"In fact, there are quite a few guilds like ours. Savalu often sends commissions to us, just like this mission…"
The middle-aged guild master spoke quietly. As he explained, Moen's expression became increasingly strange. He could only feel that the world was full of all sorts of oddities.
This Duke Savalu was connected with most of the dark guilds within his territory.
He didn't just pay protection money to the "Neck of the Swamp." Instead, he spread it around generously—basically every dark guild received some.
And that was why Duke Savalu could mobilize the people of "Neck of the Swamp" to assassinate Jude. Duke Savalu had issued this task to all the dark guilds within his territory, casting a wide net and in the end, a foolish fish really did bite.
Most dark guilds didn't dare accept this mission. These small local dark guilds didn't even have much of a reputation, so naturally they wouldn't dare provoke someone from "Fairy Tail." Only "Neck of the Swamp" produced this pair of bizarre twin brothers.
"Duke Savalu really knows how to play."
Moen sighed somewhat. What kind of "protection fee" was this? Wasn't this basically a "franchise fee"? Through this "franchise fee," Duke Savalu maintained contact with these dark guilds at all times.
Once Duke Savalu wanted to do something, he could directly "broadcast a message" to all the dark guilds within his territory. If he took the money he paid them and instead used it to eliminate some dark guilds, he might indeed be able to wipe out a few but for Duke Savalu, that really wasn't as useful as the current arrangement.
Legitimate guilds wouldn't charge him protection money, but they also wouldn't help him do dirty work! Dark guilds, however, had no such scruples murder, arson, kidnapping, extortion, nothing was off limits.
For Duke Savalu, this money was essentially used to "raise" dark guilds as his personal thugs.
To be fair, most people really had no way to contact a large number of dark guilds as quickly as Duke Savalu could.
After all, dark guilds themselves had a certain need for secrecy. A careless dark guild could be wiped out by legitimate guilds at any time.
"Alright, alright. So that's how you play it, huh?"
Moen couldn't help but laugh. At first, he hadn't even realized that these dark guilds were all part of the power structure surrounding Savalu, the local overlord!
Although this part of the structure was maintained by money and couldn't be directly commanded, it was still extremely important to Savalu. Dark guilds could do too many things, things that were inconvenient to do openly. The money he spent truly wasn't wasted.
"Hand all this evidence over to me. Then you'll serve as a witness."
Looking at the guild master of "Neck of the Swamp," Moen spoke concisely. It seemed resolving this matter would be much easier than he had imagined.
Duke Savalu's methods were far wilder than he had expected. What that man had done could fairly be described as digging his own grave, courting his own destruction. He had touched something he absolutely should not have touched.
"I'll go get it… right away."
The dark guild master responded repeatedly. Betraying a client meant nothing to him. As long as the money was enough, even turning around and killing the employer wouldn't be a problem.
That was exactly the kind of business these dark guilds specialized in. Got complaints? Then go do those dirty jobs yourself.
Before long, the guild master brought the items. "Neck of the Swamp" kept a special ledger that recorded such information.
The client's identity, the job to be done, the payment amount—all were recorded in the ledger. Of course, not every client's identity had been investigated. Some trivial jobs hadn't bothered tracing the person behind them, obviously because it was considered a waste of resources.
"Do you know the locations of other dark guilds?"
After storing the ledger away, Moen asked the dark guild member another question. Since he was already here, he might as well deal with a few more along the way.
"You may not know this, but competition between dark guilds like us is very fierce. If our location were exposed, another guild might hire a legitimate guild to eliminate us."
The middle-aged man's explanation didn't surprise Moen.
The relationships between these dark guilds really did resemble a kind of dark forest—especially among the smaller ones.
They generally had no sense of honor. When they fought each other, there was practically no bottom line. Reporting a location to a legitimate guild was just another tactic.
The larger dark guilds at the top didn't behave this way. They would even form alliances to oppose the Magic Council.
"Useless trash."
Moen shook his head and cursed, then kicked out directly.
