After the settlement was up and running like it was before, the leaders had called for a meeting in their usual spot. There was a large round table that was placed in the garden behind the castles.
The reason for the meeting was to find out what exactly happened and why the wave attacks had recently taken place. Everyone was already seated, talking about what had occured but there was one person still missing and it was the main person of focus, Edvard.
Eventually though he did turn up, and he was slowly making his way to the table as he stared off into space.
"Look who finally decided to turn up." Hikel joked. "I know you are usually late to these things, but we were all here waiting for your report, so I thought you would at least get here a little earlier."
Edvard took his seat, sitting down, and replied with a single word.
"Yeah."
This caused a few strange looks from around the table, especially from Hikel, who was one of the leaders that was closer to Edvard. Edvard was an energetic leader, one that managed to see the bright side in most things.
His ability somewhat suited his personality, so for him to reply with just a simple answer, it was out of character for him.
"Is everything okay?" Hikel asked.
Edvard's eyes wandered to the third leader at the table, his large belly was pushing against the edge of the table, and there was a big smile on his face. Whatever happened he was in a good mood, so maybe the two of them could work something out.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Just thinking about the scouts' lives that we lost." Edvard replied. "I wish we would have acted sooner. After all, this is what the meeting is about right? To make the settlement a great place for all the vampires and a safe one."
The others hadn't heard Edvard talk like this before and they were wondering what had gotten into him. Losing lives of vampires in the past had happened often, and before the punishers were introduced, a lot of the originals were loose cannon balls doing as they wished out on earth.
"I will start with the report." Edvard stated. "The beasts were being controlled by a demon tier beast that was deep in the forest. It had several abilities, to change the landscape of the area near its home, to keep a track of everything that was close to it, and to make one go into a deep slumber, forgetting what they were doing for the current day.
"Because of this, all scouting teams had been defeated apart from the one sent by the 9th family. I managed to reach them just in time, as they were being attacked by the demon tier. Some of its abilities didn't work against me, and using the green liquid I was able to defeat it.
"Based on the reports, after the demon tier beast was defeated, the horde waves of beasts had stopped here as well."
A lot of the vampires around the table were nodding, but there were some that felt like Edvard's story didn't quite add up, and one of them was Hikel who was by his side.
'Edvard is strong, but defeating a demon tier beast on his own without a single scratch on his body? It doesn't help that none of the vampires that were there can remember what happened.' Hikel thought.
'It does make sense if he used the green liquid like he stated, but something is still bothering me. The horde waves were large in number. According to those on earth, it was far larger than anything they had seen on other planets.
'Was this really all the work of a single demon tier beast.'
In the end, Hikel thought that it was best not to look too much into it. At the end of the day, no matter what happened, the horde waves had stopped and only time would tell if the beasts in the forest would no longer cause trouble for the vampires.
"It's quite lucky that only the 9th scouting team managed to come back in one piece don't you think?" Grenlet commented with a chuckle.
"Well, you know my ability, perhaps it just extended to my own people." Edvard replied.
With that done, the meeting had come to an end, but before everyone walked their separate ways to their castles, Hikel saw Edvard approach Grenlet, and the two of them walked away toward his castle.
'I wonder what that's about?' Hikel thought.
A short while later, and Grenlet and Edvard had entered one of the many reception rooms on the ground floor. The area had been cleared of vampires and there was a silence orb in the centre that would make it so only the two of them could hear each other's conversations.
"Alright, tell me then, why did you want to speak to me privately? I believe during our time we have said everything that we need to say to each other." Grenlet stated.
"You are right about that." Edvard replied. "This matter involves someone from my family and someone from yours, you see. I have information that someone from the third family ordered a hit on someone from the 9th family, and it was on a child no less."
Grenlet clicked his tongue as he heard this. He was ashamed that someone in his family would do such a thing, but what he was even more surprised about was that Edvard would get personally involved.
"From what I know so far, a Viscount was the one that gave the order."
"I understand." Grenlet said as he stood up. "I will investigate and punish the one responsible. You have changed quite a bit, I never knew you were one that cared for those from your family like that."
This was where the hard part for Edvard was going to start, if it was a simple matter of punishing them then it would be fine.
"No." Edvard said. "Once you find the person responsible, could you send them to me… and I will be the one to decide their punishment."
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmGrenlet turned his head slowly, and there was a look of shock on his face.
"Are you mad?" Grenlet said. "You punish a member of my family. Do you think I'm not capable enough to do something myself? Do you think that your methods are better than mine?"
"No." Edvard said. "This matter has become a…"
Edvard stopped there, it was hard for him to keep Quinn's secret at the same time, he couldn't say anything that would allow a link or for him to be involved.
"It is a request, this Viscount ordered an attack on a vampire child. They don't deserve to be in the settlement." Edvard said.
"You are doing all of this for a mere child, that makes no sense, leave my castle and leave all my own family matters to me." Grenlet said again as he turned around, but soon saw that Edvard was standing in front of him.
"Now you're standing in my way, are you that arrogant!" Grenlet's temper had already reached its maximum, and he threw out a fist filled with blood aura towards Edvard.
Seeing this, Edvard went to lift with his arm to block the attack, but that's when he noticed he was unable to move his arm, because there was a thin needle that had been inserted.
The punch hit Edvard right across his face, it was a strong hit, but he stood firm with his feet. However, his sunglasses were shattered on the left side and his glowing red eye could be seen.
"You certainly are an arrogant one." Grenlet said. "Without your armour you are nothing. You are not the same person as you were before, so don't think you can order us around like you had done back then. It looks like your luck has run out."
Grenlet walked toward the door and opened it, planning his leave, but Edvard still had a few last words for him.
"Grenlet!" Edvard said as he turned around and the movement returned in his left arm. "I promise you, if you don't heed my request you will regret what happened today."
Ignoring the final words of Edvard, Grenlet left the room.