Upon hearing her words, Johnn suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. The arrogant, carefree posture he usually held completely vanished. His eyes widened slightly as a heavy, uncomfortable silence wrapped around him; for all his SSS-rank power and instincts, he realized he didn't actually know the answer, but the dark undercurrents of the Guild's hidden motives were finally beginning to click in his mind.
While the rest of the party froze, caught off guard by the sheer gravity of Maddy's question, Marrowin stood his ground. He took a slow, steady breath, the weight of leadership settling heavily on his shoulders.
"I've been thinking the exact same thing," Marrowin admitted, his voice low, steady, and filled with grim courage. He looked each of them in the eye, refusing to sugarcoat the reality. "The Guild wouldn't risk sending high-ranking assets into an S rank zone for simple research or baseline energy. My hunch... is that the Guild is actively stockpiling power…"
