"Romel-sama……?"

"……no, it"s nothing. Please, continue."

Waving my hand at Alf after he called out to me with uncertainty, I pressed him to continue.

Once again, the information that I sought started to come out from Alf"s mouth.

Duke Ferring.

He was of one of the Rinmel Princ.i.p.ality"s 5 Archduke houses, and owned a vast territory in the northeast region.

The scale of his a.s.sets was the third largest amongst the 5 Archduke houses, and the current head of the family was Bruno Ferring.

His wife was Kelly Ferring.

While it was a political marriage, the couple had a favourable relationship, and they had one son and one daughter.

"……is there any new information regarding the a.s.sociates of Kelly"s parental home?"

"We"ve gone through everything again, but Kelly Ferring"s parental home, which is a Count"s house, only a.s.sociates with domestic n.o.bles of the moderate faction, with the Ferring Ducal House being on the top of that list."

I nodded once at Alf"s reply.

After seeing that reaction, Alf once again opened his mouth.

The territory"s local specialty was alcohol produced from barley. 

It was also exported outside of the country, and as such, the Ferring Ducal House had connections to Tasmeria Kingdom and Acacia Kingdom. 

Within Tasmeria Kingdom, their connections were still halted at the merchant level, but in Acacia Kingdom, they had connections with what would be considered the aristocrat level in Tasmeria Kingdom.

The current head, Bruno"s hobby was reading.

It was not only limited to Bruno, as all of the heads of family were avid readers, thus there were large libraries within the territory.

"He has a reputation as a gentle, yet wise head of family……even if we hit them, not a single speck of dust came out. If he is like what his reputation indicates, then he should be against invading the Tasmeria Kingdom, and should hate the sacrificing of citizens of his own country for war……again, since his own territory is wealthy and vast, he shouldn"t feel the need to expand the country to the point where sacrifices must be made."

In order to organize the information Alf was reciting inside of my head, I listened to it silently with my eyes closed.

Perhaps he was accustomed to that reaction……as Alf once again stood in place silently.

"……this has been a good review. Thanks, Alf."

Naturally, before coming here, I had memorized all of the relevant information.

Even so, by having Alf recite the information, I could ensure there were no discrepancies in my memory, and whether or not there was any new information. Thus, I had Alf himself speak of the information that was in his head.

"No……incidentally, I have had one of my subordinates continue to conceal themselves in the Stout firm that is employed by the Ferring Ducal House. Naturally, there is also one in the Ferring Ducal House itself."

"I see…….if they make any movements, notify me immediately."

"I understand."

"I"ll leave it to you…….even so, you really haven"t declined at all."

I involuntarily smiled.

"Well, I don"t know about that. n.o.body can win against old age after all."

In response, Alf made a wry smile.

"Hahaha……even if you say that, you"ve gotten quite a bit older since the first time I met you. How nostalgic……the first time we met was the day you appeared in front of me as a shadow of the Armelia Ducal House."

"Yes, I remember that day quite well."

Perhaps because he was feeling nostalgic about the past, for a moment, Alf looked off into the distance as he smiled.

"It was when I was an age slightly younger than the current Rui?……When I think about it, unwittingly, we"ve spent plenty of time together. Because it pa.s.sed so quickly, I normally don"t notice it at all."

"Indeed…….but that just goes to show how earnestly you"ve been living each day, does it not?"

"Hahaha……you"re not wrong about that. I worked and worked recklessly, and before I knew it, I had reached this age…….now that I think of it, it seems you"ve raised quite the successors on your end?"

"You mean Bern? ……indeed. I believe I raised him so that he should not trouble Rui-sama."

"Rather than trouble him……I do believe that it is Rui who has been relying on him quite a bit instead?"

"It is more than he deserves as a shadow……however, was it okay? To have taught my technique to Bern, who is one of the [country"s shadows]."

I let out a sigh at Alf"s question.

"……nurturing talented personnel is an urgent matter for the country. Because we needed to promptly secure people with talents like your own, it couldn"t be helped. And he"s the sort that would offer up everything to protect the country……as the Prime Minister responsible for the country"s government, that is highly rea.s.suring."

"Is that what you meant when, like what you said to Kuroitsu and everyone earlier, we are comrades pursuing the same goal?"

"Yeah……just, was it okay on your end to have accepted my request? You taught him your personal technique. Like you pointed out, he"s ultimately not one of our own, but someone who belongs to the country. You"re not worried that it will make future work harder?"

"……what I taught him were a number of major sources of information, how to acquire new information sources, as well as the fundamentals of conduct when infiltrating only. I have not informed him of who my information providers or my collaborators were. That is why there isn"t any particular problem with it."

"I see……in other words, judging from how he"s been working lately, he"s been steadily gathering new information sources to construct an information network."

"So it would appear. Thanks to that we were able to get a grasp on the matter of the Baskar Ducal House"s human trafficking in good time."

"Now that I think of it, that"s true. Bern that guy, it seems like he"s been faithfully reporting to Rui at set intervals."

"……Bern was someone who Rui-sama found after all. He has a sense of obligation – or at least, that should be about 10% of the reason why."

"10%, huh……then, what of the remaining 90%?"

"If he is to prioritize the speed at which reports reach Romel-sama, then giving his reports to Rui-sama is the best way. The official route…..due to the construction of the imperial court"s organization, there would have to be a number of intermediaries through which the report would have to go through between Rui-sama and Bern, and as such, it would take that much more time to arrive. In other words, it just goes to show that judging this time"s matter as urgent was the biggest reason why…….although, since Rui-sama has been extensively a.s.sisting Romel-sama"s work, he took into consideration that Rui-sama would be more likely to share the information with Romel-sama, and decided that as such, there would be no issues in reporting to Rui-sama."

WIth regards to [Reports involving important matters for the country], ultimately all of them will reach me.

Since it was the duty of the Prime Minister to make decisions on the official level.

It"s just, that like Alf said, there was a large difference in positions between me and Bern, so his reports would go through a number of people"s eyes before reaching mine.

While it was useful to have information shared with all the members involved, it was a completely different matter for urgent reports.

"It will take time for reports to reach me, huh…….that"s quite a problem."

"That it is……if the country is to make use of necessary personnel like Bern, then its structure for that should be rearranged. For information, freshness is its life. If it takes too much time for it to reach the one making the decisions, then it can lead to errors in judgement."

"Yeah, you"re completely right…….on top of that, if I send out orders based on that judgement, then the actual people at ground zero might fall into chaos. Since decisions made according to old information will be unsuitable for the real life situation."

"Yes, it is as you say."

"I"ll have to think about how to fix up the system………when things calm down some, I suppose I"ll try talking with Gazelle."

In order to put my thoughts in order, I looked off into s.p.a.ce and murmured.

During that time, Alf once again made tea to fill my empty teapot.

"……well then, Romel-sama. I will go to confirm the route and guard set-up for our journey to Duke Grindal"s, as well as Duke Ferring"s houses tomorrow, so with this I shall excuse myself."

"Sure, I"ll leave it to you."