Geir convened the elders in a makeshift meeting room, where their discontent with the Blade Dancer Clan's current situation was palpable. These elders, far from clueless about the reason for the meeting, openly displayed their displeasure.
All of them were seated on a dilapidated chair around a long rectangular, similarly dilapidated table.
If this had been before what happened with The Emperor, Geir would have already done or said something to appease them. He also might have opened the floor for discussion so they could tackle the situation accordingly.
However, Kyran told Geir that he would handle it himself. Intrigued by the younger man's confidence, Geir was eager to see how Kyran would deal with the elders' discontent. With that in mind, he turned his attention back to the elders and frowned at once after hearing their discussion.
"It hasn't been a week since it happened. I am sure The Emperor will provide a good account of why he did what he did if we just ask him."
"What are you saying? The Emperor did not have to explain himself. It is our fault for not properly monitoring our defensive line and allowing such an enemy to infiltrate our plain."
"I agree. If not for The Emperor's intervention, that intruder would have destroyed the clan from the inside without us knowing!"
"Hm... if you put it like that, wouldn't it mean that The Emperor actually saved us?"
"That's right! The Emperor saved us. Yet, that... that... stranger had the audacity to claim that he was the one who saved us? Such nonsense!"
It would appear that the clan elders were convinced that everything that happened with the Emperor was a misunderstanding, and Kyran took advantage of this to get the clan to do his bidding. They even had this misconception that whatever the Emperor did was right and that they should not have doubted his intentions no matter what.
An aged man with flowing white hair and a long beard that matched it sat at the opposite of the head table. Unlike the other elders, he listened to them in silence without voicing his thoughts. There were other elders who stayed silent, but unlike him, these elders appeared to be only waiting for something to join the discussion.
He looked at Geir, who was at the right chair just beside the one at the head of the table, with serene eyes.
"Head of Clan, you have been silent all this time. Are you alright?" the aged man asked.
The moment he spoke, the rest of the elders stopped speaking. Besides that, a heavy tension befell the atmosphere inside the room.
Geir looked at the aged man indifferently. However, inwardly, he was all nervous.
This was because the aged man was the previous Head of Clan and was respected by all the elders.
Geir was nominated as the new head based on his abilities and accomplishments, but compared to the aged man, he could still be considered a youngling.
In any case, the aged man only stepped down as the head because The Emperor hinted that he was already too old to lead the new generation. Since the aged man was very loyal to The Emperor, he listened to his suggestion and appointed Geir as the new head.
"I appreciate your concern, Elder Zigor. I am feeling a little out of the weather, but it is nothing serious."
"If you want the clan to recover as you say, then stop yapping your old mouths and acting like kids with a tantrum to get what they want."
"You should watch what you say in front of—!"
BAM!
"—kuakh!"
An elder four seats away from Kyran to the left stood up and pointed an accusing finger at him. However, before he could even finish what he was saying, Kyran raised a hand and made a slamming motion. The elder ended up getting slammed on the ground by an invisible force.
Creak! Creak! Crack!
The two elders, one on each side of the elder who spoke up, broke out in cold sweat upon hearing cracking sounds. They did not want to check what the elder looked like, but based on those sounds, he reverted to his true form and suffered possible fatal external and internal damage.
"—Of course, I don't mean you per se. I was talking in general," Kyran continued as if the elder's interruption did not occur. He then flashed them a smile that did not reach his eyes.
Zigor maintained a calm smile on his face, but cracking sounds could be heard as he clenched his fists in anger.
"You have quite a temper... very much like someone I know from your clan. Right... I don't know her personally per se because she belongs to a different generation. Nonetheless, she has quite a very... good temper."
Kyran raised his brows, "You know someone from my clan, do you? That's strange. I don't remember claiming to be part of any clan."
His eyes turned into slits as he added, "I don't care what kind of bullsh*t theories you come up with, but to speak so confidently about my clan, are you that confident to bear the consequences of being wrong?"
Zigor's calm facade immediately shattered. He only said what he did because of Kyran's actions just now.
Apart from the movement technique, the move Kyran made to silence the elder just now was similar to the Draconic Force that Zigor witnessed one of the Dragon Emperor's aides could do. Besides that, they sensed a faint energy similar to Draconic magic when Kyran moved.
Yet, Kyran claimed that Zigor was wrong to assume he was part of the Dragon Clan.
Was he playing mind games with him?
"Seems like you can't. Good. I don't need anyone who does not know what to say and not to say in front of others."
Some elders balked at Kyran's words at once. They were enraged at his disrespect toward Zigor. Did he not know that the latter was once a great Head of their Clan?
However, after witnessing how Kyran silenced the other elder, they could not voice their discontent for fear of ending up like that.
"While we are on that note, I'll allow you to speak your minds now. Because after you leave this room and I hear something, even a little rumor, I'll destroy you."