Chapter 82:

Left alone in the tent, Regina’s fountain pen moved busily.

The cleanup from the work her father had dumped on her and the incident Count Valheit had caused with the demons was her responsibility.

She had to leave this place tomorrow, so her hands, which had been moving busily with the intention of finishing it all by tonight, paused for a moment.

‘…I hope nothing goes wrong.’

Letting out a sigh too small to be heard, Regina filled in the blanks of the document title ‘Request for Transfer/Admission to Headquarters’.

Transfer Subject, Benjamin de Leitche.

Purpose of Transfer, Interrogation after treatment.

Method of Transfer: Reach the Eslick Empire from Charnirasho by sea, then utilize land routes.

Estimated Time….

“Damn, this is so complicated.”

A single raven fluttered and landed on the desk.

Regina didn’t even bat an eyelash and continued to write, filling the page with dense text.

“Do you have more instructions, Father?”

“There was something I forgot to mention. I keep forgetting things as I get older. I should start thinking about when to retire.”

Regina gave a perfunctory nod at the complaint mixed in with the cawing.

Her father always whined about wanting to quit working, but he showed no signs of actually stepping down from the Duke’s seat.

To Regina, the secret request her father was about to make was more concerning than his usual complaints.

At least when it came to work, her father never forgot anything.

The fact that he went through the trouble of contacting her via raven meant he had an order for Regina alone.

That in itself was strange.

As his interest in the Eight Council had faded, so had the frequency of her father's contact with her.

But for him to contact her again.

“I do have instructions. But let’s put that off for a moment. We need to catch up on the chat we couldn’t have since I left so quickly today.”

“What are you curious about?”

“So direct. This is why you were unpopular in Leitche's social circles!”

“I know, Father.”

Just what kind of chat was he planning to have, bringing up social circles she had left long ago?

Curiosity welled up, but she waited quietly.

That was how one dealt with the Duke.

“Well, to be honest, it’s more comfortable for me this way too. Starting from the meeting, what kind of person did Valheit seem to be?”

“He was similar to what you said and to his public reputation. A cunning old snake who only thinks of himself.”

“He is a detestable bastard. A detestable man who's even more detestable because he's competent. What else?”

The chattering raven tilted its head from side to side.

She had a rough idea of what kind of answer he wanted.

“If you’re asking if anything has changed, I wouldn’t know since this meeting was the first time I’ve seen the Count.”

“Hmm. Not much different from the general assessment. I suppose you might have felt that way.”

“Did you feel that the Count has changed?”

“It's... subtle. He’s like that familiar old snake, but also like a viper filled with a poison I don't know.”

“Should I monitor him?”

The raven bobbed its body up and down, nodding.

“You really are ridiculously good at reading people’s inner thoughts. That’s why everyone avoided you at the banquets, you know.”

“The fact that you’re only telling me this means you want me to watch him myself.”

“When an adult is talking, at least pretend to listen, tsk tsk. Anyway, monitor him yourself and report if you find anything strange. If I leave it to the underlings, they’ll be found out in less than a day. You must! step up yourself.”

Watching the raven stress its point, Regina nodded, but questions were bubbling up inside her.

After the Commander disappeared, her father had paid almost no attention to the Eight Council.

He had never ordered something so proactively.

“What part should I focus on?”

She wanted to ask the reason for the surveillance, but she held back and phrased it as indirectly as possible.

“A raven should be able to judge for herself but saying that would be too harsh, wouldn’t it? Other things are important too, but compare his attitude with the information we have.”

“His attitude towards whom?”

“Anyone. Anything that’s different from the information our side has, it doesn’t matter what.”

He was saying he wouldn’t take any more questions.

Regina had nothing more to ask, either.

“I understand.”

“Yes, yes. And while you’re at it, keep an eye on your stupid brother.”

The raven, which had been speaking fluently, shut its beak.

As Regina moved her hand gently, the raven waddled obediently and left the tent.

Did he notice something strange when he met him this time?

Compared to the information we have, he’s a little lenient, but not to the point where it couldn’t be considered a margin of error.

She reviewed Valheit’s attitude from the meeting onwards, one by one, but there were no noticeable differences.

In any case, I’ve got a good excuse now.

As she wrote her signature at the bottom of the request form, Regina smiled faintly.

She now had a legitimate opportunity to go see her brother under her father’s orders.

***

The headquarters’ dining hall, still a long way from mealtime, was empty.

In a desolate corner of it, three people, including myself, raised their glasses.

“Good work on this matter.”

“Cheers!”

Ede shouted loudly enough to echo through the empty dining hall and vigorously emptied his glass.

I hadn’t planned on giving a toast anyway, so I also emptied my glass.

“Cheers… sir.”

Wilhelm, with his left arm tightly bound, also raised his glass with difficulty.

The problem was, after I called for him, I had to chase away a quack doctor who was about to perform some strange treatment and just had a sturdy splint put on, so I didn't know when it would heal or if it would heal at all.

“Wouldn’t it have been more bustling and nice if we called the other members too?”

“There’s no shortage of things to do, so it’s unreasonable to gather everyone.”

Ede, who smacked his lips as if disappointed, refilled his glass and drank again without any suspicion.

