Cold raindrops battered the stained-glass windows of the Golden Sail Merchant Guild's headquarters, like countless vultures tearing into a dying body.
The orderly bustle that had once filled the guild was gone, replaced by a panic on the verge of spiraling out of control.
Messengers in oilskin raincoats kept rushing in from outside, tossing hastily wax-sealed letters onto the reception desk before vanishing back into the rain without a backward glance. Their faces held no expression, only numbness.
Caroline sat in her spacious office.
Her desk had been carved from a single slab of ebony. Exquisite model ships and a silver inkwell symbolizing her family's honor had once graced its surface.
Now, those things lay buried beneath mountains of reports and accounts.
Caroline's fingertips brushed lightly over an intelligence summary that laid out the full scope of the storm.
In the few short days she had spent repairing her fleet, more than a dozen merchant guilds led by the Blackstone Hand had descended like vultures scenting blood, launching a textbook campaign of coordinated strangulation.
Bang!
The office door burst open, and Senior Steward Freeman scrambled inside, his face white as paper. He clutched a freshly opened letter, its rain-soaked paper crumpled into a wad.
"Vice President... the logging operations on the Amber Coast... they've all broken their contracts!" He stumbled up to the desk, his voice distorted by fear. "The Blackstone Hand! They offered thirty percent more than we did and bought up the entire output of Sea Monster Class dragonbone wood for the next three years! Our shipyard just sent word. With the raw materials cut off, every repair project has ground to a halt!"
Caroline sat straight behind her desk without looking at him, her gaze still resting on a contract termination letter from the Anvil Shipyard.
"It's not just the materials." Her voice was frighteningly calm as her fingertips traced the Blackstone Hand's seal on the letter. "Chief designer Gregor and his entire team accepted Hector Ester's offer of triple their salaries last night. He didn't even submit a resignation. He simply handed over the core structural plans for our next-generation Sea Serpent Class merchant ship as his pledge of allegiance."
The two pieces of news landed like heavy punches in the chest of everyone in the office. First, cripple them. Then cut off their supplies.
The enemy did not even bother disguising their intentions. They wanted the guild to watch its fleet rot through an endless wait, unable to find so much as a plank to patch it with.
Just then, a commotion rose outside the window. A booming voice, carried by some kind of amplification magic, pierced the curtain of rain and echoed across the harbor district.
"An announcement from the Blackstone Hand Merchant Guild! Effective immediately, we will take full control of the Jade Bay spice route! All former customers of the Golden Sail Merchant Guild will receive preferential rates upon presenting their old contracts! Guaranteed shipping capacity. Every delivery fulfilled!"
The third blow, the most arrogant of them all, arrived in the most humiliating way possible. It was a resounding slap across the Golden Sail Merchant Guild's already crumbling dignity.
Amid that deathly silence, a figure stepped forward.
He was a weather-beaten captain: Kevin, the one-armed old captain who had slammed the table in the meeting room a few days earlier and declared that his ship belonged to him.
"Captain Kevin!" The sharp rebuke rang out like the screech of a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "What do you think you're going to say at a time like this?! If I remember correctly, when the vice president first arrived, your ship was barely bigger than a bed! The guild was the one that built you up!"
Kevin ignored him. His weathered face was filled with anguish and inner conflict.
He bowed deeply to Caroline, his head nearly reaching his knees.
"Vice President." His voice was hoarse and heavy. "There are still thirty-seven sailors aboard my ship waiting for their wages to feed their families. I will never forget what Golden Sail has done for me. But to stand by and watch thirty-seven families go to the bottom of the sea with a ship doomed to sink... I... I can't do it."
By the end, his voice had sunk so low that, like his bowed head, it almost touched the floor.
"Hmph! I bet you've been planning to leave for ages, you traitor!" Freeman pointed at him in fury. "Who else? Let's see who else wants to leave Golden Sail today! Have you forgotten that the vice president's surname is Channing? The Channing Family!"
At the mention of the Channing Family, everyone's eyes filled with conflicting emotions once more.
Earl Channing-a nobleman with enough real power to turn Silver Bay Province upside down at a whim.
If the old earl would just say the word, never mind a crisis of this scale; he could afford to build another Golden Sail Merchant Guild from scratch.
But... would that lord truly wield his family's power for a "bloodless" daughter?
Kevin slowly raised his head, an inexplicable sorrow in his voice. "Vice President, you are still the woman I respect most. But... your father has advised you more than once to give up your maritime ventures. Golden Sail may founder for a time in this little harbor, but I believe that one day, its flag will fly high above some castle."
"Pah!" Freeman spat beside his feet. "Aren't you clever? Two years ago, you were the one puffing out your chest on deck and making grand declarations. Now you're the first to back down in the storm, yet you still have the gall to profess your loyalty! You clearly have no respect for the Channing Family!"
Kevin did not answer. He merely raised his head and looked at Freeman. Every trace of humility had vanished from his eyes, replaced by a vicious gaze seething with dark currents.
A sudden chill ran through Freeman, making him shudder. He immediately turned his anger on the others and snapped, "What about you! Do you all think the same way?!"
The room instantly grew tense, the air thick with the threat of a clash.
"Enough! Haven't you made enough of a scene?!"
With that sharp rebuke, Caroline finally spoke.
Everyone turned toward her, their heads bowed.
Caroline did not turn to look at anyone in the room. Instead, she gazed into the distance beyond the window, toward the Valerius Alchemy Laboratory, where Veylin was working tirelessly day and night.
"That gentleman said he had a solution, but we can't place everything on his shoulders alone." She continued as though speaking to herself. "I already wrote to my father about what's happening here. Whether he helps or not is his decision. Freeman, go tally up all the workers' wages. If we don't get through this, give each of them an extra three silver coins as severance pay."
She paused, then abruptly raised her voice, stubborn resolve ringing through it.
"If we do get through this, everyone who chooses to stay will receive thirty silver coins as a reward!"
"Thirty!" someone gasped under their breath.
But most of their faces remained grim. Get through this? How? By relying on that mysterious man shut away in his laboratory?
Rather than pin their hopes on him, they would be better off waiting for a letter from the Channing Family.
That was what any sensible person would think.
Just then, a household servant's voice came from outside, accompanied by hurried footsteps. He had run so fast that he nearly fell in the doorway.
"Good news! Good news! The master... the master has sent a letter!"
Those words instantly set the frozen air in the room flowing again. Everyone let out a long breath despite themselves. At a moment like this, whether the verdict meant life or death, the sooner it came, the sooner they could feel some relief.
And there was only one person who could pass judgment on everything here.
There could only be that one man.
Earl Silver Lion.