"You're right. I didn't call you here to talk to you about it," the old man responded.
"What I called you here for was something else entirely. It's about a different challenge that has the potential to become a big obstruction in our path," he further added.
"What obstruction?"
"Elisium!" The old man answered.
"Huh? That tiny place? Didn't it suffer in a civil war only recently? Most of the powerful Warlocks of Elisium were dead the last I heard about them."
"Yeah. The biggest threat was that Zale. He died long ago. And now that Zeiss and Varant also died, according to the last update.. Both the organizations were wiped out. Are they still troubling you?"
"Man, if such weaklings have started to trouble you now, then it seems like you have lost your touch, old man. Step down from the position and let one of us take over."
There was a lot of impatience in the Warlock Council over the direction they were going in. They weren't getting any major breakthrough with anything.
Not being able to take the stone from the Divine Empire was already hard enough as it was, but now there was another problem. Even small nations like Elisium were troubling them? It was making the other leaders annoyed.
Sitting in the end was a young man who was sitting with his eyes closed. His chair was bent to the back so much that it was almost horizontal at that point. The young man seemed like he was lying on the bed, relaxing.
His clean shaved face made him seem like he was barely twenty, but the man did have some good muscles. His long blonde hair was almost touching the ground, which didn't have even a speck of dust.
He also appeared to be chewing something slowly as he heard the discussion taking place in the room.
Yawn~
The man finally opened his eyes, yawning.
"Gentlemen, let's can't you just hear what he has to say first. Why are you all dragging the meeting so much? It's already lunchtime, and we're still here. I need to leave too. Let the old man finish."
"Julien, you finally decided to wake up? I don't get why you even attend such meetings since you clearly don't care. You're either sleeping or thinking about leaving."
"Your being here and not being here is the same. If you're hungry, you can leave, but we're talking about the survival of our organization here. We can't take such a lax attitude lightly!"
The other leaders were already pretty upset and seeing a young man teach them how to act made them even more upset, especially since Julien was the youngest to be made a leader.
In fact, he only became one only two years ago, and now he thought he could teach others how to react?
Seeing everyone scolding him now, Julien started smirking.
He stretched his arms as if he had just woken up from his sleep as he stood up, pushing the chair back.
With his left hand in his pocket, he walked closer to the people who had just scolded him.
"Man, can't you stick to your story? First, you guys were saying that Elisium was a minor problem and that you would have solved the Divine Empire problem if you were sent there, and now suddenly it's the topic of survival of the Council?" he asked, looking straight at the other Warlocks.
"If you think the Divine Empire and Elisium can put the Warlock Council at risk, then stop underestimating them. You can't underestimate them while blaming the old man and overestimate them while blaming me," he further stated, chuckling.
"So, what's it going to be? Is the problem big, or is it small? Because if it's small, then stop talking to me as if it's big and if it has the potential to be big, then start listening to the damn old man! Am I clear?"
Putting his point across, he walked back to his chair and laid on it again, closing his eyes.
Almost every single leader present in the meeting looked at Julien. Some were furious at him, while others were amused by him. But almost every single person knew that he had a point.
"Old man, are you going to speak, or should I consider the meeting over?" Julien asked, wondering why everyone went silent.
"Ah, right." The old man came out of his daze, nodding.
"So, I was talking about Elisium. I called you here to update you on the situation and to decide on something important. Let me tell you what happened first."
"Sometimes ago, we all decided to send an Envoy to Elisium after finding out about their change in leadership. The plan was also to secure the stone there. Unfortunately, before our envoy could reach there, his plane was blown up." the old man stated.
"We already know about that. Are you saying that Elisium was involved in that?" A Warlock asked.
"We have no proof regarding that, but it would seem like Elisium did it. Maybe they did, or maybe they didn't, but that's not what matters. After that, we sent another Envoy there."
"Yeah. We know that too. Why don't you tell us something we don't know about?"
"Yeah. Don't give us a recap. Just tell us what happened to that Envoy. Is she killed too? Or did she get the stone?"
"None. She wasn't killed, and she safely reached there."
"She did? And still, you say that she didn't get the stone?"
"That's right. Let alone getting the stone, she didn't even get to meet their leader. Moreover, Elisium also issued a threat."
"Hmm? Those weaklings dare to issue us a threat?"
"What was the threat?"
"From what I heard, they told her that they'll be independent of our influence, and if we decide to attack them, they'll wipe us all out," the old man stated.
Everyone looked at the old man, stunned. Ultimately, they all started laughing. Laughter filled the room as everyone found it funny. A weak nation was threatening to wipe them out? What could be more amusing than that?
"Is that even a problem? Let's show them what it means to threaten us. We can't ignore everyone like we avoid the Divine Empire. I alone am enough to bring that nation to dust. Arrange for me to go there." A man stood up.
"Yeah. Who even needs Elisium anyway? Let's take them out and take the stone. Moreover, it would be a fun exercise too. We also have a decent excuse."
"It doesn't matter if they actually blew up our plane or not. We can just claim they did to justify this invasion to our citizens."