Clang clang clang... The sound of swords clashing rang out in rapid succession.
After a moment,
Opposite him, Reddy bowed his head respectfully. "Yes, Master."
After a year's time, Lorist found that Reddy had improved remarkably fast. At the training grounds behind the rear mountain of
"Consolidate your realm in the third layer a bit more, and then you should go out and travel around. See the world. To break through to the fourth layer of the Dantian Sea Breath Channeling Technique doesn't require more bitter training—it requires a flash of insight to break through, and you may even need the trial of a brush with life and death. In your daily life, use your mind more and think deeply. Keep your state of mind calm and even-tempered. Don't get angry or lose your temper easily. Do you understand?"
"I understand. Thank you for your guidance, Master."
Leaving the training grounds on the rear mountain, Lorist headed back toward the central castle with Swade. Er came forward to meet them. "My lord, Knight Tagel and Steward Camora are already waiting in the reception room..."
Lorist nodded. "Have them go to the study. You come along too."
How quickly time had flown. Back then, when he had left
Back then, Tagel had merely been a guard commander at the forced labor camp in Geldos, a
After becoming a scout light cavalryman, Tagel completely shed his old cowardly nature. Several life-or-death experiences pushed his combat force to the peak of Black Iron, and he became a steadier, more generous person. Then, upon arriving in the family's territory, he reunited with Lorist and was promoted to serve as his personal attendant. A year later, when he advanced to Silver rank, Lorist took him on as a Family Knight.
Over the past two years, the way Lorist had been using Tagel was quite baffling to onlookers. He kept Tagel running around in circles, never letting him stay in any position for more than three months before transferring him. He also required Tagel to submit a report on every post he held — detailing every insight, every observation, no matter how trivial. Not a single one could be left out.
Bedrock Fortress, second-floor study.
"My lord, I salute you." Tagel performed a knight's salute, while Steward Camora beside him offered a half-bow.
"Well done, Tagel. You've done excellent work these past two years. Oh? Your combat force cultivation has progressed quickly as well — you're already at Silver two-star?" Lorist was genuinely surprised.
"Yes, my lord. After you bestowed that advanced combat force manual upon me, I found that my cultivation advanced far more quickly than with the military techniques I used before." Tagel answered gratefully.
"That's because the elemental affinity of your combat force is well-matched to the technique," Lorist said with a smile. He glanced at the silent Camora beside them. "Camora, if you'd like to awaken your combat force, I might be able to help."
Steward Camora smiled bitterly. "My lord, please don't joke with me. I'm nearly forty-five. Isn't it said that anyone over thirty-five can no longer awaken their combat force?"
"That's a fallacy. Ten years ago, when I was studying in
Steward Camora's expression shifted for a long while before he finally bowed his head before Lorist. "Please, my lord, grant me this chance..."
Lorist began taking Camora's pulse. "You suffered hardship in childhood, and your body didn't develop properly. In your youth, you traveled and worked exhaustingly, so your constitution is quite weak. After reaching middle age, your living conditions improved — hm, you didn't indulge yourself, very disciplined, maintained good habits, and your body is fairly healthy. Aside from some hair loss from overthinking and mental strain, you also have a bit of anxiety. Your sleep at night isn't too good either — after waking in the middle of the night, you're prone to insomnia..."
Camora looked as though he had seen a ghost, his face draining of color. "M-my lord, you — you just placed your hand on mine and already knew about my sleep problems?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Lorist laughed. "I was teasing you. I know about your habit of waking up in the middle of the night to read because I asked the guards on your side — they've seen the lights on in your room and your shadow on the window while you read several times during their night rounds..."
"Truthfully, Camora, your body is in decent shape. The problem is likely that you're too anxious, which is ruining your sleep. Here's what I want you to do — hand over your current duties to your deputy and take a six-month leave. During those six months, you'll go to the recruits' camp and train alongside the new soldiers. Naturally, your training load will be cut in half. On top of that, I'll write you a prescription for your diet and supplementary tonics. Follow the recruits' camp living schedule to the letter, and I guarantee you have an eighty percent chance of awakening your combat force. Give it a try."
Camora fell into deep thought for a moment. "Very well, my lord. I'll do as you say."
"Erin, come forward — don't stand there in the corner."
