Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 282 - 281: Team 25 in Action

Gawain was very grateful for the various education he received in his previous life and his habit of reading books (and bragging online with people), but he was also very grateful that in this life, he first transmigrated into a satellite spirit and underwent some kind of mutation in the process—he guessed that he had undergone some kind of mental or spiritual "reconstruction" or "compilation" when he became a satellite, and such reconstruction based on the satellite host certainly sorted through all his memories completely and categorized and organized them, which ultimately brought him two extremely important changes: first was an inhuman level of mental resilience, and second was a memory like a hard disk.

He could remember things very clearly, even things from his previous life that he thought he had already forgotten, he could recall—as long as he tried to remember.

Now, he was very willing to teach the good things he recalled to Rebecca, and, well, also to Aunt Heidi who stood nearby with a confused expression.

While the leader and officials of this land were planning the post-war production and future development, everyone in the territory was also busy with their tasks, including Hummel, who was studying with the apprentices how to further enhance the efficiency of the chaotic magic smelting furnace, Norris, who was considering the reclamation for the coming year, and the 25th Production and Construction Brigade, who had just returned to the residential area and were in a meeting to hear about tomorrow’s work plan.

Before the monster attack, the 25th Production and Construction Brigade was building a new industrial area in the southwest region of the territory. After the alarm sounded, the entire brigade temporarily stopped its current tasks like other engineering teams, and they were assigned to the city wall section to help transport materials and reinforce the wall. Now that the combat alarm was lifted, the entire brigade returned to their station—as a special "unit," they were different from other production teams, and the distribution of production tasks and work summaries were the same; there were several specialized supervisors and soldiers responsible for managing the 25th Brigade. Now, the meeting was being held by an old soldier from the Cecil Combat Corps, who was said to have served the Cecil Clan for ten years.

Hall was a member of the 25th Brigade and also a new resident of this land. He sat honestly in his designated place, listening to the tall and strong old soldier conveying the leader’s orders to the team. He tried hard to behave like the most normal civilian worker, but he needed some effort to fully adjust to the role he was supposed to play.

The "civilian workers" on this land were different from elsewhere, which made him a bit uncomfortable, but fortunately, he was someone with strong adaptability and a keen sense of observation, so he learned the behavior and mannerisms of Cecil’s commoners in a short time—more or less.

After confirming that everyone around was listening seriously, Hall pretended to nonchalantly look up and quickly glanced at the soldiers in front of him.

The civilian worker team being managed by supervisors was normal, but it was unusual that besides the supervisors, there were three soldiers maintaining order in this team. At first, Hall was nervous, thinking he had already aroused the leader’s suspicion, but he soon realized that the soldiers weren’t specifically monitoring him, but were supervising the entire team, so he relaxed.

He even felt a small thrill of joy amidst the relaxation—this team was very special, the leader’s private soldiers personally overseeing it, which indicated that he had already infiltrated a place where secrets could be accessed. There were elements of coincidence and luck, but isn’t luck an essential part of being a spy?

He had heard that several spies had been caught at the city gates, docks, checkpoints, and such places, and were whipped and exiled, but he could still sit here quietly, so he was undoubtedly lucky.

And because he managed to stay hidden, he had the chance to see so many unimaginable things on this land.

There was no doubt that the resurrected Duke Gawain Cecil was indeed no ordinary person. Leading his descendants and hundreds of refugees to the Dark Mountain Range was not an act of insanity but a scheme—they far exceeded Viscount Carol’s expectations in the speed and scale of their land’s construction. It was a wise decision for Viscount Carol to send him here.

And also those monsters, the ones said to have come from the Gondor wasteland, and the war machines built to destroy them...

Even now, recalling that already-ended battle made Hall feel a bit afraid. Although he only glanced at the battlefield when climbing the city wall to deliver bombs in the latter half of the battle, that scene still made his legs weak. He couldn’t imagine that such terrifying things existed in this world, nor could he imagine the resurrected duke could create thunderous war weapons to counter such monsters. If not witnessed personally, who could imagine such things happening at the frontier of civilization?

The soldier delivering orders wouldn’t give lengthy speeches like an aristocratic lord, so while Hall was pondering, the soldier had already finished saying the important things, then announced the dismissal, after which the members of the 25th Brigade stood up one by one.

Hall also stood up with everyone, pretending to nonchalantly dust off his clothes, stretch his limbs, and walk toward the exit.

