Chapter 36: Briefing Pt1
Byrth felt petrified as they entered the room, everyone looked at them, annoyance was visible in the eyes of a strange man there. Byrth looked at Luckas with a troubled look.
-" Greeting to Sir Jeffrey, I ask forgiveness for the delay, I hope that you don't mind." Luckas knew that Byrth was asking him for taking the lead, after all, Byrth wasn't too adept at social settings.
-" Greeting to Sir Jeffrey." Byrth followed Luckas and bowed as he greeted Jeffrey.
-" Take your seats, we are in the middle of the meeting already;" Jeffrey nodded as the two finished their greeting. " This is Sir Bryson and Sir Alan, the two are army counselors too."
Byrth and Luckas bowed to the two men that Jeffrey introduced and sat down. Byrth wanted to sit next to Luckas but. he knew that as Jeffrey squire he should be next to him.
Alan had a frown as he looked at Luckas who sat next to the entrance, he could feel that Byrth was nervous, but, Luckas relaxed state puzzled him.
-" So, do the two of you are caught up with the details of the expedition or should we start all over again?" Alan tried to press them, he wanted to humiliate the duo.
-" Oh, I heard from Jeffrey and Cyl the details before, so you don't need to mind us. After you guys finish I can start my briefing." Luckas shrugged his shoulder as he responded to Alan question.
Alan grimed, he didn't think that Luckas would be so stupid in his first meeting as army counselor. He too received information before the meeting and knew that the scope of it was too low.
-" Oh, so you're briefing us today? I'm excited to hear about your thoughts." Alan had a big smile as he thought that Luckas had just dug a hole for him to be buried.
Jeffrey and Bryson were interested in Lucka's supposed briefing too. Bryson didn't say anything and just nodded, while Jeffrey looked at Cyl, who in turn just nodded.
-" If you want to start now, we just ended your conversation." After Cyl's confirmation, Jeffrey felt confident that Luckas wasn't bullshting them.
-" Oh, that's nice, I was worried that we would be out of time in the middle of my presentation." Luckas stood up and proceeded to pass a stack of paper to everyone present.
Everyone looked curiously at the report, Byrth had helped Luckas with some information, but, Luckas didn't want to let Byrth read it before the meeting, Luckas wanted to surprise everyone here with his ability in making reports.
The report title was "Key Threat Actors on Verdant Forest, Identity and Motivations". Everyone was curious as they browsed through the report.
AS Luckas finished passing the report to everyone he walked to the middle of the room, he carried a big map in his armpit.
" So now I will brief everyone here about the results of my research. This expedition's goal is to secure the area around the Verdant Forest, I categorized the malicious actors in the region into six types, four are categorizations related to the rise of the banditry in the region, and the others two to the sudden appearance of demonic beast in the area. You guys can proceed to page 1 of the report."
Everyone felt a little awkward, Luckas briefing was a bit strange but they all did what he told them.
-" With help of Byrth and a few others more soldiers of the army, I prepared this documentation of every raid and petty thievery in the area, after careful analysis I separated them into four groups, the method of categorization was based on the mortality rate, economic damage, and the recurrence of the raids in the region." Luckas looked at everyone, he noticed they looked puzzled as they read the first page.
-" Luckas, what do those images mean? I can't understand what those circles are." Jeffrey was the first to ask.
Luckas knew from the looks on their faces that everyone didn't understand what the graphs meant.
-" Those are graphs, they are a way to better visualize data —-" Luckas felt that using jargon from the cybersecurity industry would only complicate their understanding so he decided to try to simplify it. " They are a way to better visualize the information about the current situation, you can see that the circles are composed of parts with different colors, each color represents some type of information, the one in lines are for comparing numeric information."
-" Oh, I think I understand, the text beside it is the information visualized?" Bryson had a light in his eyes as he understood what the images meant.
-" Can everyone understand the graphs? If so I will proceed."
Everyone nodded as Luckas asked, seeing their confirmation Luckas opened the map he was carrying. Luckas wanted to point somewhere in the map, but, because he was holding it he couldn't point to the exact location.
-" Uhh, before I continue can somebody hold this for me?" Luckas looked awkward as he held the map, he thought that the meeting place would have a big table with a map drawn on it like the gathering of generals in the movies of his past world, but, the only table here was filled with a cake that Bryson still ate as he watched the briefing.
-" Byrth go hold the map for Lucka." Jeffrey quickly ordered Byrth to help Luckas.
With his arms now free Luckas held a stick and prepared himself to restart his briefing.
-" I being the overview of the categories that I organized, I will first introduce two keys concepts in understanding my analyses, they are the interterritorial trade route, and the outer territorial one, the profile of the bandit's groups who inhabit the two are different."
Luckas felt comfortable as he briefed everyone, he even missed his job in his past world for a bit, before remembering how overworked he was.
-" The first category I will examine is what a call the "Petty thievery and small groups", from my initial research they are mostly composed of villagers who fell in debt or had their livelihood impacted when the war started, the most common crimes of this groups are stealing live stocks and ransacking the barns of the villages, they rarely fight and prefer to move in the deep night."
Jeffrey had a serious face as he looked at the report, he was focused on totally understanding it, just from the small segment he felt that Luckas put a lot of effort into it. Bryson to his side finally stopped eating his cake as he looked with curiosity at Luckas.
-" They generally make their camps in this region, they choose this area because they want to stay relatively close to the villages." Luckas pointed at the map towards a few green circles that he had painted." The circles in the map represent the presence of bandits groups, their colors are an indication of their threat level, green represent low mortality rate and low economic impact, the oranges one are low mortality rate but high economic impact, the red ones represent high mortality rate and high economic impact."
Cyl observed the map carefully and asked. " Why are the red circles so concentrated there?"
-" I will arrive there shortly, but, for a quick answer, the profiles of those bandits are generally more professional, as they choose more valuable targets." Luckas quickly explained as he paused a bit to take a sip of water. " We are now going to look at the second group, they are what I call "seasonal banditry" they are most likely compost of rogue mercenaries and adventures, who didn't make enough money to sustain themselves, so looking for a quick payout they turn for a small robbery or two. They generally attack the villager's convoy coming back from the city, as they hope to maximize their earnings, while they generally confront their victims, deaths are rare in those encounters. They mostly stay in the city, especially in the markets to scout their victims and follow them in their journey."
Luckas stopped again and looked at everyone, they knew that he was waiting for questions, but, everyone felt too overwhelmed to ask anything. Luckas research was just too detailed.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone