What the old butler didn't explicitly mention was that the remaining forty percent of adventurers weren't necessarily firmly on the side of hunting Amaryllis either—some adventurers had temporarily chosen to wait and see.
In just one day, the adventurers' attitudes had completely reversed by one hundred eighty degrees.
"...I cannot understand. Did Amaryllis say something?"
"This old servant has not yet learned of any statements from Amaryllis... but I know something of the cause."
"What is it?"
"Anastasia... the reason for the adventurers' rebellion is a woman who is protecting Amaryllis."
"...A name both strange yet familiar. I'm too old to remember clearly."
"My lord, do you recall [Golden Dawn]?"
"Oh... now that you mention it, I have an impression. [Golden Dawn]... one of the Kingdom of Michel's top-ranking adventurer mercenary groups, which fell into being a cult because of a woman. That woman was Anastasia, correct?"
"Precisely."
"How strange. Where does she get such influence? She's merely a maid."
"This..."
The old butler really couldn't bring himself to say it.
The subordinate had awkwardly reported that the adventurers' statements were all quite bizarre.
When someone questioned them, "Did a single busty maid really buy you all off?", the adventurers actually replied, "Yes, is there a problem with that?" Faced with such shameless answers, any questioning seemed pale and powerless.
The rest were inexplicable reasons like "Nobles are the guild type with the highest playability, aren't you tempted?"—"Anna has even higher playability" and similar nonsensical justifications. The only thing that could be determined was that they were absolutely determined to stand on Anastasia's side. Who knew what kind of enchantment they'd been put under.
The old butler was hesitating over how to present these absurd facts to the duke when the duke made his decision first.
"—No matter."
"My lord?"
"The rebels are all independent adventurers. Adventurer guild organizations couldn't possibly rebel so rashly. Oh, [Golden Dawn] is naturally an exception."
The duke's accumulated experience over the years allowed him to correctly judge the situation even without stepping out of the castle.
Guildless adventurers could rebel at will, but if they had joined a guild, that was a group matter. In situations where they couldn't weigh which side was more advantageous, they would act cautiously rather than rashly betting on the same side.
In fact, the duke's judgment wasn't wrong. Most guild-affiliated adventurers had restrained themselves and hadn't taken clear positions. After all, guild adventurers had to consider not just themselves but whether they would harm the guild's interests—they couldn't just rebel on a whim.
Of course, [Golden Dawn]—now Anna's Support Group—was an exception. They were the only large guild organization that stood firmly on Anna's side without wavering.
It hadn't reached an irreversible point yet.
Guilds were organized groups that often played assault roles whenever something happened in the game. Take the most common World Bosses, for example—the Kingdom of Michel's most powerful mercenary group organization, the Rhodes Mercenary Group, had claimed the heads of more than one world-class boss.
In terms of pure combat ability, they might be at a numerical disadvantage, but their overall fighting power wouldn't be inferior to large numbers of scattered adventurers who had no coordination whatsoever.
The game had no built-in multi-person chat software, placing high demands on command abilities for guild and group combat. Uncoordinated adventurers were nothing more than loose sand.
"Pass my orders: increase rewards for noble and mercenary group adventurer organizations to get them on our side, then open trade conveniences and special privileges to adventurer merchant associations, get their intelligence networks running. Put the organizations we win over on a whitelist, notify the troops guarding the entrances immediately, grant special passage rights allowing guild members to enter the ducal territory directly without inspection."
"By your command."
In terms of numbers, the duke had means to compensate.
After all, the [Barrier] was controlled by the duke—letting in some guild members would be effortless.
This way, the numerical disadvantage would gradually be pulled back. The situation would merely change from a great advantage to a balanced scale.
"My lord, the Rhodes Mercenary Group has urgent matters at hand and may not be able to fully commit to your task."
"How unfortunate. If the Rhodes Mercenary Group were assisting, we probably could have celebrated victory yesterday."
"The reason for this..."
"It's the Third Princess, isn't it?"
"My lord sees clearly."
"My reward wouldn't be insufficient to attract the Rhodes Mercenary Group... only accepting our king's task would make them abandon one side. Having Duke Carolingian personally escort the Third Princess with the Rhodes Mercenary Group can indeed guarantee the princess's safety. So be it—the Rhodes Mercenary Group is employed by our king, we cannot demand otherwise."
Not having the Kingdom of Michel's largest mercenary group organization participate was indeed a significant loss, but the king's promised reward was definitely far more than the duke's. The Rhodes Mercenary Group's consideration was understandable.
Speaking of the king, the old butler had one more matter to report.
"My lord, there is one final matter."
"Speak freely."
"His Majesty's messenger... Duke Merovingian requests an audience."
However, no matter what, the king couldn't possibly ignore the unauthorized use of the [Barrier]. The messenger sent was actually Duke Merovingian, one of the seven great dukes—most likely Merovingian had volunteered for this role. Like Duke Carolingian, he was among the younger generation of dukes who should have been contemporaries with Duke Borgia's three deceased sons, but Duke Merovingian was Duke Borgia's close friend despite the age difference—both colleague and friend.
"So the messenger is indeed him... Very well, bring him in..."