Once they got there, L soon realized how scarily quiet the meeting hall was when Amber basically kicked the doors opened to "emphasize a grand re-entrance" as she puts it with a mischievous grin. Now people in the meeting hall were just staring- well more like glaring at anyone who wasn't part of the Esem kingdom.

"Jessica, who are these... intruders?" a boy with orange hair who was wearing a similar outfit to Krystal's asked carefully.

"They are my most trusted group for missions around the region. I've decided to bring a newcomer since he will be my army's tactician starting today," Jessica spoke calmly but firmly. The people stare at them for a moment before returning their gazes to each other.

A boy with brown hair spoke up with a rather feminine boy standing beside his seat with a steel lance and in a similar outfit to Sungjong's, "That will be fine, however we don't have anymore chairs, so they will be forced to stand..."

L noticed how the two of them stared at the people behind him, who were L.Joe, Kei, and Sungjong whispering certain things to each other.

"So... I hope you will be fine with that?" maybe L was simply over-analyzing the situation with the new-found pressure he was under as tactician, but he swore that the feminine boy paid attention to only who was behind him as though no one else was in the meeting hall.

"Yeah yeah, that'll be fine Onew we're not fragi- OW!" Amber suddenly yelped after Taeyeon stepped on her foot.

"Amber, this is a formal meeting," Taeyeon huffed, making Amber pout like a child as she looks away from the maid.

Onew simply smiles calmly, "That's fine, Taeyeon-noona. I know that Amber isn't the best at being formal. Anyways, please retake your seat Jessica-noona."

They quietly follow Jessica to the end of the room before standing beside her seat that was in front of an approximately 240 centimeters window. L quietly took a note to himself to be wary about Onew and the feminine boy as he leans over to whisper something into Onew's ear.

"Anyways, the topic we left off of was a possible rebellion to the treaty between our kingdom's? Isn't that right, Kris-ssi?" Jessica spoke up.

"Yes." The orange-haired, obviously Kris, spoke up, "Lately, we've recieved  news about an overthrowing that may include a hidden group within the town Shinee."

"Really?" Onew's eyes widen in shock, "I've heard nothing about a hidden group within my hometown until now."

"Well they're called a hidden group for a reason," Sungjong spoke up casually and ended up getting smacked on the head by Taeyeon. Rather than showing offense, Onew blushes in embarrassment as the feminine boy besides him holds back from laughing.

"It's okay, Onew-oppa. It's probably really hard reinforcing rules in Shinee with such a big population to control," a girl with the tips of her brown hair dyed hot pink patted the embarrassed boy on the back.

"Irene's right. It can't be helped with seeing how big the population is. For now, you should send the rest of your group on patrol, and I don't think that that would be a problem because all of your guys are basically a flier or on a horse," Kris said.

"If I may speak up again," Sungjong clears his throat and says the words mockingly, making Taeyeon glare at the boy, "Part of their plan is to assassinate Jessica-noona to get their plan started, so any suggestions?"

Kris thinks for a moment before speaking, "The best we can do is make sure to keep her retainers around her... and that reminds me, what happened to Tiffany-noona? Shouldn't she be with you everyday like Taeyeon-noona?"

"Tiffany's on a mission right now with her group back in our home town. She's currently suppressing a rebellion," Jessica said calmly.

"Really? You too? There's a rebellion back in Red Velvet too... I'm kind of worried about how my group is dealing with it..." Irene murmurs.

"That makes five rebellions then if you think about it. Suju is dealing with a rebellion so big that Leeteuk-hyung decided to skip today's meeting, I mentioned this earlier in the meeting that the rest of my group is dealing with a strike back in Shinee, and if I'm right Efex is dealing with one too," Onew speaks up.

"That's why Victoria-unnie isn't here, huh?" Amber speaks up in realization.

"No, six rebellions. Exo's citizens started colliding with Bangtan's citizens in hand-to-hand combat so there's been a lot of rebellions lately..." Kris sighs in frustration, "That's why I'm the only one here instead of both Suho and I."

