Chapter 142 An Unexpected Return

Ever since their last meeting, the Emperor and the heads of the five great clans had agreed to let their offspring pursue Starlight Dawson. Each of them hoped that their own child would win her affection before Lucius returned. The plan had seemed reasonable at the time. After all, none of them had expected Lucius to return so soon. They had assumed they would have enough time to let their children approach Starlight, establish a connection with her, and perhaps even make her fall in love with one of them. If that happened, convincing her to remain at Asterion Academy would be much easier, and they might avoid having to stand in Lucius’s way altogether.

Unfortunately, things had not gone quite as smoothly as they had hoped. Their children had barely begun their pursuits, and the clan heads had little reason to believe that any meaningful progress had been made. None of them knew exactly how their children were approaching Starlight or whether any of them had managed to get closer to her. For all they knew, their efforts might not have yielded anything worth celebrating yet.

Now, Lucius had returned.

Ever since reaching their agreement, the Emperor and the clan heads had kept a close watch on theDawsons’s residence, waiting for any sign of Lucius’s return.

They wanted to know the moment he arrived so they could determine their next course of action. However, even though they had been anticipating his return, the news that he had arrived so soon caught them off guard. The moment Emperor Alexander received confirmation of Lucius’s return, he immediately ordered an emergency meeting with the heads of the five great clans. Unfortunately, the clan heads had pressing matters to attend to in their respective homes and could not gather at the palace that same day. They therefore agreed to assemble the following morning. By the next morning, the heads of the five great clans had gathered at the imperial palace. The atmosphere was tense, with everyone aware that Lucius’s return had complicated a situation they had barely begun to manage.

Cassian Hawthorne was the first to break the silence. "So, what exactly are we going to do now that Lucius is back?" he asked, looking around the room. "We all agreed to give our children time to pursue Starlight, but let’s be honest. Has anyone seen any real improvement? From what I can tell, none of them has made any significant progress with that girl. And now Lucius is here. How do we intend to handle this?"

Evander Wolfhart immediately frowned.

"What do you mean, our children haven’t made any progress?" he demanded. "It hasn’t even been a week since we agreed to this arrangement! What exactly were you expecting? For them to approach Starlight today and have her fall hopelessly in love with them by tomorrow?"

Cassian turned towards the Emperor’s brother.

"I’m simply pointing out the obvious."

"And I’m pointing out that you’re being unreasonable!" Evander retorted. "None of us expected Lucius to return this soon. We were supposed to have time to work things out before he came back. How were we supposed to anticipate this?"

"Arguing among ourselves isn’t going to solve anything," Emperor Alexander interrupted.

His voice was firm enough to silence the room, although the tension remained.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his forehead as he considered their predicament.

"We need to decide what to do next. Lucius has returned, and we cannot afford to make a careless decision. We should arrange a meeting with him before this situation gets any worse."

He paused, his gaze shifting towards Sabrina.

"Sabrina, do you have any ideas?"

Sabrina, dressed in her customary white attire, slowly lifted her eyes towards him. She looked from the Emperor to the other clan heads, her expression growing increasingly unimpressed.

"Why are you asking me, Your Majesty?" she replied. "It’s not as though I have a magical solution to every problem this gathering manages to create. I wasn’t the only one who agreed to allow our children to compete for a girl’s affection, and I certainly wasn’t the only one who assumed Lucius would conveniently remain away until everything was settled. So why am I the one everyone is looking at as though I’m supposed to have all the answers?"

Cyrus gave a short laugh.

"Oh, come on, Sabrina. You always seem to have an answer for everything. With your connections to the Moon Goddess and the magical institutions, I thought you might have some insight into what we should do next. Surely you can come up with something better than sitting here worrying about Lucius’s return."

Sabrina slowly turned her head towards him. The glare she gave him could have frozen a bonfire.

"Perhaps you should try using your own head for once, Cyrus, instead of expecting everyone else to solve your problems for you. Aren’t tech guys supposed to be smart or something?"

Cyrus’s smile faltered.

"Now, now," Emperor Alexander said, raising a hand before either of them could continue. He could understand why everyone was on edge, but their bickering was getting them nowhere.

"Calm down. Both of you. There’s no need to start attacking one another when we should be working together to find a solution."

He waited until the room had settled before speaking again.

"The situation is already complicated enough without us turning against one another. We need to approach Lucius carefully. By now, he must have discovered that his daughter is among us and that she’s attending Asterion Academy. What I don’t understand is why he hasn’t gone to retrieve her already."

That was the part that troubled him most.

Lucius was not a man who could be easily ignored, intimidated, or persuaded to abandon something he considered his own responsibility. There was no way he didn’t know where his daughter was by now. If he knew she was at Asterion Academy, why hadn’t he gone there to retrieve her? And if he had chosen not to, what was he planning?

"We need to act immediately," the Emperor continued. "We should contact him, arrange a meeting, and determine what he intends to do before we make any further decisions concerning Starlight."

Augustus let out a humourless laugh, leaning back in his chair.

"And how exactly are we supposed to contact Lucius?" he asked. "The man only comes to us when he wants something. Whenever he has a demand to make or something he wants to show off, he simply appears at our doorstep without warning. We don’t even know whether he owns a cell phone at his age! For all we know, the only way to reach him is to sit here and pray that he decides to grace us with his presence again."

Evander Wolfhart rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Then perhaps we should send someone to visit him," he suggested. "I know he explicitly warned us to stay away from his family, and I certainly don’t want to be the one who tests his patience. However, we can’t afford to sit around doing nothing. We could send someone to the Dawson’s residence to deliver a message and request a meeting. If we choose the right person, someone who knows how to approach him without being disrespectful, perhaps we can get him to agree to speak with us."

Cassian gave him a disbelieving look. "And what happens if he decides to eliminate the poor soul we send?" he asked. "Lucius made it perfectly clear that he wants nothing to do with us when it comes to his family. He didn’t merely suggest that we keep our distance. He made a threat, and I have no intention of pretending otherwise. What guarantee do we have that he won’t take our messenger’s visit as an insult and deal with them accordingly? Are we prepared to sacrifice someone’s life just to ask him for a meeting?"

Evander’s expression tightened, but before he could respond, Sabrina spoke.

"I don’t think he would do anything violent in front of his family," she said calmly.

Several pairs of eyes turned towards her.

"Lucius might be ruthless, unpredictable, and thoroughly unpleasant when someone crosses him, but I doubt he would cause a scene in front of his wife and children. Whatever he might think of us, he has made it clear that his family is important to him. If we send someone to deliver a message respectfully, I don’t believe he would resort to violence in their presence. That doesn’t mean we should be careless, of course. Whoever we send must understand the importance of choosing their words carefully."

The Emperor considered her words before slowly nodding. "Yes, I believe Sabrina is right. Lucius may despise us, but we have no reason to assume he would attack someone in front of his family without provocation. If we approach him properly and make it clear that we only wish to discuss the situation, perhaps he will be willing to hear us out. We cannot allow our fear of his temper to prevent us from—"

His words were cut short as the atmosphere in the chamber suddenly changed.