A couple of hours later...

"As Nathan has come back to his senses, I think we should reinstate him as the head of the family." 

"I agree, but what about Allen? He was made the new leader. Only the formalities were left to complete. One can say he's already been made the leader."

The Blacks were busy debating what they had to do next. As of now they essentially had two candidates for being the leader. Nathaniel was absent from the meeting as he believed he had retired for a reason and didn't want to indulge himself in family politics anymore. Thus, the decision making was left to the others. Johnny and Nicole were also a part of the meeting.

"But Deathless himself recommended Allen. I don't think we should disregard his views-" Nina's father, Sheldon put his views forward.

"Deathless is not a part of this family anymore. Nor is he a part of the syndicate. So why should we worry about what he said or did?" A man whom Nicole had never seen before kept berating Arnold again and again.

He was Hickel Black, second cousin of Nathaniel and one of Nathan's biggest supporters. Standing 5' 2" tall, this olive-skinned man has a very passive-aggressive feel about him, which was evident from the way he had been behaving. Still, he didn't have much standing in the family and he was only allowed into the meeting because he was a relative of Nathaniel. He had a lean face with a cleft chin, a small nose, small ears, smooth cheeks and small lips. His light brown eyes were a bit large and had thin brown eyebrows hovering over his eyes.

"Nicole. Keep your calm." Arnold's voice echoed in her ear.

"That's pretty tough to do brother..." Nicole whispered back.

Arnold wasn't present in the room. In fact, he had left the mansion the moment Nathan came back to his usual self. Arnold didn't want to overstay his welcome and hence left with Nina as she too wasn't in the mood to stay there any longer.

A few people took this as a chance to undermine the last of Arnold's influence in the family in one sweep. Little did they knew Arnold had planned it all beforehand. He was someone who didn't require to be physically present there to sway the crowd in his favour or in this case Allen's favour.

He might've left the family, but Arnold knew how resourceful the family was. Hence, he'd be a fool to completely sever all ties with them. However, he could no longer trust the family as he used to and hence he wanted a trustworthy man to lead the family. A man whom he could influence from outside. He didn't want to do this but it was necessary for the sake of his future child along with Nina and Nicole.

Nathan, even with no fault of his, had lost pretty much all the trust Arnold had for him. If he got influenced once, he could also get influenced once again. And Arnold didn't want to take the risk. That's why he slipped a mini transmitter into Nicole's hand and informed her about his plan. She was the family's biggest trump card after Arnold left them. So it was obvious that no one would stop Nicole from attending such an important meeting if she wanted to attend it.

Now all she had to do was to sit there and enjoy her coffee, while Arnold planned his cards to play.

"Why are you souring your mood because of such an insignificant basta*d?" Arnold laughed on the other side, "People like him aren't worthy enough for you to waste a moment on. I doubt that idiot would even dare to open his mouth in my presence. So just chill. Wait till I tell you to take action."

"Of course..."

The debate continued for a few more minutes. It didn't look like people were going to change the leaders. Nathan had once again become a crowd favourite. Allen was on the verge of losing when Nicole spoke up for the first time since the meeting started, and when she did, all the attention immediately went to her.

"I heard everything you all have to say. But before we make a decision, I'd like to clear a few things." Nicole's voice echoed in the small meeting room, "I agree Nathan was leading the family for a long time, and he had done things only a few people could even dream of doing. But that doesn't excuse the fact that he almost destroyed the family along with the nation-"

"I disagree with you young lady." Heckel intervened before Nicole could complete giving her two cents to the family.

"He's doomed..." Johnny mumbled while shaking his head.

Nicole was essentially Arnold's female version. And just like her brother, had quite a bit of temperament. And when she lost it, she didn't think twice before attacking the one to wrong her. Everyone in the family knew better than to interrupt her while she was talking. Sadly, Heckel wasn't aware of this as he had been living in France until recently and took Nicole to be a timid Asian woman.

Everyone slowly backed up a bit as no one knew what Nicole would do next. Maybe she'd throw the table at the poor man's face. Or maybe she'd use her abilities to rip Heckle's eyes off...

Despite what the others thought, Nicole gave an innocent smile to Heckel. All because Arnold requested her to. However, Arnold couldn't stop his sister from releasing an overwhelming amount of killing intent. the following moment, heavy beads of sweat started flowing from Heckle's head. Soon enough, his tuxedo was drenched in his sweat.

"With no due respect, zip up your mouth while I'm talking. Could you do me this favour?" Nicole altered Arnold's words a bit to suit her style before replying to that idiot, "So as I was saying, we still haven't fully analysed to what extent Nathan's mind was tempered with. We know now, that he is okay, but what if he gets influenced again? This time Arnold managed to stop Nathan and the others, but as I see it, it was a complete coincidence that Arnold was here today to help us out. He wouldn't be here to help us always."

"Also, not only are you people completely disregarding the efforts he made to save Nathan and the others, but you're also failing to realise everything he has done for the family and the nation. The least we can do is to take his suggestion into consideration." With every passing moment, Nicole weaved mana into her words to help her persuade the others easily. It was also one of her skills and right now, she was using it relentlessly on the others to convince them. Arnold didn't know she was doing that, nor did he know she had a skill like that as she had only obtained it recently.

"Thus, I suggest That Allen should be appointed as the temporary leader of the family while Nathan and the others should be placed under observation. Once it's been confirmed that Nathan does not have any long-lasting effects from the foreign influence, then we can once again name him the leader. This way, both the parties can be satisfied without any friction."

Several minutes had passed after she was done speaking, yet no one dared to spoke after her. They were either overwhelmed by her words or they didn't want to go against her. But in the end, Allen was named to be the temporary leader of the Blacks.