L scrunches up his eyebrows in confusion, "Are rebellions normal here? This is a bit weird if you consider the timing of these rebellions. All of these rebellions are at the same time the leaders of the army groups are all at a meeting, so this is suspicious."

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence as realization dawned on all of them before they saw something flash past the window.

"Wait, Eun?! What are you doing?!" Sungjong automatically recognized the shadow before running out of the meeting hall in a panic.

"I'll go after Sungjong!" the feminine boy by Onew suddenly yelled before running after the pegasus knight.

"Hold on Tae-"

And the door slammed shut.

"-min..." Onew sighed before slumping into his seat.

"Well on the good side it wasn't a shadow of an enemy...?" Amber slowly shrugs with an awkward smile.

Thennnn the window behind Jessica crashes open with a variety of figures all wearing a mask of some sort.

Next thing they knew everyone grabbed their weapons hidden underneath the table and charging at the enemies.

"You just had to go and jinx it, didn't you?" L sighed, side-eyeing Amber as Taeyeon stabs a guy in the stomach approaching beind Amber with her iron dagger before kicking the guy back out of the broken window.

"Hey, it could have been worse," Amber protested.

"HELP ME YOU FRICKING IDIOTS!"

The two turned to see in the very back of the masked group that what was probably the boss had Sungjong thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"... Crap." the two deadpanned.

They were honestly lucky that L.Joe had a quick reaction time and was just quick in general as he grabbed Kei's wrist before running to the other side of the room behind a conveniently placed closet.

L.Joe looks over and curses under his breath when he sees Kei's arm bleeding, "Are you okay? Does it hurt?"

Kei shakes her head 'no', before wincing when L.Joe lightly touches it. The myrmidon sighs, "Please don't lie Kei. It's worrisome whenever you're hurt since you have so little HP and terrible defense."

"I-I know!... Kinda..." Kei protests weakly.

She squeaks in surprise when a thump is heard from the other side of the closet that she was behind. L.Joe quickly runs around, stabs whoever it was that did that in the stomach before running back. He sighs, "It can't be helped with, you are really fragile because you're basically a living doll."

"B-But you're short, fragile, a-and get ill easily too!" Kei protested innocently but actually basically stabbed L.Joe with metaphorical arrows that labeled each of his weaknesses which would usually make him stab whoever said that with his sword but this was innocent Kei here so he would never do that.

"Y-Yes... but I've had years of training and am really quick...!" L.Joe murmured, feeling his eyebrow twitch a bit in annoyance at remembering how others taunt him for being short.

"But y-you don't remember any of it because you tripped down a hill and lost your memories! S-So basically you only have the skills of a n-new recruit!" and there goes more metaphorical arrows into his chest.

"This girl is really stepping on dangerous grounds...!"

"What was that? o^o"

"Nothing!"

Kei pouts, "I don't understand... Jiae and I went into training at the same time but why can she attack with magic and I can only heal with magic?"

L.Joe sighs for the nth time that day, "Well to be fair, we desperately needed a healer and if Jiae was a healer then there would have been more people injured by a staff rather than healed by it."

"I... can't disagree with that..."

"Yeah no one can, especially Chunji. Don't worry yourself over battli-"

And another thump.

"HEY WE'RE TRYING TO HAVE A MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION HERE!"

"YEAH AND I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOUR LAZY FROM DYING YOU UNGRATEFUL IDIOT!"

And that was when L.Joe realized that he just informally yelled at Taeyeon and not at an enemy aiming at the closet. He blinked out of pure surprise.

"O-Oh... I'm s-sorry, Taeyeon-n-noona..."

"YOU BETTER BE!"

"Promise me that you'll never be a maid," L.Joe turned to whisper to Kei, who quickly nods.

Before he takes his leave, he turns around, "By the way, I heard from Amber that she would be teaching you some combat, so don't worry about falling behind. Next time we talk, let's just have some tea or something, okay?"

"Okay, L.Joe-oppa!" Kei smiles.

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