Chapter 299 (1/2)

Chapter 299 Information and Messenger

Graycastle, within a garden of a mansion inside King’s City’s inner city.

Today was the scheduled day for the exchange of information. While sitting on a soft chair in the living room, Theo was waiting for the arrival of the members of the acrobatic group “Pigeons and Hat”. Since the beginning of autumn, the closing of the inner gates had shifted to an earlier time in the evening, so the time for their secret meeting also needed to be changed to the afternoon.

Like always, the first to arrive at the mansion was Hill Fawkes.

On his upper body, he wore a blue collarless jacket made of velvet and around his neck he was wearing a white tie, while on his lower body he was also wearing shallow gray leggings and moccasins. He was dressed remarkably similar to an aristocrat. After giving his salute, he took the book “The Kingdom’s History of social custom” which was clipped between his armpit and returned it to Theo. The latter took the book, glanced at Hill and asked with interest, “Done with reading?”

“Yes,” Hill nodded, then hesitated a moment before asking, “Won’t you teach me some wrestling; fencing… or maybe, assassination techniques?”

“Why?”

“At the time of the demonic disease’s outbreak, you said you were going to train me to be a qualified spy,” he scratched his head, “But so far, you’ve only been giving me these strange books to read.”

“Are you speaking about the ‘Kingdom’s History of social customs’?” Theo asked as he took a cup of wine, and threw two ice cubes into it, then went on to say, “This isn’t something you should call a strange book, within it is written the origin of the nobles, their traditions and heraldry, as well as the specialties of all the regions within the kingdom. As a spy, you must first be experienced and knowledgeable, to roughly be able to distinguish between the information with value and those without. As for fencing and assassination?” He smiled, “I never intended to let you infiltrate into some organization or penetrate deeply into the enemy territory to scout for information. That kind of task is dangerous yet requires a lot of time and effort. Before we put in so much effort, it might be better if we directly step forward and bribe the informed people with gold royals.”

“But you cannot buy everyone,” Fawkes insisted.

“And those organizations from which not even a drop of water can leak out, are equally awful targets to try and insert an eye in. Without putting in ten to twenty years of effort into it, it is unlikely that one can submerge into them.” Theo shook his cup, and drank a mouthful of ice wine before he further said, “There are only two things required from a qualified spy: distinguish between information and keep yourself hidden. The reason I gave you these books was to lay the foundation for you to be able to identify information, as for the second point… as a former member of the acrobatic troupe, you should already be more experienced with it than I. For instance, the clothes you are wearing today, are excellent.”

“…” Just as Hill Fawkes was lowering his head to think about the meaning of these words, Clown and the others finally arrived at this remotely placed residence.

“Sir, everyone is present.”

“This being the case, we’ll start at once,” Theo said, put his cup down and opened a notebook, “Who will be the first?”

“I’ll go first, Sir,” Rocky Mountain, the tallest and strongest person among them said, “There’s a new batch of people who’ve moved into the camp East of King’s City.”

This unexpected message made the personal guard’s brow jump slightly, he hadn’t expected that the first news he received would already be something bad. Since Timothy had lost more than half of his Royal Knights, the garrison built on the outskirts of King’s City had now become the base for the militia. All the rats, refugees, and criminal Timothy had drafted were placed in the strategically placed camp east of King’s City before they would head into battle. It’s just a bit longer than a month that a team of more than a thousand militia had last left for the Western Territory, but they already found new people to replenish?

“How many have come?”

“There are only two or three hundred people at the moment, and it seems that most of them came from the Northern Territory… apart from them, there are also some Blood Sail rats, but the ratio of those are one to two. There aren’t many rats left who are willing to leave.”

“Keep a close watch on their movements, and whenever more than two hundred new people come to the camp, you have to report to me at once,” Theo ordered.

“Yes, Sir.”

These people only have one use, which is, to be used as a consumable after being fed those pills. Now after the Queen of Clearwater has gone northward, there is no longer any opposition at the Southern Border. Thus, Timothy will undoubtedly continue his attack on His Royal Highness’s territories. I have to send this information back to Border Town as soon as possible.