Elenora Pov

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As we stepped into the dimly lit basement of the Blackbeard Inn, my teammates and members showed clearly that they did not agreed with my decisions at all.

But none of that mattered the moment my eyes landed on the man sitting in my usual spot.

His piercing blue eyes locked onto us the moment we entered.

He sat there, calm yet unreadable.

His silver hair, neatly combed back, gave him an air of authority that could not be questioned.

Eduardo, standing to my right, tensed immediately.

His hand twitched as he was about to cast an offensive spell.

“Wait.”

I lifted my hand just in time, stopping him before he could make a grave mistake.

I bowed my head slightly and spoke, keeping my voice steady.

"Lord Arfa."

The moment his name left my lips, everyone else stiffened.

The basement felt even colder than before.

Arfa remained silent for a moment, his icy gaze shifting between us, assessing, waiting.

He was not a man of unnecessary words.

When he finally stood, the mere action sent an unspoken pressure through the room.

"Speak, What happened?"

I took a deep breath, knowing that every word I spoke now mattered.

"We found Marsil, We’ve been watching him since he arrived in Crimson Berry Town. He seemed cautious, calculating. But then, someone attempted to poison him."

Arfa’s expression didn’t change,

"We don’t know who did it, but it forced him to leave the town. He went into the forest to train, to recover.

“When he came back to Crimson Berry Town, he attacked by mages from Freedom Of Amber.”

“We did not stopped or helped him to see what he is capable of.”

“He was capable to protect himself against two and three mages from the Freedom Of Amber and taken one of them as a captive.”

“That was when we set a magic trap, and we managed to eliminate the enemy mage he had captured."

"Enemy mage?" Arfa echoed, his tone dangerously unreadable.

I nodded.

"As I said my lord, Marsil had taken one of the Freedom of Amber mages captive. Instead of executing him, he kept him alive interrogated him. That’s when we realized… he wasn’t entirely on our side."

Arfa’s silence was unbearable.

It stretched on for too long, long enough to make my stomach coil with unease.

Finally, he spoke, but his voice was like frost, devoid of warmth.

"You set a trap for Marsil?"

I hesitated.

"Yes, my lord."

"You killed his prisoner?"

"Yes."

"You tried to kill him as well?"

I swallowed hard.

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"Yes."

The room felt suffocating.

Eduardo and the others stood still, waiting for Arfa’s response, their breathing shallow.

Then, suddenly, the force of his aura pressed down on all of us.

"Why?"

The single word struck deeper than any accusation.

I bit the inside of my cheek and forced myself to answer.

"We believed Marsil was a threat. If he was truly against the Freedom of Amber, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill their mage. But he didn’t. He chose to take him alive. That means there’s a chance he could switch sides."

Arfa stepped forward, his movements precise, controlled.

"And that was enough reason to make an enemy out of him?"

His voice, though quiet, was sharp enough to cut.

I had no response.

Arfa continued, his tone growing colder.

“Marsil was already being watched by our enemies. We needed time. Time to gauge his worth, his loyalties. And instead of being patient, you forced his hand. Not to mention the fact that he was already attacked by them, at that time if you were to help him you would seem more trustworthy and he may join our organization with no problem."

I felt my pulse quicken. "My lord, we—"

"You antagonized a mage with untapped potential. One who could have been an asset. And now, thanks to your recklessness, he will never trust us again."

I clenched my fists at my sides. "But if he were to side with the enemy, wouldn’t it be worse?"

Arfa’s gaze locked onto mine, and for the first time since we entered, I felt something akin to fear.

"You assume too much, Elenora," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "A man like Marsil is not controlled by blind loyalty. He does not follow orders like a mindless soldier. He is a mage who thinks for himself. And now, you have ensured that his thoughts will never favor us."

The realization hit me like a blade to the stomach.

I had miscalculated.

We all had.

Arfa turned away from me, pacing slowly, his hands clasped behind his back.

"There are two kinds of threats," he said. "The ones we know and understand, and the ones that are unknown. You have just turned Marsil into the second kind."

"If he comes for us, we will have no one to blame but ourselves."

Arfa's final words sealed our fate.

-

Chapter 30

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After two hours later, Arfa started talking again.

His expression remained unreadable, but his tone carried the unmistakable edge of disappointment.

"Lord Eval had one order, Elenora," he repeated,

"One order only. Marsil was to be invited to our cause. That was it."

A heavy silence filled the room.

Eduardo and the others exchanged uneasy glances, their expressions betraying the realization that we had overstepped our boundaries.

Of course, in the end the decision of attacking and antagonizing Marsil lies on me.

We weren’t just a rogue faction acting on instinct.

We were part of something much bigger.

A structured order. An army, built from layers of command.

At the top, Lord Eval Morningstar,

Under him, twelve high-ranking commanders Arfa among them each entrusted with overseeing large, mid-sized groups.

And beneath those mid-sized groups? People like us. Small, specialized teams that carried out missions on the ground.

We were cogs in a grand machine.

And we had just thrown a wrench into it.

I clenched my jaw, trying to ignore the knot forming in my stomach.

"Lord Arfa, I couldn’t take the risk of a mage like Marsil joining the enemy side. You know what he’s capable of.”

Arfa’s cold blue eyes settled on me.

There was no anger there, only the quiet judgment of a man who had already made his decision.

"You," he said, shaking his head slightly, "do not have the authority to decide that."

His words cut through me like a blade.

It didn’t matter what I believed. It didn’t matter if I was right or wrong.

I had no power to change Eval Morningstar’s orders.

The realization sent a sharp wave of dread through me.

"Eval has a plan, Elenora," Arfa continued. "And you have just complicated it."

I wanted to argue. I wanted to say that I had only been thinking of our cause, that I had only acted to protect our movement.

But the truth was undeniable.

I had defied a direct order.

And in doing so, I had made an enemy out of a man we were supposed to recruit.

Arfa exhaled slowly, rubbing his temple as if the conversation itself was exhausting him.

"You," he said, glancing around at the others, "have put us in a difficult position."

Eduardo stiffened, his usual arrogance now replaced with quiet apprehension.

Markus shifted uncomfortably, his fingers tapping anxiously against the wooden table.

Even Lind, usually composed, looked uneasy.

We had all made this decision together. And now, we would all suffer the consequences.

Arfa finally turned back to me, his voice low but firm.

"There will be repercussions for this, Elenora."

I swallowed hard, my mind racing.

"Do we have a chance to fix it?" I asked, though the words felt hollow even as I spoke them.

Arfa studied me for a moment before sighing. "That," he said, "is not for me to decide."

Which meant only one thing.

This was no longer just my problem.

It was Lord Eval’s.