Well, the money is in place," thought Karl as he looked at the copies of the contracts spread across his desk. A satisfied smile appeared on his face as he remembered the negotiations from earlier that day. Robbing people really was the fastest way to make money, although in this case he had technically sold information rather than stolen anything. Still, earning more than a million silver coins in roughly six hours felt almost criminal.
Karl leaned back in his chair and glanced out of the window.
The position of the sun told him that it was already three in the afternoon. He had spent nearly the entire day negotiating and signing contracts, yet he did not feel tired in the slightest. Instead, he was in an exceptionally good mood because the family treasury had suddenly become far richer than he had dared to hope.
With this amount of money, nearly all of their problems disappeared.
They could afford to purchase loyalty contracts for every remaining recruit and still have enough funds left over to construct the initial version of the magic circle. In fact, they would even have a comfortable reserve after everything was finished. For the first time in months, Karl felt as though the future looked bright.
"Have all of you looked over the information in the tome again?" Karl asked as he entered the meeting room.
The elders sitting around the table all looked exhausted. Most of them had bloodshot eyes and dark circles beneath them, clear evidence that none of them had slept properly. However, every single one of them also wore an expression of excitement.
Karl could not help but smile.
He knew these people too well.
If something truly interesting was placed before them, none of them would willingly go to sleep until they had absorbed every detail. In that regard, the tome had been nothing short of torture for the elders. Every page contained information that could potentially transform their entire faction.
"Yes, we have read it," Bennie answered immediately. "But where is the money you promised? You locked yourself inside your office all day, so where exactly is this fortune that you claim to have earned?"
There was genuine concern in his voice.
Bennie understood how expensive their plans were.
Even if Karl had managed to make some money, he found it difficult to believe that it would be enough to solve all their financial problems in a single day. The numbers simply seemed too large.
"Don't worry, Bennie," Karl said with a laugh. "I have the money, and quite a lot of it. We can give every remaining recruit a contract and still have more than enough left over to construct the initial magic circle."
The room immediately became silent.
Several elders stared at him.
Even they had not expected such a result.
"Oh?" Bennie asked with wide eyes. "How exactly did you manage that?"
Although he had a rough idea, he still wanted confirmation.
"Simple," Karl replied proudly. "I sold the information to all our contacts for a lot of money. So stop being so stingy and have a little faith in me."
Bennie's eyes widened even further.
Then he abruptly stood up.
"I will go check the vault," he announced before hurrying out of the room.
Everyone watched him leave.
"I swear he would have made a better merchant than treasurer," Lilly said with an amused smile as she watched Bennie practically run toward the treasury.
"No, he would be terrible as a merchant," Karl replied with a chuckle. "He has far too many principles."
A slightly sad smile appeared on his face.
"That is perfectly fine inside our own forest because people here value honesty and trust," Karl continued. "But outside, in the ruthless markets of the world, those principles would get him killed unless someone powerful protected him."
Several elders nodded in agreement.
The outside world was not kind to honest merchants.
A person with too many principles often became easy prey for people willing to bend the rules. Bennie's personality made him an excellent treasurer but a terrible businessman.
"Anyway, I should go organize the recruits," Lilly said while standing up. "Those brats are going to be thrilled when they hear that they can finally participate in the real training."
Karl raised an eyebrow.
"Don't they realize that they already have the biggest advantage?" he asked.
The recruits who had not yet signed loyalty contracts were intentionally kept away from many of the family's secrets. They only learned archery and a few basic techniques, nothing more. At first glance, that seemed unfair, but Karl considered it a blessing in disguise.
Because they only focused on one thing, their progress was astonishing.
The contracted recruits had to study a dozen different subjects at once. They learned archery, stealth, survival, tracking, and countless other skills simultaneously. Meanwhile, the newer recruits only had to concentrate on becoming better archers.
That specialization allowed them to improve rapidly.
Not to mention that almost all of the Sonnenberg family's techniques revolved around the bow. Their combat style, movement methods, and even their hunting techniques all centered on archery. In their eyes, if an enemy managed to enter melee range, then the archer had already failed.
Of course, they still taught close combat.
However, they only did so because ambushes existed.
There was always the possibility that an enemy might somehow close the distance, and in those situations, an archer needed enough skill to survive and create space. Beyond that, they had no interest in prolonged melee combat. The bow was their weapon, and they intended to solve every problem with it.
Karl remembered a fantasy story he had read in his youth.
In that story, special archers were said to carry twenty-four lives on their backs because every arrow represented a life that would soon end. Even after all these years, Karl still felt that the statement perfectly described his family. They lived and died by the bow.
"No, they don't realize it yet," Lilly replied with a grin. "But soon we will let them compete against one another, and then they will understand."
She was already looking forward to it.
She planned to show the recruits recordings of the games and demonstrations that had taken place earlier. Some of the performances had been exceptional, especially Arin's, and she knew that the young recruits would become incredibly motivated after seeing them.
"That will certainly be exciting," Karl said with a smile.
The forest had already changed so much in a short amount of time.
Soon, the people living within it would begin changing as well.
"Yes, it will be exciting," Lilly said with a small smile. "To be honest, it is actually more difficult to teach them all of our skills than I initially expected. The only exception is stealth, because that one is relatively easy for them to grasp." She crossed her arms as she thought about the progress reports she had been reading all morning.
