There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 326 - 318. Baiting and Baited

Chapter 326: Chapter 318. Baiting and Baited

"What chance?"

Darleon frowned. This man had just told him he wouldn’t hesitate to attack Celestia, and he said it was a chance?

The crimson eyes closed as the lips below formed a subtle smile. "During my academy days, every time we talked about guild and espers, it had always been Celestia...Celestia..." Radia said, suddenly walking down memory lane, which only grew Darleon’s confusion. "The guild of Celestia, the espers of Celestia...it was a textbook example, a study material, a standard to be adhered to. As someone who planned to make my own guild, I had to cram those things in my head."

The glory of Celestia was undisputed. It was the culmination of the Eastern Federation’s five best guilds, merged into one so the nation would have a strong tree everyone could take a shade in. It was the pillar of Eastern Federation’s sentinel community, so they could stand in equal prowess with the other nations.

But becoming an unchallenged entity meant absolute power. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Celestia was a tree standing in stagnant water, and stagnant water got polluted eventually.

Getting used to standing on top of everything, the guild and the espers started to become conceited, corrupted. Hiding behind the influence of its past glory, they did unspeakable things because they knew they could get away with it. The involvement of sponsors and investors just further convoluted the mess.

It wasn’t such a secret that the Celestia now wasn’t like the Celestia in the past. The shade reaching out to the entire land became selective; only protecting those they chose to. One by one, the founders left the guild after feeling fed up with the change, and the poisoned tree was left untended.

Darleon did not leave because of that. He tried his best to keep Celestia intact, gathering promising sprouts and teaching them to become the future of the guild. But in the end...he couldn’t do it anymore when he lost his wife, who had been supporting him all this time, even when he decided to get away from his family.

"Don’t you want to see the majestic guild we all know coming back?" Radia looked at the old man, and this time, Darleon could see a semblance of genuine emotion in those crimson eyes. "Not this arrogant, secretly hated establishment."

"You want me to clean the guild?" Darleon swallowed the stinging pain as the reality he didn’t want to admit was being brought up so casually. "Mallarc, you should know I’m no longer a Guildmaster. I might still hold an executive position, but I’m no more than a part of the advisory council."

Radia chuckled, the half-mocking gaze was back. "Did you say that because you believe to be so," one corner of his lips curled up, "or because of your cowardice?"

"What--"

"Maybe you are just reluctant to try because you don’t want blatant proof of how weak your influence has become," the summoner shrugged. "If you don’t try, you could just say you don’t want to meddle with the new generation."

Darleon couldn’t take it anymore, even though he had been trying hard not to get provoked. To be mocked by someone who was the same age as his son left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Look here, young man--"

"Pfft..." the old man’s attempt at an outburst was halted by the small laughter. "Young man? You used this when you just said you don’t have any power of decision?"

The crimson eyes, which were curled lightly just a moment ago, turned sharp and cold in the next second.

Do I look like one of your students?

Darleon frowned, heart stinging from blatant rudeness. But he pressed his lips because he knew this man was right. Radia Mallarc was a Chairman of Mortix and a Guildmaster of a guild that won the Deathzone reclamation project. If they were going by status, the Crimson Summoner had a higher one than him--at least right now.

But it was also because he knew--deep down, he knew what the younger man said was right. He had failed to maintain the Celestia everyone looked up to; failed to keep his promise to the other founders.

So he retracted his step, keeping his emotions in check. "Irregardless, you come to the wrong person if you wish to change Celestia."

"Is that so? Isn’t that too bad," the crimson eyes curled. "Seems like I have to fell the tree, after all."

"Can you?" the old man smiled wryly, casting Radia a doubtful gaze. "Even if you bring everything to the court, it doesn’t mean Celestia will fall. All you can do is get rid of the rotten fruits, and it’ll hardly hurt the tree."

It wasn’t like he condoned what they did to that guide, but he also knew that this kind of case could be buried easily. All they had to do was pin the blame solely on the captured espers’ hand and say they acted on their own.

"My, my--it seems like stepping out of active duty put you out of the loop," Radia smiled calmly. "You don’t think I know that already?"

Ah, right; Darleon watched the calm expression of the summoner. Althrea was far away, but he had heard a thing or two about Radia Mallarc. There was no way someone known to be a meticulous businessman like him wouldn’t calculate everything already. The fact that the man even used one of Darleon’s disciples to create this occasion should have told him already about what kind of man Radia Mallarc was.

