To outsiders, the Xinfei Merchant Guild had issued a final warning to the Mana Magical Kingdom, then swiftly launched a formal attack after the kingdom ignored it. Its decisiveness and speed were remarkable-almost absurdly so.
In reality, however, the proposal to launch a formal attack on the Mana Magical Kingdom had met far more resistance within the Xinfei Merchant Guild than appearances suggested.
More precisely, the vast majority of the guild's senior management had vehemently opposed the idea.
That was hardly surprising. From any perspective, a merchant guild declaring war on a kingdom was an act of utter madness.
Especially when that kingdom was the Mana Magical Kingdom.
Unlike ordinary kingdoms such as the Lampari Kingdom and the Rulson Kingdom, the Mana Magical Kingdom had the Mages' Guild backing it. Its access to mages gave it an advantage unmatched by any other nation on the continent, making its army substantially more powerful than those of ordinary kingdoms like the Lampari Kingdom.
Most of the Xinfei Merchant Guild's senior managers believed that declaring war on the Mana Magical Kingdom was nothing short of suicide.
Even if the Mages' Guild really had secretly ordered the Mana Magical Kingdom's mages to attack the Xinfei Merchant Guild directly, the most appropriate response was surely to strengthen their defenses and prevent it from happening again, not rush off to war with the Mana Magical Kingdom.
After all, the trap the Xinfei Merchant Guild had set earlier had indeed resolved the problem.
No matter how many mages the Mana Magical Kingdom possessed, it could not simply shrug off the loss of twenty-three Advanced Mages and a Great Mage.
As long as the Xinfei Merchant Guild took proper defensive measures, the Mana Magical Kingdom would have no opening to exploit.
Of course, that was not the senior