After the decision, two days passed quickly, and we were about to witness the dungeon opening – the official one. And, it meant that everyone in the town was still rushing around to make some last-minute adjustments in their operations.
The chaos was considerable.
The impact of the dungeon about to start operation was hard to overstate, especially where the economy of the town was concerned. With the dungeon able to operate, four new guilds had been established, each with their own slots for dungeon access.
In response, the young duke had gone on another hiring spree, not only hiring new guards but also adding three new knights for his personal retinue, his rising reputation after the successful establishment of the dungeon taken as proof of his ability.
Someone else might have been annoyed about their credit being stolen, but I was glad for the shadow he had created. It would have been much more difficult to slip something like a secret dungeon floor through if he had been any more competent.
Of course, on the surface, our guild did nothing but prepare for our first dungeon access, secretly working on our coordination. In reality, we had been working hard to push our members to level sixty — which we unfortunately had missed the mark on slightly — and more importantly, empowering them with Abilities.
I had no doubt that any noble would have gone crazy if they realized even the unluckiest person in our group— Mahruss — had two abilities, each ability selected carefully by a high priest with significant experience on what exactly gods paid attention to when granting their boons such as Class Promotions and rare skills.
My two-day fishing trip worked even better than I had expected. I had managed to level up once more thanks to Zolast's non-stop dungeon runs, which gave me some more stat points that could be used in an emergency.
Which gave me the courage to dive deeper.
As a result, I was able to gather twenty-six more ability stones, four of them still unused, waiting to be sold, bringing our total reserves to six.
And, now, I was in line with a select group of our guild members — conveniently hidden in the back — listening to the young duke as he delivered a speech from a raised platform, about the history and the achievements of House Yoentia.
Admittedly, it was a good speech, but just like any speech, there was no useful content.
Instead, I carefully examined the surroundings. Closest to the young duke stood Artmiss, and near him were the other three knights that had just joined the household. The guards surrounded them … and after the guards, there were the guilds.
Each guild had a different number of participants. The Night Blades held the most, almost as much as the other five guilds — ours included. Our guild wasn't the smallest … but it was close.
A huge slight considering we had single-handedly built the dungeon, not that it mattered. We could have bargained for a bigger dungeon access, but instead bargained to expand our territory in the inner city.
Pity that Zolast, as the Guildmaster, was at the first line, right next to Jertann, as I would have loved to chat while waiting for the event to end. Technically, I was an officer as well, but no one found it weird for the Quartermaster to stand at the back.
Still, I couldn't help but feel amused by the elation of the young duke. In some aspects, he was certainly privileged, but from another perspective, he was struggling, targeted by his own family.
An interesting dilemma, and a hard place for a young man to be in.
"Ahh, youth," I murmured as I continued listening to him as he extolled the glorious history of his house, and how he would bring it to the next stage.
Then, I noticed a movement in the sky. Four flying military carts, diving down from the sky with a leisurely speed, their destination clearly the inner city. Of course, at that distance, not many people noticed the approach.
I frowned, particularly when I noticed their destination. They were coming directly to the inner town, the wide open area where the duke was delivering his speech … and from the looks of it, would be here before the duke could finish.
A calculated display of disrespect.
No wonder there was no last-minute attempt to disturb the dungeon opening.
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They had a different kind of trap in mind.
As the flying carts got closer, others also noticed their presence, and whispering began. The young duke noticed it as well, and looked toward it with a worried expression, but Artmiss silently gestured for him to continue.
Then, he blasted the whispering crowd with a wave of Charisma, a warning they took readily.
I expected everyone to fall silent, but to my surprise, the whispers continued, though coming only from one direction. One of the new guilds.
Endless Rain.
Artmiss focused his attention on them, but their Guildmaster gave a disrespectful smirk as his Charisma rose as a wave, blocking the wave.
He was strong enough to rival Artmiss if I was reading his shock correctly.
It seemed that, in their hurry to take advantage of the dungeon completion, they had been tricked once again.
Amateurs.
Artmiss looked angry enough to declare a duel immediately, but was wise enough to hold back. The sudden arrival of the military and their disrespect was timed too well to be coincidental, and they weren't even bothering to suppress it.
The young duke was wrapping up his speech by skipping entire sections when the carts finally landed, not even asking for permission. Another calculated slice of disrespect, and not the first time the young duke received it from the military.
