When Ashiburn hears Henwell accept the mission, he smiles with relief and pats Henwell on the shoulder. “Good! I knew I wasn’t wrong about you!”

  Suddenly, Henwell remembers something. “But sir, I still have to go back and get married! I can’t stay in the Western Federation forever. If I don’t return, it won’t match my usual behavior and might raise suspicion and alert the enemy. But if I go back, far from the church and the Western Federation, how can I keep providing information to the Veil Organization and make them trust me?”

  Ashiburn thinks for a moment, then says, “That’s easy! Arrange for some of your men to come here for advanced training. Also, I’ll grant you the title of Padin and assign you some church knights.”

  ”Officially, you’ll lead this team to hunt Veil Organization members in the Eastern countries. Later, I’ll apply for a Message Icon for you, so you can maintain contact with the church across distances.”

  He pauses, then points to the Veil Organization ID card on the table. “This way, the church can officially recognize you as a Padin for killing high-ranking Veil members and handing in their tokens. Plus, you’ll get twenty spots for advanced training each year! That makes your promotion believable.”

  Henwell nods, agreeing to follow Ashiburn’s pn.

  They discuss some details before Henwell leaves the church after nightfall.

  Once Henwell departs, Ashiburn immediately calls his trusted aides. “Bring Judgment Bishop Eppdin and Knight Commander Hume here!”

  His aide nods and turns to leave, but Ashiburn calls him back. “Wait!”

  Ashiburn falls into thought.

  This is a major achievement and could be his chance to advance after leaving here. The Veil Organization is tough to deal with, so the fewer people who know about this, the better. Especially no rivals, he must prevent anyone from causing trouble.

  After much consideration, Ashiburn says, “Bring Guardian City’s lord Graham here!”

  It isn’t long before Graham arrives.

  As the lord of Guardian City, Graham is in his sixties but looks much younger—around his te thirties or early forties, thanks to his Iron Knight rank.

  Graham is Ashiburn’s handpicked protégé. Not only is he the city lord, but also a high-ranking church knight. He follows the path of Knight Commander rather than Battle Knight.

  Advancing beyond Knight Commander is called Knight Domain, corresponding to Grand Knight rank. A further step up is Heroic Knight, equivalent to Iron Knight.

  Ashiburn dismisses the others and expins Henwell’s situation to Lord Graham.

  After a moment of thought, Graham voices his doubts. “Sir, can we really trust this man? Could he be a smoke screen pnted by the Veil?”

  Archbishop Ashiburn points to the ptinum cross ring on his hand. “I’ve already verified with divine divination, everything he said is true.”

  Then Ashiburn chuckles lightly. “Besides, whether he’s telling the truth isn’t the main point. What matters is that we’ve finally caught a tail of the Veil, instead of blindly filing around like before.”

  ”Do you know what makes eradicating the Veil so difficult? Their secrecy. This little lord has a family and a public identity, something we don’t have to worry about.”

  ”He’s about to get married, right? After his wedding, we’ll bring his wife and children here to Guardian City under the pretense of protecting his family.”

  ”If he truly serves us, this will be a reward for his loyalty. If he has other intentions, his family becomes a card we hold to keep him in check.”

  Graham still hesitates. “We should be cautious with this.”

  Ashiburn nods. “Absolutely. This is a rare opportunity. To avoid falling into a Veil trap, we must be careful. That’s why I brought you here—to mobilize your covert resources and thoroughly investigate this little lord.”

  ”If he really comes from the Veil training camp, that adds credibility. Even if he’s a pawn Veil deliberately trained against us, I believe his experiences will lead him to make a new choice. What the Veil can’t offer him, we can. And what they can offer, we can offer even more.”

  Hearing Ashiburn’s words, Lord Graham finally rexes.

  He immediately returns to arrange a comprehensive investigation into every detail about Henwell.

  Is Henwell afraid of their investigation? Of course not!

  The Veil Organization never uncovered his origins, so there’s no way the Holy Spirit Church will. Even if the church does find out about Henwell’s background, it’s no big deal to him. His secret won’t faze them. They’re focused on targeting the Veil Organization, not fighting over power on the continent.

  As long as they confirm Henwell really comes from the Veil training camp and that what he says is true, everything becomes manageable.

  Did Henwell lie? Absolutely not! Everything he told them really happened. The Holy Spirit Church only uncovers what Henwell wants them to know.

  Now, back at his quarters, Henwell sits on the edge of his bed, resting one hand against his cheek. A bold grin spreads across his lips as he chuckles softly, “Heh… finally, they’re hooked!”

  Henwell remembers Newwood’s warning clearly. He has no intention of cooperating with the Veil Organization, nor the church. Both sides represent potential threats to his pns.

  To prevent them from causing trouble at critical moments, Henwell pns to stir up some trouble for them first.

  A double agent? Sorry, but Henwell never truly pledges loyalty to anyone. Loyalty to others is just betrayal to himself.

  Back in the Peace Tavern, when negotiating with Leom, the Veil’s skinner, Henwell already had the outline of a pn. After talking with Pernas, he began refining it.

  What gives Henwell the confidence to do this is the information gap. Ashiburn assumes Henwell knows little, but that’s far from true. Henwell understands the Abundant Continent and how much the Holy Spirit Church fears the Veil. He also knows Ashiburn’s eagerness to prove himself.

  Henwell doesn’t need to do much, just throw out the bait.

  The trick to fishing is to find the hungriest, greediest fish.

  Henwell is sure Ashiburn will let him pass along some “important” intelligence to the Veil, like details about elite church knight hunting squads active across the continent, or information on the Groias Empire’s elite hunters.

  All of it is designed to betray his rivals’ interests in exchange for his own gain.

  That’s human nature.

  Even under the gaze of the gods, greed and malice still thrive.