Chapter 301: Who is the mastermind?

The Grand Elder put his spoon down with a clatter, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the remaining soup. "There is so much noise right now that it is hard to remove the truth from the lies. Sabrina is the most obvious suspect given what has happened recently within our family. But it will be a lie if I don’t admit to finding it a little too convenient that the pilot had her name scribbled on his palm."

"If we are listing suspects, I say Elliot deserves looking into. He is already benefiting from the accident as he has officially been declared the leader of the team fighting on behalf of the Kaelion clan in the games and the final fighter." Achilles announced, his tone dropping its usual playful edge. He locked eyes with the old man across the table. "Three different uncles and aunts have held small meetings. Distant relatives are stirring the pot with the help of other clans. Things are an absolute mess out there right now, Grandpa. The snakes are already trying to claim the territory."

The grand elder nodded. "That is not surprising. It is the way of clans, when one shows weakness, others devour it."

Achilles leaned forward, resting his elbows on the wooden table, making a bowl of peanuts shake. "How long are you planning to hide in the shadows while everything turns upside down?"

The Grand elder didn’t look bothered at all. He took a slow, deliberate sip from a glass of water, chuckling softly behind it. "As long as I can, kid. Do you know how hard it is to get a decent nap when you’re running a crazy family? I plan to enjoy this dead status as much as humanly possible. The food here is great and there is no shortage of fruits, from what I have noticed. And tea..." he closed his eyes for a moment. "Amazing."

"Can you at least act like a victim?" Achilles muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes. "Mother is crying her eyes out because she thinks you are dead."

Hunter winced, placing a single finger over his lips as a signal for everyone to quiet down. "I’ve been thinking."

Everyone at the table stopped moving.

The Grand Elder gestured vaguely with his hand. "Well, spill it out before you swallow it."

Hunter leaned forward, his expression turning serious. "My mother isn’t stupid enough to make a move like this, at a time like this."

A few eyebrows shot up around the room. A quiet, razor-sharp scoff escaped Bianca’s lips. "Right. Because she’s such a saint."

Achilles let out a chuckle full of sarcasm. "After everything you still address her as ’my mother!’" He added a mocking laugh.

"I am not defending her!" Hunter quickly corrected, holding his hands up defensively. "Look, that woman is calculative. She counts every single drop of blood before she makes a move. She knows that if she did something to hurt Grandpa after the threat she made, every single finger in the city would point straight at her.

Especially the ones from the main Kaelion branch. Just like they are doing right now. Sabrina Kaelion would not make a careless mistake like hire a pilot who writes her name on his palm before crushing a plane! It’s not her, and I am not saying this as her son but someone with brains."

A heavy silence fell over the dining room as the weight of his words settled.

The Grand Elder stroked his grey beard, staring at the ceiling for a moment. "Hunter is right. Sabrina isn’t the guilty party here, she has the most to lose." He tapped the table with a knuckle. "That woman is as wise as a fox and twice as slippery. If she wanted me dead, she would have poisoned my tea ten years ago and blamed it on one of the cooks. She wouldn’t be this sloppy. This is the work of someone else. Someone that wants Sabrina to take the fall for this."

Achilles slammed his palm lightly against the table. "If it’s not aunt Sabrina, then it’s Elliot. Simple."

Hunter scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. "Elliot has his faults, sure. He’s an idiot, he’s arrogant, and he yells a lot. But killing Grandpa? He doesn’t have the stomach for that."

"Elliot had changed since you last saw him child, he is more than capable of it," the Grand Elder sneered, a cold flicker passing through his ancient eyes. "And don’t mistake stupidity for lack of malice, Hunter." ℴ

Achilles pointed an accusing finger straight at Hunter’s nose. "The last time I met Elliot, the guy literally wished death upon you! He hoped you were dead in a ditch somewhere!"

"He still blames me for his injuries and those scars on his back!" Hunter argued back, his voice rising slightly. "It was just angry talk! He doesn’t really wish me dead. Brothers say stupid things when they’re mad!"

Achilles sucked his teeth, making a sharp sound. "Tell that to Ashford who was like his brother for over a decade. Or better yet, go dig up the girl he killed and ask her if it was just ’angry talk’."

Hunter’s words died in his throat. He went completely silent, the fire instantly draining out of him. He let out a long, heavy sigh of surrender, sinking back into his chair. A dull, throbbing pain bloomed in his chest. His little brother_ the person he used to train with, the boy who used to share his snacks had apparently turned into an absolute monster.

And deep down, a dark part of Hunter kept whispering that it was his own fault for not being there for him after the accident.

Zyra, who had been quietly picking at her left-over food, finally interrupted the heavy mood. "From everything I have heard previously, Elliot wouldn’t let his own mother take the fall either. He loves her or at least cares for her. This comes back to the name on the pilot’s palm, neither of those two would use someone that foolish. They seem more like the kind that hire killers to stab you in a dark alley when no one is around. If they were behind the plot, they would have pulled all the stops to make sure the plan did not go wrong in any way."

The men around the table exchanged looks, slowly nodding in agreement.

"It must be another clan then." Achilles sneered. "When I find out which one, I will destroy it."

"No. The media is involved...there is only one person that I can think of," the Grand Elder said, his voice dropping an octave, losing every trace of humor. "The Divine Maiden."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by a few degrees at the mention of her title.

"She’s the only one with the pull to completely control and silence the media." the Grand Elder continued, his knuckles turning white around his glass. "The mayor is her obedient little lapdog, and the High Council is so terrified of her they wet their clothes whenever she sneezes." He paused, looking over at the corner of the room. "Maverick told me earlier that he saw people from the Indigo Guild searching the wild lands almost immediately after my plane crashed. They didn’t just send tracking salamanders they brought Soul Maidens in Sanctum uniforms with them."

Hunter hummed as he took in all the information, "I will be damned--the Divine Soul maiden!"

"She planned it." The Grand elder said.