I'm supposed to stay away from my own goddaughter and I have."

Vacek held her gaze, portraying that he did not feel guilty about his decision.

"She's a C-Rank Card User and S-Rank Scholar," Stella continued. "She's friends with my nephew and my son met her at his congratulatory dinner. She told him her stats and he told me."

"I can't believe that the daughter of a powerful mage would get such a disappointing ranking," Groundsmage said.

"I thought I heard she'd pre-awakened," Wavelost murmured.

"A pre-awakening is not a predictor of rank," Shadowsbane said his first words for the morning, in a quiet silky voice like night.

"That's a shame." Kaia wavelost sighed. "But at least we don't have to worry about her being a problem for us."

"Hello?" Stella called out to the group, shooting Kaia a particularly annoyed look. "Did you all miss the fact that she's an S-Rank Scholar? That means she's going to be a genius if she isn't already." The pride exuded from her and dripped from her voice.

Groundsmage shrugged. "Yes, that's nice. It's just that when you're the daughter of the most powerful archmage in centuries, people expect a little more from you than being smart. We already knew she would be a genius given who her father is, but we thought she would be a magical prodigy too."

"She's not just a genius because of her father, but her mother too," Stella countered coldly. "Lara was very smart."

"Yes, but we're not talking about that right now. Everyone knows it's the father who truly predicts the child's potential." Groundsmage looked smug. "Which is why I've managed to bring six powerful children into this world. Five boys and a girl."

Stella gave him an arched look, her eyes glittering with temper. "Didn't one of your children turn out to be mundane?"

His face darkened. "There's no evidence that he's my child."

"He's the spitting image of you."

"You take that back. I don't look weak."

"You certainly looked weak during that fight when I crushed your face into the ground."

"Only because you cheated you damn harpy."

Vacek rapped on the table to interrupt the argument. "What did I say about staying on topic?"

The two of them glared at each other for a few more seconds before succumbing back to silence, their arms crossed like children.

Monty hid his smirk as Vacek sighed in annoyance.

"Now. Let's get back to it."

The meeting lasted about thirty more minutes before it was over. The room cleared slowly of everyone except Vacek and Monty. Stella and Thor were throwing glares at each other, flashing their middle fingers on the way out. It wouldn't last. The two bickered all the time, but one drinking session and they would be friends once more.

"Did you sense anything," Vacek asked Monty after everyone was gone.

Monty shook his head. "Just the usual."

Vacek said nothing but his expression showed he was thinking. He was very good at thinking.

One of Vacek's many special skills, brought on by his S-Rank Intellect, was that he often had…hunches as he called them. He knew when something didn't feel right and he was always on the money. Right now, he just didn't know where the feeling of unrightness was coming from.

As far as Monty could tell, no one here had been trying to deceive Vacek. Not that they would have succeeded anyway. One couldn't simply lie to Dominic Vacek, at least not without going through a lot of trouble to shield it. He had a way of sensing it, and his S-Rank intelligence was high enough in the emotional quotient that he could read even the minutest of body language cues. He might as well have been a mind reader.

But that didn't mean he couldn't be misled. He was aware of the vulnerabilities of his own powers, which was why Monty was here.

Vacek's gaze traveled around the empty seats in the room. His eyes lingered on where Silas had been sitting and his frown deepened.

"Follow Silas Creevy," he said. "There's something I need to confirm."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.