Release That Witch

Today was the scheduled information exchange day. Theo was sitting on a couch in the living room waiting for the arrival of the members of the "Dove and Hat" acrobatic troupe. The inner city's door closed early in the evening after autumn so that the secret party had to be changed to the afternoon.     

Hill Fawkes was always the first to reach the mansion.     

He was wearing a blue velvet open-collar jacket with a pair of light gray tights and moccasins along with a white tie around his neck, just like a noble. After paying his respect, he passed the "History of the Kingdom's Customs" to Theo whom later took the book and glanced through with great interest. "You've finished reading?"     

"Yes," Hill nodded and said with hesitation, "Will you teach me some sword fighting... or assassination skills?"     

"What for?"     

"You mentioned that you would train me into a qualified intelligence officer during the outbreak of evil spirits," he scratched his head and said, "but so far you've only given me some strange and eccentric books to read."     

"You mean 'The Customs History'?" Theo poured himself a glass of wine and put two ice cubes into it. "This isn't some strange and eccentric books. It records the nobility origin, tradition, kamon, and the famous specialty of each area of the kingdom. As an informant, first of all, you need to be knowledgeable to tell the value of the news from each area. As for sword fighting and assassination?" he smiled and said, "I don't intend to get you to sneak into an organization or probe into the enemy's internal information as it's dangerous and time-consuming. In that case, I might as well directly spend more gold royals to bribe the insiders."     

"But not everyone can be bribed." Hill insisted.     

"And it's equally difficult to send a mole into a strictly-controlled organization, and it's not possible to sneak in without more than 10 to 20 years of effort." Theo shook the glass and took a gulp of the wine. "Qualified intelligence officers only need to be good in two things, which are identifying the news and hiding. The books I've been giving you are the basis for identifying the news. As for the second point... As a member of the acrobatic troupe, you should be more experienced than I am. For example, you dressed well today."     

"..." Clown and the others were also rushing to this secluded house as Hill Fawkes lowered his head and contemplated about Theo's words.     

"Your Excellency, they all have arrived."     

"If so, let's get started." Theo set down his glass and opened up the notebook. "Who'll be the first?"     

"I'll speak first, Your Excellency." Rockhill who had a strong-built was the first to speak. "A batch of newcomers has moved into the camps on the king's city's eastern suburbs."     

The news slightly surprised the guards as they did not expect the first information to be bad. The barracks set up in the suburbs had become the militia's headquarter since the king's city's knightage had lost most of the men. All the Rats, fugitives, and criminals who were recruited by Timothy would be sent into the eastern camp before the expedition. And now there was new manpower supplement in just a month after a group of over 1,000 militiamen had been sent to the Western Region.     

"How many of them?"     

"There are only 200 to 300 people and most of them seem to come from the Northern Region... There're also a few Rats from the Blood Sail, but there're fewer Rats willing to go as compared to the first two times."     

"Closely keep track of them and report to me as long as there were over 200 men increased each time," Theo ordered.     

"Yes, Your Excellency."     

These people had only one use which was being the consumable after taking the pills. Now the Queen of Clearwater was moving towards the north and the Southern Territory was powerless to resist. Timothy would undoubtedly continue to attack His Highness Roland's territory, so he must send the news back to Border Town as soon as possible.     

"Next, Clown will present to you the secret information, or perhaps, a gossip," Clown said in an exaggerated tone, "I can't verify the truth of the news, however, those merchants make it sound very real so I'll take it as a truth. They mentioned that Garcia Wimbledon's Blacksail Fleet appeared in the Kingdom of Everwinter and attacked the church causing the siege of Wolfheart City to crumble. They're preparing to take the advantage to sell goods which are in shortage there before the winter."     

"The Queen of Clearwater actually went to the Kingdom of Everwinter?" Theo felt slightly surprised but it was not important if the news was true because when she chose to leave the Kingdom of Graycastle she had given up the right to compete for the throne. "That's all?"     

"Well, I know it's a bit far from the Kingdom of Graycastle," he said while sticking his tongue out, "but I'll find out more useful news next time."     

"Ahem." Hill coughed twice. "Your Excellency, I've some new clues for the task you entrusted me with. Timothy has built a new workshop in Inner City and recruited many mud craftsmen. They purchased a huge amount of saltpeter and shipped them to there. However, my people couldn't learn more about the use of saltpeter as the workshop was heavily-guarded."     

"Oh?" Theo was surprised. "They've really moved the saltpeter into the workshop?"     

"Indeed." Hill nodded. "I've also personally stalked a carriage of goods."     

This was an extremely valuable piece of information. He had served His Highness Roland for a long time, so he knew that the invincible gunpowder was an alchemical item mainly composed of saltpeter. He noticed that and arranged Hill Fawkes to probe the whereabouts and uses of the goods since the saltpeter from the niter plant around the king's city was largely acquired.     

The intention of the other party to transfer the saltpeter from the alchemist workshop to the production workshop meant that they had mastered the gunpowder formula. The priority of this information was higher than that of the increasing soldiers in the eastern outskirt camp.     

"Good job." Theo praised.     

…     

The crowd left the mansion in batches after the confidential conversation.     

Hill suddenly asked before he left, "Your Excellency, can we really dethrone Timothy with what we're doing?"     

"Of course," the guard said with a smile, "Didn't you see the letter His Highness Roland send through his routed troops? His throne is crumbling."     

Theo saw an unexpected acquaintance, Sean, when he returned to the Covert Trumpeter tavern in the evening.     

He was also a guard around His Highness Prince Roland, just like himself.     

They walked into the guest room on the second floor and both of them greeted each other before Theo pulled the curtains closed and whispered, "How did you know that I'm here?"     

"His Highness sent me to pass a keepsake to Lady Margaret, and she knows where you're." Sean pulled out a glittering red gemstone and shook it.     

"Does he have a new mission for me?"     

"It's not a mission but a gift." Sean walked to the window with a smile. He opened the curtain a crack and whistled. There were three tawny birds flew into the room and stopped on the table while cooing at him until each of the bird was fed with some grain.     

It was the first time Theo ever saw such a gifted bird. "This is..."     

"A carrier pigeon trained by the witch," Sean patted the pigeon on its neck and explained, "Different from the normal carrier pigeon, they could fly freely to and from both the places by itself without anyone letting them out or putting it back to their nests. All you need to do is to give the pigeon a specific command and they'll send the news to His Highness. If everything goes smoothly, you would receive His Highness' reply within a day."     

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