Pov Claw

"Hello, Father. It’s good to be back," I said to a human who wasn't acting quite normally. Father was, once again, using one of his monsters to talk to us. He had already taken all my memories using some new technique, so he knew everything that happened, but I understood why he would want a report from us. I’ve also come to learn that context can be vital, and you can only learn so much from memories.

"All of your journeys have been wonderful to view. I thank you all for your contributions, and as always, ask if you need anything. But if there isn't anything more, could we please get started?" His voice was gentle, as it always was when he was speaking to us.

To the left and right of me were 11 other individuals, all of us specializing in information gathering. I had never met them before this mission, but all of us were the very best.

"The mission went better than expected. The Admiral got us all appropriate spots on the trip to the island fortress. The maiden voyage of his war fleet was long enough that we were able to establish ourselves as we needed.”

“After that, everything was simple. That was until we got to the fortress itself. Anyone who wasn't a diamond rank or their significant other had their movements restricted quite heavily, but that wasn’t the problem, as we were expecting that," one of the other mission-goers explained.

I continued after that. "Fortunately, it was easy to gather information about everyone, as they were quite open. Our main goal, to identify mind readers, went perfectly. There was one truly tense moment, but that also helped us figure out the main diamond-ranked mind reader.”

“It’s also confirmed that they cannot detect or read previous memories, only the ones that you are currently thinking of. The pattern of who the mind reader are, was also figured out by our combined efforts, which means we should have an easier time gathering information in the future."

There was a momentary pause, and it seemed like Father’s puppet had lost its strings. A few moments later, it jerked a bit, quite unnaturally. Then Father spoke again. "I would perhaps call it a little more serious than a tense moment, but here, I found a new trick that I copied from one of the adventurers."

A moment later, an object appeared in the puppet's hand, and from it, an illusionary image of me appeared, showing how I was thinking quite loudly about how I was going to rush and kill the person on the other side of the room, who was surrounded by guards and obviously quite important.

Everyone took a step closer to get an even better look, as this was the first time any of us had been able to see someone else’s memories or what Father was actually seeing when he was taking our memories.

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It didn't take long for me to imagine and execute in my mind a plan that would actually work. Not a moment later, one of the guards quickly started to make a fuss and got the person they were guarding out of there.

Before they were out of the room, a person appeared next to me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. "Quite a lot of trouble you're causing. I’ve gotten no less than 17 complaints about you actively plotting to kill people who have been invited here. Care to explain yourself, or would you just like to have your head removed to save me some time?"

"I have not been actively plotting against anyone. That is a baseless accusation." The woman, who towered over me, grabbed hold of my shoulder, and I could feel that I couldn’t even move my eyelids as the power she held washed over me. "Do you think me stupid? I had to come out personally to confirm what that pretty head of yours was thinking."

The strength lessened, allowing me to respond. "In my mind? Since when is thinking not allowed? It's not my fault people get jumpy when I think about how to kill them. Not my fault they are peering into my mind. In fact, if they're capable of that, they should take it as a compliment and learn from their mistakes.”

“Like those individuals who were just here— instead of running away like cowards, they should have switched out one of their guards and been more mindful of the wall behind them and not think of it as a perfect defense. All of them are idiots."

The grip of this towering woman loosened a bit more. I didn't find confusion in her facial expressions but instead a small smirk.

"Good enough. Too bad you don’t have the talent for mind reading. I think you would have made an excellent mind reader, but I guess you seem to have a talent for killing as well, so at least that’s good. I didn’t miss the fact, however, that in those scenarios of you killing those individuals, you also died. Don’t be stupid enough to throw away your life on meaningless kills."

The woman disappeared after that, and the memory I had relived disappeared as the crystal that was in the hand of Father’s puppet shattered.

"We have confirmed that she is the master of the Mind Guild and one of the more powerful individuals among the masters. She also seems to have her own counterparts in all of the other three major powers. We have identified them all," said a plump, small woman who’s actually a frog.

Sometimes it's hard to imagine my fellow information gatherer as such a small and weak animal, yet I know that she especially would wait for the perfect moment, and even before I understood what was happening, I would be dead.

All of us continued to give information that we learned about the structure of the four major powers, the main players, and more importantly, knowledge about the past and how these powers operated.

One thing that was truly unfortunate was that there was basically no way of getting them to fight each other, and in all honesty, it would be a really bad idea. A diamond rank that has reached the limit of this world can tear apart cities as easily as a person can tear paper. War on that scale would devastate everything and could even end this world's civilization.

"Thank you for your valuable knowledge and perspective. You can all take a breather if you want, or take another mission immediately. It's up to you. And if there's anything more you need, please just ask." One of our members interrupted Father, and we all looked at him a bit confused.

"There is actually something I wanted to bring up. I think our aim in gathering information should be shifted a bit. You continue to grow at an astonishing pace, Father. I think it's important to start obfuscating your influence and begin gathering dirt so we can start interrupting the four powers' internal structures, which will make them focus more on themselves than on us."

Almost immediately, like in sync, all of us started to nod. Seeing this, Father seemed to increase his presence here. "Explain," his puppet said. We all thought about it for a little bit, but one after another, all of us spoke, giving our opinions and ideas.

In the end, it was clear that Father was positive about this change. In the future, we would no longer be just information gatherers, but we would also start to influence events to keep everyone's attention away from Father for as long as possible. It was going to be difficult, but I relished the challenge.