Shortly after Vivianetta had her outburst about Persephane and the warrior, as promised by her siblings, they summoned the demigods, whom they created, for a meeting. On Centuri, the demigods gathered from all the regions to meet in the great hall inside the castle of Topificetus and Melophilio, who are the rulers of the land region. The massive stone castle towered over everything in the land, but it paled in comparison to the castle belonging to the gods in the ethereal realm. Once all six of the demigods were gathered in the great hall, where all the important meetings were held whenever all the demigods were required to gather all at once; the engineers opened a communication channel to receive the holographic transmission from the gods. Once communication had been established, a holographic projection enveloped the entire room, making it look like the gods were in the same room as them. Luciansys surveyed the room to make sure that no one was missing before proceeding with the meeting. 

# 

“Greetings everyone, we’re sorry to call you here all together like this on such short notice. We are grateful that you took the time to see us today, knowing how far everyone had to travel. We apologize if we are interrupting any work that you all might be in the middle of working on. This is a crucial matter for us. So, we would like to ask for your cooperation with the matter. For formality's sake, I will do a roll call. Obviously from the land region, Melophilio, and Topificetus are present; from the water region, Mariplius and Archipeltis from the water region; and the sky region, Ventus and Jupcaeris. Well, it looks like everyone is here. Good. Let’s begin,” Luciansys stated. 

Melophilio looked at Luciansys and said, “There is no need to apologize to us. You know that we will always stop what we are doing and make time to speak with you all. However, based on your tone and your words, this seems like something serious. How may we be of service to you?” 

“As you recall, when we sent our daughter to live amongst the mortals, we had asked you to watch over her on our behalf, so we would not need to worry so much and not have to neglect our daily duties to watch Persephane every day. I know that when we asked you to do this, it was more of a laid-back request, and we didn’t expect you to follow her around all day. However, things have changed,” Claudeleous told them. 

“Yes, we recall you asking this of us during the last meeting we had with you. I can assure you that we have been doing what you asked. I will admit that we have not been watching her very closely since we were busy with wartime preparations. I cannot speak for everyone else, the only time that Archipeltis and I were able to monitor her, was when she was doing her training. We focused on ensuring her safety during the combat tests and making sure that Persephane had all of the materials needed for her academic training. Beyond that we did not follow her nor enlist aid to assist us in watching her,” Mariplius told them honestly. 

Ventus answered next, “My Lord I will be honest about how often we watched Persephane, and our time watching over her was even less in comparison to the other demigods. Since there was not much training or lessons she needed from us, we rarely saw her. However, I can reassure you from what little we were able to observe, we did not notice anything out of the ordinary.”  

Jupcaeris added while fidgeting nervously, “Lord Luciansys we are deeply sorry if we let you down. We have just been busy with all the wartime preparations. Here in the sky region, we have been delegating and directing the Nameless as efficiently as possible to ensure that all the safety bunkers and shelters were up and running smoothly. We also needed to make many inventory checks to verify that we had all the essentials. This is on top of our regular daily duties. I know that Ventus has his hands full making sure that all citizens know the safety drills and where they need to go in case our region is attacked.”  

“It’s ok. We are not here to scold you or tell you did anything wrong. You all are fine. We know how busy everyone has been. Trust us, we are grateful for your hard work. We called this meeting to bring to your attention the facts of our observations of Persephane. We noticed that she had been spending too much of her time with a particular mortal warrior. We do not know who this person is and would like for you to tell us what you know about him and if you have seen them together often,” Vivianetta said. 

# 

All the demigods were surprised by this. For sure they thought they were in trouble but hearing that they wanted to talk about a mortal warrior was something that they were not expecting. Caught off guard, they all looked at each other confused and not sure how to respond. Melophilio spoke up first since he had more knowledge of this warrior. After Melophilio spoke up about what he knew regarding the warrior, Topificetus was the next to speak up. She told them about the interactions between Persephane and the warrior. Once those two demigods finished telling the gods what they knew, the other demigods chimed in and told them what they knew.  