But this time, as the official ruler of the town, this display was far more outrageous.
An armored figure left the first cart, but unlike the soldiers that followed, he wasn't wearing a helmet. "Cousin Kryll, what a great pleasure to see you once more," he declared loudly, interrupting the last bit of the speech.
Artmiss made a gesture, and the guards started sending the crowd away. Not that it was needed. Not many people were stupid enough to miss the clear power play that was going on, so they had already been moving away, not willing to get locked between two nobles.
"Baron Taimtia, what an unexpected surprise," the young duke answered. "And, it's Duke Yoentia. I hope I don't need to teach you proper etiquette again."
The similarity between Yoentia and Taimtia was interesting. Probably an offshoot family of some kind, one that was linked to their political battle. Unfortunately, even after spending months in this world, the nuances of their noble titles and claims were not particularly well-known to me; I always had more important things to pay attention to.
"Oh, cousin, certainly not, but as a current military officer, it's my right to ignore titles … especially ones like yours."
I would have loved to stay and watch, but I decided to follow the five other guilds — with the exception of Endless Rain who stuck around — as we retreated.
Then, the baron spoke again. "Guildmasters should stay, we have things to discuss," he declared.
Interestingly, three of the Guildmasters actually followed his order, while the two of them — one new, the other the leader of the Night Blades — stopped and looked at the young duke. Only Zolast acted like he didn't even hear him.
Resoundingly disrespectful.
"You! Stop!" the Baron shouted, this time accompanied by a blast of Charisma.
Zolast made a point of stumbling as the wave of Charisma hit, but otherwise ignored it, angering the Baron greatly. I didn't intervene, trusting Zolast would be giving an appropriate response.
Especially since he made a point of buckling under the Charisma attack rather than flat-out ignoring it, clearly, he had a plan. I settled to watch, still curious exactly why he decided to act out in such a visible manner.
"Stop! I order you to stop!" the baron shouted again, clearly taking his order being ignored personally.
Amateurs.
This time, Zolast bothered to look back momentarily, but his expression was dismissive. "Oh, I didn't know a mere Commander could give orders to a member of a guild, especially a Guildmaster. Should we take this as a declaration that His Majesty had given a decree about this?" Zolast said, not skipping a step.
Meanwhile, the Baron started to look purple, shockingly so for a man that young.
His Charisma gathered even stronger as it prepared to slam against Zolast. Not that it would be more useful, but his anger was too thick to care about that.
As Zolast took another step, this time it was Artmiss that blocked him with his own Charisma. He wasn't as strong, but from my experiments, I knew the Charisma didn't need to be equal to block. As long as the discrepancy wasn't great, it worked.
I noticed the young duke sending a nod of appreciation toward Zolast, which he reciprocated. "Guildmaster Zolast, please stay," he said.
"As you wish, Duke Yoentia," Zolast answered as he walked near Artmiss. He didn't look at me even once, which I appreciated. The last thing I needed was for our enemies — or even potential allies — to realize how much power I had over the guild.
I did my best work in the dark.
Luckily, as the Guildmasters stayed, so did several others. With everyone paying attention, I walked toward Jertann. "Take the others and go to the headquarters. Also, be ready to move out," I whispered.
I didn't expect such a thing to be needed. I was more interested in keeping Jertann and his explosive temper away from the situation.
Jertann followed my order and gestured for the group to move. Only Mahruss and three others stayed with me, which was just enough to make a showing but nothing more.
Meanwhile, the baron looked at Zolast furiously. Clearly, he had planned his arrival perfectly in a way that would show the young duke just how little actual support he had … the subtle signal of disrespect earlier was already a signal.
With that signal, two of the new guilds flipped immediately, and even the Night Blades took a deliberately passive position to watch and see. Only Zolast's visible display allowed the young duke to save a hint of reputation.
Such a move was not without a cost … and not just from the Baron. The Guildmaster of the Night Blades was looking at Zolast angrily. As one of the two old guilds, Zolast's seemingly mindless declaration of allegiance put him in a terrible position.
And, I knew Zolast enough to guess that it was just the start of his plans rather than the culmination of them. There would be some interesting follow-ups… and I had a feeling that our relationship with the Night Blades — and their mysterious supporter — was about to deteriorate badly.
How much, depended on exactly what the baron had been planning.
The dungeon had certainly reshuffled the deck.