In the hidden underground room of the Tivian Serenity Bureau Headquarters, a woman named Misha DeBlanca stood at the front of the table, declaring her identity and purpose to the group seated around her. Among them, Gregor observed the capable woman and couldn’t help but think to himself.
“Misha Deblanca? A knight of Prince Harold... So, she’s one of his close confidants. She looks quite young, just a bit older than me, not even thirty yet. And she’s already a knight serving Prince Harold?”
“My current rank is Black Earth. Since this Misha is my superior, she must be at least White Ash rank... Not even thirty and already White Ash rank... That’s terrifying. I wonder if I’ll be able to advance before I’m thirty. It feels like the chances are slim…”
As Gregor watched Misha, he continued to ponder. His former superior, James, the director of the Igwynt Bureau, had once discussed the general promotion situation within the Serenity Bureau with him. Across the nation, most of the bureau’s staff were ordinary people. A local branch typically had only four or five Apprentice-rank team leaders and one Black Earth-rank director. Within this system, most people could only hope to reach Apprentice rank at best. Even James himself had to grind away at the headquarters until his forties, slowly accumulating merit and seniority before he got his promotion opportunity.
Therefore, Gregor knew that his recent promotion after capturing a Black Earth-rank target was largely due to luck. Excluding such lucky breaks, his career plan at the headquarters was to strive for a promotion review opportunity before he turned forty. If he could advance to White Ash rank by forty-five, he would have no regrets in life.
Sitting in his seat, Gregor silently observed Misha. After scanning the group before her, she spoke again.
"Alright, from now on, we’re all colleagues. No need to be so tense. Let’s introduce ourselves—name, background, and path... It’s important to get to know each other so we can work together effectively..."
Misha said this, then glanced at a man sitting to her right. He had a square face, a thick neck, a short and stocky build, and appeared to be in his thirties. She continued.
"Start with you."
"Yes, ma’am."The man nodded respectfully to Misha, then looked around at the others seated at the table before introducing himself.
"I’m Mike Darich, from Conflin in Gall County. My path is the Storm Path."
After Mike finished, it was the turn of the next person. This was a man in his late thirties or early forties, noticeably more muscular, with a faint scar on his face. He spoke in a deep voice after Mike.
"I’m from Noyce in North Sampson County. My name is Leo Cardo, and my path is the Blood Shade Path."
As soon as the man finished speaking, it was the next person’s turn. This was a young man in his twenties, full of energy, with a slightly darker complexion and a lively demeanor. He raised a hand and said with a smile.
"My turn. I’m Vihan Valder, from Coset in South Lime County—a great place. My path is also the Blood Shade Path, just like the big guy before me."
After the young man finished his introduction, the next to speak was a thin-faced woman with short brown hair, appearing to be around the same age as Misha. She looked around the table and responded.
"My name is Jiv Doherty, from Xett in North Dunbar County. My path is the Storm Path."
Next was a man in his forties with a thick beard, the oldest among them. He spoke after Jiv.
"You can call me John Dub. I’m from Wand Island. I used to work for the church, and now I’m a Path of the Holy Mother healing priest. I can help alleviate any injuries you might sustain during missions, if there are any."
After the oldest man at the table finished speaking, it was Gregor’s turn. He introduced himself calmly and confidently.
"My name is Gregorius Mayschoss, from Igwynt in Igwynt County. My path is the Blood Shade Path. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you."
As Gregor introduced himself, his eyes swept over the group, lingering for a moment on the young man named Vihan and the man named Leo. The reason was simple: they, like him, were Beyonders of the Blood Shade Path.
Gregor knew that the secret society known as the Eight-Spired Nest was attempting to infiltrate the Serenity Bureau Headquarters. Using intelligence from unknown sources, they had learned of Prince Harold’s plan to select individuals with clean records from various local branches to counter internal spies. The Eight-Spired Nest had intercepted and killed some of these selected individuals, using the Blood Shade Path’s shapeshifting abilities to replace them. Gregor himself had been a target of this interception, but with the help of a dream, he had avoided being killed and instead replaced the interceptor.
Of course, in Gregor’s view, the Eight-Spired Nest wouldn’t have targeted only him. To infiltrate the bureau with more forces, it was possible that any of the five people before him could have been intercepted and replaced.
