Summoning the Holy Sword

Nowadays, Kavos just couldn’t see through the Starlight mercenary group.

After the incident where Lize and the others got into an ambush, Kavos and Shauna became petrified. Although Deep Stone City wasn’t small, the mercenaries circles weren’t huge either, so in the blink of an eye, news of Lize and Anne’s battle with the knights had spread across the entire city. Everyone who heard this news could only mutter in their heads and didn’t know how to react. This period of time, they had been tossed from side to side and now that such an incident had happened, some mercenaries were worried that the Starlight mercenary group had plans to go against the army.

Kavos and Shauna were worried about this possibility too, but they didn’t express their concerns. If Starlight really had such intentions, it would be a huge impact to the newly joined mercenaries. Although after so many missions together, the mercenaries had a sense of belonging in this mercenary group, these mercenaries didn’t have the guts to go against the army. Of course, these were only the thoughts of ordinary mercenaries. A mercenary leader like Kavos had considered even further. He knew that Rhode and Marlene were of noble status and if there really was such a clash, it wouldn’t be considered a peasant revolt, but more a dispute over authority. Such matters shouldn’t be for small mercenaries like himself to get involved in.

The disputes of the higher-ups eventually affected the commoners the most.

However, the truth wasn’t as bad as what Kavos and Shauna had thought. The officials of Deep Stone City didn’t take any actions against the Starlight mercenary group, and according to a piece of news, the clash didn’t involve local soldiers. Furthermore, Administrative Officer Klautz had even specially made a trip down to their stronghold. Judging from the worried manner of this highly ranked personnel, it didn’t seem like he was here to stir trouble.

But, these weren’t the only changes.

After that clash, Starlight temporarily stopped their operations and no longer accepted any missions. Although the remunerations from the previous mission were fruitful, and the lower mercenaries weren’t too mindful of this idea, this couldn’t go on for long. However, although Kavos and Shauna was anxious, Rhode seemed to be neither worried nor sluggish. Other than letting the mercenaries search for herbs in the mountains or hunt for preys, there were no other activities. On the contrary, he spent his everyday with Lize, Marlene, Anne, Joey, and Randolf as though he wasn’t too concerned over matters of the mercenary group.

What exactly is this dear leader of mine thinking about?

Kavos was uncertain. Luckily, Shauna knew better, but was still not far from Kavos. News that Starlight would be representing the Paphield region in participating the Midsummer Festival was never told to them and the Mercenary Association wasn’t foolish enough to announce it to the public. What if the other mercenary groups were enraged? Everyone belonged to mercenary groups, and what rights did Starlight have to represent the region and not them? Starlight wasn’t even established half a year ago and now they were representing the Paphield region’s mercenaries?

But out of Shauna and Kavos’ expectations, Rhode gestured and rejected their suggestions.

“Get your men ready for the upcoming days. We’re heading to Golden City.”

“Golden City?”

Both of them exchanged curious glances. They indeed were experienced in this trade because they quickly realised the meaning behind that sentence.

“Sir, did you mean the… Midsummer Festival?”

Although the Midsummer Festival belonged to the territory of huge guilds, that didn’t mean that mercenary groups weren’t invited. As the Mercenary Association, they definitely knew that the lower classes were of utmost importance. And if they didn’t bait the mercenary groups into upgrading into guilds, they wouldn’t be able to grow. That was why other than guilds participating in team and individual battles, there were also other side events for mercenary groups and individual mercenaries to partake in. The side events would be for mercenary groups and ordinary mercenaries, and the final winner could win the rights to battle against the guilds. This was considered a good news for everyone as all mercenary groups desired fame, and if they could win in the Midsummer Festival and battle against the guild in team competitions, their reputation would definitely grow stronger. Furthermore, no matter if it was the team or individual battles, there would be a limit for the number of participants in each battle. That was why the guilds wouldn’t be able to defeat mercenary groups with their overwhelming number of members. Both sides would send out equal amount of members and if the mercenary groups could pull off an upset in the Midsummer Festival, it would definitely be the hottest news in town.

This was definitely what each mercenary groups would expect to achieve, and that was why many of them including the solo mercenaries would all participate.

However, to Shauna and Kavos, such activities were sort of meaningless.

“Sir, I think… we do not need to participate in the Midsummer Festival. Because we don’t have enough men, and the side events would require many battles with other mercenary groups. This would be an energy-consuming matter for us…”

Kavos thought for a moment and still felt that it was unreasonable. Indeed, becoming famous in the Midsummer Festival would be desirable for the mercenary group, but Starlight wasn’t packed with such abilities yet. The schedules for the side events were long and extremely tough to adhere to. Besides, the small mercenary groups would do anything to win, and Starlight was already lacking strong members to begin with. It would be huge trouble if some of them got injured.

“Of course I know that. But, this time, we are not participating in the side events.”

Rhode’s answer shook them.

Not participating in the side events?

Both of them looked at each other in dismay as a shocking thought cropped up in their minds.

Could it be that…

Before they returned from their daze, Rhode calmly solved the mystery in their heads.

“Our trip to the Golden City is to represent the Paphield region in the Midsummer Festival.”