We make sure our footsteps sound like feathers falling on the ground as we trail the Keeper Principal and the Duke of Light.
Ignis is confused about what is going on, but I assure him I will explain the reasoning after we discover where they are heading.
They walk into the main building, their footsteps making a light tapping noise on the steps of the stairs. We follow them after waiting a minute to let them exit onto one of the higher floors.
We quickly make our way up a few flights of stairs and then duck behind a wall before they can notice us. The Keeper Principal and the Duke of Light go into a familiar room where I recognize the doors instantly. They are going into the noble library.
"Ignis, please trust me. I needed you to help me get here so the other Keepers won't suspect me, as you know they already do. I just want to speak with the Keeper Principal privately about a personal matter. Thank you for bringing me here," I whisper to Ignis.
He nods at me and quietly leaves without a single word.
That Ignis is a trusting individual. Sadly, there is a good chance that Ignis believes the Keepers are good people when, in reality, they are just Eradicators in disguise.
The Keeper Principal and the Duke of Light are confident no one is around them, so they make the fatal mistake of leaving the library doors ajar. They probably think the Keepers on the lower levels will prevent anybody undesirable from getting up onto the higher floors. With Ignis, though, it is like having a key to any door. I hear murmuring voices inside the noble library. The voices fade away as time goes on.
I creep closer and closer to the library entrance.
Judging by the voices, they are deeper inside the library that I can enter without them noticing.
After all, the noble library is a huge, expansive maze of bookshelves. My eyes spot them incredibly fast in a corner near the forbidden section. They are talking in a worried tone by a table with what seems to be a variety of maps on it.
Their hand gestures are all over the place, and I can finally see a worried expression on the Keeper Principal's face.
I crouch behind a bookshelf and drift toward their location until I am within earshot.
"We must be prepared for another attack. The HLH might strike again, and we can't afford to be unprepared again," the Keeper Principal says, his voice carrying a heavy weight.
"If they attack again, we will be in ruins. We may need to enlist help from our other bases in the other Keeper Academies," he adds. The Keeper Principal waits for a response from the Duke of Light.
"I already contacted them, but they won't be able to arrive at the earliest for several days. We already have increased security as much as we can. It remains clear that our current progress is inadequate. We need to train more students, make more of them into Keepers, and make them fight for us."
"My knights from the House of Zahard will also help us keep out the HLH," the Duke of Light says in a worried tone.
I have never seen the Keeper Principal and a high-status noble this worried before about anything. They have driven out the mysterious organization, or did the organization let them do it on purpose? Also, they are going to train more students to fight other humans who aren't the actual enemy? Humans are disposable tools for them.
My body has the impulse to take them out right here. It would be so easy to take out my wand right now and surprise attack them with a spell.
I resist the urge.
Even a surprise attack may not be enough to take them both out at the same time. Who knows the extent of their true power?
"Thank you for supplying more troops, but I do not know if that will even be close enough to ward off the HLH. No wonder they are taking their time attacking us. They had this all thought out!" the Keeper Principal raises his voice for a moment.
The Keeper Principal takes a few deep breaths and says in a calm voice, "We need to find a way to not only defend ourselves from the HLH but also send them on the defensive. I suggest as soon as they attack again, we send out an attack force to locate their headquarters. This way, we can launch an attack on them when their forces are spread out."
"That is a brilliant idea! I will get onto relaying that strategy to the rest of the Administration. This way, we can hopefully recruit more students to fight for us but also die for us," the Duke of Light chuckles to himself. The Keeper Principal chuckles with him.
They sound like stereotypical evil villains.
"The person we should be most worried about is the leader of HLH," the Keeper Principal says, switching his tone back to being serious. "The leader of the HLH, from what we know, is a girl, and her last name is Lotus."
"We have another damn Lotus on our hands to manage," he says while shaking his head back and forth.
"How is this possible?!" the Duke of Light says in a rising tone.
"We do not know. I just know the information we have from our intelligence agents out in the field. All we know is it's a girl and her last name is Lotus. There is a high probability that she is connected to Nico. If she is, I will have to kill the mercenary force sent to kill the Lotus family because they didn't do their job right," the Keeper Principal says with lots of malice.
"Impossible! I thought our Eradicator mercenary group killed off the Lotus family except Nico. If another dual wielder is out there, it means twice the trouble for us," the Duke of Light says nervously.
"No need to worry, Lucian. It also means we have another potential person for our bloodline sacrifice, which we will need for the annihilation ritual," the Keeper Principal says while smiling.
The Duke of Light agrees, and the atmosphere becomes too creepy and solemn. The questions flowing through my head are numerous.
What is the HLH? Who is the leader of the HLH? Why is her last name Lotus? Is it impossible to imagine one of my family members is alive? These thoughts burn into my mind as I watch both the Keeper Principal and the Duke of Light leave the noble library.
I am all alone with my thoughts.
What do I do with this information now?