Chapter 326 - 318. Baiting and Baited
"What chance?"
Darleon frowned. This man had just told him he wouldn’t hesitate to attack Celestia, and he said it was a chance?
The crimson eyes closed as the lips below formed a subtle smile. "During my academy days, every time we talked about guild and espers, it had always been Celestia...Celestia..." Radia said, suddenly walking down memory lane, which only grew Darleon’s confusion. "The guild of Celestia, the espers of Celestia...it was a textbook example, a study material, a standard to be adhered to. As someone who planned to make my own guild, I had to cram those things in my head."
The glory of Celestia was undisputed. It was the culmination of the Eastern Federation’s five best guilds, merged into one so the nation would have a strong tree everyone could take a shade in. It was the pillar of Eastern Federation’s sentinel community, so they could stand in equal prowess with the other nations.
But becoming an unchallenged entity meant absolute power. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Celestia was a tree standing in stagnant water, and stagnant water got polluted eventually.
Getting used to standing on top of everything, the guild and the espers started to become conceited, corrupted. Hiding behind the influence of its past glory, they did unspeakable things because they knew they could get away with it. The involvement of sponsors and investors just further convoluted the mess.
It wasn’t such a secret that the Celestia now wasn’t like the Celestia in the past. The shade reaching out to the entire land became selective; only protecting those they chose to. One by one, the founders left the guild after feeling fed up with the change, and the poisoned tree was left untended.
Darleon did not leave because of that. He tried his best to keep Celestia intact, gathering promising sprouts and teaching them to become the future of the guild. But in the end...he couldn’t do it anymore when he lost his wife, who had been supporting him all this time, even when he decided to get away from his family.
"Don’t you want to see the majestic guild we all know coming back?" Radia looked at the old man, and this time, Darleon could see a semblance of genuine emotion in those crimson eyes. "Not this arrogant, secretly hated establishment."
"You want me to clean the guild?" Darleon swallowed the stinging pain as the reality he didn’t want to admit was being brought up so casually. "Mallarc, you should know I’m no longer a Guildmaster. I might still hold an executive position, but I’m no more than a part of the advisory council."
Radia chuckled, the half-mocking gaze was back. "Did you say that because you believe to be so," one corner of his lips curled up, "or because of your cowardice?"