Bang!
Felix braced both hands on the table, his slightly reddened eyes locked on Captain Elisa, who seemed equally consumed by anxiety. He took a deep breath and tried to keep his tone as "gentle" as possible. "Miss Elisa, in my capacity as leader of the Golden Halberd Adventurer Group, I object to this trade! We really cannot continue with this job! After the earlier accident, the 'manifest' has already leaked. The risk is simply too high!"
At this moment, Felix was invoking the right of recommendation under Article Six of the subordinate provisions within the Guard Contract Liability Exemption Regulations, proposed more than forty years ago by Hogg Blackclaw Security Company, to object to this voyage.
As maritime trade had grown increasingly mature over the past few decades, all kinds of adventurer groups had flourished on the scraps of profit slipping through the fingers of maritime merchants.
Adventurer groups had always had a low barrier to entry and little bargaining power before increasingly wealthy maritime merchants. Thus, after signing relatively harsh trade escort contracts, they often found themselves in extremely passive positions for all sorts of reasons.
The most common situation was precisely this one!
A captain's greed had made a shipment far too valuable, yet proper secrecy measures had not been taken, directly driving up the risks of a one-way sea trade voyage.
The most fatal cases were those where crewmen had been bribed, or people from other shady forces had infiltrated the fleet. Then, without anyone knowing, pirates would suddenly come "calling," leaving both lives and wealth lost.
A leak caused by a crewman's mistake during loading, like the current case, was comparatively better. Since they themselves knew the secret had been exposed, they could either breach the contract or spend some money to transfer the shipment