Of course, while the sword was a clue, it wasn't a particularly decisive one. It only implied that there was a connection between Bertnam and my would-be-kidnappers. Not enough information to go on, but at least, it gave me some clues about the organization that Bertnam was working with.

At least, it was now certain that I was working against some kind of mysterious organization that was expansive enough to have many spies, from junior members of Zolast's church to famous and important knights like Toross.

A dangerous combination, especially considering their obvious ambitions — kidnapping a hero was not exactly a small-time operation.

However, it still didn't answer many other questions, the most important one being Toross' link with the god of destruction and the cultists. Whether that organization actually had a cultist connection, or whether Toross was a part of both was not a question I could answer right now.

And, all those thoughts relied on one important fact: This particular clue wasn't bait. I trusted my abilities to read Bertnam enough to know it wasn't his intention, but that didn't mean there wasn't someone trying to use him as bait.

I couldn't be the only one who noticed that his particular combination of ambition and narcissism made him a useful toy.

So, I abandoned that chain of thought and focused on more immediate concerns.

Like improving our weapon production capabilities.

Establishing a Church for the express purpose of fighting against the cultists was a dangerous move, as it gave them an easy target to attack. It had both advantages and disadvantages.

The latter was mostly obvious, but there were several underrated advantages to the position, like knowing where the enemy would attack, allowing us to reinforce it to the brim. Zolast could do that, especially since, this time, he not only had many other mages he could use as workers, but also had no need to hide his true abilities.

I trusted Zolast to turn the town into an impenetrable fortress, enough to dissuade a calmer enemy.

But, I remembered the way Toross acted even before the corruption took hold. He wasn't exactly the kind of man that would be dissuaded by a difficult target. And, the more it stood, the more recruits we would have. Combining those new recruits with Takis' genius scouting plan, we could finally hope to somehow contain the cultist presence across the region.

Assuming we could properly equip them, which was far beyond the capability of the region as it stood.

For the development of high-quality magic weapons, there were several main components required. The first, and usually the rarest, was the Lord Beast parts. Ironically, with my abilities, that was the only part we had no problems with.

Another component was the material, which was a mixed bag. The simplest way to handle that was to use some rare metals that were inherently superior in absorbing and holding mana, but those materials weren't exactly easy to access. Luckily, the need for them could be bypassed by the usage of alloys. We were able to handle that aspect as well thanks to a combination of aggressive corporate espionage and wasteful experimentation.

Then, there were the blacksmiths themselves, who were our biggest problem. A blacksmith was hardly a rare class, but the problem came from its monopolized nature. Higher-level blacksmiths were often poached by various churches, the prime one being the Church of Hephaestus. They worked more like medieval guilds, doing their best to monopolize the high-level forging talent.

According to Zolast, their habit of using Assassins against other smiths with a rare variant class was an open secret among the ruling class, but their power meant that no one confronted them officially.

I had my own workaround on that subject as well thanks to their discrimination against female smiths, based on a decree from their gods, but that came with its own problems — well, other than the fact that if it was discovered, it would trigger a holy war.

The recruitment was critical. Now that our first batch of employees, led by Launara, had started producing efficiently, they could use some apprentices. But, unlike the first batch of recruitment, we were too big and important to just move away once our status was discovered, making it a troubling affair.

Every single candidate needed to be observed and assessed beforehand to make sure they could be trusted with the secret for the long term, and could handle their increasing abilities well.

I didn't want to go around killing people to keep our secret … but I also didn't want to assume that just because a group was being oppressed, every single member of that group would work hard for their betterment.

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This meant that an initial observation before the recruitment was required: low-level tasks that could be used as a more controlled observation to understand how they reacted to their changing circumstances, a careful cell structure to make sure any secret that inevitably slipped wouldn't reveal the other members — or the true scale of the operation.

A very complicated and time-intensive process … making me glad that I actually had competent subordinates.

I walked toward the forge. Not only was it where I would find Launara, but also I could feel Limenta was there too. A good candidate to organize the operation. His skillset allowed him to move around without being observed, which was useful for so many other things than just killing people, and he had the right attitude for the task.

The fact that it would give another excuse for him to spend time with Launara was just a bonus.

Soon, I arrived at the forge. I barely held back a chuckle as I watched Limenta doing his best to follow as Launara once again explained something about the balance between the heat and the iron content of the weapon, but got overwhelmed by the technicalities.

