In an office that belonged to a professor who was now dead, Jacob of the Wright family sat by an empty desk and reviewed his knowledge of the current situation. Soon after returning to Cyrus with the other elders, Anders more or less took away his authority as family head and gave it to Head Elder James. He still held the title, but everyone knew that he had no decision-making power. Due to Shui's command, Jacob had considered killing Anders, so at first he wondered if his father had detected his malicious intentions, but by now he had realised that that wasn't the case.
After taking control of the Wright family, Head Elder James didn't make any obvious moves, but he quietly helped several people from Silver City sneak inside Cyrus. Usually, Jacob would have ignored this, but as a result of Shui's secret order planted in his soul, he felt compelled to take action. Jacob knew this urge had something to do with Shui, but even after consulting several alchemists and other specialists, he still didn't know what Shui had done to him. Fortunately, the urge wasn't overbearing, so he was able to resolve it by leaking information to the mayor. It would have been good if that had been the end of it, but the invaders acted faster than the mayor.
The mayor had briefly gained an advantage by going on the offensive, but now that one of the Blaze Union leaders was facing him, the situation would return to before with the Blaze Union having the upper hand. However, this wasn't the main problem, at least not to him.
Jacob still didn't know what the exact conditions for the compulsion were, but danger to Cyrus triggered it once more, and it continued to grow stronger. With the elders in control, there was little he could do to affect the big picture, so he tried to ignore the urge, but it ate away at him like ants crawling all over his body. Only a few hours had passed since the invasion began, yet he was already teetering on the edge of insanity. He thought about launching a suicide attack against the elders more than a few times, but there was still a bit of clarity left to pull him back. Nonetheless, if nothing changed, that clarity would eventually collapse.
Suddenly, Jacob heard the sound of the door opening.
"Who's there?!"
Even the elders would at least announce their presence before opening the door, but Jacob couldn't sense anyone. Jacob tried to get up, but then he felt a hand force him down.
'Is this an assassin? But why haven't they killed me yet?'
"You're Jacob of the Wright family, correct?"
"...That's right."
The voice was indistinct, as if it were being mimicked by the wind, so he couldn't deduce anything from it. Fortunately, this person had no intention of harming him.
"The mayor sent me to regain control over the academy. He said you would be of great assistance."
As she stated her objective, Kate carefully checked Jacob's reaction. While Mayor Henry told her that Jacob was his mole inside the traitorous Wright family, he admitted that he wasn't sure where his true loyalties lied.
Though a detection array covered the martial academy, Mayor Henry was certain that the traitors wouldn't have control over it yet, so Kate only needed to avoid them to make it this far. She could already sense the strength of the enemy within the martial academy, but there were also many potential hostages, so she couldn't just pick the easiest option of defeating them head-on. Therefore, she came to Jacob both to find another solution and to test whether he was an ally or an enemy.
Jacob could only faintly sense that there was someone behind him, and he didn't know anything about them, but if they were sent by the mayor and could make it here without raising any alarm, then he believed that they had to be at least somewhat skilled. It was still risky since this person might be a trap set by his family, but the chances of success were high enough that he could no longer resist the compulsion.
"Of course. Although the elders have taken away my authority, I'm still aware of almost everything involving our family. I'm certain that this information will be of use to you."
"Good. I've noticed that most of your strongest members are in the same room. Are they always together like that?"
"You must mean my family's elders and the head of the Valet family. Yes, unfortunately, they have stayed together for most of the battle. But if you'd like, I'm certain I can get at least one of them to leave the group."
"No. In fact, it would be better if everyone in the Earth Realm was in one place."
Kate didn't state her concern for the potential hostages, so Jacob assumed she had some powerful but limited means of handling that many cultivators.
"If it's just for a short time, I think I can get most of them together. No, I'm sure of it."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"In that case, I look forward to your success."
Just as abruptly as they arrived, the weight on Jacob's shoulder was gone. He looked around to catch any sign of their presence, but there was nothing. Nonetheless, he acted with the assumption that they were still in the room and didn't say anything untoward.
The role he had taken on wouldn't be very difficult, and even in the case of failure, he would at most be confined. That would change if he was found to share a connection with the mayor, but he no longer let such thoughts stop him.
Jacob left the room and went down the corridor until he found a young man patrolling the area.
"You, who do you report to?"
Since this group of invaders was a mishmash of different influences, not everyone was familiar with each other, but they all wore the symbols of their original forces so Jacob could tell that this young man had once been a member of the Lava Stream Sect. Similarly, the young man recognised that Jacob was part of the Wright family. As a former inner sect disciple of a major-level force, the young man looked down on the Wright family, but Jacob's cultivation was higher, and his elders had warned against causing needless friction.
"I report to Elder Tirno."
"Good. Inform him that the other representatives have called for an urgent meeting to address information regarding the mayor's secrets. You can tell him that the invitation was delivered by the current head of the Wright family."
"The current head of the Wright family?"
The young man had heard that the Wright family was the most influential among the traitors, but he found it tough to believe that their current head would be acting as a messenger.
"These are orders from my elders. You would be wise to pass along the message before you have to take responsibility for failing to inform your superior."
"...Very well."
The young man was still suspicious, but he didn't see any harm in passing the message along. After talking to the young man, Jacob spread the message to other low-rank members from the other groups of traitors. Sometimes the invitation was from his elders; other times it was from the Blaze Union, but in either case his name gave the message weight. Since the messages were sent in his name, even if the other groups were suspicious, they would still have to give the Wright family some face. This wouldn't have worked if they were one unified force with no reservations about contacting each other directly, but it was only fitting that a group of traitors was susceptible to being brought down by a traitor.