Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce 

Leo and the others soon arrived at the garden with no one secretly following behind them. 

As if expecting their arrival already, a soldier quietly approached them and handed them another piece of paper. In the paper, the location of the meeting place was written. 

To Leo's surprised, the location of the meeting turns out to actually be the cave under the northbridge. Though it wasn't the Sky Viewing Well that Elmont had mentioned to them before, but rather it was the dead-end of that cave that separated the two places together.

Orcborg who noticed Loki's strange reaction asked, "Is there something wrong?"

"Not really," Leo shook his head in response. He continued, "The place of our meeting is the cave under the northbridge. Do you perhaps know of any roads leading towards that place that will allow us to avoid from everyone's sight?"

"Follow me," Orcborg nodded his head before quickly leading everyone deeper towards the garden. 

Although Leo was feeling confused about where exactly Orcborg was taking them, he still decided to follow after him along with the others. 

After a few minutes of walking, Orcborg suddenly stopped beside an old-looking well covered by lush vines blooming with white-colored flowers. 

"During the battle against the Naughty Elves organization in the past, King Elfin the Fourth's friend, Elvis, handed everyone a detailed layout of the entire territory of the Evergreen royal family's castle," Orcborg paused as he pulled a certain brick from the well. Following right after his action were creaking noises heard from deep inside the dark well in front of everyone. He continued, "In the map, there were a few especially hidden entrances leading towards the secret tunnels under the castle. This well in front of us is one of those hidden entrances,"

As soon as Orcborg finished his words, he didn't hesitate to jump straight inside the well, which was quickly followed after by the Blood Orc bodyguards that he had brought along. 

Shortly after, a few muffled sounds of feet landing on the solid ground were heard by Leo and the others.

"It is safe!" Orcborg informed everyone. 

"Okay, we are coming down," Leo replied right away before informing Ethan to go over first. The reason for this was so that the latter could assist the others on their landing. 

Base on the duration it took for Orcborg to finally land on the ground, the depth of the well should be around 20 to 25 meters. In such an extensive distance, there is a possibility for others to accidentally get injured upon landing on the ground. In order to prevent that, Ethan would have to go down first and cast a Magic spell to assist them. 

Quickly understanding what Leo meant with his words, Ethan swiftly jumped down the well. After enough time passes, he soon informed the others, "Everyone can safely jump down now,"

One by one, Leo and the others quickly jumped down the well. As soon as they landed, Orcborg immediately leads the way through the secret tunnel in front of everyone.

.....

Following the lead of Orcborg's group, Leo and the others soon arrived in front of a rusty metallic gate. Opening the gate, they immediately found themselves at one of the pillars under the northbridge. 

Their location was now outside the Evergreen royal family's castle, though they were still a bit farther away from the entrance of the cave. 

To get to the cave, which was just located in the middle of the northbridge and the north gate, they would have to cross the lake surrounding them, specifically 50 meters of distance away from their location.

Fortunately, with the assistance of Ethan and the other powerful Mages in their group, it was simply very easy for them to reach the cave. 

"Levitation!"

Everyone immediately flew up a few inches above the water of the lake as they then used the bridge as a cover to reached their destination. 

As soon as they arrived at the end of the northbridge, they immediately spotted a few guards around the entrance of the cave. There was no light around the place, so they needed to be careful or else they might accidentally fall into the lake around them.

The guards assigned to protect the entrance of the cave were already familiar with everyone invited to attend this secret meeting, so as soon as they spotted Leo and his group, they simply let them walked inside. 

However, before continuing to walk inside the cave, Orcborg handed everyone a black mantle to cover their faces. This was to prevent the others inside from recognizing their real identity. 

Leo and the others also did the same as they have already been informed by Uncle Elfin before that they need to hide their real identities and not to allow the others from finding out. 

Although the people that they would be meeting inside are their allies, they still need to protect their real identities in case some of them suddenly betray the alliance. Once that happened, it would be extremely easy for the Naughty Elves organization to locate all of them one by one. Aside from that, their mission during the Emerald Elven Battle Competition also requires their real identity to be kept as a secret. 

It didn't take that long for all of them to finish covering themselves with their black mantle. Afterwards, they finally continued walking inside the cave.

Contrary to the outside of the cave, the inside was fairly lit up by dozens of torches, allowing everyone to see clearly the inside of the place. The position of the torches also formed an obvious pathway leading towards the meeting area. They followed the guide of the torches and soon arrived at the dead-end of the cave. 

At this place, they found a wooden table at the very center with dozens of wooden chairs around it. Some of the chairs were already occupied by someone sitting on it, while the other chairs were still empty, implying that not everyone has arrived yet.

After observing everyone, Orcborg immediately chooses a chair to sit on and rested himself while waiting for the others to arrived. His Blood Orc bodyguards followed after him and soon positioned themselves behind his chair, staying vigilant for any dangerous sudden turn of events. 

Seeing Orcborg's action, Leo quickly followed after and sat on the chair beside the former. Since it seems like only a single person from each member of the alliance could sit on the chairs, Cassandra and the others could only choose to stand behind him just like Orcborg's Blood Orc bodyguards. 

After Leo and Orcborg sat on their chairs, the cave returned to being silent once again. No one bothered to talk with one another as if there was some kind of unwritten rule forbidding them from doing so. Still, this doesn't prevent the others from observing the people around them, probably hoping to find some sort of clue that will lead them to finding out their real identities.

As time continues to pass, more and more people arrived in the cave. The awkward silence a while ago also disappeared with the appearance of the others as some of them started conversing with one another. It isn't really that difficult to guess that those people likely already know each other. 

Their topic of the conversation was mainly about what they would be discussing today, specifically countermeasures against the Naughty Elves organization during the Emerald Elven Battle Competition. 

However, this topic suddenly took a huge turn as they began talking about the two new members of the alliance.

"I heard that there are now two new members of our alliance. Is this information real?"

"Yes, I have already confirmed this information from King Elfin the Fourth a while ago. And apparently, those two new members are extremely powerful forces. One was rumored to be comparable in strength with the Evergreen royal family, or maybe even more, while the other one is still kept under strict confidentiality," 

"Seriously?!"

"I'm not one hundred percent sure yet, but I know one thing is for certain; our fight against the Naughty Elves organization during the Emerald Elven Battle Competition wouldn't be as difficult as before anymore,"

"This is a really great news!"

The conversation continued to go deeper and deeper. And eventually, the name of the Mischievous Lion Guild was mentioned, saying that they might be one of the two new members of their alliance. 

This assumption was presented after they considered what took place during the last time in the Evergreen royal family's castle where all the secret members of the Naughty Elves organization were purged. At that time, it was said that the Mischievous Lion Guild had contributed greatly to the operation. Also, King Elfin the Fourth had personally congratulated them and handed them a reward. His Majesty even seemed to view them favorably. 

At the side, despite being the topic of their conversation, Leo still remained silent and just continued listening. 

Continuously paying attention to their conversation, Leo soon realized that the Mischievous Lion Guild's participation in the alliance wasn't actually made public to all the members of the alliance yet. Even majority of those few representatives that had attended the awarding ceremony the last time most likely didn't know a single thing about such information, or even if some of them do, they should have been ordered to keep their mouths tight and not speak a single word to the other members who still don't know a thing.

This was really surprising for him because he really thought at first that a considerable amount of the members of the alliance already knew about this information. No wonder the Naughty Elves organization simply suspected them. It was actually because even the majority of the members of the alliance don't know yet that they are one of them now.

Leo could only turn to look at Orcborg to ask for a confirmation, to which the latter nodded his head in response.