As soon as the meeting ended and I returned to my office, I checked my skill window.
'Skills.'
[Level: 22]
[Remaining Skill Points: 1]
One skill point earned from wrapping up the garrison rule of Soissons.
I had refrained from using it rashly until now, but the time had come.
[Please select one of the options below to obtain a reward.]
1. [Enhance Existing Skill]
2. [Acquire New Skill]
'Acquire New Skill.'
1. [Parallel Processing]
Detailed Description: Divides the user’s cerebral processing and dramatically increases speed. Allows the user to grasp the battlefield situation perfectly even amid intense combat, without information overload. Efficiency increases as this skill’s level rises.
2. [Shared Vision]
Detailed Description: Shares the visual information of a target designated by the user in real time. The target cannot perceive that their vision is being shared. The number of people who can be shared increases by one as this skill’s level rises.
I focused on [Shared Vision].
'A skill perfectly suited for intelligence warfare.'
As always, the important thing was information. The reason I had made it this far was not simply because I excelled in force or command. It was because I had built a board advantageous to me based on an information advantage.
Ding—
[You have acquired the skill 'Shared Vision (Lv.1).']
[You can receive the visual information of a designated target in real time.]
[Current number of shareable targets: 1]
I immediately began testing the skill.
The target was my personal adjutant, Hanna Meyer, waiting outside the door. Perhaps because the distance was close, the skill worked even through the door.
'Shared Vision.'
[Activating skill on 'Hanna Meyer.']
With a faint crackle of static, my vision overlapped in two layers.
'I can see.'
Hanna’s gaze was directed toward her own chest.
She was standing in front of a mirror in the hallway, straightening her clothes. As if debating whether to undo one more button or not, she glanced down at her cleavage, her hands moving back and forth.
'Status Analysis.'
I used another skill through the door.
[Name: Hanna Meyer]
[Status: Wants to look more attractive to the Lieutenant Colonel.]
'Release.'
With a crackle, the doubled vision vanished, and the familiar ceiling of my office returned.
It was an interesting skill. If I shared vision with an enemy commander or key figure, it meant I could steal a real-time look at the operational map they were viewing.
The very nature of intelligence warfare would change.
"Come in."
The moment I spoke, a knock sounded as though she had been waiting for it.
"Excuse me, Commander."
The door opened and Hanna entered. Just as I had secretly seen moments ago, one of the upper buttons of her uniform was subtly undone. A precarious tightrope between regulation violation and fashion.
"Commander, Lieutenant Hunt is waiting with approval documents."
"That fellow’s complexion hasn’t looked good lately."
Resting my chin on my hand, I openly swept my gaze over Hanna’s collarbone line. Hanna’s shoulders flinched.
[Status: Conscious of the Lieutenant Colonel’s blatant gaze.]
"Perhaps… because he has a lot of work? Your assets have grown so vast, Commander."
"True. He’s working hard to increase my money."
I chuckled.
"Send him in. And Hanna."
"Y-Yes?"
"Your button."
I tapped my own nape with a finger.
"Keep it fastened. I don’t like other bastards looking."
Hanna’s face turned as red as a carrot in an instant.
"Ah… I-I’m sorry! I’ll correct it!"
She hurriedly buttoned it up and fled the room as if escaping.
'Status Analysis.'
[Emotion: Embarrassed, but happy to have his possessiveness confirmed.]
What a cute adjutant.
And a short while later, the one who entered was Lieutenant Aiden Hunt. Arthur.
I used the skill at once.
'Shared Vision.'
[Activating skill on 'Arthur.']
Once again, my vision overlapped. In front of my eyes, I saw the office door, but within the superimposed vision, I was sitting there.
An Imperial Army lieutenant colonel with an insolent expression, chin propped on his desk. That was how I appeared reflected in Arthur’s eyes.
'His gaze is…'
An ordinary adjutant would have looked at the approval documents or tried to read his superior’s expression while gauging his mood. But Arthur’s gaze was different.
His eyes brushed past my Adam’s apple in an instant. A vital point.
Next was the pen holder on my desk that could serve as a weapon, then the pistol holster at my waist. Lastly, the position of the window and the escape route.
All of this scanning was completed in the brief span of steps between opening the door and coming to a salute.
'He really is a professional.'
"Salute. Lieutenant Colonel, I have brought the asset management report you requested."
Lieutenant Aiden stood before my desk and held out the documents.
[Total Asset Valuation: 92,450 Gold]
[Return Rate: +1,240%]
"Excellent, Aiden."
I accepted the documents he offered and deliberately pretended to be impressed.
"You really are… my good-luck charm. There probably isn’t an administrator like you in the entire Empire."
"……You flatter me, Lieutenant Colonel."
A dry reply. But within the shared vision, his gaze was trembling. He was currently glaring at the bronze paperweight on my desk. He must have been suppressing the urge to pick that up and bash my skull in.
"You don’t look well. Are you sick?"
"No, sir. I believe fatigue has built up from working through the night."
"Is that so? Well, thanks to you, my assets are increasing at a frightening speed. I suppose you haven’t had time to rest."
