Sighing, Eleanor stood up and opened the door. Julius stood there, dressed in the finest clothes, which were clearly very expensive. His black hair was neatly parted to the side. On his lips rested an incredibly friendly smile, as if he were greeting old friends.
His sister was also dressed in splendid garments, deep black in color. She wore a beautiful silver diadem on her head, and two shining earrings dangled from her ears. She did not smile, however, but held a rather cold and distant expression.
Eleanor looked the two up and down before turning around without a word and sitting back at the table.
Nero, who was also seated, smiled warmly at Julius and stood up. He extended his hand, which Julius shook firmly.
"Welcome, welcome!" Nero said kindly. "Have a seat!"
Julius, completely surprised by this friendly greeting, sat down with a grateful nod, followed closely by his sister.
Nero smiled. "I must apologize for my extremely rude behavior during our last meeting. You must understand, it had been a long day, and we were exhausted."
Julius shook his head. "We understand completely," he said politely. "Besides, we should not have pressed you like that."
Nero poured two glasses of the finest wine for them. "How can I assist you today, Mister Julius?" he asked after pouring himself a glass and sitting down again.
Zyta merely grunted as she lifted the glass. She studied Nero carefully and waited until he took a sip before drinking herself. This obvious mistrust did not go unnoticed by anyone, not even Eleanor, yet no one said anything.
Instead, Nero gave Julius his full attention, as he seemed to be the spokesman, even though he ranked below his sister.
"We are here because of an urgent matter. For some time now, good friends of ours and highly respected members of our Order have gone missing. We were wondering if you might have seen them."
Nero frowned slightly and set his glass aside. "What do they look like?" he asked with interest.
"It is a man and a woman named Tark and Isabella. The woman had long, ash blonde hair and fair skin. She was a wind mage, and her partner was a man with brown hair, likely wearing a long cloak, who was not much older than she. They both wore the Order's insignia with heptagons. The last we heard, they had gone into the forest to hunt a runaway Reil, but they never returned. You did not happen to cross paths with them?"
Nero tilted his head as if thinking. "Not that I know of. It is possible they were among the crowd, but I didn't pay close attention; I was too distracted by the beauty of this city. Why do you think we would have seen them?"
"Because you arrived in the city two days after they disappeared," Zyta said, speaking for the first time, "and you came from the exact direction they went before vanishing." The accusation in her voice was unmistakable.
Slowly, the friendly expression faded from Nero's face as he turned toward her. His brow furrowed. "What exactly are you implying?" he asked carefully.
"That you obviously saw them," Zyta spat, "and likely had a hand in their disappearance."
Eleanor's expression darkened. Nero stared directly into Zyta's eyes for a long moment. For a short time, she managed to withstand his icy gaze, but eventually even she had to look away. Julius observed the exchange closely. He could have intervened at any moment, but he did not. This was their method: he acted friendly and polite, making others feel safe, before Zyta suddenly accused them, hoping to provoke a careless reaction.
Nero had seen through this tactic, yet he played along. "Miss Zyta, is it?" he asked. She nodded silently.
"I do not know why you would throw around such baseless accusations, but neither my friend here nor I has anything to do with your friends' disappearance."
Zyta snorted. "Why should I trust you? You appeared out of nowhere, right when contact with them was lost. Are you trying to tell me that is just a coincidence?"
Nero leaned slightly forward in his chair, a faint trace of his aura slipping out, just enough to send a shiver down Zyta's spine. "Careful, Lady Zyta. It is one thing to ask questions, but when you begin to accuse us without proof…" he paused briefly as he leaned back again, "…then my friend and I must assume you came here with ill intent. That would make you our enemy. And I do not think, esteemed guests, that you wish to be our enemies, do you?"
He spoke in an incredibly calm voice, yet the threat was unmistakable. This obvious threat sent a chill through Julius, who realized they had gone too far. Smiling kindly, he raised his hands. "Friends, friends, we did not mean it that way. We were only curious whether you had seen them."
"I do not like repeating myself, Mister Julius," Nero said in a cold, monotone voice, keeping his gaze fixed on Zyta, "and I would advise you to be careful whom you accuse in the future, Lord Julius and Lady Zyta, because not everyone is your enemy." His tone carried the restrained anger of an innocent man. He played his role flawlessly, while Eleanor remained silent, afraid of revealing anything.
Zyta opened her mouth again. Her pride could not accept being threatened so openly. Who did they think they were, the ruler of humanity? They were nothing more than two beggars who happened to possess some power. Defiantly, she released more of her aura, her magic beginning to surge. "You should be careful," she hissed, "how you speak to members of the Order of Purity, my friends." She spat the word friends as if it were a curse. "Not everyone will take your disrespect as calmly as my brother."
Slowly, Nero stood up. He was not tall, dressed in simple mortal clothing, undernourished, pale, and frail, yet he emitted an overwhelming aura that suppressed everyone in the room. Zyta did not back down, rising from her chair as well. She met his gaze without flinching this time. Both released their auras fully now, circling each other like two hungry beasts.
Half a kilometer away, Kia suddenly lifted her head. "Fuck…" she murmured as massive waves of their auras washed over her like sudden rain. Morch glanced up. "Not our fight," he said simply, returning to his book. He had not fully recovered from the battle with the Lizzian; his muscles still burned, his broken ribs still ached.
Kia sighed. "Can we really just watch?" she asked uneasily.
"Of course," Morch replied. "Besides, there are two of them. I doubt those foreign mages can do much against the siblings. I feel more sorry for the idiots who picked a fight with Zyta, the radiant monster of Crokpeak."
Kia hesitated for a moment before sitting down beside him. "Alright… we are too weak to intervene anyway…"
Morch grunted in agreement.
Zyta and Nero still stared at each other, filled with battle intent, neither willing to move. Nero knew he could not fight Zyta. She was a highly regarded member of the Order. If he attacked her, he would be hunted to the ends of the world. But if he showed weakness now, they would imprison him and accuse him of Tark's murder.
Beside him, Eleanor swallowed hard as he slowly stood and stepped back from the two beasts. Julius, equally caught off guard by the escalation, gently placed his hand on Zyta's shoulder. "Sister…" he murmured, "think about what you are doing…"
She did not look away from Nero. "I will not tolerate this disrespect," she hissed. "And he clearly has something to do with the disappearance of those two mages."
Julius tightened his grip. "We do not know that. It was only a half-hearted accusation to test them," he whispered urgently. "And besides, you do not care about them anyway. They made the Order look weak by losing to a single opponent. This is about your pride. Just this once, please, swallow your pride. What do you think father will say if he learns you dragged thousands of innocents into an unnecessary fight because of it?"
Those words finally made Zyta hesitate. For the first time, she looked at her brother. "He would not be pleased," she murmured quietly. Julius nodded. "He would be furious. He expects his beloved daughter to behave like a high-ranking member of the Order. What is our highest priority, sister?"
Her shoulders sank. "To protect those who cannot protect themselves," she recited the order's motto.
Slowly, she calmed down. She looked at Nero. "You are lucky," she said. "But next time you dare to threaten a member of the Order, you will not get away with it."
Nero smiled coldly but said nothing.
"Good," Julius said with a smile, clapping his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "My friends, we would like to ask you for a favor now."