Chapter 571: Reputation And Prestige

Daniel frowned and fell deep into thought. The situation with the Guild was worse than he’d expected, right now, they were basically standing on the edge of a knife.

Even the smallest mistake could destroy Everlight Moon Guild completely. But if they did nothing, the Guild might still fall apart. In a situation like this, the only way out was to earn the public’s support.

Of course, he wasn’t stupid enough to think public support alone could save the Guild. Since Goblin Guild had decided to go against them, they’d likely either use public pressure to restrict the Guild or try to form a united front to eliminate them.

If it was the latter, things would get really bad. That would mean multiple guilds, and possibly even the Federation, would attack them.

"Why are they trying so hard to destroy or restrict us?" Daniel looked at Varnos and Lana and asked.

"We’re the only Guild in the country that openly opposes them, and we actually have the power to weaken their dominance," Varnos said after a moment of thought. "They never cared much before, probably because they were busy with other things. But now, they’ve decided to turn their attention to us."

"There could be other reasons too," Lana added suddenly.

"Like the possibility that they’re trying to take control of the entire country, and they see us as an obstacle."

"We’ve talked about this before, Lana. The chances of that happening are extremely low," Varnos said, glancing at his daughter.

"But father, it’s still a possibility! You can tell from their behavior, they act like they already own the country! It’s obvious they want to control it!"

"Unless they’re complete idiots, they know doing that would only lead to their own destruction."

Daniel quietly listened to their exchange. He didn’t know much about Goblin Guild, he’d never even met any of their members, so he couldn’t say for sure which of them was right.

But he was curious why Varnos seemed so confident that they wouldn’t dare try to take over the country.

"Mr. Varnos, why are you so sure they wouldn’t dare do something like that?" he finally asked.

Both Varnos and Lana stopped talking and looked at him. Then Lana turned back toward her father, she had a rough idea of why he thought that way, but he’d never really explained it in detail.

"Do you know why the top ten guilds, despite all their power, are still under the Federation’s supervision and never dare to oppose the government?" the Guild Leader asked.

"No," Daniel shook his head. He had a few guesses, like maybe they were bound by contracts and treaties, or maybe they were simply afraid of the government and the Federation’s authority.

"It’s because of the difference in power," Varnos said with a small smile.

"Even though the top ten guilds collectively have the largest number of national-ranked Awakened on their side, the government have Three Heavenly Kings. You should already know about the Heavenly Kings."

"I do," Daniel nodded. "So no other guild in the country has a Heavenly King except the government?"

He had seen the power of a Heavenly King with his own eyes, one of them alone could easily defeat ten national-ranked Awakened. And there were three of them.

"Goblin Guild has one Heavenly King, their former leader reached that level. But one isn’t enough. They’d need at least two more just to match the government. And even equality isn’t enough to conquer the country. Don’t forget, the Federation itself is under the supervision of the Guardian Council."

"If the difference in power isn’t big enough, or if Goblin Guild can’t convince the Federation to help them or stay neutral, the Federation could easily call for the Guardian Council’s intervention to prevent chaos and the collapse of the country," Varnos explained.

"So to take control of the country, they’d not only need at least three Heavenly Kings, but they’d also have to make sure the Federation either supports them or stays out of it," Daniel thought, several ideas forming in his mind.

Now he understood why Varnos was so certain that Goblin Guild couldn’t possibly take over the country. Logically, it really did seem impossible.

But... what if the Federation decided to support them? In that case, everything would change. With two or three Heavenly Kings, they might actually have a real chance at conquest.

"As I said, changing a nation’s system isn’t easy, it comes with enormous risks. For the Goblin Guild in its current state, such a thing is far beyond their reach. Besides, if they even tried, the other major guilds would probably band together to stop them. No one wants to upset the balance of power," Varnos continued.

Both Lana and Daniel nodded this time. No one liked the idea of disturbing the fragile peace and balance between guilds.

"We need to find a way to pull ourselves out of this situation," Lana sighed.

"There’s no other choice," Daniel said after thinking it over. "It’s better to let the government conduct its investigation on us."

"That’s exactly what we’re trying to prevent," Lana replied with a frown. "It could severely damage our reputation. Even if we haven’t done anything, those bastards from Goblin Guild could easily manipulate things and make it look like we did."

She couldn’t understand what Daniel was thinking.

The issue is that they don’t want their reputation and credibility to be questioned in the public eye.

As one of the top three guilds, they can’t bow their heads to any other guild, or even the government, and appear cowardly.

For all the years the guild has existed, they’ve worked to present themselves as an independent force, equal to the government itself.

If they allow the government to conduct an investigation on them, that image they’ve built will collapse.

At that point, people will automatically start believing that they’re not on the same level as the government or the other two top guilds, and that they don’t deserve their position.

"Explain," the Guild Leader said calmly, turning his attention to Daniel.