Second World

”You canʼt seriously believe that girl, boss?” Bigarm pleaded.

”Silence!” Scarface chided. ”You are embarrassing us.”

He looked at Jack, then turned his stare at Earmouth, before looking back at Jack again. He said, ”what that girl said is not wrong. Whatever the reason is, if the other guilds see us fighting among ourselves. It will give them a bad impression on us.”

”But…” Bigarm wanted to interfere but Scarface gave him a hand signal that shut him up.

Scarface continued, ”accusations on one of our own carry large implications. It is not something to be treated lightly. Since there is another party confirming Unrivalledʼs story, I will say that gives him the benefit of doubt. After all, Earmouth did mention that he was at the furthest end of where Unrivalled was flanking the enemy, he could probably have missed him. And I also see no reason for that girl from Wicked Witches to lie to us, unless all of you think this man is a spy sent by their guild?”

The others nodded. If Unrivalled was a woman, then that was still possible. But Wicked Witches was a guild comprised only of women. There was no way the Mage was one of them.

Earmouth was dissatisfied, he was not willing to let it go, ”but we canʼt just let him…”

”I have spoken!” Scarface said sternly, cutting him from making any further argument. Earmouth could only turn away in a displeased manner after giving a bitter glare at Jack. Bigarm huffed and followed after Earmouth. The others slowly went away as well.

Scarface approached Jack and said, ”Iʼm sorry. Itʼs not easy to manage a group of people. Everyone has what they want. It is impossible to satisfy everyone.”

Jack nodded at him, then haughtily said, ”if you think I am bringing disharmony to the guild, you can just expel me. I donʼt mind. Itʼs no point anyway if I am surrounded by people that donʼt trust me.”

Scarface chuckled, he wasnʼt offended by Jackʼs arrogant tone. He said, ”there is no need for such hastiness. You have the pride of an expert, I understand it well. Give the guild some time, I believe you will come to feel at home.”

”In that case, fine, I will try to bear with it just a little bit more.”

The aides standing behind Scarface were just about to speak out due to Jackʼs ungrateful manner, but Scarface had pre-emptively given them a sign for silence.

”Whatʼs that last part of the meeting anyway? I didnʼt know about it since I left before it started,” Jack decided to try his luck for obtaining the information.

”There is no need for you to worry about it. Our core members are handling it. If there is any need for assistance, we will ask for your help,” Scarface replied with a smiling face.

”All right, just let me know if you need any help,” Jack said with a bland face, but in his heart, he was feeling down by the reply.

”Another thing,” Jack added. ”I will still be available tomorrow if you need anything, but after that, I will be absent for quite a while. I have gotten a quest that might take a long time to complete, so I will be focusing on it.”

”Oh? Sound like a grand quest. Do you need our members to assist you on the quest?” Scarface offered.

”Itʼs fine. The quest was meant to be done in solo,” Jack refused.

”If you say so. I will leave you to your matter then, I still have some issues to be discussed with others,” Scarface said.

Jack nodded. As Scarface left, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. That was a close one, he thought. He was not confident if he had to fight his way out from this place, even if he exhausted all his trump cards. After all, there were the main members of the three guilds here, with some of their allied guilds still lingering in the vicinity. The prospect of fighting all of them and survived was rather unsettling.

He glanced in the direction of the Wicked Witches. He was thinking if he should go there and thank Slim Blade, but decided against it. The other Death Associates members might interpret it as there was indeed something going on between him and the Wicked Witches. Earmouth and Bigarm would surely not letting go of the chance if that happened.

Red Death approached Scarface after he left Jack. ”You donʼt trust Earmouth?” She asked.

”Which part?” Scarface asked back. ”If you are talking about whether he was telling the truth about Unrivalled leaving them behind, I think he was lying. But if you are referring to his claim that Unrivalled was not to be trusted, I agree with him.”

”Then why do you let him go?”

”Because fighting here will indeed give our guild a bad impression. Some more there are people from another guild that testified that he is telling the truth.”

”You can at least expel him since you agree that he cannot be trusted.”

”I can do that, but havenʼt you heard the saying, keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer? Whether the guy can be trusted or not, he is undoubtedly an expert. Even though he is indeed a spy sent by another guild, we can easily deal with him by controlling the amount of information he received. We simply keep him as an outer member, and just use his muscle for grunt works. We can monitor his movement and also deprived an expert of contributing to the other guild. With him registered as our member, he could only receive guild quests from us. That way, we kill three birds with one stone.”

”I see that you have thought this through,” Red Death nodded. ”On another topic, what about that Storm Wind? Do you believe the report where he fought against over fifty players all by himself?”

”The report mentioned that he was helped by two ranged players,” Scarface corrected.

”Those two were only supports. The report said that all our side focusing on was Storm Wind alone, and yet they still failed to kill him and ended up getting defeated instead.”

”The reason he managed to defeat them was simply due to a powerful magic scroll.”

”Still, being able to survive from getting surrounded by so many players…”

”You canʼt do that?”

Red Death was silent by that question.

Not dwelling on it, Scarface asked another question, ”what do you think of these incidents?”

”What do you mean?” Red Death said.

”It was clear what that group from Handy Craftsmen did in the meeting was intentional, they had come with the intention of causing trouble. More obvious after they ambushed our main team together with Storm Wind.”

”Are you saying that they are working together?” Red Death asked.

”Handy Craftsmen wouldnʼt have had the guts. Iʼm saying there is another big force in play.”

”Who?”

”Thatʼs what we need to find out. And this Storm Wind was clearly working together with them.”

”Could it be White Scarfs? Storm Wind was known to be close with that guild,” Red Death gave her guess.

”Possible,” Scarface replied. ”But I was more worried about the report regarding what Storm Wind had said before he killed Earmouth.”

”Which part?”

”The part where he mentioned Shackle of Vows,” Scarface said.

”How did he know?”

”Exactly.”

Red Death pondered for a while before saying, ”are you suspecting the force he was cooperating with has a spy among us?”

”That is most likely,” Scarface nodded. ”The Shackle of Vows was top secret even amongst the Corporate United. Only during this meeting that it was revealed to the public. If Storm Wind had found out about it, it either means he had a spy that had penetrated deep into Corporate United higher-ups, or he has someone that stayed during the last part of the meeting who feed him that information. Either possibility is alarming, especially the former.”

”Will this affect our plan?” Red Death asked worriedly.

”No, we will proceed as planned. Everyone that heard about the plan had been bound by the Shackle of Vows. The other side might find out about the Shackle of Vows, but the information protected by the artifact should be safe.”

Red Death nodded, then asked, ”how should we deal with Storm Wind?”

”Now that he had openly made an enemy out of the three guilds, we should be able to deal with him more directly with the other guildsʼ help. This should also allow us to fish out the force that is behind him. But we still need to focus on the preparation of the plan. We will deal with him once we are done with our preparation.”

Red Death did not oppose this arrangement. Her eyes glinted with excitement. She wondered if her improvement was enough already for her to go toe to toe with that man.

😉