The moment Viscount Sosk received word that the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Mana Airships had suddenly appeared, he understood one thing: the Xinfei Merchant Guild had definitely come looking for trouble.
Ordinary commoners did not know why, but as the mayor of Laroul Town, he knew perfectly well how much pressure the Xinfei Merchant Guild had put on the Candel Empire after its Transport Fleet was wiped out in the Sunset Mountain Ranges, leaving no survivors.
If an ordinary merchant guild-even one from another country-had suffered an incident within the Candel Empire, the imperial authorities would have done little more than make a token show of concern. They would never have taken it seriously.
But the Xinfei Merchant Guild was anything but ordinary.
Although relations between the Candel Empire and the Xinfei Merchant Guild had always been somewhat awkward, even hostile, over the past two years, the increasingly formidable power of the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Military Magic Machinery had forced the empire to take the guild seriously and actively seek cooperation with it.
After they began cooperating, various parties within the Candel Empire discovered that the Xinfei Merchant Guild's importance extended beyond Military Magic Machinery. Its inventions in civilian Magic Machinery had proved even more valuable, helping the Candel Empire solve many important domestic problems.
Thus, as time passed, even Duke Windsor, the governor of the Southern Province-the most stubborn man in the Candel Empire and previously the Xinfei Merchant Guild's fiercest opponent-had been forced to swallow his pride and secretly cooperate with the guild.
From top to bottom, the Candel Empire had experienced the conveniences the Xinfei Merchant Guild brought it, and demand for cooperation with the guild continued to grow.
When the Xinfei Merchant Guild's caravan met with disaster in the Sunset Mountain Ranges, the guild immediately put pressure