"If today's operation was really so important, why did the Rat Immortal only send one of his Avatars?" After hearing the Wanderer Wizard's words, Duke Milton sneered repeatedly, glancing at the sharp-faced Rat Wizard beside him before adding, "And it isn't even the strongest of his dozen or so Avatars."
"Because the Rat Immortal has more important things to do," the Wanderer Wizard answered simply.
"Do you think I wanted to come?" The Rat Immortal—or rather, one of the Rat Immortal's Avatars—spread his paws in complaint and curled his lips. The whiskers at the corners of his mouth cocked upward comically. "Rather than running for my life all over the Silent Forest with you lot, avoiding the school's Guardian Array, I'd rather stay in the library beneath the dungeon and dust the books."
"The Rat Immortal may have more important things to do, and the other Archwizards of the Under the Moon Council may have more important things to do as well." Duke Milton imitated the Wanderer Wizard's earlier slick emphasis. "If I remember correctly, the Dark Council was founded merely to give everyone another platform for communication and exchange... No one intended to create a second Under the Moon Council, or a second Wizard Council."
"After all, those who have chairs in the Dark Council already had chairs elsewhere."
That answer revealed many unsettling signs.
The Rat Immortal's Avatar could not help glancing at Duke Milton again. Then he turned back and cautiously looked at the Wanderer Wizard, afraid that the notoriously bad-tempered old man might raise his fist and beat the little Vampire senseless.
Perhaps because Milton had spoken the truth, or perhaps because they were currently in a perilous situation and the Wanderer Wizard did not wish to make things even more dangerous through some careless internal