Do you have a problem with necromancers?

Chapter 69 Cooperation with different motives

The situation with the Troller Merchant Guild is not complicated: they really do have very few ships left, and Philro did not lie to Renn about this.

The reason for the lack of ships was illegal embezzlement. About half a month ago, Philro, using his authority as guild leader, illegally requisitioned the guild's ships to go to the Gem Isles for smuggling, intending to swallow up the excess profits that should have been given to the shareholders. As a result, the fleet was sunk by the patrolling High Elf navy, and only a few small sailboats escaped.

There was no other way but to temporarily find a middleman to borrow a ship, because normal trade activities must not be interrupted, otherwise the shareholders would soon find problems in the operating accounts.

As it turned out, a familiar intermediary said that the Nightmare Legion in River Bend Province used to be able to rent ships, but recently some mysterious figure has taken action and rented all of the legion's retired ships, causing an extreme shortage of ships on the market, making them impossible to rent.

Now, with the White Walkers incident, it nearly drove Master Phillow to a mental breakdown. Where in the merchant guild would they find extra ships to transport people and goods?
The appearance of the Dragon Daughter and her party gave the nearly despairing Guild Master Phillo a glimmer of hope for survival.

To other chambers of commerce, Ryan and his men were bandits who stole ships; but to Philro, they were benefactors who helped clear up the debts and could perfectly take the blame.

Therefore, when the guards of Longyuan City planned to set the city on fire, he risked coming through the underground passage to rescue them—not out of reverence for the daughter of the true dragon, but simply because he didn't want these debt-settling heroes to die.

Ryan offered him another idea: a more risky, bold, and radical approach, but with equally enticing results.

After returning to the Chamber of Commerce, Phillo sat in the manager's office for several hours, finally having to admit that he had an innate gambling streak in his personality; otherwise, he wouldn't have been so audacious as to use the Chamber of Commerce's ships for smuggling.

I'm going to place a bet!

He hastily donned a black robe to conceal his identity, left the Chamber of Commerce under the cover of night, and after confirming that the people in the City Council Hall were still alive, he went to the underground club of a secluded tavern and called over several Chamber of Commerce managers he was familiar with.

As everyone entered the room, they saw Chairman Phillo drinking silently, his eyes clear and bright, with an inexplicable fierceness about them.

"Why are you drinking so much again?" a friend advised him. "The more difficult the situation, the more you need to stay calm."

“There’s no way around it,” Philro said coldly. “If this continues, I’ll go insane.”

The others were speechless, so they simply sat down and drank together.

Dragon Peak City is confirmed to be finished. Although Dragon Plain City is currently calm, it will fall sooner or later. In addition, the merchants' guilds generally do not have enough ships, and the available transport capacity is limited. The heavy losses to come are already foreseeable.

Although this matter is an act of God, as the head of the chamber of commerce, one naturally has to take the blame for the chamber's operating losses, since investors are often not reasonable people.

As they chatted, the conversation turned to the major merchant guilds in the city. As soon as they received the news, they immediately spent a lot of money to buy up all the idle boats of fishermen in Longyuan City.

These small merchant guilds also urgently needed transportation capacity, but they simply couldn't compete with the large merchant guilds for acquisitions. Their investors weren't just the landed nobles of Changshui Province, but also the super-rich nobles of the southern border of the empire.

"Damn it, let's just surrender to the Dragon Queen!" one guild leader cursed. "Let the Dragon Queen wipe out all these big merchant guilds. Even a lose-lose situation is better than them winning alone!"

“Okay,” Philo, who had been drinking silently, suddenly said.

"Haha, I was just kidding." The guild leader immediately backed down and waved his hand, saying, "Drunk ramblings, don't take it seriously."

Merchant guilds are generally backed by nobles. Even if a merchant guild is so competitive that it becomes an enemy, it doesn't prevent the two noble families behind it from being friendly and harmonious. If one merchant guild rashly attacks another with force, the nobles behind it will likely see it as a case of "their own dog biting the neighbor's dog," and will probably beat the dog severely afterward.

Phil glanced at him and suddenly said:

"The Dragon Maiden destroyed the Great Merchant Guild, what does that have to do with us? Isn't this a good thing?"

None of the chamber of commerce presidents present, who had reached the position of manager, were simple-minded. Upon hearing this, they immediately lowered their heads and drank their wine, thus concealing their thoughtful emotions.

What do you mean? Philro, you... could it be that you've already sided with the Dragon Maiden and are planning to take action against those major merchant guilds?
Thinking about it carefully, what the Dragon Queen and her people want are ships. So, the large merchant guilds with the most ships are naturally the Dragon Queen's main targets. How could we small merchant guilds possibly become her enemies?
After we take down the Great Merchant Guild, the Dragon Daughter and the others will feast, and we can just have some soup too!
“Philro,” one of the guild leaders asked tentatively, “if… I mean, if we had provided the Dragon Daughter with even the slightest bit of help…”

"No one says we can't cooperate with the Dragon Daughter," Philro said calmly. "As for the relationship between the Dragon Daughter and the Grand Merchant Guild... what does that have to do with us?"

Everyone immediately perked up.

As long as the Dragon Maiden takes the blame for us, we won't hesitate to fight, let alone loot and burn down the entire Dragon Plains City!

So the guild leaders secretly consulted for a long time and finally reached a consensus that Philro would go and communicate with the Dragon Girl to finalize the cooperation relationship.

Once the details are finalized, the association leaders will become guides, providing "all conveniences and support except for sending people to fight," such as where a certain chamber of commerce's warehouse is located, how many ships it has, and where they are moored...

The Dragon Girl and her allies possess absolute military power at a dominant level, but what they lack is precisely this kind of detailed intelligence. Cooperation between the two sides would be mutually beneficial, and the possibility of this deal being reached is very high; it is definitely worth negotiating!

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In the city council hall, after repelling another attack organized by the Longyuan City guards, Ellina returned gracefully, carrying her spear.

“The current situation is that they can’t break in, and we can’t break out either,” she whispered to the others. “There are at least thirty crossbows outside.”

Crossbows, once they are numerous and numerous, pose a great threat to heroes. Unless a hero like Aurora is proficient in archery and can secretly take out the crossbowmen one by one from the shadows, the enemy can launch concentrated fire in waves, creating a large-scale and uninterrupted suppressive fire, making it difficult even for heroes to retaliate.

Raine remained calm. While Ellina and Berthalia might be helpless against the crossbowmen outside, necromancers were least afraid of overwhelming numbers.

Do you like my one-click resurrection feature for the Undead Scourge?

"Gentlemen," Philro's voice came from behind again, as he emerged from some secret passage once more, "we have considered it and are willing to cooperate with you."

“A wise choice.” Renn smiled slightly. “As for the specific details…”

“Please let us discuss this in detail during our evacuation,” Philro gestured.

(End of this chapter)