The Alchemy Guild of the Inner Circle was the same as Jacob left it, but there was a slightly different, which Jacob noticed almost instantly the moment he entered the building with his signature outfit.
Everyone was looking at him with terror as if he was some monster walking among a flock of sheep.
'It seemed the news about the massacre by my hands had reached far and wide…' Jacob easily guessed why they were giving him those wary and appalled gazes.
However, for Jacob, it doesn't matter how people look at him as long as they won't get in his way.
The moment Jacob entered the top floor where his workshop lay, he found three guys standing in front of the lift with anxious looks on their faces. They were Dilly, the gnome he had tasked to find a way to contact Hallberg, Clayton, the soon-to-be Guild Leader, and Audrey, the soon-to-be Vice Guild Leader.
These three could be said to have some ties with Jacob, and the moment they heard Jacob had returned, they didn't even waste a moment and quickly appeared here to greet him like loyal subjects.
They naturally knew about the ghastly deed done by Jacob the very day he left the guild, and truthfully, they were scared out of their damn minds when they thought about how they were living with a monster for almost two years, and he will be returned very soon.
As for those who, in any way, offend Jacob, like those three guys who lost limbs, they had long fled the inner circle and hid somewhere.
Right now, Jacob could be said to be the most terrifying existence in the entire Dark City. Even the Dark Nobles feared him, and the mercenary guild didn't dare to seek justice for all those lives lost by Jacob's hand.
Jacob coldly looked at the three, which made them sweat more profusely as he said, "I was about to look for you three. You save me some time, at least. Come walk with me."
Jacob left the lift and started to walk toward his workshop while those three looked at each other with great surprise in his eyes before they gulped and then followed him behind with trepidation.
"First, tell me why you were here?" Jacob coolly asked while walking without looking behind.
"W-we were here to greet you and seek your opinion on some very important matters." It was the kobold, Clayton, who spoke respectfully while choosing his words carefully as if his life depended on it.
"I don't care about guild's matters. You two can do as you please. I didn't appoint you two as the Leader and Vice Leader to seek my opinion on every matter. Now, if there's anything else, then out with it." Jacob dismissively stated.
Clayton and Audrey glanced at each other with wry looks in their eyes before they could only smile in self-mockery to even think Jacob would be interested in the measly guild power when he could probably win over the entire city.
"Then it's about the matter of Dark Being. I heard they are heading our way!" Dilly finally spoke with a grim expression.
Jacob's eye finally shimmered with a hint of interest as he asked, "I heard about it as well. Since you also know, then it means the other two hegemonies' higher-ups also knew. Tell me what your thoughts are about it and the sides."
Dilly wasn't surprised as Jacob didn't know about the Dark Being's invasion. He quickly reported, "They are naturally planning to evacuate their people from the Dark City as the Lich King's target is most likely the Dark City. So, we naturally thought the same thing. We need your words to start the process as well."
"Where would everyone go once they leave the Dark City? Aren't the entire rare plains will be under the Dark Beings' control once the Magic Beast Forest is also conquered?" Jacob impassively asked without many reactions from the revelation.
"We will go to the Star Ocean and then wait for the incoming reinforcement heading our way, and then we'll regroup with them. This is the only chance of survival at this moment." It was Audrey who replied.
'I thought so as well…' Jacob thought before he said, "What if the Lich King were to be killed instead, as well as all the top-ranking dark beings?"
The three were shocked by Jacob's unexpected question and then looked at each other with widened eyes before they looked back at Jacob with shining eyes.
"T-then I don't think we need to run away at all. Instead, people will fight back because they were only afraid of the Lich King and high-ranking Dark Beings, not those low-ranking Dark Beings!" Clayton quickly replied before he hesitantly asked with some courage, "Leader, a-are you planning…"
Before he could finish his words, Jacob cut him short with his cold words, "I was just curious. I'm not a hero, nor do I have any enmity or personal grudge with the Dark Beings."
"But aren't Dark Beings the enemy of all living being?" Audrey couldn't help but softly refute.
The two men couldn't help but give Audrey a hard look as well as secretly admire her courage to refute Jacob's words like this. Even Audrey felt her blood run cold when she realized she had instinctively spoken and forgotten just who she was talking with and wanted to apologize quickly, but Jacob spoke first in a dismissive tone.
"Enemies are those who we actively oppose or hold deep hostility towards them. But when you start feeling fear of your enemy, it's no longer your enemy but your menace.
"Right now, the way everyone is running away from the Dark Beings, instead of opposing them, it's quite clear they feared them. Even if someone is foolish enough to stand on their feet and oppose them, why it had to be me?
"Do I owe those cowards anything, or do I have something to prove by putting my life in jeopardy? Heroes and Saviors are those who leave behind a legend, but the one who wrote those legends will always be a Bard who observes those heroes from up close. And I'm none of these two types of person."
Jacob then suddenly stopped in front of his workshop and then turned his hooded head toward the three with bewildered looks and said coldly.
"I want to be a cowardly King who always hides in the face of danger until the danger is gone and then comes out and pays or gets rid of that Bard to replace the Hero's name in the Legend!"