# 

“Based on what I have witnessed so far, this warrior doesn’t seem to harbor any ill intentions toward her. I have seen how they interact with one another and it looks like he is trying to court her. Though I’m not entirely sure. Sometimes it looks like courting and other times it merely looks like two friends spending time together and simply enjoying life. During training, he doesn't distract her or get in her way. The same goes for Persephane. She is focused and dedicated to her studies and training. Although I have not seen him look at another the way that he does with Persephane, and I haven’t seen him show favor for another the way he does with her. His behavior towards her has been with the utmost respect. I have not found any fault with him. However….,” Melophilio told Luciansys. 

“However…?” Luciansys asked with his eyebrow raised with a questioning expression on his face, eyes narrowed, anticipating that he might hear something unfavorable. 

“However, there is something that has been troubling me. I have sensed that there is something different about this warrior. When we had done joint training with the other troops from the other regions, there was something I could sense deep inside of him that I hadn’t sensed from any other mortal we had encountered. I can’t quite put my finger on it. I am unable to discern whether what I am sensing from him is something good or whether it is something bad. But whatever it is, it definitely does not match up with any of the other citizens or warriors that I have met thus far;” Melophilio replied to Luciansys. 

Juliabethal asked all the demigods, “Does anyone know what this warrior’s name is? I don’t think you’ve told us his name yet.” 

Topificetus answered her question while looking in her direction, “His name is Caijoonyung. Commander Caijoonyung.” 

“Alright, has anyone else had any interactions with this Commander Caijoonyung beyond gatherings for meetings or joint training?” asked Juliabethal. 

Topificetus raised her hand so she could speak next, “I for one have had about the same experience with him as Melophilio. However, my experience has been just slightly different. Since Melophilio interacts with him more due to all the military involvement, I only talk to him when I need to take inventory of their essentials, like weapons, armor, and magic potions, and other healing items. Also, every now and then I would run into him while he was making his rounds with his team or if he was gathering items from the shops from the markets in the town square. As Melophilio said, I have sensed something emanating from him, but I too cannot figure out whether it is good or not.” 

Mariplius spoke next, “Sadly my interactions with the Commander have been few and far in between. The only time we have had any kind of conversation or contact with each other has been when we need to meet for co-op training and joint meetings. Especially since Archipeltis and my castle and all the land belonging to our region are completely underwater. It does make things very difficult for the land region mortals to travel to and from our regions. So, we usually only talk to set things up for the meetings or for magic and combat training. We have also been busy getting the Nameless to assist us with our daily duties to ramp up production and shorten our timetable allotment.” 

Ventus told them, “My interaction with this Commander has been even less than that of the rest of the demigods. Since my region is in the sky, there are few of his troops that have the magic capabilities to fly, or troops that have wings of some kind, to fly up to our region. The transportation to and from the land and sky regions is even more difficult, what with all of the air traffic from all our citizens and other folks residing here. I’m sorry that we couldn’t have been of more help due to how many people we need to keep track of that come and go from our region for travel or to conduct some kind of business here, we have had our hands full. I just wish that we could have been of more help to you.” 

Vivianetta looked across the long meeting table and addressed everyone, “I see. So, it seems that the only ones who truly know anything about Persephane and this Commander Caijoonyung would be Melophilio and Topificetus. Based on what limited knowledge we have gathered from speaking with all of you, it seems like as far as anyone can tell, this person has no ill will or malicious intent towards her. Alright, with all that said, my fears have lessened, thanks to the information we were able to gather thus far. Now aside from that, there is still the matter of being able to figure out what it was that Topificetus and Melophilio were sensing from him. We also need to figure out whether this is going to have any kind of impact on her completing her mission or compromise her in some other way.” There was still concern showing on her face and in her eyes, like a parent who worries about their child getting into a relationship for the first time and not knowing if that person will end up breaking their heart later. 

“Then I think that the most sensible thing to do would be to summon him here before us all, that way we can find out what it is that Melophilio and Topificetus were sensing. From there we can determine for ourselves whether this will be a viable relationship that will benefit Persephane or not. So, we are going to gather up our best doctors and scientists here in the ethereal realm and send them down to Centuri to perform tests on him in hopes of figuring this person out,” Claudeleous said. 

# 

Everyone agreed with this plan. The demigods would summon him to the great hall later that night after he had returned from his duties. The gods ended their transmission and went to seek out their top scientists and doctors to send down to Centuri so they could conduct a thorough screening through all the tests. Once Commander Caijoonyung is brought to the meeting room for testing, the gods will come back for the live feed with everyone present.