Chapter 557: Who Benefits the Most?

Rhaenar felt a slight headache, this matter was slowly starting to bother him too, how had everything come to this?

Then he calmly added,

"And two Great Families were accused before you."

"So your problem isn’t with us?" Kairos thought for a moment and then asked.

"My problem is with whoever is killing people inside my city, until I find them, no one leaves." He was now even more determined not to allow anyone to leave.

He knew that if both sides left the city now without finding the real culprit, the two sides would develop a deep hatred for each other and this matter could reach very dangerous levels.

Kairos looked at him for several moments and Rhaenar did not look away either, neither of them attacked but neither of them could leave the place.

Kairos could not enter Pendragon territory without permission; such a move in the presence of the Patriarch would mean much more than simply "checking the situation of his people."

Rhaenar also could not simply turn his back and return to the city.

As long as a Celestial from the power that was currently being accused was standing several kilometers away, leaving this place would not be a reasonable choice.

Two people, without even throwing a single attack, had stopped each other right there.

Inside the hall, Isolde looked at Rhaenar’s empty seat for only a few seconds and then sat down.

"We continue."

Her tone had not changed at all, if anyone had expected Rhaenar leaving the command center of Verendal to throw everything into chaos, they were disappointed very quickly.

She turned toward everyone and said,

"All delegations will remain inside their assigned areas until further notice, movement between sections will only be allowed with registration and an escort from the internal forces."

"Place barrier forces between the residential areas, no unit from any Family or Guild is allowed to change its location without registration."

Then she looked at the person in charge of the information systems.

"Lock all security data related to the attacks in three independent copies, no one, not even our own people, should have individual access to the original copy."

Lian watched everything from the back of the hall.

Isolde was not exactly like Rhaenar.

Rhaenar’s presence made others understand by themselves where they needed to stop.

But this woman set the boundaries herself, however, the real limitation quickly became clear even to her.

She could create order, she could close the halls, she could separate the forces and she could place dozens of layers of security around the city.

But she could not order anyone to trust.

Mental communications began, everyone wanted to speak with the forces behind them once again.

One of the Stormheart elders closed his eyes and remained still for a few seconds, when he raised his eyes again, his expression had become a little harder.

The Valemont representative did the same.

And one by one, everyone contacted the forces behind them and

Lian could not hear the content of the conversations.

But he did not need to because their effects were completely clear.

Someone who had been willing to cooperate to some extent with the joint investigation group before the communication became more careful after a few minutes.

One of the elders who was still sitting beside the representative of another Family moved his chair slightly backward.

The Primal Firmament gathered its own people closer together.

The people outside were probably saying something similar, be careful and do not trust anyone, keep your people separated until the truth is clear.

From each person’s point of view, it was a completely reasonable suggestion, but when eighteen different powers were following the same suggestion at the same time, the result was something else.

Lian gave a very faint smirk, the same problem again, individual decisions that were logical were creating a stupid result when put together.

No one wanted to make the crisis worse but everyone was doing exactly that.

The discussion continued for another twenty minutes, but no new issue was solved, the direct accusations had become fewer, but the trust had not increased either.

In the end, Isolde tapped her fingers on the table once.

"Enough."

Her voice was not loud but the conversations stopped one after another, she moved her gaze between both sides of the table.

"Even if we repeat the same words until midnight, the killer will not be found and none of you will suddenly decide to trust the other side."

No one said anything.

"Twenty-four hours, every power currently inside Verendal has twenty-four hours to check its evidence and collect anything it thinks is related to the case."

"With what access?" Severin asked.

"Every Family and every Guild will introduce a limited number of specialists, all security information related to the two attacks will be given to the investigation groups at the same time."

Isolde placed her finger on the table.

"No data will remain only in the hands of the Pendragon Family, every copy will be given to several groups at the same time so no one can claim that something was changed."

No one objected, it was a reasonable suggestion.

"No new accusation will be made public without evidence and no guest will leave the city, and no foreign force will enter either."

Then her gaze stayed on the Guild representatives for a moment.

"Tomorrow, at this same time, we will gather here again."

"And what if one of the sides does not accept this ceasefire?" one of the Blackthorn members asked.

The Matriarch answered just as calmly.

"Then their problem will no longer be with the other side, they will be dealing with the Pendragon Family."

There was no doubt left.

Naturally, not everyone agreed at that exact moment, one of the Guild representatives objected to the reliability of the security information.

Isolde allowed their own specialists to check the raw version of the data as well.

Valemont asked for more people to join the investigation.

But a specific number was set for all sides.

Stormheart requested that the evidence related to the first murder be checked again by an independent specialist.

It was accepted.

Severin remained almost completely silent for most of the time and finally said,

"So if no evidence against us is found within twenty-four hours, all Six Great Families must apologize to us."

The representatives of the Six Great Families frowned and the tension rose again, they were the Six Great Families!

None of them were willing to apologize to one of the Twelve Guilds under any circumstances and they did not see any reason to do so either.

Isolde frowned, all the peace she had worked for had started to crack again.

"We will see what happens." In the end, she neither accepted nor rejected it, she could not force the Six Great Families to apologize.

Severin did not say anything more after that and only snorted.

After that, the resistance of the others also slowly broke down, not because trust had returned, but because what other choice did they have?

Five Overlords outside the city and two Celestials now standing against each other.

And eighteen great powers that might not even have the chance to explain themselves if one person made a mistake.

Twenty-four hours was the best thing they had for now.

The meeting was almost over when one of the Primal Firmament members raised a new issue.

"Our people will remain in an independent section until the end of these twenty-four hours."

"Your residential area has already been decided." One of the Pendragon elders looked at him.

"I mean independent from the shared movement network, until we know who is behind these attacks, I do not want my Guild members to pass through a hallway or system that the other accused group also has access to."

"We want the same thing." Adrian Stormheart immediately said.

"And us." Gregor Valemont added very quickly.

Then Blackthorn, another Guild and within a few minutes, almost everyone had the same request.

Lian looked at Isolde’s expression, the woman did not answer immediately, not because the request was unreasonable but exactly the opposite, from a security point of view it was very reasonable.

If you did not know who the enemy was, reducing the points of contact between the powers was the best way to prevent a third attack.

"The separation security protocol will be activated."

"Until the end of the ceasefire, Verendal will be divided into independent security areas, movement between the sections will only be activated with direct permission from the center."

Her gaze moved across the group.

"This means that even Pendragon forces will not enter your areas without registration." Doing this was not difficult.