278 Failure
While the fight of the SSS Rank Hunter was ongoing, rumors about Zephyr and the awakened calamities spread far and wide across every continent.
However, these rumors were becoming exaggerated, creating a problem as maintaining public safety in such a situation was nearly impossible.
"What are you thinking about?" Sylvie asked Arthur.
Both of them were preparing to leave Mzelm Island and return to Soran. All the families and guests had returned to their respective continents, and the Kalvas Gala was halted.
Even the auction was stopped, the vaults were sealed again, and they were sent to the Artisan's Association. Not wanting to risk it any further, the vaults were sent to be kept under the eye of Dexter Wright, the only SSS Rank Hunter that had not gone to face the calamity.
"Ah, nothing," Arthur replied.
But in his head, he was compiling a list of people who could be behind Zephyr.
Regardless, this situation wasn't benefiting anyone in the Elite Families. Their reputation was being tarnished, and the resources that would be lost or used in stopping the Monster Tide were significant.
"You seem eager to go back home," Arthur said, changing the subject.
"Of course, I still have many questions for my son," Sylvie replied. Arthur remembered the Night Party, particularly Asher's entrance.
"I almost forgot about it," Arthur said.
"I want to ask him, who is that girl?" Sylvie said. Arthur could understand why Sylvie wanted to know about that girl first before making any decisions.
Arthur understood that aside from being the Heir of the Greville Family, Asher was considered to potentially become the strongest hunter of this generation. His talent was even said to surpass Nathaniel and Ivar Greville. It wasn't hard to realize that the number of people wanting to take advantage of this situation was not low.
In a private villa in Soran,
"So, did you find any clues?" Leonard asked a middle-
aged man.
The man was the assistant of Osbert Tarvian, so Leonard could freely contact him.
"I can't use the World Association database, but from my personal investigation, I didn't find any substantial results," the man said.
"Keep looking, I want to know who that girl is," Leonard commanded, and the man immediately nodded.
"And the formalities about our company are ready, right?" Leonard asked.
"We have contacted all the possible people that we could merge with in this project, so it won't be an issue," the assistant replied.
"I want all the major businesses, distributors, everyone on our side," Leonard stated.
"Ignore Somaria, just focus on the other four," Leonard added with a calm look on his face.
Leonard was already informed that all their spies and moles in the Abyss Corporation were killed, and some didn't dare betray the Abyss Corporation anymore.
Without the support of any of the Elite Families of Somaria, it was nearly impossible for them to enter the market of Somaria.
"We don't have to worry about them—" The assistant was saying something but stopped midway.
Leonard raised his eyebrows as he noticed the assistant's behavior.
"What the hell?" The assistant exclaimed as he watched the news.
"What happened?" Leonard asked, confused.
"The news, it's.." The assistant was too shocked to articulate.
Leonard himself tapped on his phone, and the news broadcast popped up. Many news sources were covering stories about corruption and misuse of power among many large and small corporations.
It was completely unexpected, and both Leonard and the assistant were shocked as they couldn't comprehend how such a thing had happened.
The reactions of those exposed were full of horror, while others were full of expectations.
"So he was telling the truth," one of the owners of a company that was going to sign a contract with a big upcoming corporation, said to himself.
He had received insider information about multiple people being accused of various crimes, data he wasn't even aware of. But the current situation was not exactly convenient for them to manipulate the media.
Even in this situation, those in the business industry were looking for a way to profit. A simple strategy was to crush the people who were being mentioned all over the news.
"I cannot believe that these people were like this," a middle-aged woman said as she watched the news.
From corruption to harassment, and even worse things were being reported. This caused quite an uproar, as families of those implicated were being discussed all over the internet.
"Hey, who the hell leaked this video footage!" an old man shouted at a room full of people.
"We don't know, Sir, we're trying to find out," a young man spoke up.
"Dammit, those bastards won't let this opportunity go," the old man said irritably.
The empire he had built his entire life was about to crumble. As he had predicted, various other people who were not exposed were attacking their company.
"This should be enough," Tom said as he sent half the information he had to news sources.
"Now, just as the boss said, they will do the rest of the work," Tom said as he relaxed in his chair.
Asher's plan was to cripple the economic support they had for the future corporation that Reece and Leonard were going to lead. But doing so required too much time and effort if done the conventional way, and time was something they didn't have.
So the best option was to let those people handle each other while trying to survive themselves.
Asher, who was on his way to the World Academy, saw the news making headlines. The same officials of the World Associations were pushing this news. They had found a way to distract people.
'It should be done before he returns,' Asher thought to himself.
The timing needed to be perfect, as Osbert's return would resolve this issue.
All the people being exposed had one thing in common: they had a contract with a business corporation set to introduce itself to the world in the coming years.
The list that was exposed to the news sources had only 11 names on it, but all those people were heavily invested in the business plan that was being made by Osbert Tarvian himself.
Currently, they were being attacked by the same people who had contact with the Tarvian family and the Williams family's heir.
The opportunity to remove your competition was too enticing for certain individuals to resist betraying these people and worsening their cases.
Public scrutiny was high, as Asher noticed the comments people were making about the whole situation.
All these people were trying to figure out how this leak occurred and who had betrayed them, but they could never imagine in their wildest dreams that their current predicament was a result of Osbert Tarvian's actions.
Osbert was a type of man who didn't trust anyone, even with a mana oath. He wanted something more under his control so that if someone went against him, their traces could be removed.
All this information was found in the leaked data under Osbert's name.
Soon, Asher reached the Portal Dome, and it was time for him to enter the World Academy before Farnus could return.
"Remove their names," Leonard said as he thought about it calmly.
"But Young Master, the loss would be too great on our side," The assistant replied.
"Just do as I say," Leonard responded, his face calm.
"I will handle whatever Father says about this," Leonard said, and the assistant nodded.
This whole situation had cornered them deeply, and now this leak had forced Leonard to make this choice.
If Osbert weren't away, he could make all these people sit down calmly, but his absence had made the situation much worse.
Inside the World Academy,
"Why did I agree to all this?" Professor Argas said as he tapped his fingers repeatedly on the book cover.
He was getting anxious, after all, he was asked to breach the data system and authorise illegal artifacts into the World Academy.
This was a crime that could cost Argas his life if he was caught, but he had no choice but to follow Asher's orders.
After all, if he didn't, the result would remain the same.
It didn't matter where Argas leaned; both sides had only cliffs, and he was bound to fall.
"Yeah, the Principal is away; I can get away with this," Argas tried to convince himself.
Even though Farnus was away, the security of the World Academy was not a joke, but Asher had told him to only go as far as the data system.
Argas had the authority to enter there, but tampering with it would raise alarms, and he would end up getting caught.
He didn't understand why the Heir of the Greville Family was so keen on bringing the artifacts inside.
"Shit," Argas cursed.
"Why is he making me do this?" Argas muttered.
Asher was the most powerful in the first year; he didn't need those artifacts.
But despite that, he was making Argas do something that could expel both of them from the World Academy.
