"Come on in, most people are already here, just waiting for you, the protagonist." The Ashwinder once again poked half its body out of the portal, waving at Thunderbird, urging him to quickly enter.
"If you don't come out of the door, I won't be foolish enough to just walk in." Thunderbird stood in front of the door, still unmoved. He knew what the Ashwinder was up to—wasn't it trying to trick him into walking through the door on his own? If he really did that, the Ashwinder would surely not waste this opportunity to throw him into the middle of a remote desert. After he returned, it would mock him mercilessly. That guy wouldn't care if it delayed the normal progress of the Longspear Meeting.
"Tch, am I really that bad in your eyes?" The Ashwinder pouted, a bit bored, seeing that Thunderbird was truly determined not to fall for it. However, he didn't waste any more time and honestly stepped completely out of the door.
Thunderbird stepped forward, grabbing the other's shoulder, and coldly mocked, "A dog can't change its habit of eating garbage, and I think you're the same."
"Hiss… go easy on me!" The Ashwinder complained unhappily, then reluctantly led the other into the headquarters.
At this time, the main hall of the headquarters, which was a large indoor dueling arena, was still empty. Presumably, everyone else was already in the reception room.
"Are all the Spears here this time?" Thunderbird took the lead upon entering the headquarters, walking briskly inward, then not forgetting to ask the Ashwinder.
*I'm not your secretary,* thought the Ashwinder, seeing Thunderbird acting as if he owned the place. Anyone who didn't know would think he was the boss here and he was his assistant. Although a bit annoyed, the Ashwinder knew Thunderbird had this bad temper, so he didn't bother to argue, just smiled casually. "Everyone who should be here is here. Those who don't show up still haven't. You know their situations better than I do."
Thunderbird also understood the meaning in the Ashwinder's words. "That Sphinx guy still hasn't attended? How long has it been since he reported back to headquarters? If you ask me, his Spear status should be revoked."
"Heh heh, he's our main source of funds here; the leader won't agree. But besides Sphinx, Black Dragon hasn't arrived either, and he instructed that you represent his opinion." The Ashwinder shrugged helplessly.
Thunderbird nodded understandingly upon hearing this. Black Dragon had always been in charge of North American affairs with him; they were of the same mind and both represented the radical faction of the club. However, a group of Silver Spears led by Phoenix and Golden Knight were conservatives. They had long forgotten their ideals as former Acolytes, focusing solely on how to maintain immortality. Their goals were to divide Germany and establish breeding parks.
The Merlin Order was still afraid that these former Acolytes wanted to reignite a revolutionary wave, but what they didn't know was that these conservative Silver Spears wanted to divide Germany simply to establish a base, and then use this territory to breed magical creatures for self-sufficiency, dreaming of sustainable development and eternal life. In the past, Thunderbird and Black Dragon were intent on restoring the glory of the Acolytes and breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Unfortunately, they couldn't fully control the direction of the club; the ideas of Golden Knight and Phoenix, among others, clearly aligned better with the interests of the Rune Serpent.
Of course, they were very supportive of establishing sufficient breeding parks for self-sufficiency and expanding more magical creature smuggling routes, as this was intimately related to their lives. Otherwise, Thunderbird wouldn't have become the person in charge of the Britain transfer station. Therefore, although there were ideological conflicts among these four elders, their basic positions were relatively unified.
After roughly organizing this information in his mind, Alan fully immersed himself in the role of Thunderbird and stepped into the headquarters' reception room.
The furnishings in the reception room had been slightly altered; several sofa chairs were arranged in a circle in the center, and many people were already seated on them. Seeing Thunderbird enter, the Silver Spears present all turned their heads to glance at him. Some merely gave him a quick look and then resumed their posture, while others nodded slightly to him, indicating a greeting.
The topmost seat in the very center was empty; that represented the Rune Serpent. Although this leader rarely appeared, a seat was always reserved for him out of respect during every meeting. Directly opposite the top seat, the two positions on the right were currently empty; these were Thunderbird's and Black Dragon's seats. The other two positions on the left were already occupied by Golden Knight and Phoenix.
Following Phoenix's seat, moving left, sat Acromantula, who was in charge of the Italy branch. This witch had a good relationship with Phoenix, both belonging to the conservative faction of the club, and was also considered an old member of the former Acolytes. Moreover, she, like Sphinx, Horned Serpent, Fwooper, and several other Silver Spears, was a former student of Thunderbird.