Almost every recruit had chosen the stealth skill as one of their first abilities.
With proper guidance, they had been making remarkable progress. The same could be said for the archery skill, at least now that the instructors had finally corrected several bad habits. At first, however, teaching the recruits had been far more frustrating than anyone had anticipated.
The problem lay with the system itself.
When a person learned the archery skill, the system automatically implanted a certain amount of basic knowledge into their mind. To an ordinary person, that knowledge was extremely useful and could even turn a complete novice into a competent shooter. Unfortunately, the Sonnenbergs did not consider that information to be particularly good.
In fact, they considered much of it outright wrong.
The skill taught people to shoot at stationary targets while using bows loaded with accessories and stabilizing equipment. It promoted a style of archery that emphasized comfort and precision above all else. That approach worked perfectly well for modern sporting competitions, but it had little in common with the methods practiced by the Sonnenberg family.
Their ancestors had developed archery for war.
A battlefield was chaotic and unpredictable. Targets moved constantly, arrows flew from every direction, and there was rarely time to stand still and carefully aim. Because of that, the family had developed techniques that focused on speed, adaptability, and instinct rather than perfect form.
As a result, the instructors had first needed to unteach the recruits.
That process had been incredibly frustrating.
Many of the recruits had instinctively trusted the knowledge that the system had given them because it felt natural and complete. Convincing them that those teachings were flawed had taken time and effort. More than one instructor had nearly pulled their hair out during the first few weeks.
Fortunately, things had improved.
Now that the recruits had relearned how to use a bow properly, their progress had become astonishing. Every week they seemed to improve by leaps and bounds. Several of the instructors had even begun arguing over which students should be assigned to them in the future.
"I almost feel sorry for the poor brats," Karl said with amusement.
Lilly raised an eyebrow.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because they have no idea what kind of competition is waiting for them," Karl replied. "The moment they start comparing themselves to one another, they will become obsessed with improving."
That was simply how the family operated.
The Sonnenbergs had always encouraged healthy competition. Archers constantly challenged one another, compared achievements, and tried to surpass their peers. The desire to become better often pushed people further than any amount of discipline ever could.
Lilly chuckled.
"That is true," she admitted. "By this time next month, they will probably be competing over who can split arrows and hit the smallest targets."
"I pity the instructors more than the recruits," Karl said.
Several elders laughed at that.
After all, every competition among the younger generation inevitably turned into extra work for the instructors. They would need to supervise training sessions, settle disputes, and make sure that nobody pushed themselves too hard. It was exhausting work, even if it was rewarding.
As laughter echoed through the meeting room, the situation on the other side of the world was considerably less cheerful.
Inside intelligence agencies across the globe, alarms had begun ringing.
Messages flooded secure networks, encrypted phones rang without pause, and analysts hurried from office to office carrying fresh reports. Several agencies had already declared internal emergencies and recalled key personnel from their homes.
The reason was simple.
Two pieces of information had arrived almost simultaneously, and both of them were terrifying.
The first concerned Europe.
Reports indicated that the Great Houses had suddenly requested an emergency meeting with the leaders of various European nations. The fact that they had all appeared in force was alarming enough by itself. Such gatherings were exceptionally rare and generally only occurred when something of enormous significance had happened.
The second piece of information was even worse.
China had apparently informed several governments about the existence of corrupted humans. Not only had they revealed that such people existed, but they had also provided information about their dangers and several locations where they were suspected to be hiding.
That report sent chills through countless intelligence officers.
Many agencies had quietly suspected that corrupted humans might exist, but they had lacked proof. The sudden confirmation of those fears changed everything. More importantly, the information had come from China.
That was what truly frightened them.
China's intelligence apparatus was certainly powerful, but it was not considered exceptional at gathering information outside its own sphere of influence. If even they had managed to uncover evidence of corrupted humans, then it meant that the threat was likely much larger than anyone had imagined.
Several analysts reached the same conclusion almost immediately.
Their suspicions had been confirmed.
The enemy was already here.
In one government office after another, emergency meetings were called. Military leaders were dragged away from their dinners, intelligence directors were woken from their naps, and politicians suddenly found their schedules completely rearranged.
Everyone wanted answers.
Who were these corrupted humans? How many of them existed? Had they already infiltrated important institutions? More importantly, how had China learned of them in the first place?
No one had any good answers.
That uncertainty was perhaps the most frightening part of all.
Across the world, intelligence agencies prided themselves on knowing what was happening behind the scenes. They built entire organizations around the idea that knowledge brought security. Yet now they had been forced to confront a terrifying possibility.
There were enemies operating in the shadows that they had completely failed to notice.
Even worse, those enemies might already be preparing something.
As reports continued pouring in, one conclusion slowly emerged among the various agencies. Whatever had happened in Europe had somehow triggered these revelations. The sudden involvement of the Great Houses and the timing of China's announcement could not possibly be a coincidence.
Something had happened.
Something big.
And somewhere in the middle of the Crimson Forest, completely unaware of the panic spreading through governments and intelligence services around the globe, Karl Sonnenberg was happily discussing training schedules and loyalty contracts with his elders.
For the old patriarch, it had simply been a very productive day.
For the rest of the world, however, it was rapidly becoming the beginning of a crisis.