According to Dean Godsthorn, the rumors were still only spreading around the higher-ups of prestigious families like his. There weren’t many that knew about it but Damon would soon find out that it wasn’t so.
The rumor was spreading wildly and neither of them had any idea how far it had gone.
Back at the family estate, there was a meeting ongoing. The full family was in attendance this time. Including the other two siblings of Lord Ashbourne who hadn’t been around for a while.
They were all seated in a room. The five Terrace siblings comprised Ashbourne the eldest, Osbourne his twin, Duke and Nesmond, the third and fourth siblings and then Lady Reyla, the last of the siblings.
The two siblings, Duke and Nesmond bore similar looks with each other. They also had silver hair and blue eyes like the rest of their siblings but the difference between the two was that one, Duke had his hair cut very short and styled manly while the other, Nesmond let his hair flow back, stopping just above his shoulders. the
Lady Danyel was also in the room along with Seth, her third son and child. Damien and Damon were the only ones not present in the family. As for Lady Danyel’s other children, they weren’t needed as they were still too young to attend family meetings.
A few other important individuals like the head guard were also present which marked a full room.
The room felt full of tension with the presence of so many powerful individuals and the one who undoubtedly felt the most pressure was Seth. Even though they had all reined in their energies, Seth didn’t feel the slightest bit comfortable in the room.
The pressure and atmosphere in the room were a result of the topic of discussion as well as the person who had called for the meeting.
“There’s a certain rumor flying around the Great Families.” The speaker wasn’t Ashbourne. Neither was it Osbourne.
It was Duke. The third sibling of the Terrace family. “I have just returned from the city of Ahtris and among their higher-ups, there have been rumors about our family.”
Immediately they heard those words, they all frowned. The fact that Duke had said rumors rather than news could only mean that it wasn’t good.
“What exactly is this… rumor?” Lord Ashbourne asked with raised brows.
“We all know that Damok arrived safely at the academy two months ago,” Duke said and turned to Reyla. “She confirmed that.”
Everyone in the room nodded. Reyla did the same. It was common knowledge in the family.
“After finding out about Damon’s talent, they started asking questions like why Damon’s twin hasn’t been enrolled as well. Or why he’d never shown his face even till this moment.” Duke continued, his eyes meeting Ashbourne’s for a split second.
They all remained silent for a few seconds as they tried to come up with answers to that question.
“It’s simply because his twin has been exiled by the family Lord. He’s been exiled to the Forest of Twin Disasters.” Osbourne answered when he saw everyone too afraid to answer.
The news about Damien’s exile wasn’t a new thing. Lady Danyel had even gone ahead to challenge her husband for sending away their fifteen-year-old son but her challenge had done nothing to change the situation.
This was because, by the time she found out, Damien had been declared dead. Osborne had been the one to tell her just before he went on to make a funeral for the initial Terrace heir.
“But others do not know about that so they came up with a theory.” At this point, Duke stopped speaking and turned to Nesmond, the fourth member of their family.
Duke and Nesmond journeyed together most times and so, it was both of them that found out about this rumor.
“As we all know, it had been over three years since the awakening of an S-Rank talent in our kingdom. This led them to conclude something abominable.” Nesmond’s way of speaking was largely different from Duke but they understood him anyway.
“And what is this conclusion they arrived at?” Lady Danyel asked, already feeling like she wouldn’t like the answer that came afterward.
Nesmond looked at Duke and after a nod of confirmation, he turned back to the rest of the family. “They concluded that Damien was killed and somehow, his talent was given to Damon.”
He hadn’t even finished speaking when multiple terrifying pressures descended on the room.
Boom!
Crack!!
The glasses and windows shattered and the pressure only continued to get worse by the second. Lord Ashbourne, Lady Danyel, and Lady Reyla had all exploded in fury simultaneously.
“They dared to accuse us of murder and even go as far as claiming we transferred one of the twin’s talent onto the other? Abomination!” Lady Reyla was the first to speak, her tone full of untamed fury.
Amidst this revelation, there was a certain family member who wasn’t as surprised. “They aren’t wrong about the murder though. Sending him toward certain death isn’t far off from murder and we did just that. I did that.” Osbourne’s voice cut through the tension and fury in the room.
Without waiting for a response from any of the individuals in the room, Osbourne stood up. With guilt still eating at him, he added. “I would like to be alone for a brief moment. I shall return soon enough.” Then he walked out of the room.
After his departure, the room remained silent as his words clawed at them. Especially Lord Ashbourne and Lady Danyel, the parents of the deceased twin. Lord Ashbourne had ordered his death and Lady Danyel believed she’d failed by noticing too late.
“How then do we solve this problem? It’s not like we can bring Damien back to prove to them that he isn’t dead and that we didn’t give his talent to his brother.” Lady Reyla asked, suppressing her magic energy once again.
“We simply tell them what happened.” Lord Ashbourne answered with a blank expression.
Just then, Osbourne walked back into the room. There was a letter in his raised hand as he entered the room. “We’ve received a letter of summon from the king.” His tone was extremely serious.