Retaliatory Blade and The Shire

The response was fast.

And it was something they needed to gain.

Book 4-4.1

“I am planning on increasing the number of spies sent to the three tribes left in the north, as well as the Silence Empire. We will need a lot of supplies for it so please read it over and make a decision.”

Runa handed over the detailed file with the types of spies, their actions, and compensation to Yulian.

Yulian slowly read through the file ask he asked.

“I didn’t know there were so many different types of spies.”

“There are quite a lot, but the ones we need are just two types. First, we need to bribe some nobles of the kingdom to become our eyes and ears. It has the lowest success rate and we need a lot of materials as a bribe even if it fails, but they would be the way to get the highly guarded information.”

“Will it be possible? All of our people will stand out in the continent. At the same time, we cannot use other people to do it for us.”

“That is why I plan on leaving this aspect to Edwin. Since he is a merchant, he should already have a connection with a lot of nobles. If he hides the fact that it is for Pareia and says he needs the highly guarded information for trading, even the nobles should not suspect him too much.”

Yulian nodded his head at Runa’s explanation.

“And the other?”

“It isn’t anything amazing, but we need to convert some of the regular civilians. We won’t get anything really important from them, but we can find things out like the flow of the public opinion as well as some still useful information.”

“We can’t ignore them The highly guarded information is important, but the information from the civilians will be what we can quickly use.”

“Yes. They can also be used to rile up the public or convince them of whatever we need them to do. If we plant them now and start giving them bribes, they should be able to play a decent role.”

Yulian thought about it for a bit before starting to speak.

“We will need quite a lot of them.”

“I have described everything in the report.”

After listening to Runa, Yulian looked through the file before reading something and letting out a gasp.

“This, isn’t this too many?”

“We are already starting late. We need to pour money at them for a year or two in order to convert them. If the Empire was in chaos, it would be easy to convert them since all they would have left is the money, but right now, we need to use about that much.”

Yulian scratched his head as he stared at the numbers written on the file. They were never short for money after Runa made a deal with Edwin, however, he felt like this was a bit much.

“Amazing. Just amazing. You wrote down all of the different types of spies. Just where did you learn all of this?”

“I learned it from books. I also created a world in my head and thought through ways to create it and break it, as well as creating people and repeatedly killed them and brought them to life. Some of those thoughts may not be useful in battle, however, after repeating it for a long time, it helped me get rid of the holes in my theories.”

Yulian looked toward Runa with awe before returning the file to Runa.

“Since it is an area I do not know a lot about, there is nothing else I can tell you.”

Seeing Yulian respond in a disappointed tone, Runa started to ask.

“Do you know what the differences between you and I are, Glow?”

Yulian thought about it for a moment before responding.

“What is the difference between us? Mm, I fight with my body while you fight with your head to effectively lead the warriors?”

Runa started to laugh as he answered.

“The Glow is the decision maker while I am the suggestion maker. No matter how great of a plan I come up with, all of it becomes useless if the Glow does not agree with it. Glow, you are already doing a difficult job by making the decisions.”

“What I am getting out of that is you telling me to just make the decisions.”

As Yulian half-jokingly grumbled, Runa smiled once before answering.

“Haha. If it is something I can make the decision for, I just report it to the glow. But creating spies, or building a castle, do you know why I make sure to get your approval before doing large projects like this?”

“I’m not sure. Because I am the Glow?”

Runa shook his head.

It is because I cannot make the decision. The strategist is someone who has a complicated mind and sees their suggestions from multiple perspective, including the enemy. We come up with tons of terrible plans. We need a solution for such situations as well. However, in order to create the perfect plan, we put too much time into a single task.”

“Time……”

“Furthermore, no matter how much time we spend to come up with a plan, there is bound to be a flaw in a plan made by a person. That is why there is no such thing as a perfect plan. That is why sometimes strategists end up focusing too much on creating a perfect plan that they are not able to offer any suggestions to their liege and end up just a scarecrow.”

“Don’t just bring up everything because you don’t want to be a scarecrow. Hahaha.”

“Hahaha. Do not worry. I’ve experienced being a scarecrow way too much in the past already. I do not want to do it anymore.”

The two of them laughed out loud for a while.

“Then I will proceed with these as described. Oh, and I heard an interesting story from Captain Thriger today.”

“What kind of story?”

“Do you know about the Shire tribe?”

“The small tribe in the Western Desert? I believe they have a small oasis near the quicksand river that serves as their base.”

“Yes, that Shire tribe.”

“What about them? You’re not planning on asking me to take over their oasis, are you?”

“You are correct. I hope that you can personally visit them.”

Yulian made an odd expression as he answered.

A small oasis does not help us in any way. What would be the point of taking over an oasis that can hold at max 500 people? That type of small oasis is present throughout the desert. They are reserved for travelers or lost warriors.”

“That’s how it is rumored. However, according to Captain Thriger, that oasis is not that small, and the tribe is over 1,000 people. The funny thing is that all 1,000 of them are shamans.”

“Shamans?”

“They received their help many times. Apparently they have a lot of incantations that are similar in effect to the magic of the continent.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Yulian was surprised at this news that he heard for the first time and started to worry about what to do.

“Based on what I heard, they are people with amazing abilities. However, they are all gentle and do not like socializing with other people. That is why they just reside in that oasis. They don’t mind that their numbers are low.”

“How could they stay in the dark for so long when they have such amazing skills? The other tribes would have been tempted to take them as well.”

“It is probably because they have never stepped forward and there are no tribes with any interest in them as well.”

“And your thoughts?”

“Absorb them into Pareia.”

Runa quickly answered Yulian’s question.

“1,000 shamans.”

Yulian started to mumble with interest.

Shamans usually led the festivals, cured the sick and blessed the warriors heading outside, however, during times of war, they played a bigger role.

They could curse the enemies so that they become cowards while buffing the allies with incantations that raises their bravery. They heal the injured while preventing the curses of the enemies from affecting their allies. That was the role of the shamans during times of war.

However, for the veteran shamans or Grand Shamans like Tuma Takaka that are rare in tribes, their role goes above and beyond all of that.

Grand Shaman Tuma Takaka was now old and Yulian could not force him to go to war, however, Yulian vividly remembered just what kind of abilities Tuma Takaka had.

Tuma Takaka was a shaman who could call the rain and storm as needed. He could make hundreds of warriors crumble down in pain with a single incantation.

One of the greatest reasons Pareia could withstand Venersis was the Grand Shaman Tuma Takaka.

He did not expect that much, but since it was not easy to raise a shaman, it would be great if the tribe could even have a couple veteran shamans.

“It should be okay.”

Yulian thought for a long time before nodding his head and making his decision.

Seeing Yulian nod his head, Runa chimed in.

“I think it would be best to consult Tuma Takaka-nim. Since it is a tribe of shamans, he might know of them.”

“I will do that.”

Yulian answered before heading out to go visit Tuma Takaka.