Next to her was Horned Serpent, who was responsible for the Eastern Europe branches like Poland and the Czech Republic. He and Sphinx were also members of the conservative faction, though Alan learned from Sphinx that this person also harbored rebellious thoughts, but simply never showed them. The seat next to him belonged to Sphinx, who was in charge of Egypt, but like Black Dragon's, his seat was currently empty.
There were also Manticore, in charge of the Spain and Portugal branches, Dakuwaka, in charge of the Turkey branch, and Venomous Horned Beast, in charge of the Greece branch. These Spears were all promoted gradually after the club was established. They had some connection to the former Acolytes, but the association was not significant.
The last one was Fwooper, who was currently in charge of Nordic affairs. Although she was promoted late, she was also considered an old member of the club. She hadn't been promoted to Spear before mainly because Thunderbird liked to keep her by his side and order her around. Later, after Thunderbird went to America, she became a Spear by virtue of her credit for cultivating Aseria as a spy for the club. She was also a supporter of Thunderbird and a member of the club's radical faction. She was the first to actively nod to him after seeing Thunderbird enter the room.
After surveying everyone, Thunderbird strode to the first sofa chair on the right of the head seat and slowly sat down. He didn't say a single word to any of the people in front of him from beginning to end. Among the Silver Spears, the relationships between the Spears were very complex. Although they all belonged to the same organization, they were constantly wary of each other, even those with relatively good relationships.
The Ashwinder, who had led Thunderbird in, did not participate. To put it plainly, he was a doorman. Although his status was not low, he did not have the qualification to participate in the club's decisions. However, because of his special identity, he knew quite a lot of things.
"Since everyone is here, let the Longspear Meeting officially begin," Golden Knight said slowly after watching Thunderbird take his seat. When the Rune Serpent was not present, he always presided over the meeting.
As soon as Golden Knight finished speaking, Phoenix, next to him, opened her mouth and said, "We're all familiar with each other, so it's best to make this quick. I'm sure everyone has their own matters to attend to." With that, she looked at Thunderbird opposite her. "Thunderbird, I heard you messed up the Britain mission. That's not like you. Come on, explain yourself."
"Hmph…" Thunderbird first snorted coldly. "The failure in Britain, rather than being messed up by me, was due to your misjudgment of Britain."
"What do you mean? The decision to establish a transfer station in Britain was made at the last Longspear Meeting, and you agreed to it then. How can you turn around and blame us now?" Phoenix was aggressive toward Thunderbird from the beginning of the meeting, but this was understandable. Her subordinate, Bird Snake, had died in Britain, and her valuable Inferi bag was also lost, so it could be said that Thunderbird had caused her heavy losses.
Just after Phoenix reprimanded Thunderbird, Golden Knight spoke up to mediate, "I think Thunderbird doesn't mean to blame everyone. Since he actively requested this Longspear Meeting, he will explain the whole story to us, won't he?" With that, Golden Knight also turned his gaze to the opposite side. He didn't have as much hostility toward Thunderbird as Phoenix did, but he was also very curious about what exactly happened in Britain that forced this great general to admit defeat.
"The club indeed misjudged the situation in Britain; that's an undeniable fact." Facing Phoenix's accusations, Thunderbird showed no sign of backing down. "In Britain, there were two forces we miscalculated from the very beginning."
"Oh? Can you elaborate?" Golden Knight pressed down on Phoenix's hand, who was about to flare up again, then asked Thunderbird, "Did Dumbledore make a move? But according to our previous estimates, he shouldn't actively participate in Ministry of Magic affairs."
"It was indeed not Dumbledore; I never saw him during my time in Britain." Thunderbird shook his head at everyone. "The greatest interference to the establishment of the transfer station came from the British Ministry of Magic, which was consistent with our previous predictions, but the detailed differences were very significant."
"Are you saying that the British Ministry of Magic places more importance on smuggling than imagined?" Fwooper, next to Thunderbird, chimed in and asked.
Hearing this question, everyone around them looked at Thunderbird in unison. Although their smuggling business was not well-regarded in many countries, it was generally not treated as a top priority by the Ministry of Magic, as it was just smuggling after all. This was especially true in Britain; they were merely passing through and didn't directly exploit local magical creature resources, so theoretically, they shouldn't have been taken very seriously.
"Correct." Thunderbird glanced at her, then nodded gravely. "Minister Bagnold's vigilance against smuggling is extremely high; he has dedicated almost half of the Auror Command's forces to it."