Chapter 43

**Merianna**


I sat silently staring at Ferina for a moment. After Thyrion had filled her in on everything that had happened recently, as well as everything that had been going on solely on his side since the battle at the Order, she seemed like she needed a moment to have it all sink in. I knew how it felt to have a mountain of groundbreaking information suddenly dumped on you out of the blue, and I was more than happy to let her have her moment to digest.

Noch on the other hand, didn’t seem to have the same consideration. “So, you going to let us into the archives or not?”

I wanted to punch his face… if only he were sitting next to me right at that moment, I would have reflexively done just that without giving it a thought.

Ferina rubbed her hands over her face and glanced at all of us over her fingertips. “You haven’t changed at all, Noch. This is serious enough to have the entire Council on high alert, yet you act like nothing is wrong at all.”

“You expect me to beg for help from the Council in this situation?” He asked with a sneer.

Ferina grunted as she rubbed her face again. “I know apologies won’t help to excuse what happened back then, you haven’t ever forgiven us since that day no matter how much we apologized. And you are clearly still holding a grudge against us because of that.”

Ah…right. I almost forgot about the fact that the Council’s reinforcements only arrived after the battle at the Order was done. Even though the request for reinforcements was sent out hours before.

“And do you blame me for still holding a grudge?” Noch asked sharply.

“Not at all really. I am still irritated by those other Council members who delayed the reinforcement process back then. And I still have to work with them.” She said with a shrug.

Noch gave her a sidelong look. “You can always come to work for the Order, you know? Out of all the idiots here, you are the only one I’d make this offer to.”

Ferina smiled wryly. “Not that I’m not flattered by your offer, but there are quite a few idiots around here that still can’t get by without me. Every time I reincarnate, I find a pile of chaos that built up during the small period I was gone, while the assistants I hired to keep everything in order all quit during that period as well.”

“If things are that bad here then why haven’t they just made you the Council Head then? If the place can’t function without a single missing councilor, then a place like this doesn’t even deserve to exist in the first place.” Thyrion’s point was a good one. Even I couldn’t wrap my head around something like what Ferina described. No organization as big as this could be that poorly run… right?

Ferina grimaced. “It’s more like my division of the Council can’t seem to function without me.”

“Are your responsibilities that hard or do you just have too many?” I asked curiously. That was the only reason I could think of that would chase employees or assistants away from running things in the boss’s absence. Either the responsibility is too much, the work is too much, or the work is just too complicated.

Ferina thought for a moment. “Well, I guess it can be quite daunting for others if they aren’t used to high stress and thinking fast, since I mostly handle issues that come in from other covens and solo witches. Plus the fact that most of my procedures require approval from the other Councilors probably doesn’t help much…”

All of us groaned at that. “I think that’s your main problem right there. It clearly isn’t because of the job itself.” Thyrion pointed out.

“Are those other geezers still giving you a hard time despite everything?” Noch sneered. Clearly his dislike for the Council has gone beyond just Jernok since the attack.

Ferina gave a sheepish smile which was enough of an answer for us without her having to say anything.

“Why do you bother to stay with the Council then? I would have quit ages ago.” I muttered unhappily. Ferina and Jernok were literally the only two people in the Council that I actually liked, despite Noch having hated Jernok’s guts for a long time, he wasn’t as bad a person as he made him out to be.

Ferina shrugged. “I guess I’ve just gotten used to it. And if I were to fully quit, I don’t know how the issues that are being brought up by the covens and other witches would be dealt with. Right now, I’m basically the only one handling these. All the other Councilors seem to have gotten too comfortable in their roles. I don’t see them actually investigating and resolving the issues of the people they’re supposed to be responsible for.”

That was a very honest look into the Council’s structure if I had to say so myself. “I assume you probably can’t even kick the lazy Councilors out at this point even if you wanted to?” I asked.

Again Ferina gave a sheepish smile. “It’s no secret that some of the Councilors, if not most of them, have become tainted with corruption from both outside and inside influences.”

“In other words, everyone is scratching everyone’s backs aside from the honest people’s.” Thyrion groaned. It sounded like he was seeing a new side of the Council he hadn’t known of before.

“What is the state of your fighting division? Do you guys even still have one?” Noch asked seriously.

“We do, although they’re mostly full of newblood witches that are barely over 300 years old. Most of the older veterans moved on from fighting to go and explore all the other new avenues that this modern world had brought around. Especially since things have gotten so peaceful lately.”

I frowned at that. It still bothered me that the Hunters had been pretty quiet since the start of the modern era. Thinking that their numbers had decreased or that they had simply given up on hunting Witches on a large scale was dangerous. It was that kind of complacency that normally landed you in hot water later down the line.

Noch rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. “I suppose it would be interesting to go see who is left in that division after we are done with our main business here.”

I turned to look at Noch suspiciously. Since when did he feel like volunteering to see a section within the Council of all places? Granted, we would probably need their manpower once things heat up against Dermon or Orbus. Who knew what was going on in the background where they were concerned, not to mention if it’s Dermon we’d be up against, there would most certainly be demons involved in that fight. And who knew what else he might have managed to add to his forces since last time.

“Well, I would have nothing against that. In fact I would love it if you could give them all some pointers in fighting. The Council’s training environment can never match up to the Order’s after all.” Ferina said with a shrug.

“I have noticed that the newer generations have gotten soft and complacent.” Thyrion commented.

“That’s quite the understatement.” Ferina groaned. “Many newbloods that come from long established covens who’ve made a name for themselves within the coven communities think the world revolves around them. You could think of them as the silver spoon babies of the witching world.”

Ahhh… I got what Ferina was saying. It was something that followed along the quote of ‘Bad times make for strong people, strong people make for good times, good times make for weak people, weak people make for bad times’ thus the cycle through generations continue. Calling this the generation of the Defended and Offended is actually very accurate.

“So, basically we’re now sitting with the generation that believes their coven or family’s fame is the bees knees and everyone should already know how great their influence is, right?” If my tone could be any more monotone, I could be used as an automated voice answering machine.

“Basically…” She grimaced.

Noch’s eyes squinted thoughtfully. “It probably won’t be a stretch to then also assume that some of those covens are filthy rich and probably also have a hand in the corruption within the Council.”

Ferina sighed tiredly. “And sadly even though I know this, there is nothing that I can personally do about this.”

Noch looked deeply unhappy about the affairs within the Council for a guy who couldn’t care less a few hours ago. Maybe he felt somewhat offended since he was offered the position of Council Head before Jernok took it over. As if sensing my train of thought Noch turned his eyes to me to see me staring bemusedly at him.

He gave a groan and quickly gave his chin a twist to pop some of his vertebrae. “Now that we’re all caught up in everything, quickly let us into the archives so we can be done here.”

“Hmmm…” Ferina hummed with a strained smile.

Noch immediately turned his attention back to her. “Don’t tell me…”

“Just one person’s though!” She said quickly as she held up her hands in defense.

Noch sighed. “Alright. Whose approval do we still need to get besides yours?”

Ferina looked like she was being caught between a rock and a hard place. And I could only imagine where her mind was taking her stress levels. “How do you feel about seeing Jernok?”

I had never seen Noch’s eye twitch so much in all the years I’d known him. It made me start to wonder if the Council building had a structure that was sturdy enough to withstand a compulsive blast of irritation from someone like him.