Extension of working time

At night right at the campsite, Irina and I are now meeting a military officer named Harold. He was a bespectacled man who gave off the impression of an accomplished count, military academy and such, I could tell this man looked like a university lecturer but in military attire complete with a coat and silver insignia.

His body isn't overly muscular but he's still a soldier, physically, I can't possibly win against him, will there even be a chance that I will fight him? Of course not. Antagonizing military personnel with force was a stupid decision for me.

Harold continued to smile kindly at me and Irina as usual, he was the representative sent by major Carmila.

For me and Irina personally, this man is definitely a customer of our products. This is the moment that determines whether the products from Irina's company will be successful in the market or not. So I have to be careful with every word I utter.

While I was thinking that, Harold sat down at the work table right in front of Irina and I then took off his glasses slowly to put on another pair of glasses, he then opened his mouth casually.

"Blue Orb as the Magic sword's main ingredient, this is a much better quality than what I expected. Miss Irina, you did a great job."

"The production quality of my family's company is the best in the Republic. This may sound arrogant, but you can judge for yourself, all of these weapons can maximize the potential of capable military personnel. As long as your soldiers are of minimum standards, you can see that they can beat the wyveren without any problem."

"From what happened today, I can trust what Miss Irina said about the quality of the weapons you provided. I'll be writing a report for the major when we get home, it's a good decision for the military faction to do business with you. "

Harold paused for a few seconds before continuing. He looks worried about something.

"Oh, yes, before I apologize for being rude with you. This should be a job handled by the major directly, but I'm here as his representative. I hope this won't cause any misunderstandings that are detrimental to both factions."

As the director of a large corporation, the customer who should make the decisions is the higher military officers, this will show how serious the military is trying to do business with us.

These seemed to be the worries that filled Harold's mind.

Given Irina's personality, this woman should never have received this kind of demeaning treatment, even if she had the ability to do business, there was always a sense of pride as an elite in society that had to be maintained.

I saw kids from rich families always behaving like this around Irina and I, an example would be Matias and his circle of friends. It's like some kind of curse that seeps into their flesh and blood.

Then why did Irina allow this to happen? The answer was because this young girl obviously knew something.

"There will be no misunderstandings, especially for those of you from the Rounder family. This shows that the military faction is serious about trying to do business with us. If I remember correctly, I met your sister at school not too long ago, that girl doesn't seem to have the skills you have. I hope you are a true representative of the honor of the Rounder family. "

"This is not the place to talk about family. But I really appreciate your words. Well, I'll say it straight to you as part of the elite society. We, from the military faction, really hope for Miss Irina's help to get the presidential chair in the Republic, at least general Ludwing and his followers want that."

"I already know," Irina answered curtly.

This is a secret talk about the politics behind the business partnership. Was captain Harold actually commanded by major Carmila or not? Or was he actually a representative of the inner circle in his own military faction? I don't know why I started thinking about that.

Irina then continued.

"The chance to get the presidency from the military faction is clearly bigger than the business faction. We had wanted the presidency for a long time to achieve the Republican economic balance we dreamed of, but it clashed with the myriad interests of other factions, forcing us to compete was like standing on a fiery abyss. The businessman faction wanted to avoid that as much as possible. "

A beautiful girl with short white hair, smiling kindly that makes my heart flutter a little. That girl has such a strong self-confidence, she reminds me of a CEO of a big company from my old world.

Breathing softly with a faint white mist due to the cold temperature, Irina then ended her words with one short sentence.

"So how much information can you provide, captain Harold Rounder? "

Harold reacted, he then tidied up the documents on the table and put the pen aside to place the back of his hand under Chin.

He then told her what Irina wanted to know. That makes me think whose side is this guy actually on? However it was within reasonable limits to assume that he was from the military faction.

"Not long ago, Colonel Fred came to visit. He said the situation in the central department, some of them discussed cooperation with the business faction. If all this goes well, overall cooperation before the presidential election can be carried out at any time. The Colonel also said that high-ranking officers are willing to listen to what the business faction wants as long as it is within the limits we can accept. There are no lies in the report and we do want that. Miss should know, that the only faction you can approach is the military faction."

"I want guarantees. That's obviously very sweet, but we can't agree to that without any calculation. It would be really bad when the business faction had a lot to lose when the military faction was at the top of the government. "

"Yes, that is the reason why this arms business is so important. If this transaction is fully agreed upon, talks on cooperation will definitely not be met with objection from any of the officers."

In Republican politics, apart from connections from officials, there is one more important asset to gain, that is history of success. In this way, regardless of opposition from the public or elites in society, everything can be manipulated with authentic evidence, if the people of the Republic are sufficiently educated—no, even though they are educated, the quality is below drinking standards. So in this case, where Irina's aim was to gain the trust of the majority of the military faction who obviously had the proper educational quality of the majority of the population, having a history of success would shut up anyone who had any sense over their head. It's actually very simple.