Seeing Limenta there brought another important topic to the surface.

Whether I should let Limenta level up more. Zolast believed that I should, so that we could better understand the impact of Authority, while I didn't want to experiment on him and potentially miss some important advantage for him.

In the end, we compromised.

I was going to explain the tradeoff to him, and let him choose. I already knew what he would want, but Zolast was right to argue that the quicker we understood the limits, the faster we could adjust our strategy around it.

If I were going to ask him to go around recruiting female blacksmiths, I probably had to level him up at first. I didn't want to send him out on such a tricky mission without making sure he was as strong as possible.

"Nice work," I said as I walked inside, announcing my presence as I pointed at the new blade she was holding.

"Hi, boss," Launara said, far more relaxed since the reveal of her secret. While Launara greeted me casually, Limenta was noticeably tense as he nodded to acknowledge my presence, showing that she was not yet aware Limenta was trying to flirt with her. "Thanks," she said as she raised the small knife. "It's much better than the previous ones. My new ability is really helping. It technically classifies as a magic weapon, the kind that can be sold in a shop. The lowest quality, of course, but still: progress."

"Very good, because I have a new order for you. We need magic weapons."

"Sure, boss. How many?" she asked.

"Not much. Just a few … thousands," I said, enjoying her expression of shock as the last word hit.

She paused for a moment, considering my words, and checking my face. I didn't bother to hide my amusement, but still signaled to her that I was serious. "Oh, just a few thousand. Not a problem, boss. Do you want them tomorrow?" she said, not bothering to hide her sarcasm.

I couldn't help but chuckle. It had been a slow process, but she was finally relaxing around me since the reveal. It was the first time she was actually being sarcastic.

Progress.

"Well, I wouldn't say no," I said. "Did Limenta talk about the latest mission,," I asked.

"Not much, other than saying it was successful," she said, and I could see she was being honest. I didn't expect Limenta to go babbling potentially sensitive secrets, but having confirmation was nice.

Of course, I had been planning to reveal that secret to Launara as well. After all, she was the one who forged the armor that I used for the battle. Sooner or later, she would hear about the mysterious knight with golden armor.

I had already seen several drawings of the armor going around, after all.

With that, I gave her a general breakdown, enough to allow her to catch up with most of the critical information — except my identity as the hero, which was not necessary at the moment. It was important for her to know about the church and the Iron Traders, considering one was going to be her biggest customer, and the other her biggest supplier.

"You have been busy, boss," Launara said, unable to hide her shock. "But even with everything, we don't have the numbers required to fulfill such an order. There's simply too much to handle."

"I know. That's why you're going to work together with our resident assassin here to work out a plan. I want you to identify the ideal qualities of the recruits while he goes around and identifies ideal candidates, recruit them secretly, and make them work on one of the cover businesses we will set up."

"In Town Maell or Yoentia?" Limenta asked.

"Ideally, neither. We can't afford any more attention on either of the towns."

"How about the villages?" Limenta asked, even more, enthusiastic to contribute to the discussion since it gave him an excuse to spend more time with Launara.

"No. Their security is too problematic," I cut in immediately. "Focus on the towns. And, the circulation of movement would make our job easier…" I responded, which led to a detailed lesson on how best to maintain operational secrecy and how to use fake businesses both as a recruitment front and as a way to conceal the various trades.

It was a topic I had some practice with, not just to establish my own smuggling business, but also to use the same principles to hunt the dealers who decided to sell hard drugs in my area.

It was a long discussion that took almost half a day without a break. I didn't plan for it to last that long, hoping to use that time to unwind, but it was hard to pull away when I had two enthusiastic students.

"I trust you to handle it, but don't forget you can ask for my help anytime," I told to Limenta and received a nod. Then, I passed the sword I received from Bertnam.

"I learned everything from your sword, boss. I know it's far better than anything else we can find here, but unless you allow me to destroy it…" Launara started to say before freezing, realizing that it wasn't the same sword.

"Yes, it's a different one. Go ahead and ruin it," I said. She put her hand on the sword, a blue glow covering it. She didn't even answer, just nodded absent-mindedly.

I turned to Limenta, who watched Launara with fascination. I chuckled, which went unnoticed by both. I flicked Limenta's ear.

He looked at me, and then started blushing. "Follow me, boy. We have an important discussion to have…"