Even if the secretary knew Victor from the several interactions they already had, the etiquette still required him to refer to the man with his proper title.

"I need all the documents about the western outposts and shadow kingdom. If you would be so kind, I would love if you could prepare a forty-seven demand for me."

Victor stated his request outright. Here, in Perra headquarters, he was basically a god to the others. Wielding the highest operational rank, he was outranked only by the great and crown Hesman's and King himself.

"Will do. Do you need anything else?"

The secretary didn't bother to put his work aside while speaking with Victor. Despite the great difference in their ranks, relatively young hesman was know from being approachable. Instead of putting his full attention on the small talk, it was better to finish the task at hand and help with Victor's request right afterwards! Stopping his work only for a moment, the young man behind the desk reached for one of the shelves and brought a stack of papers down on his table.

"Nothing that I can't solve myself, thanks for asking anyway!"

With those words and a small nod, the officer grabbed the papers and left the room. Just before closing the doors behind, he turned around to ask one more question.

"Any ideas which room could be empty right now?"

"Briefing six should be free at this moment. If I recall correctly, there is a meeting scheduled there in two hours, but no one should bother You before that time!"

Hearing the secretary response, Victor nodded again and closed the doors. This young man seemed to be busy with all the papers around him so there was absolutely no reason to bother him anymore. Even if he was at the bottom of the pecking order, his job was actually even more important by the work that several field officers were doing. If not for people like him, the whole papyrology in Perra would collapse!

While leading his party to the room pointed out by the secretary, Victor recalled the times when he was the one doing those odd jobs. With all the energy he had in his formative age, he joined the faction to serve his country to the best of his possibilities. Thanks to the strict training, even the long lineage of his ancestors serving as the officers didn't allow him to avoid those torturous times.

With the huge amount of motivation and energy present in most of the recruits, it was obvious that there some mishaps and accidents were bound to occur. At some point, Victor even thought that the entire training routine was created so that people like his younger version would cross the line and be punished with this kind of work!

After reaching the room that the secretary told them about, Victor invited his friends inside, split the papers in three and passed them to his companions. Sitting down on one of the chairs present in the location, he dived into the documents in his hands, looking for any pieces of information that could prove useful in his mission.

For the next hour or so, the only sound present in the room was the rustling of the paper. Despite how boring this job was, it could save them a lot of trouble later on. From time to time, one of them could be seen jotting down some notes on omnipresent blank papers with a piece of charcoal.

The first to finish was actually Leila. As she scanned the last page of the documents she received earlier, she took a look at her companions. Calculating something in her mind, she picked two small stacks of documents that she left over before and passed them to her companions. With the random splitting of the papers, it was obvious that some reports were bound to be split in half, so instead of breaking her friends focus to request them, she just ignored the incomplete parts.

Just a moment later, both Victor and Klimmer finally finished their job and sighted from the bottom of their lungs with relief surfacing on their faces. Coincidentally, those actions synchronised, adding a bit of comicalness to the situation.

"Okay then, let me start."

Noticing how everyone was ready, Victor took the paper with the notes he was making and looked at his friends.

"From what I saw in those documents, our control over the outpost is diminishing. Locations seven, fourteen and twenty-two switched hands to those bastards from Numian, while locations four and nine show the same signs, but with someone else playing in the shadows. While that might be an accident that is not connected to our mission, I have a feeling that we should investigate this. I have something about the shadow kingdom, but let's speak about it later. What did you find, guys?"

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"I'm empty on the outpost matter. All that I have applies to the kingdom itself."

Leila spread her hands in resignation. While all of those papers tackled the matters connected to the western continent, commonwealth still had quite a few projects going on there. It was no surprise that her portion of the documents was about different problems.

"I think that Lyrian princedom might be behind the four and nine locations. There are some reports about some sponsorship of those places. There is a surprisingly high number of the resettlement request made by their people as well. If my assumption isn't wrong, they might be trying to smuggle some of their wares to the shadow kingdom."

Despite being in one of the most secure locations in the entire capital city of Commonwealth, Klimmer still used a lowered voice to say his piece. If his words were proven true, that could result in a purge in the government! Since ancient times, the west was a taboo for everyone except those who were chosen by the King himself. Trying to meddle with any kind of affairs there was punishable by death!

"That's one point to investigate for us later. Do we have anything else about the outposts?"

Victor jotted a small note on a separate piece of paper, before turning his head back to his companions.

"While its marginal, outposts three and forty-one seems to be lacking supplies. Apparently, the company tasked with supplying them went under recently and the headquarters didn't find any other contractor to replace them yet."

Klimmer reported after looking through his notes again. While he called it a minor issue, he used the national scale to judge it. For the people stationed in those locations, lack of supplies would mean weeks of starving or breaking the law and go hunting themselves!

"We will go through the forty-one outpost while on our way to the shadow kingdom. About the third one…"

Unable to find a solution immediately, Victor fell into deep thought for a moment, brushing his beard while looking at one of the official documents.

"It seems that sixth outpost delivery is scheduled for the next week. If we hurry, we can intercept this caravan and redirect them towards the third one. While it will require some paperwork, lets put this aside for now. What about the kingdom? From the looks of things, I don't find anything strange going on there. Any clues?

"While the usual meddling with the outposts should affect some vital parts of its operation, I can't find any signs of that happening. What about you, Leila?"

With a look of disbelief on his face, Klimmer turned around to face his debate nemesis.

"There are some everyday problems here and there, but nothing extraordinary worth reporting. On the side note, they seem to finally implement the arena project there, so we could take a look at it when we will arrive there."

Noticing that something was amiss, Leila checked some stuff on the official documents but still went with the results that she found out earlier. From the looks of things, there wasn't any problem with the shadow kingdom at all!

Just when Victor was about to continue, the doors to the room got opened with a few people almost making their way in. When they saw that it was already occupied, a look of hesitation appeared on their faces. Looking at their uniforms, they were nothing more than just freshly nominated recruits, with an angry-looking officer behind them.

"We are very sorry, we didn't know someone was already using this room! Forgive our insolence!"

Noticing the awkward look on his underling's faces, the officer stepped up to solve the problem, only to see someone wearing Kirkut's uniform! What was worse, when he got stunned and involuntarily scanned the rest of the room, he saw a damn Hesman and his aide! With the blood flowing out of his face, he tried to bail out, but Victor's swift reaction stopped him in his track.

"Don't worry, we knew that there was a scheduled meeting here, but we kinda overstayed for a bit. As we are finished already, just give us a moment to pack the papers and you are free to use the room!"

Reaching Hesman rank required one to be both quick-witted and a great observant. Noticing the look of terror in the training officer eyes, Victor didn't make things hard for him. In the end, they were the one failing to keep track of the time!

After sorting out the documents back to the state they received them in, Leila collected all the notes from the table and raised up. Even if she was Victor's fiancee, first and foremost, she was Hesman aide. In front of the audience, she had to act her part!

When they were leaving, the freshmen stepped aside as if the King himself was making his way through them. Their eyes filled with respect and awe indicated how respected was the Hesman position even in the eyes of new additions to the faction! Compared to other military factions when the general position - Hesman equivalent - could be either bought or inherited, Perran organisation showed its prowess once again!

Going back to the room of the secretary, Victor opened the door and passed the documents back. As the young man received them with a respectful nod, he didn't wait to inform his superior.

"I already passed the orders, if they didn't slack off, your requested Company should be waiting in the assembly area!"