" We have gathered here to discuss the case that had been sent to us", Yoro told the masters.

They had gathered in the large meeting room. This place is like a royal dining room. It has a large table and some chairs surrounding it . There are three windows that are ceiling to floor and have red drapes with a golden twist finish. They look like palestine design but are actually just basic.

The tiles on the floor are like all other large buildings here, just that these one are more shiny and look newer . About four lanterns hang from the roof and are enormous with each branching to three smaller ones.

Bordering the walls are non-objective sculptures made from different alloys that give them various colour schemes.

There exist a large dislocatable table in the middle of the room and is made of slate . This masterpiece can be suspended from the roof using really dense chains. This facilitates cleaning as it can be moved around easily. These suspension chains are reeled in using a lever at the far back of the room .

The chairs that are apair with the table are meticulously marvelous as they were custom made and are well taken care of. In total,there are twelve chairs, five on the each of the linger sides of the table and two at the opposite ends.

The chair at the end furthest from the door is regarded the main chair and is little bit bigger than everyone else's though they have similar dark brown ancient design . It is the chair that is meant for the sect leader which in this case is Kijad

Yoro was sitting closer to Kijad and was the one who was heading this meeting.

Jakhyer was opposite Yoro and was very blank.

" We have all reviewed the documents and after rigorous scanning, it's best to believe that there is indeed strange discoherence", he spoke and he pointed to Nalem. He had been narrating unimportant facts about the time the report was first made and why it took so long for it to come to the sect leader s view

She bowed her head , whilst sitting and she begun to narrate already known facts.

" The first case had children behaving abnormally and those children were diagnosed to be retarded until later they killed themselves. The second case , the children were infected but they were reported to have recovered and the parents moved away. For this case the children are nowhere to be seen. All these are bizzarre occurrences but there seems to be a link in this ", she placed her hands in the table to emphasize her point which was still invisible

" What do you think is the link", Tajih who sat lateral to her questioned her but she seemed unsure before she spoke.

" This illness affects only children and torments their bodies", she obviously guessed and Yoro knodded.

" Can you reread the C.S again? ", A sect master requested and Yoro immediately jumped to the spotlight

He begun to speak and he recited everything and everyone hardly paid attention to him

Kijad looked to Jakhyer was clearly distracted and he initiated a connection to him

" Do you know where the link is", he spoke softly and he sort of startled him.

" Time frame ", he spoke without really thinking about what he was trying to prove.

" Sect master,please include time frames ", despite the addition of honorifics,it was still an order. And though there was no other way to structure this, Yoro felt Kijad is being aggressive and provocative. However everyone detected that he was onto something

" What do you mean?", Yoro was barked because he felt offended though he is a subordinate.

" The link might be in the time frames that show progression",. Kijad gently replicated the vicious tone he picked from Yoro. He is not blind to the fact that Yoro acts more moody in the presence of all other sect masters but he acts like a cub when he is isolated with Kijad.Maybe he is afraid that when he is alone with him, if he acts like a boastful drunk Kijad might rip out his lungs and pin them to the ground before he can cry for help.

" For case one and three , the time from the first appearance of symptoms to the time where they did some thing drastic is twenty to forty days. The other two children recovered after twenty days but their parents moved away twenty one days later ", he spoke and he still couldn't pick up the link . This hindrance was heightened by the fact that he chooses to think that Kijad wants to challenge him rather than Kijad trying to prove a point.

" No one ever saw the children after forty days", Jakhyer spoke .He looked and sounded like a desert,. So dry and abandoned. His voice gave him the exuberance of a gaunty old man who just lost his money to gambling instead of buying food for himself.

"What do you mean?" , Kijad asked him in his head. Jakhyer could partially hear him because his mind is too clustered so it disturbs his ability to interpret what Kijad is saying. Everyone looked at him in anticipation

" A clue could be found in the children after those forty days. ", Jakhyer answered their curiosity indifferently

A momentary silence dawned the room and there was a brief exchange of looks.

" Then it's imperative that an investigation be conducted. If indeed the children disappear after forty days then there could be a supernatural connection ", Tajih added

" By supernatural, are you suggesting that it's a yin energy ", Nalem questioned the jury

" Could there possibly be anything else that fits the description? ", he got irritated feeling like that was a thoughtless thing to ask

" The council perhaps suspected it that is why they sent us these documents. And that also means they would like to have us intervene", Elir concluded

" So this means that a team will have to go there and see what is going on . One to the sites , one to the graveyard and the other will try to trace the family. ", Yoro spoke and he turned to Kijad. His look initiated as an insult before it became diluted by disgust.

" And after that? ", Nalem instantly questioned

" We might find something to work from . But if not we will say so", Tajih replied and looked to Elir. At this point they both felt like Nalem left her brain outside. Her tone sounds so naive and her questions are really just to hear the sound of her own voice

" So we need to choose a team for this. ", Yoro answered . Everyone except Jakhyer and Kijad agreed. For the first time he actually looked like a man who had set a trap and the prey is foolishly baiting.

" Should we include the students?", Nalem asked Kijad . If Elir was not a noble , he would slap this woman. Instead of making a declaration, she is making a subjective suggestion.

" Valian is my pick.", Tajih answered. He didn't wait for Kijad to give his say on this as thanks to someone he might refuse

" Claudia ", Elir declared soon after while the jury looked at Kijad

" Joln", Jakhyer picked him because he sensed everyone looking at him

" We need five students. Can someone nominate anyone else? ", Nalem looked to the jury and though there are many students they should pick from, they all hesitated to speak because the remaining others are a no-go-zone. Others are shamelessly weak while others are just a plea for decapitation..

They peered to Kijad but they genuinely knew he would never say the name they are hoping to hear.

" Syin is the prince. His father would kill us if he found out that we let Syin go there", Nalem exploded. This time Yoro looked at her in utter disbelief

'Do you have sand for brains? ', he thought and almost murmured the words but he didn't want to say them. All though he knows Kijad can see through his act, he still puts on a show but he makes it seem like Kijad is hallucinating. However often too many times, he verifies what Kijad already knows, that he is a greedy, power hungry waste of resources.

" He still needs to train. If we train him , they say we are brutal so we die. If we don't train him because he is royal, then we are labeled lazy and not giving the prince the best, so we die ", Elir joked but Nalem rolled her eyes at him and Kijad just lazily ignored them

" It's fine with just those ones. I will go with them", he answered. His simple sentence was like killing the cat and freeing the rodents. He could already hear Yoro rusty heart get overfilled with limitless joy. His muts felt the same way too and the glow in their faces was the litmus test he needed

" Sir , there need be someone accompanying you . ", Elir spoke . Everyone in this team of undignified wolves could agree that Elir s statement was like asking Kijad to offer them freedom to be rebellious on a silver platter.

" I pick Sect master Gao ", Yoro spoke and everyone motioned that be the case . Kijad looked to him and he said fine.

" We will leave in six nights.", Kijad spoke . And the jury didn't even bother to hide their happiness. They laminated so much it seemed like Kijad just retired.

" Sir, we need to hit while the iron is hot. We should not delay the investigation ", he spoke without even trying to conceal his intentions. He sounded like he is telling Kijad to hurry up and evaporate or better still to go to extinction.

" And you can't just leave.. We need someone to lead us", Elir s voice was decorated with the devil's frequency. The only thing he was missing was horns.

Kijad felt the need to burn these entities. They are not even hiding the fact that they want Kijad to leave the place and they are even suggesting that they find a replacement.

Jakhyer is better than them but they want Jakhyer to leave. He would have wanted him to stay but knowing how indefensive and intolerant to conflict Jakhyer is, he would probably just walk out or do worse if they argue with him.. So it's for the better that he leaves with him.

" Elir, I leave it to you.", He spoke and he sipped the water in his cup .

Yoro smiled like a small child being told to go crazy since the parents are not home.

There is no use in declaring someone else the leader because they are all under Yoro s hypnosis. But then again declaring Yoro directly as the team leader puts Kijad in a throttling position.

" We will leave in three days and from now on have someone prepare the necessities for our departure", he answered and he stood up to leave.

Yoro looked to Elir and they exchanged the look of malice and chaos. Nalem disapproves of the way they want to do things but she is doing very little to show how much she disagrees with them. And why should she?

***

He had sat in fetal position in the corner and he had rested his head on his arms that were on his knees.

Herim slid his hand to his stomach because he was really hungry as he hasn't eaten anything ever since yesterday morning.

He gave Syin his dinner and he missed breakfast as he was cleaning the meeting room for the meeting that was said to be held at around the coldest hours of the day.

Herim had just woke up and was already sniffing because a hour ago he began crying silent tears in his sleep . And they didn't stop coming back to him.

His mind would not stop replaying all that happened and with every time he wanted to bury himself for that. Of course he knows that his behavior was caused by that pheromone but the fact that he hit Joln on the face makes him feel like a monster.

All the ugly words that Joln and others had said to him made it feel like they were true.

Nonetheless heaven knows he would never lay a hand on Joln but today he did. And he is sure that pushed Joln even further away.

Moreover the fact that Ryle was so worked up over Joln means that there is a possibility that he has a soft spot for Joln. And generally speaking ,wolves are no different from humans who tend to be inclined to favor three kinds of individuals. The rich , the beautiful and the smart. This is why they like Syin, Adrian and Ryle. All three have those traits in their own ways and others childishly believe being with them will make them like that too . This means that if any of those three had a spot for someone who considers themselves not a duplicate of the three traits, that individual will instantly start to reciprocate the 'spot' . It becomes sort of defaulted and Joln and Ryle are a typical example.

This also explains why no one wants to be with Herim. Because he is neither of the three. His handsome is caused by immaturity, his wealth can't buy a nation. And his intelligence can't make him a librarian or an alchemist.

And now the more he thought about it there is absolutely no reason why Syin should keep him around except pittance. Wherever he is, he probably unbothered by where Herim could be.It's not a secret that Syin cares for Adrian and that he sees no one above him. So his tenderness to Herim is really just the trace amounts of all that he has given to Adrian.

Such thoughts made him feel unapologetically alone . It just highlighted that he actually has absolutely no one.

And this just made him lament his existence . He is the child of a mad woman that at one point tried to kill Herim.. It's not clear how she got pregnant or why she didn't abort him . A priest in town said that she gave birth in front of the baptism pond and tried to drown him inside.

But because Herim didn't cry, she stopped and left him on the side . Instead she ran away then drowned herself.

He raised his head and he laid it against the wall then faced to the chair by the window. Irregardlessly more tears escaped from his rapturing heart.. He was silent and they just descended.

As he was sitting there , out of his peripheral vision, he saw the light of the seal by the door darken and slowly disappear..He shifted to it and watched it completely vanish before he reverted his eyes back.

He really lacks the energy to leave...