99 Chapter 99
"I don't know. We are literally talking about taking her to where we keep all our Numens. I also agree that she won't pull anything stupid, but still... Why should we help her?" Yann asked. "We are supposed to be the neutral party. If we allow her to use something, what's stopping other Churches from coming tomorrow and asking the same?"
"I agree." Qin stood with folded arms, nodding. "If we do it now, it'll establish a precedent, which might become a pain in the neck in the future. It can be a real headache, you know."
Xinci also agreed. "Agreed. If we allow Elora, we'll have to allow other Churches, or we'll look biased."
"We can't just say no to them for such a small request. But I do agree as well. It will establish a precedent," Rem agreed as well. "But I think we won't have to worry about that precedent much."
"Why not?" Xinci asked as everyone looked at Rem, wondering just how he came to that conclusion.
"The Dean isn't here. We are temporarily managing the academy. The decisions we take don't establish much of a precedent that can't be avoided since we don't have the ultimate authority," Rem explained briefly.
"In other words, when Lord Izen returns, if he disagrees with what we did, he can just say that we were wrong. And if another Church comes to ask for the same thing, it can be claimed that we naively acted on our own and we were wrong. Even though it would look slightly bad on our part, but the academy won't look biased."
"I'm sure Lord Izen would have agreed with what I'm saying as well. Since we aren't him, our decisions at the current moment don't hold much of an importance."
As Rem clarified, everyone seemed to finally understand what he was trying to say! They weren't the Dean of the academy. The Dean could say that we acted on our own here since we didn't know better, and he won't have to worry about this precedent.
"I think Rem is right." Lishen also chimed in, and to no one's surprise, he agreed with Rem.
However, he further clarified as well. "Elora came all this far, at a time like this. It won't be good optics if we send her back without agreeing to such a small request. Also, we can ask her not to mention what happened here outside and that it is going to be a one-time thing. That should take care of most of the problems."
"Everyone in agreement?" Eliana asked. For one, she did agree with the proposal, but just to be sure, she wanted to get everyone's agreement.
"Oh, what the heck. We are already up. I don't want this disturbance in my sleep to be for nothing. Just let her do it so we can send her back fast." Qin also voiced his agreement in the end.
Not long after, the others also agreed. !
"If that's what others want, then I also agree. We can help Elora this once."
As everyone was finally in agreement, Eliana entered the hall again. All the House Leaders took their seats.
"We have come to a decision. We can grant your request, but as you may expect, we have some conditions of our own."
Elora smirked. "I expected that. So, what do you want in exchange?"
She believed that the Academy's conditions were no more than the things they wanted in exchange for this
"We don't want anything in exchange. At least not yet. Treat it as a favor. In the future, if we ever need a favor, we want your promise as the Head of the Church of Water that you will do that favor."
"As long as it's within my capacity and doesn't harm or place the Church at risk, I will." Elora seemingly agreed right away.
"Second, you won't tell anyone what happened here since it's a one-time thing. The news that we helped you should only stay with the people who are here. If anyone else gets wind of this, the-"
"Don't worry. We would be the last people to want others to know about this. You don't have to worry about that." Elora agreed to the second condition as well. "Anything else?"
"One last thing." Eliana nodded. She glanced at all the Head Priestesses, observing their expressions before speaking further. "Only you will be taken there. The others must stay in this place."
"Agreed."
"But-"
Seeing Elona agree right away, Joan tried to say something to make her reconsider. She didn't want Elora to go alone. Even though it was the Academy, she didn't feel it was safe for her. However, before she could speak more than one word, Elora gestured for her to stop speaking.
For now, Elora wanted to be done with it. Moreover, it wasn't as if she was scared to go alone.
"Anything else?" she asked Eliana.
Eliana shook her head. "That would be all."
"Shall we get going then?" Elora stood up before everyone else.
Eliana also stood up along with the Head Council members. Elora had a limitation on her that she had to go alone, but Eliana didn't. She was taking everyone with her, just for the safety of that place.
The Head Priestesses were left behind, instructed by Elora to stay in the room and not go anywhere else.
More mages from the Academy were also assigned there to keep an eye on them.
The group left the castle, advancing to the Museum.
****
Without having the need to call out his Ancestral Staff, Gabriel managed to block the attack using the Shield of Undead.
It was slightly surprising for Lelin to see a spell that used the spirits like that, even though he quite expected Gabriel to be able to block his attack.
The Evil Spirits were immortal in a sense. They were also great at consuming natural energy, which was used by the spells. That made the Shield of Undead one of the best protection spells against magical attacks, despite it being a low-tier spell.
As Lelin analyzed the spell, being slightly distracted, he also picked up the white orb, still not noticing the dark orb.