"Our family can be said to grow more prosperous with each passing day, but we still have one critical weakness, and that is intelligence and the transmission of information. Sometimes, when we're stationed in the Northland, we know nothing of what's happening in the outside world. But now that we've opened a sea route to Silowas Island, it's like we've opened a window to the outside — we can gather a great deal of information. For instance, the Glass War that broke out between the Trade Alliance and the Trinb Kingdom, and how the
"But we need to clearly recognize that all of this information is received passively. By the time it reaches our ears, it's already events that happened some time ago, which causes great inconvenience and delays our family's ability to respond. That's why I want to establish a department that proactively seeks out and discovers major events occurring across the Galentea Continent, and transmits them back to the family as quickly as possible, so the family can consider what impact a coming event might have and formulate an appropriate response. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The three sat in silence for a moment before Camora finally spoke. "My lord, you mean to send out secret agents to various regions to gather intelligence and relay it back?"
Lorist nodded.
Tagel smiled bitterly. "My lord, that would be very difficult to accomplish. Setting everything else aside, the cost of dispatching these spies alone would be an enormous sum. Take the twenty-nine provinces of the former Krisen Empire as an example — each province would require a team of agents, and they'd need to infiltrate the local upper class to gather meaningful intelligence. All of that takes a great deal of money."
Earle thought for a moment before speaking. "My lord, within the family's own territories, I can guarantee that nothing will escape our ears — just as I did in Morant City. But outside, things are chaotic, and it's very hard to guarantee the safety of our agents. Sacrificing an agent's life for a piece of intelligence that isn't even important — that wouldn't be cost-effective."
Lorist stood up and shook his head. "You're both wrong. That's not the kind of spy I'm looking for. Currently, spies across the Galentea Continent all operate the way you imagine — either they assume noble identities and mingle with the upper classes of various nations and regions, throwing galas and banquets and parties to eavesdrop on gossip and rumors as intelligence, or, as Earle said, they recruit idle loafers who spend their days lounging in taverns and inns, reporting anyone who looks like a stranger or a suspicious person."
"That's not what I want. Tagel, do you know why I took an interest in you back in Gerdos City — why I thought you had talent and forced you to bring your family along and join the caravan heading north?"
Tagel shook his head. "My lord, I don't know. Back then, I didn't even know I'd advance to the Silver tier. The me of those days was only good for eating and waiting to die — lazy and idle. I thought my life would just pass me by like that. I truly don't know why you thought so highly of me. Of course, I'm deeply grateful for your recognition and appreciation. If you hadn't forced me to head north, I never would have become a knight like I am now."
Lorist chuckled. "Did you know that your bragging back then actually moved me? I really hadn't expected you to know Gerdos City inside and out — to be able to answer anything. Who had a grudge against whom, what supplies had arrived a couple of days ago, where they were stored... Keep in mind, you were just a petty overseer of the labor camp back then, not the acting lord of Gerdos City or
"You can't deny that you're naturally brimming with curiosity about digging up information, can you, Tagel? Over the course of two years, I transferred you through nearly a dozen different positions, and every single time, I found it took you no time at all to get familiar with your new work environment and make new friends. Within a month, you'd be thriving in your new role, on good terms with everyone around you. Anyone who didn't know better would think you'd been doing the job for ten or eight years straight..."
"That's your gift, which is why I say you were born to be a spy. And you keep a tight lip — every time you moved to a new position, you never brought up your old work. That's something I've always been very pleased with."
"What I want to establish this time isn't simply a spy ring, but an intelligence department — something along the lines of an investigation bureau. There will be undercover agents, of course, but their official title will be intelligence investigator."
"I believe that in many places, there are people like you once were in Geldos City — individuals who are either well-informed about all the local news or deeply interested in it. Tagel, your task is to seek them out and recruit them, develop them into our intelligence investigators, and have them relay all significant events from those places back to the family."
"As for the upper classes in any given place, we don't need noble spies of our own. Bribing the personal attendants and valets of those nobles will give us information that's far more reliable and detailed. Just like how Camora once bought off Viscount Kenmaise's retainer."
