The Eclipsed Order

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: The Unknown Organization

The conference chamber was already crowded when the doors were finally closed.

More than fifteen people had gathered around the long table, each representing a different part of the kingdom’s power structure. Military officials sat beside royal administrators, several noble representatives occupied the opposite side, and two senior figures from the kingdom’s intelligence division had been given seats near the center of the room.

None of them had been summoned for an ordinary report.

Several thick documents had already been distributed across the table, along with maps of the surrounding territories. Red markings covered several locations, each one representing a place where something unusual had happened during the past few weeks.

Bandit camps had been destroyed.

Smuggling routes had suddenly gone silent.

Several groups involved in illegal trade had disappeared almost overnight.

And in more than one location, the surviving witnesses had reported seeing people wearing unfamiliar black clothing before everything went quiet.

The Minister of Internal Affairs slowly turned another page before placing the document down.

"We have confirmed another incident this morning."

A middle-aged nobleman sitting across from him frowned.

"Another?"

"Yes. A smuggling operation near the western trade route was completely dismantled. Twenty-three men were found dead, their supplies were destroyed, and the warehouse they had been using was abandoned before the royal investigators arrived."

One of the military commanders leaned forward.

"Was it another bandit conflict?"

"We don’t know."

The minister’s answer caused several people to exchange glances.

The commander frowned.

"You don’t know?"

"We know that the smugglers were attacked. We know that they were completely overwhelmed. What we don’t know is who attacked them."

A young noblewoman sitting near the end of the table opened the report in front of her.

"Was there anything left behind?"

"Very little."

"Any insignia?"

"No."

"Weapons?"

"Most of the bodies had been stripped of anything that could identify the attackers."

The noblewoman leaned back.

"Convenient."

The military commander looked toward her.

"Or professional."

That drew a few quiet reactions around the room.

The minister continued.

"According to the investigators, the attack itself appears to have been extremely organized. The smugglers were not simply overwhelmed by superior numbers. Their movements were predicted, their escape routes were blocked, and several of their leaders were eliminated before they could even gather their men."

An older knight sitting near the center of the table narrowed his eyes.

"How many attackers?"

"That’s the problem."

The minister turned another page.

"We don’t know."

The knight’s expression hardened.

"Then what exactly do we have?"

"Two surviving witnesses."

That immediately attracted everyone’s attention.

The minister motioned toward one of the investigators standing near the wall.

The man stepped forward and placed another document on the table.

"Both witnesses were members of the smuggling group. Neither saw the attackers clearly enough to identify their faces, but both reported seeing people dressed in unusual dark clothing."

"Dark clothing?"

"Black, according to one witness. The other described it as a dark cloak with a strange emblem."

The commander reached for the document.

"What kind of emblem?"

"We’re still trying to determine that."

He placed a rough drawing on the table.

It was little more than a crude representation of a circular symbol surrounded by dark markings.

Several people leaned closer.

The room became noticeably quieter.

One of the intelligence officers finally spoke.

"We’ve seen something similar."

Everyone turned toward him.

He slowly folded his arms.

"Not the exact same drawing, but something close enough that I don’t believe it’s a coincidence."

The Minister of Internal Affairs looked at him.

"Where?"

"Three separate investigations."

He pointed toward the map.

"One involved a bandit group operating near the northern forests. Another involved an illegal slave-trading route along the eastern border. The third involved a group of smugglers transporting restricted magical materials."

The commander stared at the marked locations.

"All of them were destroyed?"

"Yes."

"And the same people were seen?"

"Possibly."

The commander frowned.

"Possibly isn’t an answer."

"No."

The intelligence officer looked directly at him.

"But it’s the most accurate answer we have."

A few people exchanged uneasy looks.

The noblewoman who had spoken earlier tapped her finger against the table.

"So you’re saying there is a group operating throughout the kingdom, and they’ve been systematically eliminating criminals?"

"That is one possibility."

"And the other?"

"They’re using those criminals as targets to conceal something else."

The room grew quieter.

A young official immediately shook his head.

"Why would an organization go through all that trouble? If they were criminals themselves, wouldn’t it make more sense for them to simply take control of those operations?"

"Not necessarily."

Another official spoke from the opposite side of the table.

"If their purpose isn’t financial, then controlling criminal organizations would be unnecessary."

The young official looked at him.

"Then what would their purpose be?"

"Information. Resources. Territory. Or perhaps something we haven’t considered."

The older knight leaned back in his chair.

"You’re all assuming they’re hostile."

The room turned toward him.

He continued.

"We’ve found no evidence that these people have attacked civilians. No villages have been destroyed. No merchants have been robbed. No innocent people have been reported missing in connection with these incidents."

The noblewoman nodded.

"That’s true."

"Then why are we treating them as an enemy?"

The Minister of Internal Affairs looked down at the reports.

"Because they are operating inside the kingdom without permission."

The knight gave him a tired look.

"So do half the merchant guilds."

A few people laughed quietly.

Even the minister couldn’t completely disagree.

The knight continued.

"The kingdom has laws, yes, but we can’t pretend that every organization operating outside the government’s direct control is automatically a threat."

"You’re suggesting we leave them alone?"

"No."

He pointed toward the reports.

"I’m suggesting that we find out what they want before deciding whether they’re an enemy."

The intelligence officer nodded.

"That is already what we’re attempting to do."

One of the nobles leaned forward.

"Have we considered the possibility that they’re an organization working against the criminal groups because they are actually trying to help the kingdom?"

"That’s possible."

