Chapter 1633 Ravendale's Challenges and Opportunities
Eren deliberately avoided public appearances after the completion of the Lazarus Project, even within Ravendale.
His interactions were limited to select Rankers, half-bloods, and monsters, as he focused on advancing in his Ranking Path and digesting the insights he had gained. Public attention would have only diverted him from his crucial pursuits.
The public perception of Eren as the most evil entity in Arsalan and Katiyal or as a savior in Shiragna and Velen didn't bother him. His motives weren't driven by a desire to spite or save any particular group; they were rooted in serving his own interests.
Consequently, he felt no need to explain the reason behind the Lazarus Project and his circumstances.
Despite this, Eren allowed his organization, particularly the White Raven Guild's mass media arm, to issue statements on his behalf. The guild actively made often absurd claims to rationalize Eren's actions.
The media house understood that the Rankers under the White Raven Guild's leadership wanted to believe in Eren's character, countering the negative portrayals from Arsalan and Katiyal.
The Rankers, especially low-ranking entities and mortals from Edinburgh and Layos currently stuck on Ravandale, faced an unexpected predicament due to Anfang's geological changes. Trapped in Ravendale, they couldn't freely return to the banned continents. Staying in Ravendale, they found themselves under the guidance of the White Raven Guild.
Initially apprehensive about Eren and his organization, particularly given the world-altering nature of the Lazarus Project, these individuals were reassured by the efforts of the White Raven Guild's media arm. It played a crucial role in establishing peace within the lands, fostering a conducive environment for Eren's organization to steadily prosper by recruiting more people under its banner.
In this way, Eren's Guild was steadily progressing to become more than a mere guild. Eren had already asked the guild members to let the colonies of Rankers and mortals currently on Ravandale develop on their own. He had plans to turn Ravandale into a semi-republic nation in which his guild would hold substantial power without having to act as a dictator.
Eren believed that dictatorships had a set expiry period and the pure democratic arrangements were flawed at their core. According to him, sometimes democracy meant all the idiots were on one side.
Thus, to secure the future of his foundation in Anfang for years to come, Eren had come up with his own form of rules that would be observed by Ravandale.
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Eren understood the guild's need to clear his image in public. So he let his people cook up their own reasons that somewhat justified his actions.
Even though Eren's organization had enough resources that last for a century, Agatha didn't believe that burning the resources without ways to replenish them would help her or the guild in the long run. Hence, she was making these moves so that the image of Ravendale would eventually recover.
Agatha already had some under-the-table resource-exchanging deals with Arsalan and Katiyal without the public knowledge. The people in power knew that Eren's organization had plenty of resources it could exchange with them. However, since it was against public sentiments, they had decided to keep the trade with Ravendale a secret.
The high-ranking entities from Shiragna, Mater, Velen, and Kojurao had already started not-so-hush-hush deals with Ravendale.
The Amazonians from Mater were not particularly happy about the destruction Eren had caused all across Anfang for his own selfish reasons. They worshiped nature and life. And Eren's actions had directly resulted in causing harm to them.
However, since the whom they worshiped, the Great Mother, herself had approved of Eren, they found it a bit easier to establish trade deals with Ravendale.
Ravendale was most comfortable dealing with Velen and Shiragna. The half-bloods from Velen and the monsters from Shiragna had supported Eren's actions completely even though they had also faced a fair share of deaths within their ranks.
To them, the death of a few of their own was a small price to pay to achieve this form of freedom in Anfang. To them, Eren was nothing short of a god among men.
Gnoll Sovereign Parmar, Goblin Sovereign Loma, Ogre Sovereign Rawood Khal, and Orc Sovereign Kayini had become one of the representatives of Kojurao assigned to handle the trade deals with Ravendale. These monsters also spread the news within Shiragna that Reen was the insertion of their deity Goddess Echidna, spreading her fame.
These monsters had already established contact with Eren and presented themselves as his allies. And Ravandale was pretty lenient dealing with the monsters because of that. As such, Shiragna made startling improvements in its lifestyle with the White Raven Guild's help.
Likewise, the half-bloods from Eren almost openly supported Ravendale. The people in charge of Velen had aligned themselves with the Anfang Alliance to recover from their losses. As such, Velen could not officially support Ravendale who ran the risk of offending the Alliance.
However, it had strong support from the masses of Velen. They practically considered Eren as one of their own and assumed he had shattered the divine formation to break their shackles.
Kojurao had a mixed reaction towards Ravendale and Eren's actions in general. Some of the high-ranking cultists from Kojurao supported Eren's deeds openly without caring about the Alliance. However, some of them chose to wait on the sidelines and observe before they made any moves. Of course, this period of observation did not stop them from making black-market deals with Ravendale.
Eren's mass media venture had plans to infiltrate the other continents and gather news from there. It also had plans to improve Eren's image among the hostile masses so that the trade between Ravandale and other continents would eventually face fewer hurdles in the future.
Agatha did a stellar job managing the resources Eren had made her horde just before the global-level calamity. She used these resources as leverage and bait to make the White Raven Guild take a favorable position in peoples' hearts and minds.
Slowly but surely, she proved with her actions that the guild was not set on causing more chaos in the world.
The White Raven Guild first earned the favor of people currently living in Ravendale. Through various programs, it earned their trust. After the foundation had been stabilized and the prospect of growth had been assured, it was time for Eren's guild to shed its old skin and deal with Anfang's new reality.
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