Chapter 553: Two Attacks, One Conspiracy

"The elders requested that all the Vorhelms attend the meeting."

The Pendragon officer finished his sentence, and silence remained between the three of them for a few seconds.

Lian said nothing.

Until a few hours ago, the murder of a member of the Valemont Family was something he could at most think about from a distance.

Even when all the evidence pointed toward Stormheart, there was no reason for him to throw himself into a case that people many times more experienced than him were already investigating.

But now the situation was different.

The name Vorhelm had entered the case.

And not because of ice, physical strength, or a skill that hundreds of other Awakened could have something similar to.

The Vorhelm Seven-Doomsday Warform.

A style that the main members of the family gained after the age of sixteen if they successfully awakened, something he had not gained.

A style whose appearance could be copied, but copying its real structure was another matter.

He moved his eyes away from the officer and looked at Seris.

"I think our walk is over."

"I’m coming too," Seris said without the slightest pause.

"The meeting is about the Vorhelms," he added.

"And it is being held in our home."

The answer was so simple that it left no room for an argument, and Lian slowly breathed out.

"Alright."

The officer lowered his head.

"This way."

The council hall was in another part of the central palace.

Unlike the room where Lian had seen Rhaenar Pendragon the day before, this place had not been made for private conversations.

It was a large room with a very high ceiling and walls made of white stone.

In the center, there was an oval table that could seat more than thirty people, and behind it were several rows of smaller seats for companions and less important members.

When he entered, almost all the main seats were occupied.

Pendragon.

Blackthorn.

Stormheart.

Vorhelm.

Grandalz.

Valemont.

Representatives of several guilds from the Twelve Ancient Guilds were also present on another side of the table, and two people with Federation badges were sitting at the end of the hall.

The political power gathered in this one room was probably enough to decide all the policies of the countries in the world.

And these people now did not trust each other.

Cassius was sitting in the official Vorhelm section, and when he saw Lian, he only gave him a short look and slightly lowered his head.

Lian went there as well, but he did not sit beside his brother.

There was no place for him there.

He sat in one of the seats farther back, behind the official members of the Vorhelm delegation.

Seris also separated from him and went to the Pendragon section.

She took her place near Isolde Pendragon and sat down without saying anything.

Rhaenar was at the head of the table and was calm as always.

As if his family’s twenty-five-year ceremony had not been stopped a few hours ago, and as if two great powers of the world were not now being accused of attacks in his city.

When the door closed, he moved his eyes across everyone present.

"Begin."

One of the Pendragon security specialists stood up, and a glowing screen opened above the table.

An image of the second victim’s injured body, the location of the attack, and several Mana charts appeared on it.

"The victim is a member of one of the Twelve Ancient Guilds, he has gone through three Evolutions, and his condition is currently stable."

The image changed, and seven red points appeared on the man’s body.

"A total of seven main strikes were recorded."

The fifth one was on his thigh.

But the order of the injuries looked random from the outside.

But not to the Vorhelms, each of the seven strikes had been made with great accuracy, and their structure looked exactly the same as their family skill.

The Seven-Doomsday Warform.

"The victim identified the attacker’s style before losing consciousness."

Another image appeared.

This time, it showed Mana circulation lines.

"But the identification is not only based on his statement, the remaining Mana inside the tissue, the direction of force transfer, and the sequence of pressure were also examined."

One of the Vorhelm representatives leaned forward, looked at the data for a few moments, and then said without trying to defend his family.

"This is not a simple copy."

Several eyes turned toward him, and he continued.

"Whoever made this attack knew the real structure of the Seven-Doomsday."

The atmosphere in the hall became slightly heavier.

Even Lian could not disagree with this result, the appearance of the style could be copied, you could memorize the steps, copy the direction of the strikes.

You could even learn the order of the seven movements, but the result was not only what the eyes could see.

The Vorhelm Seven-Doomsday Warform was a very complex skill, and if the timing was wrong, the style would fall apart.

The person who attacked the second victim had not made a mistake.

So there was one possibility, a real Vorhelm had done it.

Lian did not throw away that possibility just because he himself had this family name.

His family was not made of saints, no great family was, but if a Vorhelm was behind the attack, they had to be inside the city.

First, there were two problems, the Vorhelms were not the kind of people who did such things, and second, there was no one in the entire Vorhelm delegation who could attack an Awakened with the power of three Evolutions.

"Has the location of all the members of their delegation been checked?" Rhaenar asked calmly.

The Pendragon specialist nodded.

"Yes."

The screen changed, and several time points and location records appeared.

"All the people who have access to the complete version of the Vorhelm family’s Warform had confirmed locations at the time of the attack."

One of the Vorhelms had been in an official meeting.

Two were in the family residence, and their internal entry and exit records confirmed it.

Several others had been seen in public areas.

Cassius had already been present at the security meeting after the first murder.

And what about Lian? A short image from one of the internal sensors of the Pendragon estate appeared.

He and Seris were standing together.

The specialist continued.

"No official member of the Vorhelm delegation could have carried out the attack."

"Official member," Gregor Valemont added, putting emphasis on the two words.

"So there is a possibility that another Vorhelm is inside the city?"

This time, Isolde answered herself.

"Since the city was closed, there have been no unregistered entries, and no one can enter without us knowing."

Gregor looked at her.

"Before that?"

"The records of the last seventy-two hours were checked again."

Isolde calmly placed her hands on the table.

"No one matching the required information entered Verendal without being recorded."

A short silence formed.

So either the security system of one of the safest cities in the world had been bypassed in some unknown way, or the attacker really was not a Vorhelm.

Adrian Stormheart spoke at that moment.

"Read the first case again."

Gregor turned his face toward him.

"What does that have to do—"

"It has everything to do with it."

Adrian was calm.

"Because exactly the same thing happened to us."

With a small movement, Rhaenar allowed the first report to be displayed again.

The body of the Valemont member, electrical damage, burned nerve paths, remaining Mana, and a structure that belonged to one of the Stormheart skills.

But this time, the location records of the Stormheart members were also displayed with it.

And the result was almost the same.

The people who had the ability to use the technique at that level had been in other places when the murder happened.

Some were in front of dozens of witnesses, one was inside a recorded business meeting, two were in the ceremony grounds, and none of them could reach the Valemont residence and return without being recorded.

"Do you still think one of my people is the killer?" Adrian looked at Gregor.

Gregor clenched his jaw, one of his family members had died, he was angry, and now there was not even a culprit.

Lian could understand why accepting the result was not easy for him.

But the man was not stupid, and after a few seconds, he said.

"If you say your people were not responsible, then tell me how your family’s power was left on the body."

This time, no one had an immediate answer, and one of the Federation representatives calmly said.

"Two attacks."

The eyes turned toward him.

"Two completely different family signatures, both made with great accuracy, and in both cases, the people who truly have the ability to use them were somewhere else."

He placed his hand on the table.

"So either two independent security systems and many witnesses are wrong...or someone is framing both families."

This time, there was no immediate objection.

Lian was sitting in one of the back seats, leaning against the back of the chair and listening in silence.

The first murder being the work of Stormheart and the second attack being the work of Vorhelm, if they were independent, their timing was far too strange.

But if one person was behind both of them? Then the goal was not only to kill.

If someone really wanted to secretly eliminate a person, why would they leave the name of a family on the victim’s body?

Why would they choose an attack whose source the specialists could identify almost immediately?

The answer was simple, the killer wanted to be identified, just not by his own name.

But there was one problem, he felt that something was still wrong, but he could not understand what it was.

That bad feeling was still inside his heart, and his instinct told him that they were only getting farther and farther away from the truth.