Two days later, the Settlement arranged a general gathering inside the largest hall within the palace, where everyone had assembled, including Oliver and the others. Together, the castle housed well over a hundred individuals.
At the very front, where nearly twenty to thirty guards stood to keep the masses at bay, four wooden chairs rested as the center of attention.
Whispers spread throughout the chamber regarding who the four seats belonged to. Nobody knew for certain, nor did they understand the reason behind the sudden assembly.
Kaden cast a glance toward Teresa and Oliver with a detached expression.
"What do you think?" Teresa suddenly asked.
Oliver maintained a passive look. He did not answer immediately, most likely because his thoughts were elsewhere.
The red-haired youth released a quiet breath.
"Perhaps they want to formally introduce the true rulers of the castle and reinforce their authority."
Out of nowhere, Oliver, who had remained silent the entire time, finally emerged from his thoughts and spoke flatly:
"Why do you think that?"
Before Kaden could reply, Teresa looked at Oliver with a smile.
"Because their control is fading while a new influence is quietly growing beneath them. Over the past two days, it feels like more attention has been directed toward us."
Oliver and Kaden swept their gazes across the surroundings. They quickly noticed that several people nearby were indeed staring in their direction while exchanging intrigued murmurs.
’Oh yes,’ Oliver remarked inwardly before returning his attention to the front.
"And because of that, they want to remind everyone who still governs the Settlement. If they ignore it for too long, another force will emerge. A rebellion," Kaden added evenly.
Then Teresa suddenly let out a soft laugh. The two boys turned toward her in puzzlement.
"Sorry, sorry... umm... it just sounded ironic," she said while waving her hand apologetically.
Oliver gave an awkward grin, seemingly unimpressed.
"Don’t you two think something feels off?"
Kaden casually shrugged before replying:
"What exactly feels off? The fact that we still haven’t eaten breakfast...?"
Teresa and Oliver looked his way with disdain in their eyes.
"Not that. First, Marilyn has been nowhere to be seen since early this morning. That’s one thing. Secondly, something feels wrong... she’s been acting really suspicious lately. Remember when I asked whether she had seen her twin sister recently? Yeah. I wasn’t fully certain about anything then, I only wanted to test her reaction, but ever since that moment, she’s been acting strange," Oliver explained subtly.
The beautiful young lady smiled faintly and looked elsewhere without speaking.
Kaden remained silent for a brief moment, trying to understand Oliver’s suspicion toward Marilyn. If anything, Teresa was the one he found more suspicious than anyone else in the group. The atmosphere around her whenever Oliver was involved always felt different somehow, though that was not the subject of the current discussion.
So he pushed the thought aside.
Truthfully, Marilyn had left the basement earlier that morning, claiming she had something important to handle. Naturally, the rebellion gathering was already nearing completion and ready to be set into motion sooner than expected.
Surprisingly, they had managed to gather over twenty individuals willing to stand against the Settlement. Of course, it took immense effort to convince them and uproot the fear the guards had planted deep within their hearts and minds.
Yet after Marilyn left, she never returned, and even during this highly important assembly, she was still absent.
Something suddenly clicked in Kaden’s mind.
His brows knitted together as he stared at Oliver, who merely grinned back while lightly displaying his blade.
"...You think she’s the traitor among us?"
Oliver rubbed the back of his neck.
"Right? But at the same time, I don’t think it should be possible, because her sister is still a hostage in the castle. Though honestly, that’s also the biggest reason why it could be possible."
Kaden blinked repeatedly, visibly baffled.
"Umm... what exactly are you trying to say?"
Oliver sifted through his thoughts.
’There’s still a ten percent chance I’m wrong, because Marilyn was never portrayed as a betrayer in the original story. She was fully devoted to the rebellion, so she shouldn’t suddenly change now. But whenever I look at Teresa, I start doubting every single character. At this point, I might even suspect myself of betrayal. None of them are the same anymore.’
Suddenly, Teresa spoke with irritation written across her face.
"I don’t think we should trust her, especially since they’re also after Ol... you know, we just shouldn’t trust her."
The young man raised an eyebrow.
’What exactly are you hiding, Teresa? Damn it. I hate mysteries.’
Before he could probe further and draw an answer out of her, three figures entered the grand hall, immediately pulling everyone’s attention toward them.
Oliver recognised them instantly.
