Venzula Empire Academy.

Staff Residential District.

In a large villa on top of a snowy mountain peak.

Several individuals were currently seated before a conference table in a luxurious hall with murals, vases, paintings and other antiques decorating the place.

Seated at the top of the table was a giant with an intimidating build and a calm expression. He was the principal of the Venzula Empire Academy.

Someone of equal strength to Empress Venzula Huros.

A rank 7 novice stage Transcendent powerhouse.

Currently, a woman was reporting the results of an Intel mission one of the academy students had just completed. This woman was Austere Caramanova.

Everyone in the room was quietly listening to her.

Eventually Austere finished the report and played the video recording Kailen Darkhaven had added as credible proof of the Intel he had gathered.

Everyone in the room had expressions of anger flickering through their eyes.

However, out of respect for the man seated at the head of the table, no one acted out.

The man seated at the head of the table, Principal Luther, spoke, "We all know what this means, right?"

Everyone nodded. They whispered to one another as discussions broke out among them.

"Yes, Principal. We can’t take this lying down. They killed our students just because they didn’t want to risk the possibility of us finding out about that secret realm. Even though the deaths of a couple of students is something that naturally occurs and we mostly won’t pursue the matter of their deaths, these students were among the cream of the crop among rank 5 novice stage Transcendents in the academic faction. Now, they are all dead. This is a different situation. We need to make them pay for this."

"What do they take the Venzula Empire Academy for?"

"The Andromis Imperium Empire Academy has to pay for this."

"Indeed."

Everyone poured out their hearts.

The man raised his hand. Everyone turned silent.

"I completely agree with you all, ladies and gentlemen," he said sincerely. "However, we cannot be rash in this situation. We need to proceed with caution. If we approach this anyhow, it could lead to an all-out war between the Venzula Empire Academy and the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy. The losses could be astronomical and we cannot afford that.

Let’s also not forget that we have the royal family waiting for an opportunity of weakness to strike us. An all-out war with the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy, regardless of the outcome, will weaken us, and this is what the royal family would want. In such a moment of weakness, they would strike us.

We need to find a better way to have access to this secret realm. As for revenge for the students who died, I’m afraid our situation does not permit us to be overbearing."

Everyone sighed. The principal was indeed wise. His wisdom was the reason why the Venzula Empire Academy had survived till date.

He had considered the matter from an angle they had not considered it from.

Inasmuch as his words were bitter pills to swallow, they all knew he was completely right.

They had to forget about revenge, and think of a way to access the secret realm without leading to a war with the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy.

"I have an idea," the vice principal, a pale-skinned beautiful woman with dark irises, and a Gothic look, suddenly appeared from nowhere.

Everyone stared in the direction of the Phantom Witch.

No one was shocked by her sudden appearance. This was who she was, always making herself inconspicuous. She was a terrifying assassin. She was the leader of the strongest Assassin Organization in the Empire, the Morgana Assassin Syndicate. Her organisation was one of the reasons why the royal family’s assassin corps did not recklessly attempt to assassinate the higher ups of the Venzula Empire Academy.

The last time the royal family assassin corps killed three professors covertly, 50 of the assassins corps disappeared because of her.

From then, the royal family assassin corps had been careful.

It was safe to say that she was a heavy weight in the empire. She was, however, extremely low-key. So many in the empire did not know about her.

Everyone listened to her quietly. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

What sort of crazy idea was this woman gonna cook up this time?

"Since we want to access the secret realm without getting into conflict with the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy, we need to engineer a situation that makes that possible. How about we leak the information on the secret realm to the academies of the other empires? Simple, right?"

Her words caused bolts of realization to flicker in everyone’s minds.

It was a simple plan. But it was very plausible it could work.

Austere nodded and layered on the Vice Principal’s words, "If that happens, we can propose a competition between us and the academies of the four neighboring empires to determine a number of representatives from the academies who can enter the secret realm."

Everyone nodded as another person added.

"That will shift the situation to a diplomatic one. Each academy will earn entry into the secret realm through fair means. No academy can decide to harbour any form of excuses to launch an attack or a war on another academy after a fair competition to determine the number of representatives from each academy to enter the secret realm."

"Indeed. Also, the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy will not be able to do anything."

Another person chimed in, "Will they go around advertising that their students killed our students at the outpost near where this secret realm was discovered by their students because they wanted to keep the secret realm a secret from us? After we play hero to the other academies? I don’t think so. That will make them look very bad in the eyes of everyone. Plus, they will pick up on our desire to let sleeping dogs lie because of the big picture and wisely exercise permanent restraint."

Everyone thought along the same lines.

This was the best course of action. This was a win-win situation. They could access the secret realm and avoid unnecessary conflict with the Andromis Imperium Empire Academy.

Principal Luther turned towards the direction of Vice Principal Morgana.

He nodded respectfully to her. Her plan had really saved them a lot of trouble.

She nodded back warmly.

Everyone also looked at Morgana with respect.

Principal Luther finally spoke, "Let’s proceed as planned."

"Yes sir."

"Meeting adjourned."