Before the Crows could even fly and reach the Fox Den, the foxes were already on the move.
‘Something is strange.’
Tap. Tap.
As he moved his body nimbly, Ident felt a sense of unease.
From long ago, foxes were known for their resourcefulness.
It was the specialty of the Owen family’s foxes to invade other territories and carry out all sorts of schemes.
However, the Crows of House Ofern always held the upper hand when it came to gathering information.
It was always the Crows, not the foxes, who emerged victorious in fierce intelligence wars.
Whenever a fox dug a burrow to invade Ofern’s territory…
‘We’ve always blocked them properly.’
With the information they snatched, the Crows were the ones who blocked the foxes’ schemes and launched counterattacks.
The Crows had defended their territory perfectly by patrolling the skies.
That was why House Ofern could stop the foxes from encroaching on their land.
But this time, even though they had only just approached the vicinity of the Fox Den…
‘They smelled us. Did the information leak?’
The foxes sprang out as if they had been waiting.
They had appeared even before the Crows reached the den.
This was something Ident had never experienced throughout his long years in espionage.
The foxes were as agile as if they had prepared in advance.
“Over here!”
“No, the tracks go the opposite way.”
“It could be a distraction. Split into two groups and move.”
Their numbers were substantial, as if they had been breeding.
‘There are more of them than usual. Their individual skills are lower, but… to have noticed us first. Could it be…?’
Hiding himself, Ident assessed the situation while watching the nimbly moving foxes.
It had not been long since he started moving with the Crows.
Following the Count’s orders, he had led his team out immediately.
To ensure security, he had minimized the number of people who knew about the mission.
And yet, this was the result.
‘…If what I suspect is true, it’s the worst-case scenario.’
It was one of two things.
Either the enemy had obtained a new weapon for intelligence warfare that he couldn’t have imagined, or a fox had infiltrated the Crows.
Either way, it was a situation Ident found difficult to handle.
‘This task is going to be quite difficult.’
A hard job had become even harder.
Nevertheless, Ident could not stop.
He stayed low until the foxes had all left, then carefully sent a signal.
“Shiiiii—”
It was a signal that only specially trained Crows could hear.
‘If even this signal has leaked, it really is the worst.’
Fortunately, the worst was avoided.
However, it wasn’t the best result either.
“Captain!”
“Where are you?”
“…Over here.”
The number of Crows Ident had brought with him was ten.
Since he had sent the signal, a total of eleven people, including himself, should have gathered.
But one was missing.
‘Damn it…’
It was unlikely he was a traitor.
A fox wouldn’t kill its own carefully planted spy.
One person missing meant a fox had bitten through a Crow’s neck.
“What about Jayson?”
“…The signal should have reached him. If he’s still alive.”
“Sigh…”
They had lost an agent before the intelligence war had even begun.
It was harder to raise a single spy than it was a knight.
This was an unexpected loss.
Ident suppressed the boiling frustration inside him.
Anger was rising, but now was not the time to express it.
Instead, he asked the remaining men.
“If one Crow cannot fly, what should we do?”
“…We must twist the necks of at least three foxes.”
“Right. At least three. If possible, we should twist them all.”
“Just leave it to me, Captain.”
Ident’s loyal subordinate, Reiki, spoke up, his face flushed with heat.
It was no surprise, as he was in the same training group as the missing Jayson.
Though bulky, Reiki was one of the fastest among the Crows.
If he could catch a fox, he looked ready to twist its neck right then and there.
“Good. Let’s move.”
The angry Crows began to move toward the Fox Den, carrying both their mission and their revenge.
“Ho ho… They’ve moved?”
“Yes. More of them moved than anticipated.”
“More than anticipated, you say.”
The news of the Crows’ movement reached the Marquis of Owen, the old fox who commanded the other foxes.
As a symbol of House Owen, he had been born with hair as red as a blazing fire, but even he could not stop the passage of time.
His once-red hair had long since turned white.
As he lost his red hair, however, the Marquis had grown even more cunning.
Recently, through some unknown means, he had even begun to look a bit younger.
He looked at the fox who had come to report and asked coldly, “Shouldn’t the enemy be moving according to plan, rather than more than anticipated?”
“…I apologize.”
“There is nothing that needs to be as precise as information. Tsk… then again, what should I expect?”
The Marquis clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction.
“Humph… The foxes have always been slow. If I hadn’t obtained information from them, it would have been difficult to catch even a single bird.”
The fox trembled at the Marquis’s reprimand.
It was unclear whether the trembling was from the shame of the rebuke or from a sense of inferiority toward the Crows.
The Marquis simply watched the fox’s reaction as if enjoying it.
“Ahem… It can’t be helped since the work has already begun. In any case, we’ve already crossed the bridge. I don’t know if it’s greed or not, but…”
The Marquis muttered to himself, assessing the situation in his mind.
He had always coveted the Ofern Plains.
If he could obtain those plains and destroy House Ofern, his marquisate might become the one in charge of the borderlands.
He had always been greedy for it.
‘It is greed.’
It had been that way for generations.
House Owen, which inherited the burning red color, had always coveted the plains that turned golden with harvest.
And now that he was aging and his final years were approaching…
‘There isn’t much time left. I don’t know if the children will do well. Before that, I must finish it myself… or I must extend my time.’