But the goal of gaining complete trust is not that simple. Irina was clearly aware of it.

"Then how much do we have to do to win the trust of the majority of members of the military faction? "

"It will be enough when your company's weapons testing gets some great results. I remember in the report, there are three spots nearby that have some dangerous monsters, and there are also hordes of weaker monsters, so major carmila thinks we should bring some game that will surprise the military faction. "

Hearing that, Irina then turned towards me, She clearly wanted me to answer. And as for me, will I accept it, Even if it's dangerous? Wait, Captain Harold said that there are weaker batches of monsters, right?

"Okay, let's do it."

.....

In the morning after I wake up from my sleep. I can feel this coat is very warm so it makes me very comfortable. I want to thank the military personnel who refuse to sleep so that I can avoid all kinds of dangers.

It's very convenient to have lots of underlings who can take care of you at any time without sleep. For me who has the fighting ability of an ordinary citizen, this is a very meaningful help.

Sometimes I think, do I have to be strong? Humans are driven by the need to survive, and being strong is one of the keys to survival in this world full of monsters. But I feel that it's not necessary now, moreover I have very little potential to get stronger.

Hmmm... The elite Commander class sounds really good to me. This wasn't a sword fight but a battle of wits. But what have I done so far? Nothing, I feel like I'm not doing anything, I'm just going with the strong current.

To be honest, ever since I came to this world, I always feel like my mind is gaining some sort of acceleration, this is probably because the INT Stat points I have are extremely high, it's definitely not an insignificant number.

And even now I can think of something fundamentally better, for example, no matter how smart someone is, they will still end up getting misinterpreted when they lack information. Smart people are superior when it comes to processing information but that doesn't mean they always have the information or the source of the information.

This probably wouldn't mean anything to the majority of people, but for me personally, my outlook on things was starting to feel really weird.

All right, that's enough. Back to the real problem.

This guy, captain Harold, I always felt he looked suspicious from the first time I met him. This isn't some nonsense like animal instinct and such, but this is all due to my personal observations. I've listed the body language of some of the people I've met, some seem innocent and some look very smart, as for captain Harold, he's another example I haven't met.

At first glance, he is a very normal man, a capable officer in the military, an ideal subordinate to any commander. I watched it when I had countless opportunities, but I still couldn't come to a conclusion, should I use Skill Aprissal? Maybe that will confirm something.

Some of a person's Title affects their personality, yes, although it's not much, but I have some examples. But right now Aprissal skill is too valuable to use, I'll try it another time.

"Captain Harold," Kyle greeted in an attempt to sound friendly.

"Yes, Mr Burnet. This might annoy you, but to get to three different hunting points, three different commanders are needed. I will go to the west region to hunt some snake monsters called green claws with the magicians, while miss Irina will go north to hunt dark beasts. Then for you, Hmm— Yes, Sergeant Willo will definitely be able to cover for you to hunt the White Wolf in the south which is safer."

"No problem, Captain Harold, instead I have to thank you for giving me an easy job. "

Yes, my job is to pay attention, it won't be more than that. The knights would be hunting while I would be sitting on a rock drinking alcohol with my subordinates.

I then shook Harold's hand in thanks. Our gloves touch just as I start to whisper something to him.

"Captain Harold, something is happening in the capital."

"Capital?" Harold's glasses shook slightly as he listened to Kyle's whisper.

"You know, there's a dungeon there that hides certain secrets, it wouldn't make it to any reports in the military, but I saw them all."

"See everything? What do you mean by looking at it all, from what I heard, some students defeated the chained monsters and that was it. "

I then smiled a little, it was a mysterious scary smile when I tried to look in the mirror on several occasions. This guy named Kyle is very easy to show this kind of expression, and it has been ingrained in me. So I played it.

"That's just what it looks like, did you notice anything? Part of that may be the truth."

Yes, in saying this, I really hope that the military might come up with something. A group of hooded demons who happen to be employees of my family's company as well as a mysterious demon who defeated a lecherous snake woman. I wonder if there might be other dangers, and someone to take care of that is of course the military.

Just when I thought that Captain Harold might think what I wanted, something shocking yet familiar happened again.

[ Passive Title The Ruler of Conspiracy Activate ]

[Hidden Effect Activate: Data cannot be displayed, requires Aprissal Skill Lvl 6 to be able to display it]

This notification reappears in a situation I don't understand.

As I looked confused by what was going on, Captain Harold let go of my hand then turned around with a downcast face. Her expression changed slightly, her glasses looked dark and I couldn't see her eyes directly because her bangs were down in the wind.

As he was walking away from me, he then stopped and said something.

"The birds fleeing from the dark clouds, will probably become something you should avoid in the near future. Looking east would be the solution though it would mean disaster, and looking west would be unpredictable luck. Consider this as a small favor from me. "