Black feathers covered the guild master's body. Several crows flew up, grabbing the "Neck of the Swamp" leader and lifting him into the air. The twin brothers who had attempted the assassination were naturally taken along as well.
Holding onto a glider and pulled by the crows, Moen took off directly. He didn't even glance at the swamp that had been frozen for so long, simply directing the crows northward.
One reason Moen felt Duke Savalu "knew how to play" was because the Magic Council's Fiore branch wasn't far from his territory. Just a short distance north would reach it. Yet right under the Magic Council's nose, he still dared to mess around recklessly.
Further north of the Magic Council's Fiore branch was the capital of the Kingdom of Fiore—"The City of Flowers," Crocus.
This capital city lay in the middle of the kingdom, so it wasn't very far from the south. In a sense, it served as a deterrent, since the royal capital could dispatch troops southward at any time.
Moen didn't fly to "The City of Flowers," Crocus. Instead, he landed at the location of the Magic Council's Fiore branch. Going to the royal family certainly wasn't as useful as going to the Magic Council. Between two useless groups, the Magic Council was at least somewhat capable of handling matters.
Although this place was called the "Magic Council Fiore Branch," it was actually the "headquarters among the branches."
Other cities in the kingdom also had Magic Council branch stations. By comparison, this place naturally served as the headquarters within the Kingdom of Fiore.
When Moen arrived at the entrance of this "headquarters among branches," he naturally received extremely high-level reception. Although he had arrived suddenly, the branch director personally came out to greet him. There was no helping it, his current reputation was simply too overwhelming.
After Moen handed over the three prisoners from "Neck of the Swamp" and submitted the guild's ledger, the administrator revealed a strange expression, looking as if he wanted to speak but hesitated.
"What? Is there some kind of problem with these things?"
Moen looked strangely at the branch head named Felix.
"No, there's no problem. This evidence is very important. We will immediately go hold Savalu accountable, and at the same time we will send people to notify the government of the Kingdom of Fiore to see how they plan to handle it."
Felix shook his head and then spoke. Of course they couldn't tolerate something like this. Savalu simply hadn't taken them seriously. That guy absolutely had to give them an explanation!
"Minister Felix, supporting and raising dark guilds, this is no longer the matter of an ordinary noble. A heavy blow must be dealt!"
Moen spoke. He felt that this matter had to be strictly investigated and severely handled!
"Yes, this matter is indeed extremely serious. It must be handled carefully, otherwise it could very likely cause quite a large public opinion storm."
Felix nodded again, his expression very serious.
"This kind of trend must be stopped. This practice is a destruction of the Magic Council's system. He simply doesn't take you seriously at all!"
Looking at Felix, Moen kept emphasizing it.
"…"
Moen's words made Felix complain inwardly. It seemed that you people from Fairy Tail also didn't really take our Magic Council seriously.
"If your Magic Council can't handle this matter, then we Fairy Tail will handle it ourselves. When facing something like this we absolutely cannot shrink back!"
Moen continued speaking, which made Felix complain inwardly even more.
'Sure enough, you people from Fairy Tail really don't take us seriously, do you?'
Although he complained in his heart, Felix knew that what Moen said made a lot of sense. The nature of this matter was indeed extremely bad.
The reason he had looked strange and hesitant earlier was simply because he wanted to complain a little. These people from Fairy Tail were really good at giving them extra work! Because of Fairy Tail's existence, their workload was much greater than that of colleagues in other countries!
Felix had not forgotten that the Moen in front of him had just caused them a big headache not long ago—namely Jose Porla. They had only just handed that hot potato over.
"I look forward to your handling result."
Moen finally left a sentence and then departed, leaving behind the somewhat mentally disordered Branch Minister Felix.
Felix felt that he had been threatened, but he had no evidence.
There was nothing he could do. What Moen said sounded righteous and confident. Although his wording was somewhat intense, the core intention seemed good, as if he were thinking for the sake of the Magic Council and maintaining the order of the magic world.