Even if only because of his children, who seemed so inadequate, he had to personally crush the power of the Count of Ophern’s family, which was steadily rising.
Things could not continue like this.
Unlike House Ofern, which seemed to be successful in raising its children, House Owen had completely failed.
This was the price of the Marquis being so immersed in politics to keep Ofern in check that he neglected his own children.
Though one of his six children was normal…
‘The youngest is… too young.’
A child obtained too late in life.
He was still too young to build up power.
If the Marquis were to fall ill before then…
‘I’ve extended my life to endure, but… there’s no telling when it will end.’
If he were to lose his life, House Owen, which had built its power over generations, might collapse.
That could not happen.
Not as long as he drew breath.
To prevent that, had he not even reached out to those who possessed forbidden secrets?
No matter what happened, he had to stop them.
He had to break the Count’s power.
This was the obsession and grudge of an old man.
“I will attach the Biuer Knights. They should be of sufficient help, shouldn’t they?”
“Of course!”
“Good. When you return next time, I hope those Crows are no longer able to fly.”
“I will carry it out properly.”
“You must. If you can’t even do this, then you won’t be able to run anymore either, will you?”
“…I will surely succeed.”
“Good. Good. Heh heh… Get going. If you’re going to catch those flying things, you’d better move fast.”
“By your command…”
The fox guarding the old man vanished, leaving behind the lingering scent of Aura.
The foxes employed by House Owen knew how to hide their presence using Aura.
Like assassins.
Using this power, they gathered information and occasionally carried out various schemes.
“…”
The Marquis laughed thinly as he looked at the weapon and strength of House Owen.
The secret struggle between House Owen and House Ofern had quietly begun.
“I’ve made a move, so I must wait for the next. In the meantime, I should put another piece on the board. I’m going to be busy. Ho ho.”
For the sake of the work, I first had to understand the territory.
Sitting in the office, I spent time examining the piles of documents pouring in.
“…This is too much.”
The state of things was not good.
Even before talking about my life as Kim Seonggeon, I was someone who had handled all sorts of tasks during my life as Jegal Hyeon.
Before I was recognized for having a talent for martial arts in my mind rather than my body, I was in charge of managing the clan’s operations.
‘It was such a struggle.’
Back then, I thought managing things wasn’t easy.
The rotten people within the clan were constantly embezzling money in secret.
There were countless transactions where payments were made at a loss without even knowing their own money was leaking.
‘They were bookworms eating away at the clan.’
I corrected them one by one.
Without having to do anything special, just catching the corruption was enough to give the clan breathing room.
I thought I would never have to do such work again, but the current situation was worse than back then.
“Go back and organize this again! The situation isn’t clear at all!”
“Originally, it was done this way…”
“From now on, the method changes. You have to be able to understand it at a glance to calculate properly.”
The piles of documents, prepared in a haphazard manner, were the first problem.
The documents that were supposed to make the situation clear were only causing confusion.
‘This is where the work begins.’
There was a lot to be done, but everything was blocked from the very start.
Even in the Jegal Clan, things hadn’t been this bad.
For Kim Seonggeon, who had graduated with a degree in business administration and lived buried in piles of paperwork, the level here was laughable.
“There aren’t enough people to handle all this volume.”
“It’s because there’s no system.”
“Even so, to create a new one…”
“Sigh. Just watch for now.”
I had to teach them the basics again.
For these fundamentals, the methods from Earth were superior.
‘Because it’s a world that developed incredibly fast without magic or martial arts.’
In terms of paperwork, it was a world as advanced as the martial arts of the Murim.
“First, starting from here. The incoming and outgoing funds aren’t organized properly. It’s a mess. To organize this…”
Scribble, scribble.
Searching through my memories, I drew a table and organized everything one by one to a suitable level.
It was a simple change, but the effect was clear.
“See? The important thing is to make it understandable at a glance. Don’t insist that the original way is the only way just because it’s tradition!”
“Oh… I never thought of it this way.”
“So this is how it works!”
That was how administrative work usually was.
Even when there was a better way, people simply didn’t know how to use it.
‘It’s because they don’t want to take responsibility.’
They didn’t want to be held accountable if they introduced something new and it failed.
Since things managed to work out somehow even if they stayed still, who would go out of their way to put in the effort?
That was why the situation had continued like this.
Even though things could change significantly just by fixing simple things!
‘Whether it’s this world or that one, they just don’t know how to change. Change.’
I looked at the administrative officers, who were clearly impressed, and issued another command.
“Execute it immediately.”
“If it’s this much… I think we can manage with just a few changes.”
“That’s why I adjusted it for you. I’ll keep building up the system as we go, so get used to it. What are you doing? Why aren’t you moving?”
“Yes, sir!”
“I’ll try it right away.”
Perhaps the change in paperwork had met their expectations.
The administrative officers moved with more vigor than before.
Quite some time had passed since I taught the new method to the administrators in the castle and ordered them to rewrite the documents.
‘I can’t believe I’m spending all my time here.’
After a considerable amount of time, I was finally able to receive documents that clearly showed the state of the territory.
The moment I looked at them…
“Wow, it’s a mess. A complete mess.”
I realized for certain that the territory was also being run in a haphazard manner.