Chapter 2300 - 99: Crow's Prophecy II

"Initially, it was due to a failed mission, an escort mission led by the chairman—the new chairman, who was selected by the guild's upper echelons. You don't know this person; he was originally the captain of the third group. The captains of the first and second groups left with Yugudola, leaving only him. They acted together with the Silverwind Knights, but the escort team was attacked by Shadows, leaving no survivors, and the goods were lost, rendering the mission a failure."

"Afterwards, the guild fell into an endless nightmare. The client of the mission was a significant figure from Elpaxin, and it's said that the Super Competitive League in the country has always tried to gain the favor of this native upper echelon. Thus, they dispatched an investigation team specifically to investigate the reasons for this mission's failure. However, there was no progress; the person in charge was just a typical alliance bureaucrat, lacking any capability, merely making life difficult for our guild."

"During that time, the guild was having a rough time, but fortunately, people from the Rainbow Alliance helped. After all, we joined them, and they couldn't just watch us suffer. However, they didn't do it out of pure goodwill; it was more of a warning to the Super Competitive League to keep their waters from muddying ours."

After descending the staircase, the pitch-black passage ahead seemed endlessly long, with no end in sight. Apart from Shaya's voice, people walked on in silence. The Rangers led the way, and no one lit a torch. Everyone seemed to have walked this path countless times; there was no light in the darkness, only a sense of lightness, and the rustling sound of footsteps.

Among these footsteps, Fang Hong could easily distinguish his own, as unlike the light steps of the Rangers, his sounded the heaviest. But there was one set of even heavier steps coming from the direction of Miss Maid.

"If you think the path is hard to walk, you can hold my hand, Mr. Ade," Shaya suddenly stopped and said, "We've had this path memorized by heart for a long time, forming a conditioned reflex. Not lighting a torch is actually safer this way. However, you might not be used to it, but there's actually no danger here."

Perhaps it was a misconception, for although there was no glimmer of light underground, he could vaguely make out the outlines of the passage—as if he were underground in Idus, the power bestowed upon him by the Dragon King gradually returning after a long dormancy.

Fang Hong faintly realized that this might be related to the resurgence of the Ring of Golden Flame, with Nikopolas's power returning to him; thus, the Dragon King's Heart seemed to have been nourished again. But whether this was good or bad, it was hard to say for the time being.

Yet, apart from the unchanging passage in darkness, there were also two sharp gazes falling on him from Xiesta's direction.

He thought for a moment, rationally shook his head—since he could see clearly, there was no need to take advantage. Moreover, holding a stranger's hand made him uncomfortable.

Shaya said nothing regarding his choice and continued, "But the turning point came soon after, when rumors detrimental to our guild appeared, accusing us of having connections with the Dragonfire Guild, which disappeared a year ago. These claims were neither truly true nor entirely false. The Dragonfire Guild operated in the Northern Territory, and if normal transactions and communications between guilds could be considered connections, then almost no guild or organization in the Northern Territory was unrelated to them—"

"Yet the alliance official believed this rumor and appointed a High-level Knight from the Crow's Claw Sanctuary to investigate us. Such an investigation wouldn't normally be an issue, as we stand unafraid of any shadows. If our guild was implicated in the events of the Dragonfire Guild, then no other guild in the Northern Territory would be innocent. Others understood this too, so no one took it seriously, not even the people from the Rainbow Alliance, who thought either the official was utterly clueless about the affairs of Eteliria or was out of his mind."

"But the trouble lay with the person he appointed, that High-level Knight from the Crow's Claw Sanctuary who had a grudge against us. He seized this handle to start giving us a hard time in every aspect, demanding our cooperation in their investigation. Although the Crow's Claw Sanctuary was only a native organization in our eyes, this person was backed by the Super Competitive League. To avoid trouble, the guild tried to meet his demands, but most of those sent for questioning never returned, having been detained by people from the Crow's Claw Sanctuary."

"Such actions naturally infuriated us. Without cause, neither natives nor Invokers should have their personal freedom restricted; this openly violated the 'Stargate Declaration.' The guild's upper echelons reported this conduct to the Rainbow Alliance, but then something none of us expected happened—"

This was the first time Shaya mentioned the origins of their conflict with the Crow's Claw Sanctuary. Fang Hong could imagine that what happened next must have been crucial and possibly the cause of their current situation. Yet the speaker's tone remained as flat as water, as if reading a dull and dry article.

"...We don't know what kind of evidence they held, but our chairman fled. This was the same chairman I mentioned at the start. They caught him in the wild, and the lost goods from Elpaxin were retrieved from his possession. Under questioning, this person implicated most of our guild. Subsequently, these individuals were all arrested, readily admitting their involvement with the Dragon Worshippers—"