United States, deep in the redwood forests of northern Illinois—Kassel College.
In the depths of Valhalla lay the conference hall. At its center stood an antique mahogany table, a piece of seventeenth-century Venetian furniture carved with angels, dragons, and serpents. Portraits of Secret Party leaders throughout the ages hung on the walls. The newest depicted Menek Kassel, founder and first president of the Lionheart Society. Kassel College had been named after him.
To the left of the head of the table sat four white-haired elders. They wore black formal suits and hard top hats, with gold-chained pocket watches tucked into their waistcoats.
The Cadmus Family, Saint George Family, Sigurd Family, and Beowulf Family—the four great ancient families renowned throughout the Hybrid world. Their surnames had been passed down from the age of myth to the present day.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the Hybrid world had always been theirs to rule. But the Industrial Revolution changed the balance of the world. Steamships crossed the seven seas, and a number of rising Hybrid families rapidly gained power, seizing the Secret Party's voice.
Later, Kassel College was founded. Representatives of the new families formed the Board of Trustees, while honoring the old families' representatives as elders. The new families held real power while the old families possessed only empty titles. As a result, the old families refused to take part in managing college affairs, and most faculty and students did not even know the Elders' Council existed.
To the right of the head of the table sat Kassel College's five trustees. Besides Ange, the Board of Trustees should have had six more members, but one mysterious trustee who had never shown himself was absent as usual.
Both the elders and trustees bore the status of Secret Party elders, but the two sides had