"What?!"

"They raided our headquarters not too long ago and found solid evidence about our involvement in the Order," Mr Anwar calmly explains, "and they take it as a betrayal, which is unfortunately perfectly valid."

"Wait, you're not going to surrender yourselves, aren't you?" Aelita asks worriedly while glancing at her parents.

Madam Fron forces a grin amidst the pale faces. "No, we're not idiots," she declares, "and they haven't discovered all of us. Only the Great Five have been ousted."

Light returns to Aelita's eyes, but darkness clouds it again a second later. "We'll have to put our backup plans in motion now," Mr Agusman says, "I'll seek refugee in Ad Astra. Arctus can hide in Erwing and Charles shall escape to Al-Azhar. Vanya will, well, you know."

"You know what?" I ask sharply, my left hand curled into a fist.

"It's not for your ears," my grandma replies with equal sharpness.

"We'll disperse in an hour. The six of you have been recalled back to Irvine," Mr Agusman says.

I squint my eyes. "What about the war?"

"Queen Seira signed an armistice yesterday," he answers, "and Al-Azhar is on the brink of surrender."

"Anyway, what about the report?" Madam Fron asks, "did you find anything?"

"A lot," I reply, "Dita Luxor is there."

Madam Fron chokes on her tea. Everyone turns their head at me. "Dita Luxor is in prison," Madam Felicia asserts.

"She should be. But she was present in the camp," I reiterate.

"And she said that her father smuggled her out," Remi continues.

"Tch. Archduke Luxor has too much love for her daughter. Nonetheless, she's just a medium rank witch–I'll send one of my agents to assassinate her," Madam Fron scoffs.

"She isn't," Aelita says, "she had some sort of weird snake transformation."

"Weird snake transformation?"

"Yeah! Her skin was pale, her tongue was forked, and snakes came out of the pores on her body!" Aelita declares.

"Vio, how powerful do you think she is now?" my grandma asks.

"I don't think I can win unless I release my demonic power," I reply, "and there was a masked woman with her."

"I'm assuming this masked woman is as powerful as Dita, isn't she?" Madam Fron asks, her fingers pinching her forehead. "We really are short of skilled mages, so I really hope she isn't."

I nod quickly as a reply, triggering her unpleasant frown. "And her techniques were exactly the same as my grandma's."

"Impossible!" my grandma bursts out, "my mana manipulation techniques are unique ones I have never taught anyone ... except–"

"The White Witch and Angelita," I cut her off. "And she has bright red hair like me. You know who she is, Grandma."

My grandma wipes off her sweat with her handkerchief. "Impossible," she mumbles, "Angelita wouldn't fall that low!"

"Look, the White Witch might have taught her own subordinates a trick or two, and don't get me started on the fact that you and your sister are not the only ones with red hair," Mr Arctus asserts forcefully.

"Arctus' right, Vio. Edelweiss learned enough from me to teach her own students," my grandma says, effectively shutting down my little argumentation.

"Felicia, we'll transfer some of our resources to you," Mr Agusman says, "we'll take a more active role outside of Irvine."

"Isn't the point of dispersing our resources to guarantee that our losses will not be severe even if one of us is cut down?" Madam Felicia replies.

"With all of us out, you're the next in line. Stay low and avoid doing any suspicious activity," Mr Agusman advises.

Suddenly, as the men and women of the Order begin to rise, I feel a searing pain from one of my pockets. Biting my lips forcefully to hide my pain, I grab at some sort of a stone from the pocket and hurl it at the table.

"What's that?" Almost literally everyone asks.

The item is a glowing ruby, ejecting red smoke. The smoke then condenses into a humanoid figure. The legs materialize, the arms form, the torso creates itself, and finally the face and hair appear.

"You!" I shout in fury upon realizing the figure's identity. I draw my blade, swinging it wildly. My grandma draws her owns staff, parrying my blow.

"Don't be too hasty, Vio," she says calmly.

"I left this message to inform something."

The figure stops talking, as if taking a breath. The Order members seat themselves, their eyes watching in interest.

"The senior three and the Princess of Terror have the full recipe for Madu, but it surely will be difficult to extract it from them. However, there is one other person that might have the full recipe–the King of the Brotherhood of the Stars, whoever he is."

Then, the figure vanishes into formless smoke, then disappears entirely.

"ANGELITA!" I shout in fury.

"Is ... is that Angelita, though?" Madam Fron asks.

"She wears a damn mas–"

"Look, a lot of people wear masks. Heck, we have an entire division of intelligence officers wearing masks," Madam Felicia asserts.

"Oh, I, I see," I reply in shame, scratching my head, "so that was your spy?"

"Uh, no," Madam Felicia says, "I don't remember sending anyone close enough to the Lords to learn such a secret."

"So, Angelita ...."

"That doesn't mean she is Angelita, Vio," my grandma assures me as she grabs my shoulder tightly, "now sit down, will you? Felicia, it's time for Queen Seira's orders; we can't have her suspecting the Imperial Guards."

"Why does she have anything to do with us?" I bark.

"She's the Queen, duh. The temporary Queen, that is. She wields control over the Imperial Guards and has ordered all six of you to Irvine–which, unless you want to join us as we are chased across the globe, you should follow," Madam Felicia says, "these are dark times indeed ...."