However, these selected individuals had all been Apprentices when they arrived at headquarters and were now facing promotion. Since promotions required demonstrating corresponding abilities, these spies, disguised using the Blood Shade Path, couldn’t choose the Storm Path during their promotions. They could only pretend to advance in the Blood Shade Path. Therefore, among the five people before him, the two who were on the Blood Shade Path were highly suspicious of being spies planted by the Eight-Spired Nest.
Gregor watched the group warily. Perhaps out of caution, the Eight-Spired Nest hadn’t provided him with information about other infiltrators, so he could only speculate whether these two were spies—or if both were.
At this moment, Misha, seeing that everyone had finished introducing themselves, nodded slightly and continued.
"Alright, now that we’ve gotten to know each other, let’s get straight to the point. You all know what this special investigation team is for, right? There’s a serious intelligence leak within the headquarters, causing us immeasurable losses. Our goal is to find and eliminate these impurities within the bureau... Any questions?"
Misha scanned the group as she spoke, and the stocky Mike immediately asked.
"Ma’am, I know our main task is to investigate the spies within the headquarters, but... we’ve only just arrived in Tivian. We’re not very familiar with the headquarters’ operations, and many things are still unclear to us. Under these circumstances, investigating spies seems quite difficult. Shouldn’t we take some time to familiarize ourselves with the headquarters’ overall situation before starting the investigation?"
Mike’s point was simple: the headquarters was too vast and unfamiliar to them. They hadn’t even grasped the basic operations yet, making it difficult to spot inconsistencies in such an unfamiliar environment. It would be easy to miss where the problems lay.
Hearing Mike’s words, Misha’s expression remained unchanged. She replied calmly.
"There’s no need to spend extra time on that. You can familiarize yourselves with the headquarters while conducting the investigation. Your main task is to follow my orders and assist me. I’ll guide the direction of the investigation."
Misha spoke to the group, and the scar-faced Leo immediately followed up.
"Direction of the investigation? Does that mean... you already have some leads on how to uncover these spies?"
"Correct. I do have some leads now. What we need to do is follow these leads and investigate. You just need to follow my orders..."
As Misha spoke, her words piqued the curiosity of everyone present. They all looked up at her with interest.
"What are the leads on the spies?" the young man named Vihan asked curiously.
Misha paused for a moment, then walked over to a wall. She found a rope and pulled it, causing a large scroll painting to unfurl from the top of the wall. It was a detailed map of the entire Tivian city.
With the large map displayed before the group, Misha turned her gaze to it and continued.
"Before you arrived in Tivian, Prince Harold had already tasked me with tracking down the spies within the headquarters. I spent a considerable amount of time conducting investigations within Tivian’s mysticism world and eventually obtained crucial intelligence."
As she spoke, Misha carefully scanned the city map and continued.
"I used my personal connections in Tivian’s mysticism world to gather any unusual clues. Not long ago, I received important information: a secret society called the Eight-Spired Nest is secretly selling intelligence related to our bureau to other societies through extremely covert channels."
Hearing Misha’s words, Gregor was momentarily stunned. The woman named Jiv, sitting not far from him, asked.
"The Eight-Spired Nest? So, it’s this secret society that’s infiltrating the headquarters?"
"Exactly. I have reason to believe it’s the Eight-Spired Nest that’s infiltrating us. I spent a considerable sum to obtain the names of some small and medium-sized societies that purchased intelligence through private channels. I discovered that the headquarters has indeed been repeatedly thwarted in its recent operations against them. The most serious incident recently resulted in the annihilation of a Hunter squad and the escape of an important prisoner. Fortunately, our joint operation with the church minimized the losses."
Misha continued, and Gregor frowned as he asked.
"So... these guys are stealing intelligence from us just to sell it for money? Is the Eight-Spired Nest essentially just a bunch of intelligence brokers?"
"No, they’re more than just brokers. Based on the intelligence I’ve gathered, they’ve been planning something sinister for a long time. Selling intelligence is just a recent side gig for them."
Misha responded to Gregor, then stroked her chin thoughtfully.
"From my investigations into Tivian’s mysticism world, the Eight-Spired Nest had never sold any intelligence to other societies before October. They don’t have a tradition of being brokers. For them, this is a recent side business. I suspect they ran into some financial trouble recently, facing a cash flow problem, which is why they started selling intelligence. This also gave me the opportunity to catch their trail."
