Dawnless Sovereign-Chapter 72: Screwed?

"He's going to make role models out of us? Are you sure that's what he said?"

Everyone was quickly beginning to realize the severity of the situation.

Zhao Wushang's facial features were scrunched up into a ball of indignation and despair as he gave everyone a recount of their conversation with Fang Che, and everyone was left stunned in silence.

So you two put on an act, but it was too convincing, and now, we're all screwed?!

Everyone in the escort agency looked as if they had been struck by lightning.

"What the hell is he thinking?" Zhou Mei'er wailed. "We reported the people who reported us, and they just so happened to be demonic church members, so we must be figures of justice? He even wants to get our sect involved? What is this nonsensical logic?!" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

She was struggling to believe that someone so incredibly handsome could have such an absurd way of thinking!

"This doesn't make any sense! How could he have jumped to such a ridiculous conclusion just from hearing our story?!"

"I don't know, but that seems to precisely be Administrator Fang's thought process," Zheng Yunqi sighed in a hopeless voice. "We reported demonic church members, so we must be comrades of his. It's inexplicable to us, but it felt like he made that logical jump effortlessly!"

Everyone was once again rendered completely speechless.

What had been nothing more than a retaliatory attack against those who had wronged them had somehow gotten them swept up in the war between good and evil!

"Most importantly, we have to figure out how we're going to break the news to Helmsmaster Starlight," Zhao Wushang said in a despairing voice. "I feel like I can already envision his reaction..."

***

"Piss off! All of you better get out of my sight right this instant and never come back!"

Sure enough, Starlight was completely rooted to the spot after having the news broken to him, following which he immediately erupted into a furious tirade.

Zhao Wushang and Zheng Yunqi were kneeling on the ground, on the verge of tears as they wailed, "Helmsmaster! This is not a matter of whether we stay or leave! We have to think about what's going to become of our escort agency and our branch helm!"

Everyone else was also kneeling on the ground, looking completely dazed and bewildered.

They had gotten swept up in this mess through no fault of their own, yet they were being subjected to the same diatribe as the two perpetrators!

"What the hell do you want me to do?" Starlight yelled with a broken expression. "Do you think I'd be ordering all of you to leave if I had any idea what to do in this situation?"

"We have to come up with a plan, Helmsmaster! Even if we leave, Administrator Fang is still going to make a role model out of our escort agency! This is not something that we can run away from!" Zhao Wushang sobbed.

"Holy shit, you're right!" Starlight exclaimed. "If all of you leave, then I'll become the only scapegoat! All of you have to stay here to bear the consequences with me! Goddammit, I knew you bastards from the main church were unreliable, but I didn't think you'd be this unreliable! The one thing I told you not to do is implicate our branch helm with your actions, and you immediately do that exact thing! We're all traitors now because of you fools!"

Zhao Wushang and the others hung their heads in silence, not daring to utter even a single word.

They felt like they deserved to be reprimanded for the massive hole that they had dug for themselves.

"You wanted to strike back at the people who reported you. Fine, I gave you the freedom to do that, on the condition that you don't implicate the branch helm. That was the only rule that I put into place! Was that too much to ask?! I leave you all unsupervised for one second, and everything I say immediately gets thrown out the window!"

Everyone hung their heads in silence in the face of Starlight's furious diatribe.

The problem was that all of Starlight's accusations were undeniably true!

"I'm just the helmsmaster of a tiny branch helm of a subsidiary church! Surely there's no need for all of you to screw me over like this!" Starlight wailed. "Have I wronged you in some way? Is that why you've come all this way from the main church just to screw me over? Do you get something out of this? Aren't you all facing dire consequences as well?

“You've all completely screwed me over, and it's not even to your benefit! I don't understand! Even if we all die, the Mountain Moving Sect will be implicated! Not only have you made an enemy out of the main church, I can guarantee you that the entire Mountain Moving Sect is cursing your entire bloodlines!"

This was also undeniably true. If they were members of the Mountain Moving Sect, their reaction to this situation would've been exactly as Starlight described.

They were secluded in the mountains, doing their best to remain detached from the rest of the world, yet all of a sudden, they had somehow been thrust onto the front lines in the war against the Church of the Self-Righteous!

To make matters even worse, they were allies of the Church of the Self-Righteous!

"We'll accept any punishment you deem fit for us, Helmsmaster Starlight."

Everyone knew that they had made a massive mistake, and they wouldn't have been surprised even if Starlight decided to kill them all on the spot.

"You want me to punish you? What's the point?" Starlight snapped. "Right now, I'm deathly afraid of all of you! I should've never kept you all in the first place, but given how things have played out, I can't even make you leave! It's all my fault! I let my greed and ambition get the better of me!

“I'm just the helmsmaster of a subsidiary church, I was delusional to think that I could establish ties with the main church without having it all come back to bite me in the backside! It's all my fault! I'm the one to blame! I'm an idiot, a fool! I thought I could trust you after you did such a good job establishing the escort agency, but it was all an act!

“You lured me into a false sense of security so you could stab me in the back when I least expected it! Congratulations, you really got me!"

"B-But, Helmsmaster, what's happened has already happened... Right now, we have to think of a way to keep our branch helm intact," Zhao Wushang sobbed as he crawled over to Starlight on his hands and knees. "You're our leader, Helmsmaster! You have to think of something!"

Starlight kicked Zhao Wushang away in disgust as he yelled, "Leader my arse! I can't think of shit! You've driven all of us into a complete dead end, what could I possibly do? We're all screwed!"

Everyone fell into a grim and hopeless silence, one that was punctuated only by the occasional sniveling sob.

Starlight was right! They were well and truly screwed!

If there was any way out, then they wouldn't have all been kneeling here.