When Elijah gazed upon this fellow, his hard demeanor softened slightly. Darius easily identified that the old man must have a good relationship with the Royal Seneschal and was likely the person the council had sneakily appointed to be the 'good cop' when dealing with Elijah.
"I've done my best to manage this camp since my arrival and yesterday, I had the epiphany that despite - or perhaps even because of my style - this camp is achieving nothing while wasting massive resources."
"If these resources would have been fully and honestly contributed by everyone, I would not dare to complain. However, we all know too well that the majority of these wasted resources are being financed by the Royal Faction."
There was a short spell of silence, as the various fellows digested this nasty truth and communicated with their eyes. They were likely questioning who had enlightened Elijah and why he had chosen now to disrupt the status quo.
"Hmph, old codger, what are you complaining about? This is a joint movement of Andrato Kingdom's various powers. Of course, the Royal Faction should take the lead and sponsor everything! Otherwise, why should we listen to your commands or edicts if you do nothing for us?"
A middle-aged man with silver-gray hair, pointy ears, and a beautiful visage spoke scathingly. He wore black acolyte armor and had his hood tossed back, revealing his face full of scars. His right hand was currently playing with a bloody dagger.
Darius identified this fellow to be the 'bad cop', someone brave enough to incur the ire of Elijah and the entire Royal Faction… at a price. Unsurprisingly, he was the rep of the Assassins Guild, Kiran.
As Darius predicted, Elijah's expression became thunderous as soon as the fellow had opened his mouth and he slammed the table angrily. "Be careful of how you talk, knife-eared fool. Your words could easily be taken as treason! It would be a valid reason to have your head cut off."
Kiran made his body shiver as if he was scared and gripped his shoulders weakly. "Oh dear me, how terrifying! A small kingdom's royal family wants to kill me, I'm soooo terrified!"
Before Elijah could furiously retort, the old mage coughed and spoke gently. "My dear old friend, no matter how you put it, this camp is necessary. I admit that our progress is slower than any one of us would like, yet it is infinitely faster than all of us going about it individually. Elijah, can you imagine the number of casualties that would occur if everyone were to chaotically do their own thing?"
The Royal Seneschal's expression changed, becoming bitter. This was the argument his old friend, who was a known humanitarian, always hit him with that put him in a tight spot.
Darius watched all of this with amusement. God, they had set up a nice web around the poor man, and like NPCs in games repeating pre-set lines, all they had to do was follow a script to get the Royal Seneschal to dance to their tune.
Even his so-called 'buddy' was in on this. Don't look at that fellow, with his sagely demeanor, and think he was as noble as Gandalf or Dumbledore. If that was the case, why would he be out here trying to kill Marasmus?
Such a 'sagely' fellow should be free from greed, but yet here he was! Elijah was about to sigh and repeat what he usually said to brush it off, before he trembled and remembered what Darius had told him yesterday.
He had almost fallen into the same routine again, like a broken record on replay. His face became ugly as he also saw through what was going on here. Elijah was by no means stupid, merely misguided as he had put his trust in someone who had sided against him.
With 99 points of Intellect, he could compute faster and much more than Darius, he easily understood more. Realizing his failures, he simply sighed and stood up.
"For now, let us put aside the matter of the disbandment of the camp. I understand that no matter what, you fellows are not willing to let a big fish like me slip through your fingers. When was the last time anyone got to milk and weaken the Royal Faction so greatly?"
Elijah waved his hand boredly, silencing the ones who were about to erupt in protest. "Please, please, at least for today, spare me the false pretenses. Feel free to return your usual ways of guiling me all you want from tomorrow, but at least for today pretend like you actually respect my intelligence and stop with your kindergarten scheme."
Elijah leaned on the table, glancing at his 'friend' and his 'enemy'. "As for the two of you, let me commend you on your act so far. Until yesterday, I never so much as suspected anything and even now I have a hard time believing it."
"Now before I return to the capital city, I would like to finish my responsibilities as still acting chairman. There were three reasons I called this meeting into being today. The first reason was to, as I've stated, disband the camp and see your reactions."
"Since there was no vote for the motion, we'll take it that the idea got scrapped and your beloved camp shall continue to exist. The second reason was to allow me the chance to do what I'm doing right now, venting my indignation and letting you all know that after the meeting I will formally resign as chairman. I've already made my mind, so don't try to convince me otherwise."
There were low murmurs as almost everyone on the table frowned at this time, even the sagely rep and the assassin rep. Many of the powerhouses here could not understand the purpose or need for this drama. Wasn't he a bit too old to throw a tantrum?
More importantly, their interests were now in real danger. Once a nice 'sugar daddy' like Elijah left, there would be a power vacuum in the camp. After abusing the role for so long, nobody would want to be the next person to suffer, yet this role absolutely needed to be filled! That was why they were restless.
Many eyes fell onto the 'good cop' and 'bad cop' to do what they had always done and fix this situation. However, the duo didn't doubt the words of the Royal Seneschal. Now that they had been busted, it was impossible to make him change his mind, especially given how determined he looked.
Elijah spoke over the murmurs with a powerful tone. "As for the third reason, well… it was actually the true reason for summoning this meeting."
The crowd became silent as they were curious to hear what the cause of all this was. Elijah gestured to the end of the table, where Darius sat and spoke respectfully.
"As my last official act of chairman of this camp, I hereby invite Baron Stone to take the floor!"
