Chapter 212 (2/2)

“I heard that there was a massive fleet east of the Seawind Region, which attacked and looted the eastern coast. They stopped at nothing, even the churches hadn’t been spared and there were also many merchants of the Fjords who met with disaster.”

“Many people have now become fugitives in the Eastern Region, Hogg and I have already given shelter to many of them.”

Margaret then added, “They said that the looters were no longer only snatching just money. Nowadays they are even taking people with them, and after everything that could be moved was taken, they would burn everything that was left down. It seems that they want to turn the whole eastern territory into a white land. This is absolutely a severe blow to the eastern aristocracy who had recently been subdued by Timothy.”

Normally, hearing that Timothy was suffering under massive attack should be a joyous message, but when he heard that the other side even captured the population, Roland’s heart was hit by waves of pain, “Those who were able to escape…”

“Are you interested in them?” Margaret lightly smiled, “After reading the letter, I already guessed that you might want to buy a large number of slaves to enrich the workforce in your territory. However, compared with the foreign refugees from the Kingdom of Endless Winter and the Wolfsheart Kingdom, the refugees of Graycastle may not be willing to sell themselves into slavery.

“I do not need them as slaves. As long as these people are willing to come to Border Town and settle down, there will be food and housing for them, and they will also be paid for their labour.” Roland corrected, he also realized that this was a good opportunity to expand his number of people, even though the news arrived slightly late. “How many people are there?”

“Most of the robust and powerful refugees have already been taken in by the nobility and caravans, but there should still be nearly ten thousand people gathered outside of King’s City, however, most of them are younglings or women.”

“Well, I’ll still send someone on the way to screen them,” the Prince said. “In case I want to take them, do I need to deal with the officials of King’s City?”

“No, you don’t,” Margaret waved her hand to emphasise her words, “They will be ever grateful to have someone take those people away. Otherwise the food they have won’t be enough. In the event that the number continues to increase, it might even become possible that the food shortage could lead to riots.”

…

After the dinner, Roland returned to his office and called for Theo, his personal guard.

This incident made him aware of how backwards his intelligence system currently was. If he had received knowledge about the refugee problem immediately, he could have done the preparations earlier. In the end allowing him to bring even more people to Border Town. At present his understanding of the outside world laid only on the information he got from the caravans that arrived once a month, and a rate like that was simply unable to meet with his demands.

Even with his stationed army in Longsong Stronghold, which had been establishment as a relay post. he could only monitor the Western Region. If he really wanted to compete for the throne of Graycastle, he would have to extend his intelligence network to cover the whole kingdom, or even better, the whole of the mainland.

Right now, Roland did not have a sufficient number of loyal and devoted subordinates that he could use to establish a complete intelligence network, not to mention sending spies to all parts of the country to work as his secret agents. Therefore, he first started with laying down the foundation by sending some people over to King’s City, and let them collect information from the city and the outer regions. It wasn’t needed that they start with detailed monitoring, but this way he could still at least receive a rough understanding of the overall situation and wouldn’t have to be passive any longer as with today.

Being aware of Theo’s influence on King’s City’s black street rats, the prince knew that he was the best candidate for the job.

“You want me to follow the caravan to King’s City?” Theo gawked in disbelief.

“That’s right; you will have two duties. Your first mission is to meet up with the refugees of the Eastern Region. I will send a group of one hundred or so soldiers with you who will be in charge of the escorting them back to Border Town. I will inform you later about the specific conditions of the screening, but that will still be before the caravan leaves.

“Yes!”

“Second, when the flood of refugees has calmed down, you will stay behind in King’s City and starts to collect information from everywhere in the city for me. Since you’re are already used to dealing with the underground rats, you should be clear about how you have to go through with it. Furthermore, Margaret’s caravan will be fully supporting you, in case a tasks requires you to spend some money you can go to her. Compared with your task of going to Redwater City to spread the news about the witches, this time your funds will have no upper limit.” He then put a revolver on the table, “Pay attention, and protect yourself, I hope that I to hear some good news from you soon.”