Chapter 272: Meeting With The Victims

Sofia’s breath caught in her throat. She held her breath, refusing to make a sound. She waited, observing Uhtred from her peripheral vision as he stood at the doorway in silence for a second.

His gaze seemed to sweep across the room, and for a second, Sofia thought she had been found out... but then he simply stepped forward and closed the door behind him.

He entered the small hall alone, leaving his companions — Zara and the Queen of Death, Diya, whose voices Sofia had heard after he opened the doors — outside to continue attending to the indirect victims.

Uhtred strode forward, still not speaking a word. His steps echoed through the hall as Sophie Albert and the five other ascenders present stood up in respect.

An immense urge to look directly at what was going on below gnawed at Sofia, but she suppressed it, trying to maintain her hidden spot. But then the silence dragged on for longer than necessary. Not only Uhtred, but even Sophie Albert and the other five all remained dead silent. Only the subtle sounds of their breathing could be heard.

Sofia terribly wanted to know what was going on below for them to be so silent. Had her position been found out? Were they all staring at her right now while she thought she was well hidden? What exactly was going on?

In her attempt to hide herself by retreating deeper into the shadows, she had restricted her line of sight to an extent. Uhtred had first been within her peripheral vision when he was at the doors, but as he walked fully into the hall, she couldn’t see him or any of the six ascenders any longer.

The edge of the balcony blocked her view, which meant that if she wanted to glimpse what was going on, she would have to move a bit closer to the railing.

That, in turn, meant giving Uhtred an opportunity to sense her presence... if he hadn’t already.

She gritted her teeth and chose to remain put. Even if she couldn’t see what was going on below, she would at least be able to hear what they were discussing when they began talking.

That thought had barely crossed her mind when she felt a sudden, uncanny urge to look to her side.

A loud squeal that shocked even her escaped her throat in an instant. She jumped to her feet in fright, her body phasing out of the shadows and back into reality several steps away.

Beside the dark spot where she had just been hiding, Uhtred squatted in a casual crouch, observing the empty shadows with deep interest.

"How intriguing..." he muttered, still staring at the patch of darkness that Sofia had just jumped out of. "An ability to meld with shadows... That definitely has to be an Esoteric-type for sure."

Sofia, whose heart was hammering loudly in her chest from pure fright, stared at Uhtred in shock. For a second she could’ve sworn she saw a trace of purple in his left eye... but maybe it was her imagination.

In any case that wasn’t even the main issue presently. Her mind began racing wildly, trying to come up with an excuse for why she was here, besides the obvious. She even began to stammer out a few words, but they all died the moment they escaped her lips.

Looking at Uhtred’s expression, he didn’t even seem to mind that she had been trying to snoop in on the private meeting. Instead, all of his focus was fixed on her shadow technique.

Finally, he looked up at her, rising smoothly from his crouching position. "You and I are going to have a chat later, Sofia. I understand that your friend is here and you’re worried about her, but it is not your place to listen in on what I have to say to them."

"I’m sorry, Lord Uhtred," Sofia pleaded immediately, recognizing her mistake. She had known from the beginning that she wasn’t supposed to be here, but at the same time, she hadn’t expected to be caught so effortlessly.

How exactly had Uhtred figured out her position in such a short few seconds? And more importantly, how had he suddenly appeared out of nowhere right by her side? She hadn’t even sensed his movement in the slightest! Who knew how long he had actually been standing there watching her!

Uhtred let out a long sigh in response, the expression on his face turning stern. On one hand, Sofia was Black Sun Mateo’s daughter, one of his key allies among the top ascenders — which naturally afforded her some level of status.

On the other hand, she was also one of his biggest supporters. She had made that very clear repeatedly. At this point, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say he was a role model to her — which meant he couldn’t afford to just let her off lightly.

There had to be some form of punishment for her actions. He couldn’t have her thinking she could go around doing whatever she wanted just because she possessed a very good stealth ability.

"Wait here. I’ll decide what to do with you after the meeting." Uhtred wagged a finger at her and blurred away with a cold huff.

Sofia sucked in a sharp breath. It seemed she was in some real trouble. She had never seen such a cold, stern expression on Uhtred’s face before.

She remained hidden in the dark recesses of the upper balcony, but now she felt free to move closer to the edge and observe the meeting below more clearly.

She watched as Uhtred began to address the six ascenders. He started by taking partial responsibility for the lack of a quick response to the Ancient Variant attack. Their families had allied with the Capitol of The Elite. They had willingly chosen to come under Uhtred’s banner. Yet in their time of desperate need, the Capitol had not reacted quickly enough to save them.

Of course, the six ascenders present knew the deaths of their families weren’t a direct fault of his. No one truly expected Uhtred and his forces to magically be everywhere whenever something went wrong, but the fact that he was willing to concede some level of responsibility showed that he genuinely recognized their plight.

He continued the meeting by asking every single one of them to narrate their experience: how they fled the Ancient Variants’ attack, how they hid themselves, and how they had managed to survive.

For many of the six, they hadn’t even been at the core of their family’s territories when the attack happened, though escaping had still been a brutal hurdle.

The only person among the six who had truly gone through hell was Sophie Albert. She remained completely silent throughout the exchange, only giving Uhtred slight nods when he directed specific questions to her. But at the very least, she was finally showing some form of response.

Uhtred tactfully refrained from pushing her with difficult questions. He had watched the recorded footage of her family’s slaughter, after all.

However, toward the end of his meeting with the six ascenders, he said something that made even Sofia, watching from the balcony above, draw in a sharp breath.

"I know I can’t bring your families back," Uhtred said, his voice solemn. "But I can at least do something to aid you in exacting your revenge. You may ask me for one favor, within reason... something to help you get stronger, and I will grant it."