Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

"I wonder if this is related to the incident in Crystal Lake," Christina suddenly blurted out.

Her comment wasn’t based on any hard evidence and was more a random thought, but as soon as she made it, Lucas, Eris, and Sasha all couldn’t help frowning and taking it seriously.

Up until now, none of them, not even the usually perceptive Lucas, had linked the incident in the southern district of Misty City to the one in the slums of Crystal Lake, but thinking about it now, there were actually a lot of similarities.

"Toby did say that that man named Bellamy felt the same to him as the bad people from the orphanage where he grew up," Eris muttered.

"A shadowy organization using children and orphanages to stir up trouble in a major city of the Rockwell Kingdom... it does sound disturbingly familiar," Lucas added.

"Precisely," Celestina declared, "Which is why I can’t allow you all to get further involved in this."

"No," Lucas shook his head firmly and turned to meet his Master’s gaze, "That’s exactly why you should leave this matter to us."

Raising her brow, Celestina didn’t immediately shut her First Disciple down, knowing he would never openly contradict her without reason.

Intrigued, she signaled for the young boy to explain his thinking before she made a final decision.

"Back in Crystal Lake, we greatly underestimated the vigilance and ruthlessness of those criminals, which lead to them attempting to destroy all the evidence and decisively escaping," Lucas recounted with a hint of malice, "They were even willing to burn down the orphanage, with all the kids still left inside."

Elizabeth gasped, as did Audrey.

The two of them were completely unaware of this incident, so it came as quite the shock to them.

This was understandable for Audrey as she was still young and naïve. It was even fair to say she was a bit sheltered thanks to her status as the little princess of the Carlson Count Family.

Elizabeth Carlson, however, was an experienced and worldly woman, who had witnessed numerous atrocities over the course of her nearly 3 century long life; still, the thought of a group of people being willing to burn 100 or more innocent children alive just to conceal their crimes, or worse, as a mere distraction, was enough to send a chill up her spine.

Anyone willing to go that far to achieve their objective was not to be taken lightly.

"En, these people are cold-blooded killers, capable of anything," Celestina agreed, "Which is why I don’t want any of you getting involved. It’s too dangerous."

"I would very much like to agree with you, Master," Lucas sighed, but still continued, "However, if these two incidents really are linked, and a single organization is really masterminding everything, a direct approach like the one you’re planning probably won’t work."

"At best, we’ll be able to eliminate another criminal cell, or a few cells in the South-East Province, but there’s basically no chance we’ll be able to really trace this operation back to its roots."

Pursing her lips, Celestina wanted to disagree, but found that she couldn’t.

It really was her plan to try to sweep the South-East Province clean of this malicious shadow, but as for exposing them completely, she didn’t think that was possible.

"What are you suggesting we do instead, Lucas?" Sasha, who was now getting a bit nervous, asked pointedly.

Gritting his teeth, Lucas knew that the moment he spoke his next words, there would be no turning back, not because he believed his Master would approve his plan, but because he knew his big sisters all-too-well.

Once they heard his plan, given their personalities and beliefs, they would try to carry it out, regardless of whether they received permission or not.

Lucas was tempted to just shut his mouth and not say anything, but unfortunately for him, he too had a strong sense of personal responsibility and righteousness, one that made it impossible for him to stay silent when he felt there was something wrong, and he could do something about it.

"If there is a sudden increase in powerful masters from the Balfour Family poking around the local orphanages, it will surely alert the enemy and send them into hiding. That might help us in the short term, but it won’t eliminate the problem," Lucas concluded, "The only way to end things once and for all, is with a thorough and long-term investigation. We might even need to find a way to have one of our own people infiltrate it, and then destroy it from within."

"The only way we’ll be able to pull that off, however, is if the enemy doesn’t become suspicious of us. The best way to do that, is to have them think we’re not taking the matter seriously by say... making it seem like this is something only Eris cares about."

Although he was going around and around the subject, everyone understood that what Lucas was suggesting was using Eris as bait.

Lucas didn’t want to do this, as it would put his precious big sister at risk. If he could trade places with her, he would, but as cold as it may sound, he simply couldn’t afford to spare the time to deal with this situation.

It was the same for Christina. She was also swamped with responsibilities and training that kept her occupied most days.

Eris was the only one who was available to play this role, and it would also raise the least suspicions if she was the one playing it.

Of course, none of that mattered to Sasha, who immediately leapt up from her seat, her face red with anger as she shouted, "Lucas! How could you even suggest that!?"

Not waiting for the boy to respond, Sasha turned to her grandmother and demanded, "You can’t be seriously considering this, Matriarch! Eris may be your Disciple, but she’s still just a child! My child! Why must she be intentionally put in harm’s way!?"

"Mom..." Eris tried to speak up, but the fierce glare she received from Sasha quickly silenced her.

Eris wanted to say she could handle it, and that she was willing to do her part to help, but she also knew that look well. That look was the scariest one her mother made, the one that promised severe punishment if she dared to talk back.

Everyone in the room turned to Celestina, as the decision was now in her hands, but to Sasha’s dismay, the look on her grandmother’s face said she really was considering this outrageous plan.

Had this been a normal time, under normal circumstances, Celestina would have agreed with Sasha. There was no need to take such a risky course of action, especially one that put her Disciple and great granddaughter at risk, but there was nothing normal about the times they were in.

The distant sound of war drums was getting louder, the Rockwell Kingdom’s national strength had taken a sharp hit, and now there were signs of a nationwide underground plot involving orphan children from city slums taking place completely unbeknownst to the nation’s leaders.

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