The Extra's Transcension-Chapter 112: The Truth [4]

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A day passed like that and…

The chamber was vast and solemn, its silence broken only by the faint hum of mana resonating through the air.

From the towering stained-glass windows, light poured in, splintered into countless shards of color that danced across the walls and floor.

The beams struck the circular table at the room's center, refracting over polished wood and glinting off metallic insignias worn by those seated around it.

Each face was painted in fragments of red, blue, and gold, the hues shifting with every flicker of light…

…As though unseen gods were casting their silent judgment upon them, weighing every breath, every unspoken thought beneath the fractured glow.

The air in the chamber was thick, saturated with mana, tension, and the low, constant hum of the sealing wards woven into the walls.

Every breath carried the weight of power barely restrained.

At the head of the table stood Emily.

Her posture was perfectly straight, composed yet unyielding, and her eyes, cold, piercing, held the kind of sharpness that could still a storm before it began.

Before her sat the academy's finest minds, and, perhaps, its most dangerous individuals.

Eugene lounged carelessly in his chair, one leg draped over the other, a languid smirk playing on his lips that hovered somewhere between amusement and mockery.

Beside him, Shirone reclined with the calm composure of a man who had long since stopped being surprised by the world, his eyes half-lidded, expression unreadable yet oddly serene.

Ed sat next to them, posture disciplined but distant, his fingers rhythmically tapping a quill against a floating parchment.

The faint sound echoed in the still air as his gaze remained fixed on the document, his expression as precise and impenetrable as ever.

Alicia sat with her hands neatly folded in her lap, her gaze lowered to the polished surface of the table.

The faint tension in her shoulders and the subtle downward curve of her posture betrayed a guilt she couldn't quite conceal.

Behind her, Rihana rested against the wall with arms crossed, her expression unreadable, eyes sharp and attentive, taking in every breath, every flicker of emotion in the room.

By the window stood Xiaolung, the soft glow of colored light tracing his outline.

His gaze was distant, fixed somewhere far beyond the glass, as though his thoughts were chasing something that none of them could see.

And Ren? He sat slouched at the far end of the table, one arm draped over the chair, his expression caught between boredom and mild annoyance.

It was the look of someone who'd rather be anywhere else, as if being surrounded by some of the most powerful mages in the world was nothing more than another tiresome inconvenience he never signed up for.

Emily finally spoke, voice cold but precise.

"So,"

Emily began, her voice cutting cleanly through the silence,

"Let's summarize what we already know."

Her gaze swept slowly across the table, sharp and deliberate, leaving no room for interruption.

"The mana burst at the plaza bears the exact same signature as the Anomalies Rift incident three years ago. The elves have already detected the fluctuation. The dwarves are drafting a formal statement as we speak. And every intelligence branch operating under the Crown is convinced we're concealing something."

Emily paused, her words trailing off as her gaze fixed sharply on Alicia.

"And they're not entirely wrong, are they?"

Alicia drew in a measured breath, her composure carefully held though the tension in her tone betrayed her unease.

"We weren't hiding anything, Headmistress,"

She said, her voice steady but tight.

"The containment in the plaza was stable… everything was normal. Our scouts confirmed there was no lingering rift activity. We just needed proper verification before…"

"Until Lyrium was there with Maya on their date?"

Emily interrupted, her voice smooth but edged with cold precision.

"And until the elves decided to send their own scouts into our borders? Before they concluded that we were the threat?"

As she spoke, a faint ripple of mana radiated from her, subtle, controlled, yet impossible to ignore.

It wasn't meant to intimidate, merely to serve as a quiet, unmistakable reminder of who held authority in this room.

Eugene let out a low chuckle, the sound dripping with sarcasm.

"They were going to do that anyway. Elves love acting like the world's out to get them, it's all political leverage, nothing more."

Emily's head turned slightly, her eyes settling on him with an icy precision that made the air feel heavier.

"Then perhaps,"

She said evenly,

"You'd like to explain that leverage to their High Sage yourself?"

The smirk faltered.

Eugene's smirk wavered, the confidence behind it cracking for the briefest moment under Emily's gaze.

