The investigation at Fisher's family stronghold was concluded rather quickly as the PORA agents walking around Costa city didn’t exactly disguise their identities around here. The city was still at the middle stages of the rebuilding process, and it was largely supported by a combination of PORA and Fisher family efforts.

Within the few shared laws that governed the Ethereal realm, there was none that explicitly prevented external organizations or groups from influencing the governing of individual cities, and the job of the Guild of Mercenaries was more about those external organizations influencing the conference itself which are separate from the going-ons of the individual territories.

With that learning out of the way within a day, the trio then quickly made their exit before anyone paid further attention to them. Heading back towards the city of Eternal Lights, they then marched straight into the Mansion of the Vaughan family as the bright purple flag flew overhead in the middle of the simple garden.

With a purple Whirpool opening along the wall, Ver brought Wu and Lera straight to one of the empty guest rooms before she sat them down and departed for Stark’s office.

The guards patrolling around the house recognized Ver, and they simply acknowledged her with a nod before moving on. They had known Stark and Ver were sparring partners for a little while, and they assumed that Ver was brought along with Stark’s entourage for one reason or another.

The top floor of the main building was exceptionally quiet, and the office of the head of the house was locked. Ver felt for the presence of Wave within before slipping straight through a set of Whirlpool Purple. However, nobody was there, and Ver glanced at the specially made chair before accidentally finding her butt sitting all over its fancy leather padding.

The main office carried a pleasant wood-like scent, and a shelf filled to the brim with books and records occupied an entire wall to the left of the desks as a calendar hovered as a projection Cast on the main table.

It marked today as day 1.

During day 1 of the Ethereal Conference, all of the heads of houses would have gathered within the mansion of the top-ranked house atop of the mountain. of the fourty houses. Their days will be filled to the brim with official meetings, backhanded deals in the dark, and special agents working behind the scenes to subtly showcase one’s strength and hopefully sway the voting process that will slowly unfold over the course of the conference.

“The mining regions in the Eastern mountains had historically and rightfully belonged to the House of Vaughan!” Stark declared within the lower Houses’ section, a part containing only the twentieth to fortith ranked houses, “With all due respect, House of Silverthorne, but you cannot simply head into our region and take what you want.”

“Your tone does not suggest respect, Vaughan boy.” The head of Silverthorne was an old man with tattoo Casts covering his entire face. His hair and beard were completely snow white, yet his dark eyes were full of life, “If you do not wish to be extinguished by the time the next tournament rolls around, you WILL agree to the proposed deal.”

“That’s straight-up robbery, and you knew it.” Stark stood up, but the senior advisors spoke in his ears softly. Stark clenched his fist before turning and struggling to suppress his whisper, “I did not return to Vaughan only to give up what was rightfully ours!”

“Heh. The House of Vaughan had not garnered respect from the other houses ever since the previous Head mysteriosuly retired suddenly and mysteriously.” The short head of Grega family said with his taunting voice, “You barely stayed as one of the worst of the top 40 houses in the last tournament, and you should be grateful to have received support before your house gets taken out by next year!”

“Yeah?” Stark raised his voice, “Don’t you worry. Even if we go out, it will be on top of your corpses. Yours too, Silverthorne old man. You want extinguishment? We will show you extinguishment in the next tournament!”

“Order!” The moderator from the number one ranked house, House of Konig, swirled her finger before she scratched her nose and yawned, “Please stick to the topic at hand and return to discuss the proposed deal.”

A break in session soon arrived, and Stark, for one, was glad to have exited the meeting room that felt warmer than an oven.

“Those bastards will not take a slice of our pie when I am alive and kicking,” Stark said, sitting down in his break room. He would love to have kicked that old man in the balls if they were ever to meet at the next tournament. He forced himself to listen to advice from the senior advisors when he sensed a pair of Wave signatures slowly moving towards him. Though looking casually pissed off as usual still, he concentrated more tension around his wrists and hovered his hand over the attached decorative blade.

A purple whirlpool opened up on the wall beside him, and Ver walked through followed by Wu and Lera.

“You! Ver Fulgen!” The older woman said with shock as she pointed her finger forward, “Why are you here?”

“She’s here because she’s a daughter of Vaughan.” Stark didn’t bother looking at the older woman before he glanced at Ver with his deep eyes, “What did you find?”

“We were attacked by a member from the Fisher Family, and it appeared that PORA was in control of that house to some degree…” Ver said, keeping her voice low, “And that guy that attacked us…he also had a legendary beast as his manifest.”

“There are more of those around?” Stark cocked his head back as he examined the elaborate decorations along the ceiling, “That may complicate things when the lower half and the uper half meet together…”

“How’s things here?” Ver asked, “If you would care to let me know.”

