novelraw Chapter 366: The End of Secrecy (1)
Chapter 366: The End of Secrecy (1)
In Washington City, far from the glass towers and quiet streets above, a different kind of room existed underground.
It was a spacious meeting chamber buried deep beneath the capital. Bright white lights flooded the ceiling, so intense that anyone entering might easily mistake the hour for noon rather than the middle of the night.
At the center of the room stood a long table of polished dark metal, surrounded by many chairs.
Most of them were empty.
Only four were occupied.
One sat at the head of the table. The other three lined the sides, spaced apart from each other, leaving the rest of the seats untouched.
The men seated there were not speaking.
Each of them had just received the same piece of information.
And judging by their expressions, none of them liked it.
The Ashvale family had nearly been wiped out.
For most people, that news alone would hardly justify a meeting in a room like this. The Ashvale family was not one of the great houses that shaped national power. They were small. Influential in certain circles perhaps, but far from irreplaceable.
Yet the atmosphere in the room had grown tense the moment the report was delivered, and there were two reasons for that.
The first was their connection to Infinitel.
Once, the company had stood as a technological giant, not just in the United States but across much of the world. Even if its declining now, the remnants of its networks, assets, and secrets still had weight. The Ashvale family had been one of the groups quietly tied to that legacy.
The second reason was far more concerning.
The people responsible.
According to the report, the attack involved two former members of the Ashvale family themselves. That alone would not have caused such a reaction in this room. Internal conflicts within small families happened all the time.
The real problem came next.
An Outsider.
One had been directly involved in the attack.
And that was only the beginning.
Another participant was a woman who had previously been affiliated with an institution operating under the Department of Supernatural Affairs.
Beyond those two, there were several other unidentified individuals whose identities remained unclear.
That combination alone made the situation extremely unusual.
Rarely did such different elements appear together in a single incident.
One man tapped his finger lightly against the table, the faint sound echoing in the otherwise silent room.
"So," he finally said, his voice low but steady, "what exactly are we looking at here?"
No one answered immediately.
Because the real question hanging over the table had little to do with the Ashvale family itself.
It was something far more troubling.
Were new lines being crossed?
Was someone attempting to build alliances without any restraint?
That possibility alone was enough to make the atmosphere in the room noticeably heavier.
Outsiders had always been treated with suspicion.
To most people on Earth, they were still regarded as enemies, even when cooperation existed on paper. Governments might accept them as allies when it was convenient, but the general public had never truly trusted them.
Distrust had always been the default.
For years, that had been the unspoken rule.
Recently, however, things had begun to change.
The Academy had started to act as a fragile bridge between the two sides. Through it, Outsiders and locals were slowly learning to coexist. They trained together, studied together, and in rare cases even fought on the same side.
Progress had been slow.
Fragile.
But it had existed.
At least, it might have continued that way if not for one particular group.
The Liberation Front.
Their actions had dragged the fragile relationship back into chaos. Every attack they carried out strengthened the worst fears people already held about Outsiders.
And in the United States, where one of the most peaceful Outsider communities had quietly settled, the situation fortunately, was in dead-lock.
The silence around the table stretched.
Then a voice finally broke it.
"Instead of overthinking this as nothing more than an internal conflict within the Ashvale family," Marcus Hale said calmly, "we should be paying attention to something else entirely."
The Director of the Department of Supernatural Affairs was not seated at the head of the table, but along the side.
Yet when he spoke, the room naturally focused on him.
His fingers rested loosely against the table as his eyes moved across the others.
"The ancient families are beginning to form factions inside the country," he continued. "And they're not the only ones."
He paused briefly.
"Even unaffiliated individuals, people who have only recently begun walking the path of essence, are starting to organize themselves."
His gaze sharpened slightly.
"That," Marcus Hale concluded quietly, "is the real problem."
The two other men seated along the sides remained silent.
All three of them now looked toward the man seated at the head of the table.
He had not spoken once since the meeting began.
Yet his presence alone weighed heavily over the room.
His eyes, deep as abyss, were calm as they rested on each of them in turn.
They waited.
And after letting the silence stretch just long enough to become uncomfortable, he finally spoke.
"Hm. You're right. That development is certainly more pressing… and more dangerous."
His voice was low, steady.
"But before that, there is something else."
His gaze shifted slightly.
"What about the Drevane family? Have we confirmed who destroyed them?"
A faint pause followed.
"Because an enemy we can see, even if they live in the same city, is manageable."
His eyes darkened slightly.
"But an enemy that remains perfectly concealed…"
"…is far more dangerous."
The room fell silent again.
Finally, someone spoke.
"Well… it's possible that Infinitel was involved."
The response did not come from the Director of the DSA this time.
It came from a blond, middle-aged man seated nearby.
To the outside world, nearly every citizen of the United States knew his name.
President Ronald Trumell.
Yet inside this room, even he chose his words carefully, his eyes briefly flicking toward the man at the head of the table before continuing.
"After all," Ronald said, "the two small companies that appear to have started this entire conflict were recently transferred into Infinitel's hands."
The man at the head of the table frowned slightly.
"Had we not already ruled that possibility out?"
"That was when we believed Infinitel was still operating as a unified organization," Ronald replied.
"If the company has fractured internally…"
"…then the situation changes."
The man at the head of the table tapped a finger lightly against the table.
"Meaning?"
Ronald met his gaze.
"It's likely the same group," Ronald said. "The one that nearly wiped out the Ashvale family. They're probably responsible for the destruction of the Drevane as well."