Then, from the side, Ed finally broke the silence. His voice was calm, measured and deliberate, each word carrying quiet authority.

"Headmistress,"

He began,

"I understand your frustration, but turning this into hostility won't help our case. You didn't call us here to lecture us."

His eyes met hers, unwavering.

"You called us to decide, what's the plan?"

Emily interlaced her fingers atop the table, her composure returning to its usual controlled precision.

"We'll be sending a diplomatic envoy to the Elven Dominion,"

She said evenly, her tone leaving no room for debate.

"Officially, it will be under the guise of a joint investigation and a resource exchange initiative."

The silence that followed was taut and cutting, like the brief stillness before a storm.

Ren exhaled through his nose, one brow arching in dry amusement.

He said, his tone half-resigned, half-mocking.

"I'm part of this little envoy, I know you told me that before yesterday already…"

'But Why me?.'

Emily's lips curved ever so slightly, not quite a smile, more a controlled acknowledgment.

"Correct,"

She said, her tone composed yet carrying quiet finality.

"You, Margaret, Rihana, and Xiaolung will serve as the Academy's representatives. And here Prof. Ed and Eugene will accompany you as supervising advisors."

"Wait, what?"

Rihana's brows knit together as she straightened in her seat, disbelief flashing across her face.

"We didn't talk about this yesterday, ma'am. Why me?"

"Because the elves respect strength and lineage,"

Emily answered without hesitation, her voice smooth and composed.

"You carry the Blackwood crest, one of the few human names they still acknowledge."

Her eyes shifted toward the princess.

"And Margaret,"

She continued,

"Will serve as our political bridge to the human court."

Margaret inclined her head slightly, her tone calm but edged with quiet curiosity.

"And Ren?"

She asked.

Margaret voiced the question that everyone else had been holding back.

Emily didn't so much as pause.

"Ren will serve as a secondary mana analyst,"

She said evenly.

"He has first-hand resonance with the anomaly's frequency. His presence guarantees the authenticity of our findings."

But beneath Emily's composed tone lay a lie,

so seamless, so perfectly measured, that even Alicia failed to catch it.

Emily wasn't sending Ren as an analyst.

She was sending him because his very existence drew the anomaly to him.

Across the table, Shirone's eyes narrowed, a faint ripple in his calm expression betraying his understanding.

He alone sensed the subtle fluctuation in Emily's mana, the tiniest crack in her control.

"Dangerous,"

He murmured, voice barely above a whisper.

"You're using him as a bait vector."

Emily didn't respond, not even a flicker of acknowledgment crossing her face.

Instead, she shifted her gaze to Alicia.

"You'll accompany them as an auxiliary observer,"

She said, her tone calm but absolute.

"The elves are more likely to trust you than the others. Your bloodline still carries influence within the northern archives."

Alicia lowered her head slightly, her voice quiet but steady.

"…Understood."

Eugene exhaled, leaning back in his chair with a resigned groan.

"Haa… diplomatic suicide. Fantastic,"

He muttered.

"So we're just marching into the Dominion with a walking mana magnet, a Blackwood, a princess…"

'…And a dragon descendant? Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?'

"Everything,"

Ed replied flatly, his tone dry enough to cut through the tension.

"Which is precisely why we'll proceed carefully."

Ren let out a slow breath, his gaze drifting toward the stained-glass window where fractured light still shimmered across the floor.

"You're all making it sound like a suicide mission,"

He muttered.

Emily's gaze lingered on Ren for a long moment, unblinking and measured, the faint reflection of colored light glinting in her eyes.

When she finally spoke, her voice was calm, quiet enough to seem reassuring, yet heavy with something far more resolute.

"It's only suicide if we fail."

Her words hung in the air like a blade suspended between them, delicate yet deadly.

The atmosphere shifted; the faint hum of the sealing wards grew louder, pulsing in rhythm with the mana saturating the room. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Every breath felt heavier, as though the chamber itself understood the gravity of what was about to unfold.

Beneath her composed tone and collected posture, Emily Theodeus was already calculating, preparing for a war that none of them yet fully grasped.

And though her face betrayed nothing, the weight of her silence said everything.

***

Well I guess I am stretching the plot way too much.