"How did this Savalu offend Moen?"
After Moen left, Felix was quite puzzled. The conflict between the Heartfilia Consortium and the southern great nobles had not yet spread, so Felix naturally felt confused that Moen seemed to have quite a bit of hostility toward this Duke Savalu.
"But no matter what, the investigation team and the forced detention unit must be dispatched!"
Although he felt puzzled, Felix could not refuse the merit that Moen had delivered to his doorstep. This matter was not difficult to handle.
Very soon, the Magic Council's professional troops were dispatched. The Magic Council naturally had professional armed forces—and magical troops at that. After all, their targets of sanction were dark guilds, so they naturally required magical troops capable of carrying out arrest missions.
"The Magic Council's forced detention unit surrounded Savalu's residence. Duke Savalu was taken away without resisting."
A few days later, Moen received the news. It could be said that the matter progressed extremely smoothly. That fellow Savalu didn't even resist before being directly arrested by the Magic Council.
"So cowardly?"
Moen couldn't help clicking his tongue. Was the Magic Council's deterrence really that great?
That Savalu who had been quite arrogant before, when facing the Magic Council's arrest warrant, actually didn't even have the courage to gather people and resist?
"Could it be that we previously didn't take the Magic Council seriously enough?"
Moen began reflecting. Had the Magic Council's image within Fairy Tail developed some sort of problem? Had both sides already formed a kind of stereotype?
The Magic Council believed that Fairy Tail were "troublemakers," "a source of problems," and people who would "create trouble even when there wasn't any."
And Fairy Tail believed that the Magic Council was a group of nagging busybodies who would chatter endlessly about everything, always coming to cause them trouble.
They simply disliked each other on sight.
But no matter what, Savalu's arrest was already a fact. Although the final judgment had not yet been decided, he probably wouldn't be able to cause trouble anymore, because no one wanted him to come out and make trouble again.
The government of the Kingdom of Fiore cooperated with the Magic Council and directly went south to take over Duke Savalu's territory. The Magic Council also issued commissions, mobilizing the power of mage guilds to clean up the dark guilds within Duke Savalu's territory.
"So… the real privileged class in this world is actually mages…"
Regarding this result, Jude sighed with emotion.
Duke Savalu had seemed like an incomparably powerful opponent to him, even a troublesome problem for the entire Kingdom of Fiore. But after Moen intervened, after the Magic Council intervened, everything became different.
Facing Moen, Duke Savalu feared damaging something valuable and had no way to act. He couldn't even hire assassins to kill Moen, because the dark guilds he could contact, even if bundled together, might still not be Moen's opponent. So he could only target Jude.
And after Moen captured his weakness and the Magic Council stepped in, Duke Savalu had even less ability to resist. In front of the Magic Council's authority and forced detention troops, he didn't even have the intention to resist.
During all this, the government of the Kingdom of Fiore didn't play any role at all. They only took over his territory after Savalu was arrested, essentially winning the entire situation while lying down. This was truly a score of 3.0—no, that's not right. Although they didn't contribute anything, at least they didn't cause trouble, so giving them a passing score of 6.0 wasn't unreasonable.
"Isn't that perfectly normal? When someone holds a blade, the desire to kill naturally arises. If a class with great strength does not obtain corresponding status, do you think society can remain stable? The reason Ishgar can remain relatively stable now is precisely because mages have a special status."
Moen said this as if it were completely natural. As a member of Fairy Tail, he understood more clearly than anyone whether mages had special status.
If they didn't, with the behavior style of Fairy Tail, who knew how many members would have already been arrested and thrown into prison.
In a certain sense, the existence of the Magic Council and those long-established regulations truly gave ordinary people the conditions to live normal lives instead of becoming servants of mages.
If there were no Magic Council and no such rules, Moen wouldn't have needed to waste words with people like Duke Savalu, nor would he need to collect Savalu's evidence. A single slap across the face would have solved everything.
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