Chapter 359 - 359 - A Young Man Joins the Circle

"Captain Hart, no need for such modesty. The Demeter Familia's contributions are plain for everyone here to see. If you keep being so humble, it'll start to feel like you're holding us at arm's length."

"Thank you for the recognition."

"Since everyone is in agreement on this proposal, then... welcome to the Order Alliance."

Leon rose alongside Jeanne and Rose, all smiling, and acknowledged the room:

"Well then, I hope all of you will show us the ropes from here on out."

Finn stood at once and shook Leon's hand:

"Let's work together."

Royman rapped the table with his little wooden gavel, steering the topic back on track:

"All right, the meeting will now officially begin."

"The first item on the agenda concerns the casualties and material losses from this attack."

"Pass out the tally sheets."

At that, the clerk off to the side immediately scooped up a thick stack of parchment from the desk in the corner and quickly distributed it to the representatives of each Familia.

Meanwhile, the Guild Master launched into a grief-stricken speech:

"Just look at those numbers. The figures on paper alone may not feel real to you, but behind every one of them is a living, breathing life! These are the very foundation of the city!"

"Three hundred and fifty-two people!"

"What a horrifying number!"

"Take a good, hard look! Among these three hundred and fifty-two confirmed dead, there were good citizens of Orario, craftsmen who made magic-stone products, fine adventurers, and there were foreign merchants here on business, traveling tourists, even visiting royalty and nobility from various nations!"

"And this is only the confirmed portion. On top of that, a large number of missing persons are still unaccounted for to this day!"

"As a member of the Order Alliance, I believe that everyone seated here, myself included, should shoulder responsibility for this."

Leon's mouth twitched faintly, feeling like a scapegoat's burden had just dropped on him out of the sky.

The hell does this have anything to do with a new player like me? He's quick to pin the blame around.

He surveyed the room without giving anything away...

And he noticed something subtle:

Apart from Finn and the others who were listening intently, the rest of the old hands who knew Royman's style were either letting their eyes wander or simply resting them shut.

Sure enough, Royman's tone shifted:

"Right now, criticism of Orario is rising from the international community. We cannot just sit back and do nothing. We must act immediately and decisively, using real measures to restore our reputation and turn the tide of public opinion!"

With that, Royman turned his gaze to Finn first.

"Finn, we've dealt with each other for several decades now. If you've got a plan, by all means, let's hear it."

As his words fell, everyone in the room, including Leon and his two companions who'd been flipping through the post-battle data, lifted their heads to look at the Loki Familia's strategist.

"Sorry, Royman."

"If the other side were deliberately smearing us, spreading baseless rumors, or fabricating accusations out of thin air to target Orario, there'd be plenty of ways to respond. But everything the international community is accusing us of right now is grounded in fact."

"In my opinion... if we genuinely want to turn the city's reputation around, just running our mouths in the papers definitely won't cut it. We have to put it into actual practice."

"Such as?"

"Reassuring the populace, cutting taxes, distributing relief grain, strengthening public order, and so on."

"And of course, the most important thing is to let the international community see that we're taking an active stance."

Royman's breath caught as he thought of the enormous expense all these measures would require.

Compensation for residents, various indemnities, the cost of rebuilding structures, the hiring fees to mobilize neutral Familias, and on top of that the procurement costs for the assorted weapons, magic items, and elixirs supplied by commercial factions like Hephaestus and Goibniu...

He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.

If the Guild had to bear all of this, it would undoubtedly be an astronomical figure.

Just imagining it, the fat all over his body trembled uncontrollably.

"Ahem, I, I-I think... this matter still needs some further discussion."

Mopping his sweat in a fluster, Royman hurriedly looked to Finn's archrival, Hedin:

"Hedin, what do you think?"

At that, Hedin pushed up his glasses, a faint, barely-there cold smile flitting across his lips:

"I think the Braver makes an excellent point."

Huh?

Aren't you two always at each other's throats?

Why are you raising your hand in agreement? What in the world is going on here?

Royman stared at Hedin, his round face full of bewilderment.

This isn't right...

...

Perhaps Royman never realized...

In this meeting room, even the weakest present was Lv.2, to say nothing of Hedin and Finn, two Lv.5s.

If the pair truly wanted to quietly reach some kind of understanding in a corner Royman wasn't watching...

For instance... using this incident to join forces and fleece the Guild for a big one, extracting a tidy sum of "reasonable" compensation, then all Royman could do was get angry for a moment, and that would be that.

And everyone present, Leon included, tacitly ignored the covert exchange the two had just shared.

Likewise, after this little episode, Leon and his two companions, who'd been quietly watching things unfold, got a rough read on how the lines were drawn in the room:

On matters of clear right and wrong, like dealing with Evilus or conquering the Dungeon, the Familia representatives naturally stood shoulder to shoulder with the Guild.

But the moment their own Familia's interests came into play, especially like this time, when Royman clearly didn't want the Guild to shoulder the responsibility alone and meant to pull every Familia into sharing the load, Finn and Hedin, as representatives of the Loki and Freya Familias, were never going to give ground easily.

That was precisely why the two were now tacitly joining hands to "shake down" Royman while they had the chance.

Not only does he want to drag more people in to share the blame, he also wants to mooch the manpower and resources off all the major Familias for free. Royman's scheming is so obvious it's practically smacking me in the face...

Leon curled his lip inwardly and, watching the few of them argue fiercely, quietly dialed his own presence down to the bare minimum.

Watching from the sidelines like this is just fine.

Either way, if the sky falls, there are taller people to hold it up.

...

Three-odd hours later.

Leon was still sitting calm and unbothered in his seat, outwardly listening intently to Royman's impassioned (frothing) and rousing (spittle-flinging) speech, while inwardly he'd long since been ranting like crazy:

I said my thank-yous, I wore the formal getup, but what the hell is this, Royman, making me stand and applaud more than a hundred times over three-plus hours!?

Does he really think he's the know-it-all king of Orario?

Draining his tenth cup of black tea, Leon loosened his tie with a thoroughly fed-up look, feeling like every extra moment in this meeting room was torture. With this kind of time, wouldn't it be better to head home and tinker with the "Wild Mixture," push the progress along a bit? Instead he was stuck here watching them run their mouths and waste time.

Worth mentioning...

The meeting had already dragged on for over three hours, yet it was still stuck spinning its wheels on the question of "how to act"...

Thankfully the proposal on "whether to act at all" had finally passed, otherwise who knew how much more breath Finn and Hedin would have had to waste.

Feeling the increasingly tense atmosphere and the faint whiff of gunpowder spreading through the room.

Leon's face was blank, his eyes glazed over.

I'm numb.

"Ahem..."

"Mr. Leon, if you don't mind... perhaps we could discuss that matter you came to consult me about earlier?"

At some point Asfi had swapped seats with Tsubaki beside him, and now she leaned in close to his ear, murmuring softly.

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