He restrained the urge to approach the soldier and get closer now; it was too early for that. His identity was still just a "commoner," and though "commoners" seemed to have a high status on this land, rashly approaching a noble’s private soldiers would inevitably draw suspicion—even if he used money to bribe them, such highly loyal soldiers might immediately sell him out. He needs to proceed steadily and surely.

He must not let anyone see anything unusual about him.

On the way, someone came to greet him—a fellow member of the 25th Brigade, and though they had been working together for several days, given that it was a newly established production and construction team (a very peculiar designation), it was normal for people to not know each other, but to avoid arousing suspicion, Hall responded enthusiastically and started discussing recent production tasks, naturally steering the conversation to the just-concluded battle.

Everyone around was talking about the same topic after all; the battle had just ended, and it was an impressive one, so naturally, normal people would want to talk about it to relieve their tense emotions.

There was nothing suspicious about that.

But Hall still remembered his mission, so he couldn’t just engage in idle conversation; he needed to take this opportunity to inquire about the situation in the territory, like asking where those monsters came from and where the weapons used to fight them came from.

And during this process, he couldn’t just ask questions, as people nearby might also raise questions under the guidance of the topic—however, as an excellent spy, Hall was well-versed in the skill of adaptability, and he could always fabricate smooth answers in the shortest time possible based on the information he observed and his own guesses and understanding, so that no one would suspect that he was actually an outsider who knew nothing and was just gathering information.

After a bit of casual chatting, Hall would sensibly shift the topic to prevent others from suspecting him, and then he would find a way to naturally slip out of sight, seeking an opportunity to be alone.

The dormitory was a relatively safe place, but it was not suitable at the moment, as some of his roommates might have already returned, so he took a turn and headed towards the restroom of the dormitory building.

The number of restrooms here was sufficient, and they were even equipped with "stalls"—to be honest, Hall initially did not understand this: this territory actually did not allow people to relieve themselves anywhere, and the leader spent great effort building so many restrooms and sewers, as if there was some kind of obsession with cleanliness, but now, Hall had adapted to the strange rules here and even found that the strange rules set by that ancient duke actually made things very convenient for him.

After entering the restroom, Hall saw a row of stalls with closed doors. He knocked on the first few, and they were actually occupied, but he eventually found one that was unoccupied, so he quickly slipped inside.

He didn’t forget to turn around, close the door properly, and latch it from inside.

Then he took out a charcoal pencil and a piece of paper hidden on his body, and after confirming that it was safe, he began to write a secret message:

To the Master:

Settled in, became a construction worker. This place is developing rapidly, population has reached over ten thousand; today there was a monster attack, reportedly...

He used the most accurate words possible to describe what he saw, but it wasn’t easy. After all, he had seen many unimaginable things here, and even as an excellent spy, he felt a lack of vocabulary when describing these things, but he still finished writing the secret message and kept it carefully hidden on his person.

Soon, some merchants from the Carol territory would pass by here, and among them, some had secret signs. He needed to wait for the contact to pass by to send out the secret message.

After confirming there were no issues, Hall stood up, deliberately made some noise with his clothes, and then pushed open the stall door to leave.

A person came out of the neighboring stall as well, an ordinary construction worker.

Hall nodded and greeted the person, who also nodded back, seemingly without any suspicion...

Just like this, the members of the 25th Brigade moved around, chatted, disguised themselves, and collected intelligence from the people around them, while they also continuously released information, and besides a few agents from the Intelligence Agency inserted among them, none of them truly understood the situation of the Cecil Clan, but amazingly, countless pieces of intelligence about the Cecil territory brewed among them and were disseminated.

Some were things they had seen with their own eyes, but more... who knows whose imagination first concocted them, which then spread throughout the entire brigade.

And the soldier who just finished a meeting went to the military zone after leaving the 25th Brigade and entered the station of the Military Security Intelligence Bureau.

In the office, there were two people wearing winter work clothes reporting intelligence to Amber—they were agents from the Intelligence Agency placed in the 25th Brigade.

The content of their report left Amber completely astonished.

Claims that the Cecil Clan was built on the ruins of a Gondor city, monsters were summoned by a mad ancient Master Mage from the Dark Mountain Range, and the weapons used to counter the monsters were secretly smuggled from the Silver Empire...

The miraculous 25th Brigade, in the process of raising Gu, had relied on internal imagination, fermentation, and misinformation to produce an imaginary version of the Cecil territory.

Even Amber couldn’t help but exclaim:

"Just like the old man said, this is a miraculous creation out of nothing..."