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Vol 03 Chapter 89: Counter-Spy Measures

「The trip was quite enjoyable, we need to go on another trip someday.」

「Yeah. The artworks in Kirisia were beautiful, too.」

「And we got a lot of books.」

It seems that both Julia and Tetra are satisfied as well. That’s good. …Well, there were some troubles at the end too.

「Now we need to prepare homes and the basic necessities for the people who will come from Kirisia later.」

「Right. And more importantly, we need to implement measures against spies.」

If I were the leader of one of the Kirisian cities, I would mix spies among the large influx of experts they are sending to us.

What we must protect at all costs is the technology of papermaking and the black powder recipe. Especially the black powder is crucial. Paper… well, it’s not so difficult to replicate, so I expect it might be copied without needing to be stolen in a not too far future.

I’m not worried about them stealing the magicraft that Tetra invented. It’s not something you can steal simply because you want to. If it were that easy, no one would struggle with it. It’s like programming software for a computer. It’s not something you can do just by watching.

「I need to consult with Raymond on this.」

「Yeah… by the way, I want to introduce a new anti-curse system.」

「Hmm?」

A new anti-curse system? Did she come up with some new technique?

「It’s just reusing Kirisia’s technology, though. I want to build a defense system maintained by borrowing the name of a god. To explain the current system simply…」

Until now, barriers were created using the magicians’ own magical power.

In the conventional system, each village has anti-curse equipment, and third- to second-tier magicians channel their magical power into this equipment to maintain the barriers. As there’s at least one third-tier magician in each village, most of the barriers protecting the villages are self-sufficient.

For every region comprising about thirty to fifty villages, there is central anti-curse equipment where second-tier magicians channel their magical power to maintain a bigger barrier.

In the king’s directly controlled territories and the domains of the patricians, there is also another anti-curse equipment where a first-tier magician (one capable of manipulating the soul) channels magical power to create an even bigger barrier.

Finally, there is an anti-curse facility that can oversee all anti-curse equipment within the country in the palace itself, where Julia and several top-tier magicians maintain the barriers.

This is how the country is protected against curses. This system was developed after the famine that occurred about ten years ago (when Ron and the others were abandoned), taking into account the lessons learned after the failure to prevent the massive curse.

By the way, the countries around King Rosais’ Country have also established similar anti-curse systems.

It seems that this system can deflect most curses. At least, it’s designed to protect against curses as severe as the famine from ten years ago.

The problem is that the magicians need to dedicate themselves entirely to anti-curse activities.

「So, what’s this system that is maintained by borrowing the name of a god?」

「Simply put, it’s about converting people’s faith into pure magical power to maintain the barriers. This way, the power won’t ever run out, reducing the burden on magicians.」

「Can something like that really be done?」

「Well, yes. But it can only be used for barriers; the magic power gained from faith cannot be used for magicraft or curses. …It’s still in the planning stage, though. I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I’ll compile everything into a document or something and submit it later.」

Hmm… if that’s possible, it would significantly reduce the burden on magicians. It might even facilitate the conversion of magicians specialized in barriers to mages specialized in magicraft.

「Do you have anything to add, Tetra?」

「Not particularly. I would like to focus on copying the books we brought with us and the training of new mages.」

「That might have to wait a bit…」

At the moment, it can’t be said that there are enough magicians available… And magicraft theory is too complex so most magicians can’t make heads or tails of it.

Magic is about ‘Don’t think, feel!’ whereas magicraft is the opposite: ‘Don’t feel, think!’

However, magicians like Julia, who are experts in medicine and compounding, seem to have a relatively high aptitude for magicraft.

◇

「So, Raymond, I’m thinking of enhancing our measures against spies.」

「I see. That’s very prudent. …For starters, let’s place surveillance on those who are involved in the production of paper and black powder. Also, we should offer them reasonably high salaries.」

People normally fear losing their jobs. Naturally, revealing secrets of your work to outside parties would lead to immediate loss of the job… or in some cases even heavier punishments, this is something anyone can understand. Moreover, if the technology spreads and competition increases it’s clear that it would adversely affect them.

