Epic Of The Demonic Sage

"No. Tell me about the base location of Arkaves instead."

June hesitated at the Young Lord's question, but only because she knew that the answer would displease Asher. However, she wasn't left with much of a choice and knew that she still needed to answer.

It was better to incur his wrath with a reply than not give one at all and be dealt with a greater punishment.

"There is no base of locations for the Arkaves, Young Lord." June said.

"And what do you mean by that?" Lucius narrowed his eyes.

"What I mean to say by that, Young Lord is the reason why I said that it's difficult for me to truly know everyone." June weakly said. "There is no fixed base and the members are spread around, not necessarily meeting that often."

"How does one receive their orders then?" Lucius asked and crossed his arms.

"We would simply get a letter that specifies the mission, Young Lord." June answered. "And once we receive it, we are then obliged to do it. We normally don't see our superiors at all, and I've mostly only come across the same rank or lower ranked than myself."

"Because it would be unnecessary for lower ranked members to see their superiors when there are other methods to relay information and orders from them." Lucius nodded. "Yes, that makes a lot of sense."

June nodded, feeling a little relieved that the Young Lord was pleased and accepted her words.

However, unbeknown to her, Lucius was mulling over the situation with Arkaves. It would have been simple if there was one fixed base for Lucius to head to, then he could simply send his men to deal with it.

But it wasn't just the Arkaves mercenary group that they were dealing with.

"Do you know what other mercenary groups will be hired to abduct and kill the remarkable soldiers of Inanis Family?" Lucius asked.

"N-no, I don't know anything." June desperately shook her head. "Like with Cine, Young Lord… I only know that he went on a mission but not the details. For this, I was only sent to do my job and gather information, but the actual process and forces that are to be involved afterwards is out of my knowledge."

"Of course." Lucius said.

He had expected that much of an answer. It was exactly the same to what he had done with the Dionysia Brewery a couple months back.

Each of the construction worker, guards and even suppliers who brought the Carom fruits were all unaware of what was happening and only knew enough information to do their jobs properly.

They were sometimes even given the wrong knowledge to spur on numerous rumors and cause confusion among the nobles. All of this was done in order to fully hide what they were actually doing and keep their cards from being revealed.

What the Arkaves had done was along the same lines as Lucius did and that made him think. He rubbed his chin lightly and mused about it.

It wasn't strange for noble and royal courts, merchants and even the church itself to think of methods and perform even downright duplicitous acts to gain the upperhand from others.

But the actual number of people who actually thought of and came up with these things were far lesser than you expected.

The only reason Barrom Clan rose to great heights of power to challenge the Tharian Theocracy was not simply because of the raw power of its clan members, it was also the leaders that strictly implemented their visions to the less capable ones.

Not everyone was born to be a leader, and most were more than happy to just copy the crowd and didn't deviate to the norm.

"And yet it seems like Arkaves is being led by a smart individual, someone who knows how to use their head." Lucius silently acknowledged and glanced at June.

Once again, if it were not for the superior senses of the Lost within the battlefield, June's careful preparations would have actually made her mission successful even without the original condition of the Inanis Family losing the war.

Nobody was aware, or even suspicious enough to think much about a nurse who simply wanted to treat others.

And even a low ranked member of Arkaves, Cine was capable of actually observing the Count of the Inanis Family without alerting anyone for at least a week without interruptions.

He had done that even when his gift was not actually suited for spying at all, which spoke much of his training.

The only reason why the man was even stopped was by the chance that Lucius had been testing Doyle's capabilities back then.

Lucius tapped his finger idly on the armrest of his chair.  It was easy for him to feel as if everything had gone well because of all the plans he had made and implemented working for him…

But with the slightest off chance that Lucius hadn't done a particular thing, the outcome might have already changed drastically.

The Arkaves mercenary group was already proficient enough on its own and it was only possible with the direction of a capable and intellectual individual.

"Well, well… I suppose this is a sign for me to be sharper than ever, the chance that there's a worthy adversary in the realm of foresight is something that can't be ignored." Lucius muttered.

Lucius had the advantage now with the Lost and their capabilities, but people from across the kingdom were going to hear about the Masked Legion as a new mercenary group.

That would put anyone with even half a head on their shoulders on guard, especially when news that the entire army of Count Drew was annihilated alongside powerful and gifted people who weren't supposed to be there in the first place.

And that wasn't even Lucius thinking about the other things on his plate. Well, this situation was taking precedence for now.

He turned back to June, there was still a lot more he could gain from her.