The other three Dogs.
Each of them calmly took their seats.
One of them, Vance, stood at the center. He was a mountain of a man whose bare arms were covered in pale scars, and his face resembled that of a forty year old veteran, despite there being no chance he was older than twenty one. On top of that, he was completely bald. Oliver would recognise that rotten physique anywhere.
Beside him sat Sable, who barely looked like a woman at all. She possessed the broad frame and muscle mass of a seasoned warrior, as though she had spent her entire life forging her body into a weapon capable of tearing through the blue robe wrapped around her.
Even so, her presence remained strangely muted, so subtle that one’s gaze instinctively slid away from her against their own will.
Further behind, Luc reclined lazily on his chair with his arms loosely folded and his head tilted slightly, observing the hall in complete silence.
Each of them was only one Rank beneath Glassy himself.
Teresa bit her lip before whispering quietly:
"So those are the other three Dogs. Somehow... they all feel way weaker than Glassy."
As though invoking Glassy’s name had summoned him directly, the Mad Dog appeared without warning and instantly became the center of attention among the four figures. The crowd erupted into confusion, whispers rapidly spreading as some people immediately recognized him. They had seen that same figure standing before Teresa earlier.
His sentient-like mask and ominous presence were impossible to forget.
The murmurs swelled louder and louder until the entire hall dissolved into noise.
Glassy took his seat, then slowly raised a single hand without uttering a word.
The guards immediately barked in unison:
"Silence!"
The hall obeyed almost instantly.
A moment later, two more guards entered while escorting... Marilyn?
Kaden, Teresa, and Oliver stiffened in grim disbelief. Their thoughts blanked for a brief second, as though every idea had been forcefully erased from their minds.
Then rage crashed into Kaden all at once. Pure rage. He had never once anticipated such a twist from her, who had so many things to lose.
He had been ready to argue with Oliver for even suspecting the person who had invested the most effort into the rebellion, yet now he felt like a complete fool in the face of her betrayal.
Oliver clicked his tongue quietly.
’So my instincts were right again...?’
Unlike them, Teresa remained silent while gripping the hilt of her sword tightly enough for her knuckles to pale, as though she were prepared to kill at the slightest opportunity.
At the same time, the handful of rebels hidden among the crowd visibly trembled after seeing Marilyn, the most trusted and beloved healer in the Settlement, standing at the center of everything.
Sweat drenched their bodies.
It was obvious she had betrayed them.
But why?
That question echoed through the minds of everyone involved.
Marilyn kept her head lowered, unable to meet anyone’s gaze. A solemn look lingered on her face, though her body remained completely unharmed, proving she had never been tortured or forced into anything.
Vance grinned wildly before bursting into laughter. He rose from his chair and clapped loudly, then turned toward Glassy with an even broader smile.
His booming voice spread across the hall.
"First of all, I’m sure most of you don’t even know who we are. So let’s fix that. We’re the Lords responsible for your safety and for everything you enjoy here. But that’s not why this gathering was called."
He spread his arms theatrically.
"Still, it’s nice to finally meet the residents properly. Unfortunately, we’ve discovered traitors among us. Ungrateful bastards who aren’t satisfied with what they’ve been given. They dared to plan a rebellion against the Settlement itself and seize control."
Glassy remained motionless, but his hands subtly tightened against the armrest as if restrained fury had gripped him.
Just as Oliver suspected, the Mad Dog truly knew nothing about the rebellion beforehand.
Although his expression remained hidden, there technically wasn’t even a face to read beneath the mask.
Vance glanced toward Marilyn before continuing with almost unbearable delight.
"Should we expose the traitors? Oh, they’re here with us right now."
Marilyn’s demeanor shifted completely.
The regret vanished from her eyes, replaced by a chilling emptiness, as though something inside her had changed within the span of mere hours.
"Show everyone the enemies," Vance ordered while gesturing toward the crowd.
The healer stepped away from the front alongside the two guards escorting her. Glassy tilted his head slightly, following her movements in silence while the crowd hurriedly cleared a path for her.
Soon enough, Marilyn stopped barely ten meters away from Teresa, Oliver, and Kaden.
Then she raised her arm and pointed directly at them with the coldest, most shameless expression imaginable.
"They’re the traitors," Marilyn declared flatly.
Oliver’s expression darkened slightly.
’This just became even more irritating...’