There are more than a hundred established guilds in Valenzia—all of them—well-known and famous throughout the region.
However, among even the best guilds who managed to establish a foothold in the city of dreams through blood, sweat, and tears, only the top fifty were acknowledged.
Naturally, the higher the guild's rank, the more famous its adventurers would be amongst the common populace—literally treated as celebrities no matter which city they go to.
As for Raven's Blade, they were well within the top fifty.
Ranking sixteenth among all the adventurer's guilds in Valenzia, Soaring Raven's guild was quite prominent.
After all, it has only been around three decades since the guild had managed to establish its footing in Valenzia City.
In adventurer terms, one might call it a "Super Rookie Guild".
A decade ago, the guild's founder, Soaring Raven's father, met his demise due to the accumulated effects of a curse inflicted by one of the black dragon's generals. This occurred when he attempted to aid the renowned hero party fifty years ago in sealing the black dragon.
Since then, the title of "Soaring Raven" has been inherited by him as the guildmaster, and though he hasn't held the position for an extended period, he is no novice either.
In fact, under his brilliant lead, the ranking of Raven's Blade skyrocketed from thirty-fourth to sixteenth in the span of a decade, however, as excellent as Soaring Raven was, he was only one man.
They've been stuck at the sixteenth rank for three years now and if he wanted their rank to improve, then he must recruit as many talented rookies as he could.
Unfortunately, the best prospects tend to join those in the top ten and although the rookies they were able to recruit in the past three years were not bad, they simply weren't the best.
Hence, Soaring Raven had to think outside the box—always plotting and scheming a few steps ahead of other guild masters to secure talented prospects for his guild.
They simply didn't expect his honesty.
Usually, guild masters tend to prioritize their own images, choosing to lie if necessary to recruit prospects of their choice, thus, Soaring Raven's actions were truly a curveball.
Fortunately for Soaring Raven, his plan mostly worked, convincing four out of the seven representatives to ponder about joining his guild.
He subtly showed them his competence as a guild master after all.
Kiin, Harry, David, and Wendy, thought that even though the guild was currently not at the peak of the rankings, as long as they worked together, pushing the guild's rank toward the top wouldn't be impossible.
Moreover, they've recently discovered that gradually ascending to the summit brings greater satisfaction and rewards than attaining instant success from the get-go, or worse—only attaining fame due to the guild's illustrious name and not because of one's own capabilities.
Lastly, the guild master made an effort to watch over them from afar even though he was unsure if assassins would indeed go after the Colzen convoy.
This fact not only showed the guild master's sincerity in wanting to recruit them to his guild but also his capabilities as a strong, smart, and decisive leader—proven by the fact that it was only he who managed to predict what would happen and decisively act on his ideas, all for a higher success rate in recruiting them as guild rookies.
Thus, the four mentioned representatives were thoroughly impressed.
A good start for Soaring Raven.
However, it was unavoidable that among the Colzen representatives, a select few, shaped by numerous life-and-death encounters, began to exhibit innovative thinking, rendering them slightly more cunning than their counterparts.
Namely—Siegfried, Ian, and Shye.
"With all due respect and gratitude for saving our lives, Guild Master Soaring Raven. Although your story was indeed believable, I couldn't help but think that these assassins might be your paid actors. If so, then I apologize for the rudeness, but you—saving our lives—wouldn't be considered "sincere"."