Of course, the other count shadow corps members had things to do, but there was a specific reason for calling these two separately.

‘I don’t know what kind of change there is.’

I muttered inwardly as I scanned the status window that had appeared before my eyes.

A notification that Loyalty and Reward, the reward I had obtained by building a relationship with the Chartra family, had been activated was blinking.

It was a very ordinary passive ability that increased my stats every time a designated target was loyal to me.

It was frustrating because I had no idea what the activation condition for the passive was.

But for once, the status window kindly informed me.

The words Loyalty and Reward Activation had 5 exclamation marks attached and were flashing, so I had no choice but to see it.

What I was curious about was what stat had increased.

The only answer the status window gave on that was, ‘Directly meet them and decide!’.

So I called the two of them under the pretext of congratulating them on a job well done.

“I thought you weren’t the type to care about these things, but I was wrong.”

“It’s not bad to rest like this sometimes.”

“Does that mean something will happen only when Mr. Benjamin comes to his senses?”

That was also true.

Benjamin, who we brought to headquarters, showed no signs of improvement.

And the truth serum Regina mentioned had been delayed as work was suddenly piled on her.

“Yes, until then, you can catch your breath.”

I replied lightly and checked the status window.

‘It doesn’t seem to be a simple stat-point allocation.’

Instead of easily understandable stats, the status window presented two options: Combat Enhancement and Intelligence Enhancement.

After mulling over which to choose, I eventually decided to ask them directly.

“If you had to choose between fighting and intelligence, what would you choose?”

Ede, whose face had turned red from the alcohol, and Wilhelm, who was stuffing side dishes into his mouth, looked at me.

Their faces asked what was with the sudden question, so I awkwardly added an excuse.

“I’m thinking about how to shape the count shadow corps from now on.”

“Hmm, wouldn’t it be the intelligence side? Including me, all the juniors from Chartra aren’t lacking in a fight. As for our abilities as informants, hmm being generous, I’d say we’re average.”

Ede said with a grin.

True, it seemed there would be more instances of moving secretly from behind the scenes than engaging in frontal combat.

“Combat, obviously.”

Wilhelm, who was mumbling on the meat that filled his mouth, said as if it were a matter of course.

At his words, Ede tilted his head.

“Huh? Why?”

“Having the option to fight increases our choices. Rather than just tailing someone unconditionally, it’s better to have the option to beat them up if we get caught.”

Hearing that, it seemed to make sense too.

There was no harm in having more options.

“But raising a proper combatant is a difficult task. Besides, to make them fight as well as you say, they’d have to enter Chartra.”

“That’s why we have to teach them more diligently. Things like theft or spying are problems that require building a feel for it by doing it yourself, so real-world experience is the answer rather than education.”

Somehow, it had turned into a heated debate about education.

I should refer to this later when I make a training plan.

For now, what I needed to choose was not the training content but their abilities, so I decided to go with combat.

Loyalty and Reward

Combat Enhancement: Improves judgment related to combat and speed of skill acquisition!

Just with this, I couldn’t tell how effective it was, but since I couldn't just go off and fight somewhere right now, I’d have to check when something happened later….

Tring!

While I was lost in various thoughts, the scroll-like status window let out a very unfitting notification sound.

As a reward for choosing Combat Enhancement, you can increase your weapon proficiency!

So this thing had a reward for me too?

I had thought it was simply for strengthening my subordinates, but it was a much better skill than I thought.

‘It doesn’t seem like I’ll be using any weapon other than my staff for a while, so should I invest in one-handed blunt weapons….’

“Lord Valheit.”

A thick voice suddenly came from behind me, making me flinch.

When I turned my head, the gruff-looking butler was bowing politely.

“Did you enjoy your meal?”

“Yes!”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Ron smiled proudly at the answer from Ede, who was starting to lose his senses a bit after a few more glasses.

“What is it?”

“Miss Regina has sent a letter stating that she will visit tomorrow.”

“The purpose?”

“She wishes to see Mr. Benjamin.”

She decided to visit much faster than expected.

I had thought it might take up to a month if it were late but there was nothing wrong with proceeding quickly.

“And one more thing to report, Mr. Noah has sent a report.”

“The contents?”

“Yes, he says that thanks to Mr. Werner Chartra’s consideration, he has secured a place to stay. He relayed that he plans to help Lord Werner for the time being, as you said.”

It was good that Noah had offered to come under me on his own, but I didn’t have a suitable place for him right away.

Just then, Werner had requested some unofficial help, so I sent him over there.

“Oh, is Master Werner doing well?”

“That much wasn’t written, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Master?”

At Ede’s words, Wilhelm’s head shot up.

Pain seemed to shoot through his left arm because of it, his face crumpling, but his eyes shone.

“Lord Werner is your master?”

“Huh? Didn’t I tell you I learned at Chartra?”

“You didn’t say you learned under Lord Werner!”

While Wilhelm was making a fuss like a fan who had met their idol, I opened the report Noah had sent.

“…Assassination?”

“Yes, Lord Werner mentioned that there are some folks he needs to take care of unofficially.”

Hearing that, I got a feeling.

A lit bomb is coming.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.