As Misha spoke, Gregor and the others couldn’t help but wonder what had caused the Eight-Spired Nest’s financial troubles.
"So... what caused the Eight-Spired Nest’s financial burden?" Gregor continued to ask, and Misha nodded in response.
"Exactly. I think they might have engaged in a divination war with another major society. Not long ago, the price of Revelation storage items in Tivian skyrocketed. Such an abnormal price fluctuation is likely related to this. Unfortunately, we can’t obtain specific transaction information from the White Craftsmen’s Guild, or we might have been able to gather more intelligence."
As she spoke, Misha turned her gaze to the location of the White Craftsmen’s Guild branch in the East District. She knew it was impossible to extract information from those shrewd merchants.
“A divination war... Is that a battle of intelligence using Revelation resources? To use so much Revelation, the Eight-Spired Nest must be a major society. I wonder who their opponent was?”
Gregor thought to himself. Back in Igwynt, the entire branch didn’t even have a single Revelation storage item. In his eyes, Revelation was a rare resource that Director James constantly complained about never being able to secure. Yet, a single society could possess multiple such items. This was somewhat unimaginable to Gregor.
"So, Ms. Misha, are you planning to track the Eight-Spired Nest through their intelligence-selling channels?"
The oldest man present, John, asked. Misha nodded.
"That’s one direction, but their intelligence-selling process is extremely cautious and secretive. It’s hard to find any leads. The clue I mentioned earlier isn’t related to this. The biggest takeaway from investigating the intelligence trade was simply confirming who is trying to infiltrate us.”
"In any case, we have too little intelligence on the Eight-Spired Nest. The clue I mentioned earlier is related to someone who might possess critical information about them."
As Misha spoke, she picked up a small pointer from the table and used it to indicate a specific area on the map—a location in the northern suburbs of Tivian.
"Here, in the King’s Campus of Royal Crown University, a serious mystical incident occurred at the end of September. Fourteen university students were found to be contaminated with cognitive poison, and our observer stationed at the university was killed. The Eight-Spired Nest had conducted some kind of ritual in the underground ruins beneath the school."
Pointing at the northern suburban area with the pointer, Misha continued. Hearing her words, Gregor couldn’t help but feel a pang of concern.
“Royal Crown University... If I remember correctly, Dorothy attends the affiliated high school there. The high school is nearby too... So, all these mystical incidents happened near Dorothy? Thank goodness she’s safe.”
Gregor thought to himself with relief. Meanwhile, Misha, standing before the map, continued.
"At first, we couldn’t determine the purpose of the Eight-Spired Nest’s activities at the university—corrupting students and conducting rituals. We didn’t even know there was a problem until a few days before the incident, when someone submitted two reports through the White Craftsmen’s Guild."
"Reports?" Gregor asked, the word triggering some memories. Misha continued.
"Yes, reports. The first report exposed a cult gathering point at the King’s Campus. The bureau dispatched two squads and successfully raided an Eight-Spired Nest stronghold there. However, we unexpectedly encountered a White Ash-rank powerhouse and had to retreat.”
"The key is the second report. This report directly predicted the Eight-Spired Nest’s blasphemous ritual in the school’s underground. Perhaps due to the spies’ interference, this report was inexplicably ignored. It wasn’t until after the incident that we realized someone had actually predicted it beforehand."
After finishing, Misha glanced at the group, and Leo immediately spoke up.
"Two reports, both accurately predicting the Eight-Spired Nest’s actions... This means the informant has an extraordinary understanding of the Eight-Spired Nest! We might be able to use them as a breakthrough!"
With a serious expression, Leo said this, and Misha nodded slightly before continuing.
"Exactly. The key lies with this informant. Their ability to predict the Eight-Spired Nest’s actions is remarkable. If we can make contact with them, we might gain some valuable insights."
"This informant used the Craftsmen’s Guild to contact us. In their letter, they signed off as... Detective."
As Misha finished speaking, Gregor was momentarily stunned. At this moment, he recalled the person on the train to Tivian who had claimed to be sent by the dream dragon Paarthurnax to help him. That person had also called themself Detective.