That being said, Darleon was being truthful when he said he did not have much influence anymore. "I still don’t see any way I could do what you want me to do, Mallarc."

"Don’t you think you put too little faith in your people?" Radia said. "You spent your life nurturing people, and yet you don’t even put them in strategic positions--well, I guess you’re just too straight to play the game," the man shook his head and let out a regretful sigh. "But still, you have people. Your founder friends have their people. They were there, keeping the poison at bay."

Darleon blinked, digesting the words coming out of this younger man. Right now, he could no longer see Radia Mallarc as just a youngster when the man was giving him serious insight.

"Those people are the ones who kept the principle of the original Celestia we all revered. Unfortunately, they are left without a leader," Radia continued. "And because of that, they are easily scattered, used by the factions inside the guild while getting disregarded."

The crimson eyes looked over the calm sea. "But if they could unite, and receive clear direction of what they should do...hmm, yes, it should be doable."

Darleon curled his fist slightly, feeling his heartbeat rising. But immediately, he cooled down as he thought about one particular flaw. "So you want me to create another faction inside the guild," he concluded. "But a faction won’t work without a sponsor."

In a guild like Celestia, power wasn’t everything. For an executive to have speaking power in the guild, they needed support from a member of the board of directors; meaning, they needed a shareholder standing behind them, preferably a major one.

"Then you just need to have a sponsor," Radia shrugged nonchalantly.

Darleon stared at the casual smile with a sigh. "Sure, it’s easy for you to say something like that since you have a lot of money. But there’s no way Mortix could sponsor another guild; even if you have the funds, the law won’t let you."

"I know," Radia chuckled. According to the law, a conglomerate group could not sponsor more than one guild to prevent the exploitation and monopoly of the dungeon industry. And even without that law, Mortix did not have money to spare right now, with the five-year reclamation campaign right in front of them. "But there’s another company that’s willing to sponsor your people--well, assuming you take the deal, of course."

"Another company..." Darleon frowned slightly. "Even if you make another company, as long as it’s owned by you--"

"It’s not owned by me," Radia smiled. "Well, I might put my money there too, but I’m still not a major shareholder, so the law will permit it. It won’t be as big as the current Celestia’s major shareholder, but it should be enough to put your people in position."

Saying he felt flabbergasted would be an understatement. Would it be that easy? The thing he never thought he could do before--would it be as easy as this man said? Darleon had been refusing to make a faction or get a sponsor because he refused to acknowledge such political play in the guild. But because of that, he became nothing more than a symbol as his decision-making power was getting taken away bit by bit.

That’s right; losing his wife was just an excuse. It wasn’t that he gave the Guildmaster position to his son. He was made to.

"...there’s no way you propose this time without wanting anything in return," Darleon quelled his growing excitement, looking at the crimson eyes vigilantly. "What is it?"

"It’s simple," the summoner shrugged. "You purified the tree, we get to pluck a few rotten fruits while at it."

Darleon clenched his jaw in reflex, but immediately told himself to calm down. It wasn’t an unreasonable proposition, but...it was clear that they wanted him to drag his son down. He couldn’t care less about what happened to the espers they had captured, but...going against his own son wasn’t something he could agree on easily.

Darleon shifted his gaze back toward the fake scenery surrounding them. The fish had snatched his bait away, but he couldn’t pay attention to his fishing rod right now. At the very moment, he himself was a fish with a tempting bait dangling in front of him. It was a matter of whether he could snatch the bait or get hooked by it.

He knew very well that the reason for Radia Mallarc’s proposal wasn’t for the good of Celestia. All that talk about big tree and whatever; Darleon knew that in the end, the man wanted the people who harmed his guild member out, and placed his claw in the biggest guild at the same time.

But did it matter? In the end, the result would be the same; the cleaner Celestia he had wanted. As for the matter with his son...

"Alright, I’ll do it," Darleon said after mulling about it for a while. "I’ll try to clean the guild even if it means taking my son off the Guildmaster’s chair."

Varion would get so pissed if he found out what his father said right now. But Darleon came to terms that his son needed a blow, to be brought down a peg. Perhaps then, by getting humbled, his son would change to be better. It wouldn’t be too late to put him back in the Guildmaster chair after the new faction got even more power.

"Are you satisfied with that?" Darleon looked at the summoner, but the reply came with the sound of mocking laughter.

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