"What are you going to do?" Fleck suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"I won't give the boy up, Fleck," said the King, "We will take responsibility for the deaths of those humans. We will accept defeat."

"Accept defeat?" Fleck asked angrily, "What do you mean? Pippen was a good man. He was a loving husband and a great father. He was Eliza's friend! And you're just gonna let the humans win?"

"You think I like this?" the King yelled, "This had gone on for too long. If neither of us back off, there will be war."

"There's already conflict!" Fleck yelled back, "The bomb is already ticking. This is just the fuse for it to go off!"

"No," the King shook his head, "I stand by what I said. The Royal House will take responsibility for this incident. We will compensate for the dead humans, and we will apologise if required. This tension between us has to end here."

"They'll just keep oppressing us if you do this!"

"That's it, Fleck," the King replied calmly, "What if they won't? What if they're being hostile to us because we assume the worst of them and refuse to make peace with them?"

"I don't care," Fleck said, determined, "I'm never going to say that Pippen's death was his fault. If you want me to agree with you, then I have no other choice but to tender my resignation."

King Gilthorpe looked at his old friend saddened. But he knew what he had to do. He knew the mission that he was carrying out.

"Then resign," he said.

Fleck stared at the King in disbelief. But when he saw that the King's face didn't even twitch, he just sighed and left the room in silence. He knew that there was a possibility that King Gilthorpe was right. Maybe the humans just want to make peace with them. But he couldn't live with himself if he had to pretend that Pippen was the one who broke the rules. And he wasn't going to let anybody say that he was the one who broke the rules either. Fleck headed straight to his house just a few blocks away from the castle. He opened a cabinet at the edge of his bed.

"You forced my hand, my King," he whispered to himself.

"Nothing bad is gonna happen to you," Katelyn said to Andrew, "Gil is just meeting with some human representatives. You just need to go out there, report the truth and look good."

"Alright," Andrew nodded nervously.

"And maybe don't threaten them or anything like that," Katelyn added jokingly.

"I'll try," Andrew shrugged.

After the maids had dressed him up, Andrew was escorted to the meeting room by Sir William Wilbur Willis. He had grown quite fond of Katelyn over the past few weeks, so he was more than glad to hear that he just needed to tell the truth.

Less than a minute later, they had arrived at the meeting room. Even though Andrew didn't care for the design of the meeting room when he first came there, he was able to see that there were some clear changes. For example, the rectangular table in the middle of the room was replaced by a round table. Eliza told him that was because a human king called Arthur Pendragon had deemed it necessary for all of his trusted subjects to feel like they were no more or no less than another.

Andrew couldn't recognise more than half of the representatives there. There were King Gilthorpe, a few of his advisors that Andrew recognised but didn't know their names, an old human who he recognised as a famous man who was a great military leader called Bjorn Platzman, a few other humans who he didn't recognise, including a middle-aged man who was much younger than the rest of the representatives on the table, who made Andrew feel a bit strange, not because he didn't recognise him, but because the man just seemed to not belong there. And it wasn't just Andrew who felt strange, either. King Gilthorpe didn't know who that man was either.

"Who's this?" he asked, looking at the strange man.

"Oh, how rude of me to have not introduced myself!" the man replied with a friendly yet smug smile, "My name's John Macchio. I'll be representing Unit Alpha as well as supervising the Firefly unit overlooking this meeting. I'll be maintaining neutrality throughout this meeting and my unit was instructed to take out any possible threats to anybody in this room."

"You said nothing of him," King Gilthorpe said angrily to the humans.

"Well, this isn't planned," one of them replied with a sarcastic voice, "This meeting is of great importance, and since Project Firefly is still very much in its trial stage, so we couldn't notify you. Our sincere apologies, King Gilthorpe."

"Mister Howe, I'd have to ask you to keep your professionalism," Macchio suddenly chimed in, "King Gilthorpe, I apologise for any inconvenience I may have caused you. It is my fault that I hadn't notified you beforehand. I do hope that this doesn't affect the meeting in any way."

King Gilthorpe just nodded dismissively. Andrew was able to see that the man named John Macchio, despite having a smug smile on his face at all times, seemed to want to maintain some kind of peace between the humans and the elves - to the extent that it benefited him in some way, of course.

"Macchio is right," a woman sitting next to the man called Howe said, "We should discuss things professionally. King Gilthorpe, you have mentioned a witness. I'd take a shot in the dark here, but is the witness that young boy over there?" she asked, pointing her finger at Andrew.

"Yes, he is," King Gilthorpe confirmed, "Despite him being in our care at this moment, he is a human, so I hope that he can give you the answers you need while remaining neutral. Come on, Andrew, they have some questions for you."

Andrew nervously stepped up and took his seat at the table as the woman started talking to him.

"Hello, Andrew. My name's Deirdre," the woman introduced herself, "I'll be asking you a few questions, and I'd like you to answer truthfully. If there are any problems, I'd like you to speak up. Is that okay?"

"Uh, yes."

"Alright," Deirdre nodded, "King Gilthorpe said that you're a witness at the scene of the murder of eleven men. What do you think he meant when he said you're a witness?"

"I witnessed the deaths of those men," Andrew replied.

"I see. How did you witness their deaths, exactly?"

"I was travelling in the forest. Running from a beast."

"Huh?" Deirdre asked in surprise, "Andrew, I'd like you to answer truthfully."

"I am," said Andrew, "I was travelling with my family to Waldenbach when there was an accident and I got lost in the forest. So I just ran."

"Andrew," King Gilthorpe interrupted, "Show her what you showed me."

Andrew nodded understandingly as he opened his palm and conjured up a small fireball, "I'm able to use magic to some extent. That's how I was able to run from the beast. I climbed onto some trees to avoid it. And then I was able to spot the group of humans and elves."

"I see," Deirdre said, "Who made the first move against the other side?"

"Oh, uh, the group of bandits attacked first. They tried to rob the knights," Andrew reported, "And they succeeded. I don't remember how many people survived, but the next thing I knew was that the beast smelled fresh blood and went for them."

"And what happened to the beast?"

Andrew looked at King Gilthorpe, seemingly thinking about something. "I was able to get Princess Eliza to run away from the beast with me," he lied, "We were able to escape it."

Deirdre just nodded in silence before telling Andrew, "Alright, Andrew, you can go now." She didn't have to say a second time. As soon as Andrew heard it, he dashed out of the door.

Andrew sat anxiously and tapped his feet on the floor repeatedly, waiting for the meeting to conclude. When the doors finally opened, he was able to see everybody walk out and King Gilthorpe shaking Deirdre's hand graciously. Macchio adjusted his suit, clearly proud of himself for a smooth meeting. The only one who seemed upset was Howe, but that was probably because he always had a grumpy face. As the representatives exited the castle, King Gilthorpe bid them goodbye.

"What happened?" Andrew asked him.

"They're smart people," King Gilthorpe replied, still smiling, "We have peace. For now, at least. But it's peace nonetheless."

But then suddenly, he heard a loud bang and the crowd screaming.

Both he and Andrew immediately turned at the sound.

Fleck was standing there menacingly.

With a gun in his hand.