Chapter 37: Briefing Pt2

-" Cof, cof, Luckas you can continue your presentation, we should guard our question to the ending."

Seeing as the group didn't want to ask anything Luckas nodded.

-" I named the third group the "small arms groups", as they generally are better prepared and even have good combat expertise, they are represented by the orange circles in the map, most of those bandits groups came here after the Duke deployment, but, there is some of them who are originally from here, and took the advantage of the low manpower of the army to continue their activities." Luckas drank another sip as he took a look in his report. " They generally cause quite the economic impact, but, they usually attack convoys with low security, so the confronts aren't that bloody. As for the last group, I call them "Professional Bandits", they usually stay near the center of the outer territorial trade route and attack heavily armed convoys, this group was the highest presence of cultivators, they attack merchants with valuable cargo, so they must have quite the good connections with merchants and nobles for the sale of the stolen valuables."

What Luckas said raised the interest of Alan and Bryson, they were after all nobles, Bryson had a curious look on his face, but, Alan had a frown.

-" How are you so sure that nobles from this territory have dealings with the bandits?" Alan looked infuriated by Luckas suggestion.

-" Are sure they haven't? And besides that, I didn't say anything about this territory right? As you can see, the most likely connection is from the Tuivell territory, as it would be easy to locate the stolen goods here." As Luckas finished this sentence he dropped his relaxed attitude. " And mostly, there is a high chance of state-sponsored actors in this group."

Jeffrey had a frown on his face as Luckas talked about the Tuivell family, he had his suspicions of their meddling in his family territory as his father was away, but, he never found any concrete evidence.

-" So, what's make you think that?' Before Jeffrey could ask him the question, Bryson beat him to the punch.

-" Even the biggest and strongest bandits groups generally shy away from fighting the army, but, there are two to three groups that constantly entered conflicts with the army, even more, the cargo they targeted generally were related to nobles family of the Strafhampton territory or merchants that dealt with the territory army." Luckas pointed to the 3 circles near the edges of the Verdant Forest. " They generally attack the convoys here, as all of you can see, the distance to the Tuivell territory is quite small, on page three you can see a report of the cargo they attacked and the owner of it."

As Alan read the contents of the third page, his face turned dark. " Fucking hell, If I get my hands on some bastard from the Tuivell I will skin him alive." Alan smashed his fist on the table, Bryson cake flew in the air, but, before it could fall into the ground, the cake began to levitate and came to his hand.

-" You should stay calm, there is no concrete evidence for Luckas accusations, yet." Bryson had quite a horrible look too.

Seeing that Luckas looked quite a bit confused Cyl explained. " Alan is from the Benett Family, and they have quite the history in the military."

Luckas nodded in realization, Alan's family was the most targeted by the three groups, his anger was justified.

-" Those bastards, they even attacked the carriage my little brother was, luckily to them he escaped or I would raise my man and go there right now." Alan had a furious face as he smashed down on the table again. " Jeffrey we should confront them, we will look weak if we don't respond."

-" Calm down Alan, even if we can prove their involvement, which we can't, we still need to wait for my father to resolve such matters."

-" Fuck those pigs! Just because my father followed the Duke to the frontier they do whatever they want."

-" Luckas, you should continue your report, if I'm not wrong you will now talk about the demonic beast situation?" Jeffrey tried to remain calm and collected, but, Luckas still felt a hint of anger in his eyes.

-" Yes, my research about this situation was less fruitful, so pardon me for the lack of details. I asked a few soldiers to question the hunters and villagers of the Verdant Forest about the situation, the information that I collected was that four months ago the wolves in the forest started to disappear, the hunter usually encountered them regularly in their trips, but, their numbers dwindle in recent times, most of the regions had a significant decrease in their number, except for one." Luckas stopped speaking and pointed to a region.

Jeffrey's breathing got heavier as he looked where Luclkas pointed, Cyl too already had an idea what Luckas was speculating.

-" The wolves in the past months started to concentrate in the north region of the White Ashe River, there is too a high concentration of other animals there, wolves, bears, and even rabbits are starting to head there."

As Luckas finished his report Jeffrey and Cyl's face darkened, Philips already had his suspicions, but with the information, Luckas provided they were sure that the treasure that the Eternal Sun Sect wanted was causing it.

Byrth too recognized the area which Luckas pointed to, but, as he didn't know more details he felt lost.

-" So, with this, I finish my report, thank you all for listening." Luckas finalized his report and bowed.

He sat down near the entrance again and waited for Jeffrey to give his thought.

-" Luckas, you did an excellent work on the report, this information will be useful in this expedition. Cyl take Luckas map and ask someone to make some copies of it, also, prepare the patrol routes accordingly to the map, Luckas if there is something that you also recommend please feel free to speak." Jeffrey was astonished by Luckas performance, in those last few months he was surprised by the level of education of his past world, but this was the first time he saw the young man using it.

-" I tried looking around but I didn't find anything related to the hideout of the bandit's groups in the past, scouting them may be useful, as old groups may return to here."

Jeffrey nodded and got up, they took Luckas report and exited the room, the time for departing was here and they needed to go.