Another noble immediately shook his head.

"Or they’re removing those groups because they want the territory for themselves."

"Then why haven’t they taken the territory?"

"Perhaps they’re waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

No one answered immediately.

The Minister of Internal Affairs slowly closed the document in front of him.

"That is precisely why we’re having this meeting."

His gaze moved around the room.

"We don’t know who they are. We don’t know how many members they have. We don’t know who commands them, what their objective is, or whether they have any connection to the other incidents we’ve been investigating."

A military official crossed his arms.

"Then we need to investigate them."

"Obviously."

"How?"

The question was simple, but the room became quiet again.

The intelligence officer answered.

"Carefully."

The military official frowned.

"We’re talking about a group capable of destroying organized criminal operations without leaving enough evidence for us to identify them."

"Which is exactly why we shouldn’t send a large military force after them."

"Why not?"

"Because if they’re hostile, we’ll be warning them that we’ve discovered their existence."

The noblewoman nodded slowly.

"And if they’re not hostile?"

"Then sending soldiers after them could turn a potential ally into an enemy."

That argument received more agreement than expected.

One of the younger officials leaned toward the map.

"What about the disappearances?"

Several people looked toward him.

He continued.

"We’ve been discussing the bandits and smugglers, but there are still those missing-person cases from the eastern territories."

The room’s atmosphere changed.

The intelligence officer’s expression became more serious.

"Those cases are different."

"How?"

"The people who disappeared weren’t criminals."

A nobleman frowned.

"How many?"

"forty-seven confirmed cases."

A few people reacted immediately.

"forty-seven?"

"Over what period?"

"Six months."

The official continued.

"Most were commoners, but there were also two merchants, three adventurers, and one minor noble."

The military commander leaned forward.

"And there’s no connection?"

"Not yet."

"Then why bring them up?"

"Because several of the missing people were known to possess unusually high magical potential."

That caused the room to fall silent.

The Minister of Internal Affairs slowly raised his eyes.

"You’re saying they were selected?"

"We don’t know that."

"But you suspect it."

"Yes."

The intelligence officer placed another document on the table.

"There are also reports concerning illegal laboratories operating outside several cities. We’ve recovered evidence of experiments involving humans, monsters, and magical substances."

One of the nobles immediately grimaced.

"Those reports again."

"They haven’t been dismissed."

"No, but we’ve never found the main facilities."

"Because whoever is operating them knows how to hide."

The older knight looked at the document.

"Could these laboratories be connected to the disappearances?"

"It’s one of the possibilities."

"And the organization wearing the black clothing?"

The intelligence officer paused.

"We don’t know."

The military commander exhaled slowly.

"So we have three separate problems. Criminal organizations being destroyed by an unknown faction, civilians disappearing under suspicious circumstances, and illegal laboratories experimenting on humans and monsters."

"That’s correct."

"And we’re not sure whether any of them are connected."

"That’s correct."

The commander rubbed his forehead.

"Wonderful."

A few people laughed despite the tension.

The noblewoman looked toward the intelligence officers.

"What about the Assassination Guild?"

That question immediately changed several expressions around the table.

The Minister of Internal Affairs glanced toward her.

"Why would you bring them into this?"

"Because they’re one of the few organizations in the kingdom capable of carrying out operations like these."

The older knight shook his head.

"That’s speculation."

"Of course it is."

She calmly turned another page.

"But the Guild has a reputation for completing contracts without leaving unnecessary evidence. If someone hired them to eliminate these criminal groups, it would explain the efficiency."

The intelligence officer shook his head.

"We’ve considered that."

"And?"

"We haven’t found evidence connecting them to any of the incidents."

"Yet."

"Yet."

The word hung in the room.

The commander leaned back.

"So we don’t know whether the Assassination Guild is involved, we don’t know whether the strange organization is hostile, and we don’t know whether either of them has anything to do with the laboratories."

"That’s the situation."

The noblewoman gave a quiet sigh.

"This kingdom is becoming rather complicated."

"Has it ever been simple?"

The older knight smiled.

"People simply become better at hiding the complicated parts."

The room relaxed slightly.

Then the doors at the far end of the chamber opened.

The conversation stopped.

Two people entered.

The first was a man wearing the formal uniform of the kingdom’s highest military authority. He was well past his youth, yet there was nothing frail about him. His posture remained straight, and the scars visible along one side of his neck and jaw were enough to suggest that his position had not been earned through paperwork alone.

Beside him walked a woman whose presence was considerably quieter, dressed in the dark blue robes of the kingdom’s chief intelligence authority.

The two of them took their seats at the head of the table.

No one spoke until the military commander finally addressed them.

"General Valric. Lady Seraphine."

Valric placed one hand over the documents.

"I’ve been listening."

His voice was low and steady.

"You’ve spent nearly an hour discussing whether the people behind these incidents are enemies, allies, criminals, or something in between."

Nobody answered.

Valric looked toward the map.

"You’re asking the wrong question."

The officials exchanged glances.

He tapped one of the marked locations.

"The question isn’t whether they’re helping us."

His finger moved to another location.

"It’s whether they’re becoming strong enough that the kingdom will eventually have no choice but to acknowledge them."

The words settled heavily over the room.

Lady Seraphine finally spoke.

"And we should also stop assuming that the destruction of criminals means these people share our interests."

Her eyes moved across the reports.

"They may have their own reason for removing those groups. Perhaps those criminals interfered with their operations. Perhaps they wanted something the criminals possessed. Perhaps they were simply testing themselves."

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