Journey towards the Crownlands (2)

On May 20th 280 AC Victor finally arrived at his destination, Rook's Rest. Although this was not his planned arrival point his spy organization still had a business in this city and a larger estate a little outside of the city.

Over the last few years, the brothel business spread far and wide in Westeros and the Ormollen family of Lys invested a large amount of their resources to build a huge network of information for Victor and House Di Natale. Of course, they received a lot of interest from the earnings of those establishments and without the security of House Di Natale's retired soldiers this would have never been possible for them.

After settling down in the prepared estate they settled down for two days and regained the lost energy from the long journey. On May 23rd a very important person arrived at the estate of Victor and Oberyn. This person was meant to be already waiting for them once they arrived and inform them of any information they might need. But due to Victor's change in decision the information needed to be delivered first and the connector had to travel from the port of Duskendale to Rook's Rest.

The person standing in front of Victor was one of the four most important members of House Di Natale in Westeros. Victor divided his spy organization in North, West, East and South. The person in front of him was the leader of the East Spy Division, nicknamed Paladin. 

The owner of the West Organization was called Shaman, the South Organization was called Rogue, and the North Organization was called Hunter. Victor found it quite interesting to name his spy organization like the classes of one of his favorite games in his previous life.

The Paladin was the son of an important guardian of Victor's grandfather and 35 years old. He was in control over all the spy business of the Crownlands and the Stormlands, based on King's Landing.

The Rogue was leading all businesses in the Reach and Dorne, based on Highgarden.

The Shamen was in control of the business of the Westerlands and the Riverlands, based on Lannisport.

The Hunter was based on White Harbor and tried to gain information on the North. His job was the hardest among them because brothels were not really that well received in the North. But this also made his job the easiest and safest as nobody really cared about some small brothels.

The other three leaders managed to create quite a large business together with House Ormollen which also made them targets of local nobles, especially in King's Landing. The Paladin needed to pay many 'protection fees' even though he could defend himself quite well with the retired soldiers. But in such places, you simply can't fight against the authority without a large army.

But after gaining an initial foothold and sharing a large amount of interest with local forces the business was still worthwhile for House Ormollen and Victor's four spy leaders managed to gain an insane amount of information every day. All four of them were deeply grateful to Victor for giving them this opportunity to make merits for House Di Natale. Obviously, they were all four not very talented in military affairs as they were never trained to be future guardians. 

They all felt deep regret and were depressed since adulthood for not being able to follow in their father's footsteps, but they still received a lot of education from the beginning of their childhood that would have been wasted without the formation of the new Spy Organization of House Di Natale.

The Paladin stood in front of Simon and Oberyn but hiding his face behind a white face mask. All four leaders promised to never show their face when being on the land of Westeros and could only drop the mask if they were to return to Canahs and lay down their task as one of the four spy leaders. Simon was very grateful and full of respect for those four children of the older guardians, because they forfeited any right for glory and honor and worked in the shadows for the wellbeing of the family.

Working as a spy, especially a spy leader, is not an easy job. It is one of the hardest things you can do, because you are always mentally strained, and you always feel like a mark is put on your back.

The only thing that allowed the spy organization of House Di Natale to grow without facing a large amount of resistance from similar organizations in Westeros was since they only gathered information and never used them on something like assassinations. This relieved a lor of pressure from the leaders. If the Paladin would ever use his information network to kill somebody with a higher rank in King's Landing all the existing spy organizations would swarm on them and put them into a miserable position.

Even though House Di Natale and House Ormollen used many resources in building this large network on Westeros, but they were still far behind local forces in the different administrative regions of Westeros.

But the Paladin was more than able to gather information in King's Landing for Victor's purpose and deliver some messages for him.

"Did you send the present I prepared to the target I designated for you, Paladin?"

When his name was called by Victor himself the aura of the spy leader was instantly restrained, and he showed a deeply respectful posture.

"Yes, my Lord, the gift was delivered, and the Spider received your invitation. He already sent his deep gratitude and agreed to meet up with us in two weeks."

Simon was very happy with the first step of his plan going well. The Spider of King's Landing was a major part of his future, and he would have to face countless unnecessary difficulties in the future if this first meeting would go wrong.

"I am very pleased with your work so far. In the next period our intelligence network will stop collecting external information and focus completely on my personal safety. I want my retreat path to be guarded and open under any circumstances. You are allowed to use any means available as long as you deem my safety under the slightest treat."