Yet, there are those who still spill secrets. Why? Simply put, because their salaries are low.

In Japan, there are news reports about technology being leaked abroad all the time, and the root cause often ties back to low salaries. In other words, by offering high salaries, it demonstrates that the country values them… which should mitigate the issue.

Even if we triple the salaries for those involved with papermaking, there’s still plenty of profit, and black powder is a strategic resource, something we can’t afford to cheap on.

With high salaries and surveillance in place, it should be mostly secure. If a leak happens after all that, we’ll deal with it then. A completely foolproof counterintelligence system is impossible.

「Let’s assign Iarl to oversee the surveillance system. He seems to be adept in that area.」

「I agree. He’ll likely get the job done.」

We should be fine regarding the leakage of technical information with this…

「As for me, beyond technology, I want to crack down on those who might leak our internal military actions.」

「Are there any leaks? If our military actions are leaking, it would mean someone close to us is the traitor.」

Are you saying there are traitors between the patricians and their families?

「No way, that’s improbable… but it’s entirely possible that someone could be coerced into becoming a traitor or become one unknowingly.」

Becoming a traitor unknowingly? Meaning they don’t consider themselves or are unaware that they are traitors, but from our perspective, they are…

Someone unconsciously leaking information… Is that even possible?

「When do you think people are most vulnerable to curses?」

「That would be… during sex, right? I know that much, but…」

「The patriarchs of the patrician families are men, and the magicians are primarily women. You understand right?」

「No way, that’s not possible. I’ve learned some basic anti-curse techniques myself. Sure, if Julia got serious during sex, I’m confident she could hypnotize me… But there aren’t many magicians of Julia’s caliber. Plus, any magician guard would detect the residual magic from the curse.」

Cursing is significantly more challenging than protecting from curses. This is a basic principle of magic. If someone has a decent level of anti-curse techniques, they can defend against most curses unless the attacker is exceptionally skilled.

「What if the magician guard is the spy? …Well, targeting the patriarch directly might be a bit far-fetched. More likely targets would be their subordinates or the bureaucrats serving in the palace. Those people are less likely to have learned proper anti-curse techniques and wouldn’t be on guard against poison, either.」

It’s true… Hypnosis could work on those less guarded…

「So, there’s a chance that a servant could suddenly stab me?」

「…Directly manipulating someone to take such actions might be impossible unless you’ve been mistreating the servants and they harbor resentment… But my king is quite popular even among the palace slaves.」

That’s a good point. So it’s unlikely, huh?

Julia did say that making someone do something they really don’t want to do is extremely difficult.

「Still, getting them to talk is much easier. Some people are just naturally loose-lipped, even without any magical influence.」

「True… There are plenty of people who spill information without meaning to.」

Those people even consider themselves tightlipped.

「You didn’t bring up this topic based on mere speculation, did you?」

「No, I don’t have concrete evidence, but there are reliable sources worth our vigilance.」

With that, Raymond handed me a stack of papers. The top one read ‘National Magician Registration Form.’

This is a recently compiled document. It lists only the magicians who have registered themselves, but it’s estimated there are many more magicians still within the country.

「I’ve looked through that myself. Was there something unusual?」

「Out of the magicians employed by the patricians, twelve are not from our country.」

「That’s not necessarily strange. It’s common for magicians to wander in search of employment.」

Magicians are highly sought after, moving from place to place seeking high salaries and opportunities to serve—this mobility is possible because they are irreplaceable talents.

「Did you read the interview documents?」

「…I glanced over them…」

I’m busy too. I can’t check everything. Would a CEO of a large corporation check every single record of new hires? Unlikely.

Of course, I thoroughly checked the credentials of top-tier magicians capable of manipulating the soul and controlling animals… but not beyond that.