"I believe a qualified intelligence investigator should be someone with a legitimate profession and a certain degree of local influence — a tailor, a tavern owner, a fish merchant, or perhaps a Garrison Captain. No one would suspect them of being the family's intelligence operatives, so when those nobles' attendants or valets approached them to pass along intelligence, no one would think twice about it. At most, they'd assume it was just normal socializing, two friends chatting…"
"If no one out there meets our requirements, we can always train our own. For instance, those loyal and brave soldiers in our family who were discharged due to injuries — if they're willing to serve the family once more, we can train them in the art of gathering intelligence, teach them a trade, and then help them return to their hometowns to open small shops. Those shops would become our family's intelligence sources…"
"These are some of my ideas for the intelligence investigation department. Take them back and review them at your leisure, then share your thoughts with me."
"The reason I've called the three of you here is that I want you to jointly oversee this new department. Tagel will be responsible for the recruitment and deployment of intelligence personnel, Camora will handle the verification and organization of the intelligence, and El will run the operations division, supporting Tagel's work."
"Operations division?" El asked, confused. "What does that do?"
Lorist made a throat-cutting gesture. "During the process of arranging and selecting intelligence personnel, there's a very good chance we'll run into some trouble — local thugs, provocations from gang members, or perhaps the very people we've selected as intelligence operatives having their own personal feuds and vendettas."
"As for the local troublemakers who might obstruct our intelligence work, Tagel will compile the list, and El, you'll be responsible for eliminating them. Oh, and your operations division personnel will be drawn from the bodyguard battalion — three squads for now."
"Understood, my lord," El said.
"My lord, then I won't go to the recruit camp. Let me first get this intelligence investigation department organized and on track," Steward Camora said.
"No, the oversight of your intelligence department isn't urgent. Go to the recruit camp first — on one hand, you can prepare yourself for awakening your combat force, and on the other, keep an eye out among the new recruits. Select some sharp ones, or ones you think are suited to become intelligence investigators. Observe them for a while, confirm they're reliable, then pull them out for training. They'll form the backbone of this intelligence bureau. Later, you can send them out. After all, Tagel can't very well run to every single location himself to pick and place intelligence operatives, can he?" Lorist rejected Camora's proposal.
"This matter isn't urgent. We can take it step by step. If we can build a rough intelligence network across the former Empire's territory within three years, I'll be very satisfied. The family will provide all the funds and supplies you need. But right now we face one major problem — once we obtain intelligence, how do we send it back to the family? Out there it's complete chaos. Using men and horses as messengers, as El pointed out, really isn't safe, and it's far too slow. Even if the information does get back, a good amount of time will have passed. Do you have any ideas?" Lorist asked.
"My lord, could we raise a large number of messenger petrels? The way ships at sea use them to exchange messages between vessels?" El suggested.
"No." Lorist shook his head. "I asked Sembawood about this. The messenger petrel has far too many limitations. First, it has to be hatched and raised aboard a particular ship — only then will it treat that ship as home. If you want it to contact another ship, you have to put it in a black cage, transport it over, and only when you release it on the other ship will it fly across the sea and find its way back to its home ship. And the range can't be too far — anything beyond sixty or seventy li and it's finished."
"My lord, I once read in a book that ancient mages used crows or owls to deliver letters. Could we perhaps try something similar as well?" Tagel proposed.
Lorist rolled his eyes outright. "You're not a mage. Do you have any idea how to train crows or owls to carry messages? Or have you dug up some ruin that contains records about this sort of thing?"
Tagel fell silent.
"My lord, perhaps we could use sparrowhawks to deliver messages," Camora said.
"Sparrowhawks?"
"Yes, my lord. I know an old hunter who trains sparrowhawks. I've seen him bind medicinal herbs to the hawks' claws to send them to his son's house in a city hundreds of miles away, so I thought maybe we could use sparrowhawks to deliver messages," Camora said.
"That works. Go find someone to ask. If sparrowhawks can deliver messages, then we must put serious effort into training them. The family can invest significant funds for this purpose. Perhaps with messenger hawks, our family's forces could gain a sharper grasp of changing conditions on the battlefield." Lorence really hoped the hawks could work; even if the family had to spend a fortune, it would be worth it.
"My lord, I have another question," Tagel said. "What should we call this intelligence investigation department?"
"A name? The KGB? Central Intelligence Agency? National Security Agency? Stasi? Gestapo? Mossad? MI6?" In Lorence's mind, the names of famous intelligence agencies from his previous life flashed by in an instant. None of them fit at all. In the end, he recalled the pronunciation of "angry bear" in English.
"Volibear. Let's call it Volibear."
…(To be continued.)