Chapter 7

That night, Kael moved like a ghost. His destination was the shabby hut in the corner of the estate land’s where Guard Jerome lived. Kael silenced any sign of his presence, hid in the darkness, and waited for Jerome to, exhausted from tending his wife, step outside for a breath of air.

Soon after, Jerome opened the door with a deep sigh. Worry and fatigue were clear on his face. At that moment, Kael silently approached behind him.

“Guard Jerome.”

Startled by the low whisper, Jerome grabbed for the sword at his hip. But what he saw was a gaunt boy who looked much younger than him.

“W-who are you!”

“That doesn’t matter.”

Kael spoke as Rian had instructed. His voice was emotionless, which made it all the more chilling.

“You want your wife’s illness treated. The priest’s divine healing will cost a lot of money.”

“How would you know that…”

Jerome’s eyes filled with suspicion. Ignoring him, Kael pulled a heavy leather pouch from his chest and tossed it at Jerome’s feet. The clink of coins cut through the night air. Jerome’s eyes widened in astonishment — it was enough money to call the priest three times.

“Someone wishes to buy your loyalty. He doesn’t want your strength but your eyes and ears. If you report everything you see and hear, this money will be only the beginning of what you get.”

As soon as Kael finished, he melted back into the darkness. Jerome stood alone, staring between the pouch on the ground and the darkness where Kael had disappeared. Doubt, fear, and desperate hope clashed violently inside him. In the end, remembering his wife’s pained face, his hand trembled as he picked up the pouch.

The next day, Jerome used the money to summon a priest to treat his wife. A few days later, she rose from her bed as if by miracle. Seeing his wife’s smiling face, Jerome silently swore loyalty to the mysterious ‘master’ who had reached out to him. From that day on, he began recording every small occurrence at the eastern outpost and leaving the notes each night at the secret place Kael had told him.

That was the moment the first operative of ‘Argos’ was born.

Time passed and Rian turned thirteen. Over the course of a year, Argos grew quietly yet fearfully. Beginning with Jerome, Rian, through Kael, recruited servants in need of money, merchants wronged by others, and ambitious people without opportunity. They did not know one another’s identities and reported only to Kael. All of that information ultimately reached Rian’s hands.

Then one day, an unexpected problem struck the Aster family. Baron Steiner of the neighboring estate lands that bordered theirs picked a quarrel.

“Viscount Aster! The woodcutters from your estate have trespassed into my estate’s forest and cut down trees! If you don’t compensate me immediately, I will take the matter to imperial law!”

At the dinner table, his father, Viscount Aaron, could not contain his anger and struck the table.

“That crafty old man! It’s such a blatant lie!”

His fifteen-year-old elder brother, Kaion, was also outraged.

“Father, I’ll go and settle it. For a man like that, it’s best shown with a sword.”

“Do not act rashly. Steiner is trying to manufacture an excuse to start a dispute between the two places.”

Rian quietly ate while analyzing the situation. Baron Steiner — the very man who had been bribing the stablemaster Henry.

That night, Rian summoned Kael.

“Find out about Baron Steiner. His finances, his forces, recent movements. Mobilize all of Argos.”

The order was executed immediately. From stablemaster Henry came word that the baron had recently sold off several expensive warhorses; from Jerome and other guards came reports that mercenaries from the baron’s estate lands were suspiciously lingering near the border; from small merchants came rumors that the baron was beset by massive debts.

Piecing everything together, Rian understood the whole scheme.

‘The indebted baron is staging a false incident to claim compensation from elsewhere. He plans to disguise mercenaries as woodcutters to fabricate evidence.’

He could not tell his father this directly, because he could not reveal his sources. Rian chose another method.

The next day, he went to his father’s study and spoke as if recounting something from a book.

“Father, I read in an old tale that when a fierce dog barks for no reason, it’s likely sick with an illness the owner doesn’t know of. In such cases, it’s wiser to quietly inform the dog’s keeper — the veterinarian — rather than punish the dog.”

Aaron instantly grasped the deeper meaning in his son’s metaphor. He sent an anonymous letter to the imperial central tax collector who oversaw Baron Steiner’s estate lands, alleging that Baron Steiner had recently been raising illegal funds amid financial trouble and had failed to pay his hired mercenaries on time.

The result was immediate. A few days later, a collector dispatched from the imperial central tax collector burst into Baron Steiner’s estate lands and launched a rigorous tax inspection. The mercenaries, angry at unpaid wages, scattered when the investigation began. The momentum to stage the fake incident vanished. Facing exposure of his crimes, Baron Steiner hastily withdrew his uproar against the Aster estate lands.

The Aster family’s crisis was resolved quietly with not a single casualty. Marquess Aaron admired his son’s wisdom once more, and Kaion vaguely realized that the sword was not the only solution.

Back in his room, Rian stared out the window. Dozens of reports from Argos operatives lay on his desk.

Argos had completed its first mission perfectly. The eye of the giant born in the dark was only beginning to open toward the continent.