Stark glanced back down at Ver with a serious look before turning his head back towards the two senior advisors who both shook their heads simultaneously. However, if the geezers were shaking their heads at what Stark's about to do, it probably is the right thing to do then.

“We are currently being pressured by the House of Silverthorne to give up shares of our land in exchange for money compensation and a fraction of the profit. You know...the parts of the land that haven't exactly been turning out much profit in recent years...” Stark said, “I pushed back against them, but I am expecting some sort of…back alley pressure. If you could watch our back from the distance, then we can strike whoever they sent from two fronts.”

“They are only ranked 20th, right?” Ver said, cracking her neck, “By this time next year, they will pay us back tenfold what they’ve asked.”

“Agreed, but next year is not today, so let’s get through these few days firsts.” Stark said, "Have you found out what PORA is planning with Fisher?”

“No clue yet…” Wu said, “Seeing what's going on here, we should probably check on the upper half’s meeting too.”

“You two should go then.” Stark said, quickly gesturing at Wu and Lera as they gave him a synchronized nod. With a light cough, Stark rose up to standing before gesturing towards the two senior advisors who suddenly looked a little more restless than usual, “You two, could you please show these two the break room? They had come a long way to meet us here.”

“Certainly.” The older man eagerly walked towards the door as Wu and Lera followed after them, though that wasn’t before Lera quickly and subtly laid down her Cast array in the room on her way out.

As the older woman swung the door close, Stark and Ver turned with their backs pressed against one another as bright blue rings formed on the walls all around them before the views on the other side became clear. A set of fingers gripped onto the boundaries of one of the rings before a head hidden behind a mask emerged, and the man vaulted over the temporary holes before landing softly on his feet. Then, more and more started to emerge and quickly filled the room.

As the dozen of people surrounded Stark and Ver in the room, the Casters on the other side deactivated the spatial Cast and dissipated the blue rings on the wall as the nice background of the break room showed itself again.

“A neat trick. You don't see spatial Casts everyday.” Stark remarked, drawing the decorative straight blade into one hand as Wave slowly started to accumulate within him and reinforced around the body of the dull blade. Ver also drew her Sky Splitting Sword, but she felt a firm hand on her shoulders, “Just…watch my back. I can take care of them.”

“Are you sure?” Ver asked.

“A leader with true strength leads by example, and fights at the front.” Stark smiled as the group of attackers surged forward, armed with countless Casts that Ver had never seen before, “Plus, I needed to let off some steam after that shitty meeting.”

Then, a flurry of light and smoke surrounded Stark as he himself became a phantom.

The two senior advisers quickly found their excuses to leave Lera and Wu alone in the break room before they took their leave. There were directions on the door that directed towards the upper floor which was also where the top twenty houses are meeting. The break room was somewhere in between the two floors, and Wu was sure that there are far fancier dining areas reserved for only the most privaleged and powerful.

“So…what was that about?” Wu asked as Lera showed him a scouting eye that showed the scenes within the room that they were just in. The attackers from the House of Silverthorne were scrambling to get away as Stark Vaughan unleashed his fury onto them with nothing but the tiny dull decorative sword.

They were certainly not expecting individuals with such strength from a bottom-feeding house, but the Ethereal realm had always been big enough to have strong Wave users from all of the 40 ranked houses and a handful of unranked houses too.

“I am going to get some food.” Wu said before spinning around and heading towards the table, “Free food…you can never say no to it.”

“Just…don’t get poisoned.” Lera said quickly, “Bring it back for me to test before you eat it.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Wu replied half-jokingly before heading over. The trays on the table was filled with an assortment of sweet and savory bite-sized snacks. With a cold plate pinched between his fingers, Wu scanned the contents of each table, thinking about which of the flavor profiles Lera would have liked.

To be honest, compared to the steamed sweet buns of Sonne city, these delicate cakes and pastries felt way too luxurious for him to even contemplate and imagine. It reminded Wu of those exotic restaurants back at the city center of Oxford that he never bothered going to due to budgetary concerns.

“Stop overthinking and just…fit in.” Wu thought, picking up a silver tong before slowly pinching around a multi-layered strawberry cake.

That was when a pair of fingers swept underneath and scooped up Wu’s target in an instant. He heard a slurping sound before glancing to the side as a blue-haired boy stood right across from him.

“Oh…” Wu said, opening his mouth as Rache looked at him with his big green eyes, though he didn’t recognize Wu through his new disguise, "You..."

“Do I know you?” Rache asked, picking up another cake before turning around and walking away.

“No?…Certainly not…” Wu muttered, his heart pounding. He blinked a few times before Rache disappeared into the corridor, and he spun around to look at Lera.

“Follow after him!” She said quickly, hasting past Wu before he stuffed down a piece of the strawberry cake and chased after her, “Thank god we are randomizing the disguise on a day to day basis…”