I sank deep into the back of my chair as I spoke.
"Which brings me to this, Aiden. I’ll need you to do a bit more work."
"…Pardon?"
Arthur’s gaze—meaning the shared vision—snapped up to my face.
"This expedition to the Republic. Waging war with nothing but guns and swords is what amateurs do. I need to spend some money. A great deal of it."
"By that, you mean…"
"Liquidate it. Thirty percent of the total assets. Around thirty thousand gold should do."
Thirty thousand gold. It was a budget on the scale of a decent national project.
It was a shame, but money had to be spent when the time came. In any case, the Imperial stock market, which had soared on expectations, would be entering a correction phase for a while. Taking profits now while things were still hot and using them elsewhere was not a bad investment.
"Thirty thousand gold… you say."
Even with the naked eye, I could see Arthur’s pupils tremble after hearing my words. I could see the calculator in his head spinning furiously.
"Understood. How should I classify the purpose of the funds? Shall I process them as confidential expenses?"
"No. Classify them as lobbying funds. And I want you to move personally with that money."
"Me, sir?"
"Yes. It’s money to be delivered to the embassy of the United States of Columbia, and to collaborators within the Republic. There’s no one as tight-lipped and reliable in their work as you."
'Captivating Speechcraft.'
[Skill 'Captivating Speechcraft (Lv.3)' is activating.]
"This is a task only you can do. Isn’t that so?"
Ding!
[Persuasion has failed!]
[The target’s defense mechanism is extremely strong.]
[The negative effects caused by persuasion failure have been greatly reduced.]
"I understand what you are saying, Lieutenant Colonel, however…"
'Oh…?'
As expected of an S-rank agent. I had somehow managed to make him act as an asset manager, but did that mean I couldn’t exploit him any further than that?
"Providing funds to an enemy nation could be seen as treason. What I am concerned about is your safety, Lieutenant Colonel."
His words were slick, but what he meant was, why should I help you lobby?
I decided to approach it differently.
"The Republic is rotting as we speak. Its citizens, exhausted by hunger, have become rioters, and when that incompetent cabinet collapses, who do you think will fill the void?"
I lowered my voice.
"The Reds. A mad world with neither law nor justice, where only people’s trials and guillotines exist."
Arthur’s eyebrow twitched faintly.
"As you know, I am a soldier, not a politician. But I know this much. Whether it is my homeland, the Empire, or the United Kingdom across the sea… in a world ruled by gentlemen like us, I cannot stand to watch clowns like that run rampant."
I pushed the skill in once more.
'Captivating Speechcraft.'
"The reason I am releasing money into Columbia is to stop them from pouring futile funds into the Republic. The reason I am scattering money among collaborators inside the Republic is to make them choose the Empire’s order, not riots."
Ding—
['Arthur' has discovered the interests of his homeland within your proposal.]
[You are stimulating the target’s core values.]
It worked. The things those conservative United Kingdom bastards cared about most.
Balance, order, communism.
Arthur’s eyes changed. He was probably calculating rapidly right now.
'An Imperial Army lieutenant colonel is using thirty thousand gold of his personal fortune to check the communist forces within the Republic.'
'He is trying to prevent Columbia’s intervention and end the war early.'
'This is… not bad from the United Kingdom’s perspective either.'
No, if anything, they’d be grateful. They could stabilize the political situation on the continent without spending a single coin of their own money.
On top of that, Arthur would think this:
'If I hold this purse string, I can grasp the entirety of the Empire’s lobbying lines. The flow of this money itself is top-tier intelligence to report back home.'
It would be a perfect misjudgment, of course.
"……Indeed."
Arthur opened his mouth.
"If that is your will, Lieutenant Colonel… then as a mere lieutenant, I cannot object. I will understand it as a desperate measure to reduce meaningless sacrifices and prevent postwar chaos."
"Exactly."
I smiled in satisfaction.
"Go and prepare. Thirty thousand gold coins. Don’t let a single gold slip away, and deliver it through the most discreet and reliable route."
"Understood. As for the contact line with the Columbian embassy… I will handle it through a trustworthy 'merchant' I know."
Merchant, my ass. He meant he would activate an intelligence bureau line.
"I’ll leave it to you."
Arthur saluted with precise movements and left the office.
He was probably shouting for joy inside right now. Under the illusion that he was manipulating the Empire’s war hero in the palm of his hand.
He would send a report back to his homeland.
That the target was spending his personal assets to seek stability on the continent, that he, the reporting officer, had been entrusted with full authority over the operation of the funds, and that the Empire’s diplomatic strategy could be controlled.
But what would the Intelligence Bureau headquarters in Londinium think?
They sent their finest agent, and far from assassinating the target, he had multiplied the target’s money thousands of times over, and now he was carrying out the lobbying activities the target wanted using the target’s own funds?
And on top of that, the result of that lobbying was the Empire’s string of victories?
'They’ll have no choice but to be suspicious.'
A situation where they would have no choice but to suspect that Arthur had defected, become a double agent, or perhaps had been completely won over by the person known as Max Jaeger.
That gap of suspicion would cloud their judgment.
And I would dig into that gap.