Chapter 48: Crucial Intelligence
Chapter 48: Crucial Intelligence
The next morning, after a long absence, Canlight City was greeted by a thorough downpour, accompanied by rumbling thunder. In the courtyard, only Bend remained, calming the startled horses in the stables.
In the dining hall, William, still in his pajamas, lazily ate his lunch.
Having spent another sleepless night working, William indulged in a lazy morning, just crawling out of bed.
He didn't blame himself; if anything, he blamed the rain for making sleep too inviting, providing an inexplicable sense of security.
As William savored the specially prepared roasted chicken by his own chef, Joyce placed a letter on the table.
William flipped through the thick, unmarked parchment envelope. Not knowing who it was from, he was about to ask when Joyce preemptively spoke:
"Young Master, this is a letter for you by Master Mora. He said you'd know what's inside."
Was it the intelligence he had asked Mora to gather for him last time? Finally, it had arrived!
William lost interest in savoring the food any longer. He wolfed it down, barely filling his stomach, then grabbed the envelope and headed to the underground research chamber.
Clearing a space on the table cluttered with various experimental apparatuses and scraps of paper, William sat down and tore open the envelope to peruse the intelligence Mora had gathered for him.
Different types of intelligence were neatly organized on different formats of paper. Mora had indeed put effort into his task.
"Changes in key officials within the kingdom? Nothing major there!"
"The migration patterns of wild beasts in the kingdom and changes in merchant routes? Not particularly useful."
"The recent activities of Countess Sharon's widow? What's Mora playing at with this?"
The intelligence Mora prepared for him was diverse. For instance, the merchant routes seemed mundane, but William knew the cost his family's trading consortium had incurred to uncover them. Selling such information to desperate traveling merchants could yield substantial profits.
However, none of this was useful to William. What he wanted to know wasn't among this information.
At the end, he found the most detailed and crucial intelligence: statistics on commodity price changes in the Kingdom of Fis and surrounding countries.
For most people, this served as a compass for making money. But what William cared about wasn't these.
Among the dense data, William quickly found what he was looking for.
In the Kingdom of Fis, staple commodities like grain, metal ores, weapons, and salt had experienced slight price increases over the past six months, ranging from five to fifteen percent compared to the same period last year.
Luxury goods and real estate prices had slightly decreased domestically.
Several neighboring countries also showed similar situations, but the magnitude of price fluctuations was smaller than in Fis.
Following the intelligence, there were recommendations from the intelligence personnel of the Golden Vine Chamber of commerce, proposing an increase in the proportion of grain, equipment, and other commodities carried by caravans.
William put down the intelligence and rubbed his chin, his eyes filled with profound meaning.
Now this was interesting!
The entire continent had been peaceful for a long time, so even though the Golden Vine chamber of commerce noticed these unusual price fluctuations, they hadn't considered them in the direction of war.
Looking at these, whether it was grain, weapons, metal ores, salt, or any other commodities, they were all extremely crucial for war preparation.
If the fluctuations in grain prices might have seasonal influences, then the price changes in weapons and metal ores didn't make sense.
However, William, despite not being particularly knowledgeable in economics, knew that the outbreak of war was an inevitable result. So, tracing back, it was easy to guess the reason for the increase in the prices of these war materials.
Someone was secretly buying up and hoarding these crucial strategic materials!
Moreover, judging by the magnitude of the price changes, the main buying and hoarding activities seemed to be happening within the Kingdom of Fis, which then affected the prices of commodities in surrounding countries.
This was getting somewhat terrifying!
The funds mobilized could directly affect the prices of staple commodities like grain and weapons, implying an immense amount of capital!
And this covert buying behavior hadn't raised suspicions from the Golden Vine Merchant Guild, one of the top five guilds in the kingdom.
This—without the cooperation and support of the kingdom's high-level officials, William couldn't believe anyone could pull off such a feat!
So, was the assassination attempt during the Annual Holy Festival orchestrated by the kingdom's high-level officials?
Could it be the king? William thought it unlikely. If it were truly the king's intention to initiate a war, there would be no need for such a blatant act that would damage the royal prestige and credibility.
If the king desired, even minor border skirmishes could serve as a pretext for war.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck William! Yes, unless the king didn't actually desire war, but someone wanted to create an irresistible pretext, forcing the King of Fis to launch an aggressive war.
To shift the internal tensions within the kingdom and vent the dissatisfaction of the noble class caused by the assassination!
William slowly pieced together his thoughts, and his eyes began to gleam brighter.
So, the most important thing now was to figure out who in the kingdom wanted to push for external aggression, and the reasons behind inciting war.
William glanced again at the intelligence in his hand, finding Mora's delivered information quite useful. He'd have to thank him properly later.
Now, where could he gather information about the kingdom's high-level officials?
Soon, a figure appeared in William's mind.
Ah, how could he forget about her! —
Gedo Street, Headquarters of Nichole's Adventurer Team
The rain outside continued to pour heavily, keeping people indoors, reluctant to venture out in the downpour.
After all, in this era, even a minor cold could snatch away a person's life.
Members of Nichole's Adventurer Team were all in the villa, lazily enjoying this rare leisure time.
Lumbro was still sipping his ale, which for him was akin to the elixir of life, while Jason was busy maintaining his longsword and armor, carefully lubricating them with special oil.
Elena and Nichole sat side by side on the sofa.
"Oh, Elena, just let me hold Mooney again, I'll be gentler this time," Nichole pleaded, looking at the small black cat curled up in Elena's arms, feigning innocence.
"You said the same thing last time," Elena retorted, ignoring Nichole's attempts to act cute.
"So stingy, I won't let you play with it anymore in the future!" Nichole pouted in frustration.
At that moment, William pushed open the door and walked in, overhearing Nichole's complaint. He couldn't help but smirk.
Don't be like that, it's that ill-tempered Red Dragon of yours, I really don't know how you managed to make the fiercest and most brutal of the Chromatic Dragons your mount? Was it through physical persuasion?
Seeing William enter, Jason put down his sword and asked, "What's up, William? Coming over in such bad weather, is there something urgent?"
"It's not really urgent, but I need your help with something," William said, shaking off the water droplets from his raincoat.
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