Vampire's Slice of Life - Chapter 1088: In The Witch Court
Witch Court, Rafflesia. The top officials were gathered in a room, seated on a slope of circular rows, facing the middle of the room that lay at the bottom Nine Witches with different-colored robes and pointy hats sat around a round table and stared at the projection of a woman seated on a throne whose face was covered in darkness. “Let’s begin with meeting DT#781-04.”
One among the nine seated witches slammed the table lightly and said, making everyone in the room fully attentive. The witches conducted official meetings such as these quite often, evident from the naming scheme they had put forth. The numbers after the hashtag ranged from 0001 to 9999. They meant the meeting number. The two digits after the hyphen meant the sessions of that particular meeting. There usually was a goal of a meeting, and if it wasn’t cleared, the number of sessions would keep increasing until they reached 99. If by 99 sessions of that one meeting the issue isn’t resolved, then it was better to just drop it. Witches held great wisdom. If they weren’t able to resolve something in so many sessions spanning over the course of multiple centuries, then the thing they were trying to finish was either the most complex thing in the universe, or just so useless that they unnecessarily were wasting their time on it. The alphabets before the hashtag indicate the meeting’s era. Witches had their own calendars that were quite specific. They did not like the vague terminology that described hundreds of millions of years as Remote Antiquity Era, Medieval Antiquity Era, and so on. They liked everything to be finely detailed as being researchers and innovators was etched deep in their very essence. Sitting at the far end of the room, Lith’s vision fell on a certain red and blue-haired Witch Queen around the round table. Hecate was focused and silently listening to the conversation. “The Dragons are running rampant and attacking us despite us having maintained a neutral relationship throughout the years,” interjected a Witch Queen in red robes and pointy hat. “Mother, gone are the peaceful times. We cannot survive if we sit back and do nothing. A strong offense is needed to show the world our power. We cannot be underestimated,” a green robed Witch Queen said. “Nobody is underestimating us,” said another person around the round table. “Everybody knows we are capable of defending ourselves. What I do not understand is why we were attacked. Surely it isn’t just to test our strength, is it?”
Hearing that, Lith thought to himself, ‘It is exactly because of that.’
“Hm, sister is right. I think there’s another hidden agenda at play here. Mother, if you may, I’d like to form a secret investigation committee and see what’s exactly happening. Who is planning what, and who is trying to sow discord out of nowhere in our peaceful era.”
The perpetrator was right in the room and looking at them. Too bad, the Witches weren’t telekinetic to know what the other person was thinking. Hecate, hearing that an investigation committee is going to be made, finally interjected and said, “Mother, with all due respect, I do not think our time or energy should be spent on this.”
All the Witch Queens and Witches in the room focused their eyes on Hecate. Her words had undertones of blasphemy, but with her status, nobody said anything to her and waited to hear what more she had to say. Hecate was the most reliable in the room and possessed a good relation with everybody. If she said something like that, it probably had a reason and wasn’t outright blasphemous, despite appearing so initially. Hecate continued, “Repelling the Dragons should be our first priority followed by establishing a strong barrier around the continent and giving the world a taste of their own medicine.”
The Witch Mother Queen propped her chin on her interlocked fingers as she sat on her throne and looked at her with interest.
The rest of the Witch Queens also had an interested look on their faces. “What medicine, Hecate?” One of the Witch Queens asked. Hecate calmly answered, “We need to make it clear on how their lives would be if they came into a conflict with us. We control the technology, we can do anything with it. As a matter of fact, we do not need to work to repel the Dragons, the world will do it for us.”
“Ohhhhhh!” The crowd cheered in response. Alexandra, who had her head resting on the silver-haired lady’s shoulder beside her, woke up due to the loud noises with a groggy face. She looked around and saw a sparkle in everyone’s eyes as they stared at one of the Witch Queens. This Witch Queen was familiar to her as she had seen her a few times in the castle. “What’s happening?” Alexandra asked softly to her husband sitting beside her. Lith kept his eyes focused on Hecate and replied, “Watch her, you’ll know.”
Lith couldn’t divulge important information with so many eyes and ears around him. Alexandra pouted and looked to where her husband was hinting. She did not ask him a question to get an answer, but to have a conversation and then get a bit lovey-dovey together. Guess it wasn’t the right time to do such a thing. A pity.
“We’ll pit the world against them and keep them busy for a while. In the meantime, we can focus on who the second party in the mix is.”
“Hm?” The Witch Queens focused their attention on the last part of Hecate’s statement.
“Second party?” One of the Witch Queens asked. “Yes.” Hecate’s heterochromatic eyes flickered. “There’s an external party involved. The Dragons do not have the capabilities to invade us so easily and capture our territories. In a normal scenario, we would’ve never fallen to them.”
“What!?” The crowd erupted in chaos. “How is this possible? Who in their right mind would want to make an enemy out of us?”
“Your Majesty, are you sure someone has the courage to do such a thing?” Questions from the crowd were popping up one after another. The decorum would’ve been disrupted, but everyone in the room heard a soft yet bone-chilling cold voice.
“Silence.”
It came from the projection of the supreme leader of the witches. Nobody dared to go against her and immediately shut their mouths. The Supreme Rank Witch focused her attention on Hecate. “Do you have evidence to back your claim, child?”
“Yes.” Hecate said flatly. “The matter is confidential and no one except the Mother can have a look at it. Once the evidence is confirmed by Mother, I’ll form a small organization to catch the perpetrators and launch a reverse attack on their entire establishment.”
“Hm.” The Supreme Rank Witch said. “Come see me then.”
Hecate got up and bowed. “As Mother wishes.”
With that, she vanished from the room and the projection disappeared as well, leaving everyone silent for a while.
It was this moment that Lith held Alexandra’s hand and whispered, “Let’s go. We have another place to be at.”