「It appears that eight out of those twelve have been identified with a Gallian accent, indicating they’re from the Rozel Kingdom. …That country’s reputation for intelligence gathering is well-known.」

「Let’s say these eight are Roselle spies. They didn’t arrive recently but have been here for over ten years, right? And if your theory is correct, they haven’t only sent magician spies to our country but to others as well, especially those like King Domorgal’s Country which shares borders with them, would have many more magician spies. Would they really send that many valuable magicians abroad for such long missions?」

It seems unlikely. Information is valuable, but would they use magicians as expendable spies? The most precious ones are the ones capable of controlling souls, but even less skilled magicians are considered valuable.

The number of magicians capable of performing somewhat advanced magic like hypnosis might not even reach a hundred in our country.

「Almus-sama, Rozel Kingdom’s population is said to exceed three million. Our country has at most two hundred and fifty thousand. Purely in terms of magician numbers, they have twelve times more than us. Besides, they have the world’s oldest magician, Merlin. The Rozel Kingdom is one of the most advanced countries in the world regarding magic.」

So, the human resources difference with our country is that big. Twelve times more means that the Rozel Kingdom has about twelve hundred magicians.

If they have that many magicians, sending a few to infiltrate other countries might not be too difficult.

「Should we capture and interrogate them?」

「I’ve done it before.」

…Hey! What are you doing without permission! That is not something you can do on your own. Depending on the circumstances, I might have to punish you.

「No, you misunderstand. This was about ten years ago. I had hired a wandering magician, a fourteen-year-old with a Gallian accent. I didn’t pay much attention at first… but her behavior started to become suspicious. When we monitored her, we found her sending out an owl at night.」

「And then? What happened?」

Raymond shook his head in response to my question.

「Nothing. She didn’t say anything during the interrogation. We had no choice but to resort to torture…」

…The subject was a fourteen-year-old girl, right? Didn’t you consider she might have been innocent?

「 When she broke and began to confess, she died, she was only able to say ‘Please forgive me. I’ll speak! I am…’ The cause of death was her heart bursting.」

「So she died due to a curse… She really was a spy. But whether she was a Rozel Kingdom spy or not, we only have her ‘Gallian accent’ as evidence.」

After all, just because someone has a Gallian accent doesn’t necessarily mean they’re from the Rozel Kingdom. In King Domorgal’s Country, especially in the north, there are a lot of people with gallian blood.

「For now, we should deploy trustworthy magicians to investigate for any traces of curses. The residual magic is hard to detect unless you’re looking for it, but it becomes clear once you do.」

There’s definitely a spy among us. If we start an investigation with that suspicion, we’ll likely catch someone. Of course, that’s if there really is a spy.

「Let’s also try to do the same too, we should start with King Domorgal’s Country.」

「Good idea. It will also serve as a validation of whether it’s feasible or not. Limiting operations to lower-ranked soldiers would reduce the risk of them discovering the magician spy as well.」

For now, we should focus on counterintelligence. If we have free magicians after that, we can send them to gather information outside. Alright, the direction for this aspect is set.

Ah, right, I haven’t discussed Julia’s proposal yet.

◇

「What do you think?」

「It’s a good idea. The issue is which god to use… There are over ten that come to mind, and a quick search could bring up a hundred. Griffon-sama could be considered a god too. Perhaps Zelpia is a safe choice… it’s the Rosais Family’s patron deity. But it’s not very popular among the common folk…」

Raymond started to ponder deeply, seemingly struck by an idea.

「This could be useful not just for anti-curse defense but also politically. Give me some time. I’ll think it over too.」

「Sure, take all the time you need.」

Unfortunately, I’m not well-versed in mythology… I barely know five or six gods.

After finishing the meeting with Raymond, I returned to my office. There’s a stack of papers on my desk, all about flood control.

Land acquisition, water usage… What a pain.

As the king, I don’t face as much hassle as one might face in Japan when building a dam, but I can’t just make decisions forcefully. If mishandled, disputes over water can lead to civil unrest. After all, the farmers in Adernia don’t just wield hoes but swords and spears as well…

「Sigh… I have to deal with this too…」

Maybe I’ve stretched my hands into too many projects… The burden of overseeing everything falls solely on me.