Chapter 525 — Observation
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 3
"A party of merchants…" Victoria said faintly, as though to herself. "Rumor has it that founding hero truly does love 'commerce'… it was by the power of merchants that he rose so swiftly."
Dark Raven lowered his head. "Shall we look into those merchants?"
"No need. Stirring the host's other guests is unwise," Victoria shook her head; then her gaze suddenly fell upon Dark Raven's shoulder, and her voice turned somewhat cold. "Besides—you have already been discovered."
"…What?!" Dark Raven started, then caught his mistress's gaze. The royal shadow guard turned at once and at last noticed something amiss at the back of his shoulder. He reached for it, and from a gap in the leather armor drew out a small slip of paper.
At the contents of that slip, the royal shadow guard's face changed drastically:
"Oh, out for a stroll? —Left by the Shadow Goddess's own daughter."
"Duchess—" Dark Raven dropped to the ground at once, his voice carrying shame and a faint tremor. "I… I was careless…"
An ice cone that chilled the blood seemed already to have formed at the back of his neck; the royal shadow guard felt his nerves and his blood growing cold by degrees. Yet the next instant that bone-deep chill receded like the tide, and he heard the duchess's voice come from before him: "Get up."
Dark Raven, drenched in cold sweat, rose as though granted a new life. Across from him, Victoria sighed. "Gao Yang Cecil trained Ansu's first royal shadow guards; he must have the most powerful shadow master in his service. It is only natural that you are no match. Cancel all covert operations from now on. That unseen shadow master gave us only a warning this time, but when the Duke of Cecil chooses to speak, it will likely be more than a warning."
Dark Raven let out a breath of relief. Much as he wished to say that he ought to know that "Shadow Goddess's own daughter" who had left the note on him—that the fellow was no shadow master at all, and in a straight fight would be perhaps a cut above a goose, and not by much—yet as an adult of normal intelligence, he would rather, at this moment, that his mistress overestimate that half-elf's power as much as possible…
"Since you have already been discovered, then do something else," Victoria went on. "Leave the city first, and the day after tomorrow enter formally with our second convoy. Then move about within Xuanyao City—go to the places you are permitted to visit. I want you to focus on three things."
"Pray command me."
"Observe how Cecil manages its 'people'; find out why their efficiency is so high. Observe what the ordinary folk here most often talk about; find out what the Duchy of Cecil looks like in their eyes. And finally, observe their markets—I want you and the other shadow guards to record every single thing sold in their markets, including the rough price fluctuations, and to inquire into where those goods come from, their daily sales, and how they manage the markets."
"Yes."
Dark Raven's figure vanished into the air. After a moment, Maggie looked at her mistress. "You mentioned the Cecil markets last of all… do you mean to understand how the Duke of Cecil's commerce operates?"
"That is one purpose," Victoria nodded. "But more important is to understand just how strong the Duke of Cecil has become since he took this land—our entire route from Boulder Fortress to Xuanyao City was planned for us, and what we are permitted to see was planned as well. The market is our only means of learning about the other regions of the Southern Marches."
How many carts Duke Gao Yang had, how many ships, how many cities were already utterly in his grip, how many regions were joined by direct road to Xuanyao City, how many gold coins flowed through this land each day, and how many soldiers those coins could feed… all of this could be estimated from the market.
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