Chapter 307: This is Real!
The Director of the SMD gave this speech to the public after the Yellow Gate break.
[Yesterday, at noon, we experienced a Gate break that led to a massive battle inside the city of New Jersey. Although there are already various rumors circulating about what caused this incident, I am here to give you an actual account of what happened! Our top analysts and experts analyzed the Gate after the Gate break, and they confirmed that the break occurred due to the negligence of some of the superhumans present for the raid. The Gate was left unattended for far too long, and this caused it to open prematurely and release monsters into the city. The monsters that we encountered have been categorized as Eldritch Rank Dragons by our experts, but there was no sight of the Leviathan Ranked Boss. The Dragons were far more powerful than we anticipated, but thankfully, our strongest superhuman, Jason Marc, arrived on the scene in time and gave us the upper hand we needed to emerge victorious.]
[I ask that all parties involved in the Gate Raid exercise caution with the spreading of misinformation that could lead to panic. We all owe a great debt of gratitude to Jason Marc for ensuring that the damages done to the city were contained as quickly as possible, and the lives of many of our best agents and superhumans are also owed to his swift action. The SMD has confirmed that the Yellow Gate has not shown any sign of going through a second break soon, and we also confirmed that Jason Marc himself, along with the members of his newly established guild, Monarch, will be going into the Yellow Gate to close it once and for all. Once again, I express my sincerest condolences to the family members of all the superhumans and civilians who lost their lives in this crisis, and we will all work even harder in the future to ensure that your faith in the SMD is restored once more.]
This single announcement caused an even bigger explosion of rumors and conspiracy theories all across the internet! The Director had spoken about dragons, but he hadn’t made a single mention about the dragonriders and whether or not they were real! It was like he was trying to say that the rumors about dragonriders were all baseless! There were those who believed that the Director was telling the truth and that there really were no dragonriders! They called the people who believed that the dragonriders were real conspiracy theorists, and a great divide began to form on the internet as half the populace believed that there were actually people from another world, while the other half thought it was all just nonsense! But there was one thing that everyone in the world was in agreement about: they all wanted to hear from Jason!
The civilians and superahumsn from all across the country knew that Jason was the one who stopped the raid, so if there was anyone who would know what really happened, then it would be him! News channel reporters and blog researchers were scrambling for interviews with Jason! But since Jason had now been announced as the strongest in the entire country, there was a lot more protection around him, and the SMD forbade anyone from even trying to get close for an interview!
At Jason’s house, Griselda and Juliet were standing together at one side of the room and talking about how they were going to go about their upcoming press conference. Juliet had just told Griselda about the insane sum of money that Jason had put into the guild, and Griselda seemed to have finally realized that this was no longer a joke! It was real, and she was actually the owner of one of the most powerful guilds in the country! It was like a massive weight suddenly fell on Griselda’s shoulders when she had this realization, and she tried to calm her nervous shaking as she listened to Juliet give her a rundown of the upcoming conference.
"You’re going to be talking to a hundred reporters. I know it’s a lot, but everyone in the country wants to hear from you, so we could only reduce the number to this much. But don’t worry, I’ll be standing right beside you. You don’t need to give too much information about the upcoming raid. Just give them a rundown of the guild structure and tell them that you trust Jason as the guild leader. There might be one or two questions about the guild, and someone is definitely going to bring up your lack of experience. It’s best if you just ignore those people. Hey, Griselda, are you listening to me?"
"Huh!"
Griselda turned to Juliet sharply when she heard her hand, and she swallowed and nodded.
"Y-Yeah, sorry. I’m just trying to calm down. I didn’t think I’d be doing a press conference so suddenly."
Juliet felt a little bad for throwing Griselda into the political world so suddenly, but Griselda should have known that this wouldn’t be easy when she decided to make a guild. Griselda would just have to get used to it as quickly as possible.
Juliet spoke up kindly.
"Don’t worry, I’ll be right there beside you as Jason’s representative, so you can just focus on looking professional. Don’t answer any question that’s too complex or personal, and make sure you keep calm no matter what."
Griselda took in a deep breath and let it out in one harsh huff before she smiled and gave Juliet a thumbs up! Juliet smiled at Griselda’s enthusiasm, and she began listing out more things that she needed to know before the conference.
On the other side of the room, Riyala was standing with Gina and Jason as they went through the plan for the upcoming Dive. Jason just told Riyala that she was going to have to try and convince the dragons and wyverns to come and fight with them, and the look on Riyala’s face was one of absolute disbelief.
"You want me to talk to the Dragons? I can’t talk to them! They’ll kill me!"
Riyala couldn’t believe that Jason wanted her to go and ask the dragons to join their fight! It was common knowledge on Radagan that adult dragons did not like anyone intruding on their territory! And the worst time to intrude on a dragon’s territory was when the dragons were actively preventing anyone from getting inside! Jason told Riyala that the adult dragons were not allowing any of the younger dragonborns to bond with young dragons or wyverns, so Riyala knew that if she went there and tried to talk to them, then there was a very high chance that they would attack her!
Riyala would have had an easier time talking to the dragons and wyverns if she had a wyvern of her own, but Riyala felt a surge of sadness go through her heart when she remembered how her wyvern sacrificed itself for her sake, and she felt even worse. Gina spoke from the side while fixing up the collar of her coat, a defensive artifact she had taken from Jason.
"If you don’t talk to the dragons, then we’ll be overwhelmed by the army. Jason’s Legion is strong, but there are only about a thousand of them facing off against one hundred and fifty thousand Radagan soldiers; there are too many soldiers in Radagan. Jason is doing his best to help you, Riyala, so shouldn’t you also do your part to save your world?"
Riyala bowed her head in slight shame when she heard what Gina said. It was true that Jason was doing all this just for her sake. This was not Jason’s fight, and it was Riyala who dragged all of them into this. But Riyala didn’t know if she could do this. The only time she had gone to the Ashenvalley Forest was when she was bonding with her wyvern. She had never even been to those parts after that one time! Would the dragons really listen to someone like her?