Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!
Chapter 69 - 69 - The secret meeting at the outskirts

In a huge villa in the outskirts of Hoffen City, several representatives of powerful families from within Athanoviya and that of neighboring territories are staying in secret. They have been in this place for about a week now. They each have sent at least one of their trusted shadows, soldiers and spies to check on the 27 newly summoned women from another world in the Academe of Gnosis. Though this has been a yearly event, it is still of highest importance since the quality of summoned women isn't really the same each time. They have to gather their resources to research and check which ones are beneficial enough for their children and future. They need a woman with high potential value and at least someone who won't get their family members killed for their stupidity. This event can be tagged as akin to their family representatives meeting up potential partners, confidants, wives, friends or even business colleagues. Each year, when they make the right choices, it may alter how their families' ranking will be or even how much prosperity they will have in the near future. If their sons are lucky enough to get the attention of one of the priority targets then that would be for the best interest of their families.

By eleven in the evening, the almost fifty spies have all returned to the villa to make their reports. This is a laborious process so every detail they were able to find for the week have been placed in listed format in pieces of confidential documents. It contained basic information about the women like their names, surnames if they have already set up their family register, age, mana rank as well as other notable or seemingly important details that the spies could find.

The last spy to arrive had the hardest task. The target assigned to him left the academe even before the investigations have started. With no information as to how she looks like and where she went, this spy had no other choice but to scavenge for what little information was inside of the academe about his target. The woman's attendant was left at the academe but he always seemed busy with tasks, reading books or has stayed in the dorms. He was nothing but boring or if he was pretending to be normal, he must have been a well-trained actor. Since he can't get much from the attendant named Ioannis, he took note of the rumors going around about the target named "Luna" just in case. Besides, a thorough investigation will definitely sift through as to which ones are the truth and which ones are the lies in the end. He waited for several days until finally, the woman assigned to him arrived about two nights ago, only a few days short before his task deadline. He had no choice but to speed up his information gathering. He pretended to be one of the staff in the school to have a closer look to at the newcomer.

As he followed her, he thought, "She simply lived however she wanted." She left the academe to whoever knows where and then came back discreetly at night. He wasn't able to see her enter the main gate of the school or even the door of her dorm. He was surprised to see a woman come out of the room together with Ioannis, the target's attendant, the next morning.

This certain spy who refused to be named is being tortured by the boredom till the phenomenal events at the cafeteria happened. He was conveniently situated in one of the tables at the side to observe the couple. He was at the right distance to still see and hear what was happening to his target but also not too near for her to notice that he was observing her intently.

It was a shock to him as he saw her spoil her attendant to the bone with even some signs of "public display of affection" if that was really affection of any kind. He was also amazed as to how she was fine with holding her attendant's hand in public as if it was the most natural thing to her. This shows how much she takes care of her own people which is very rare for women in these times. He thought he already saw the best of what this woman has to offer but he was so damn wrong.

The phenomenal event at the academe's cafeteria started just like any meal time on a regular day. He saw the couple order food, sit on an empty table and eat quietly. He then just saw his target look on the table for a few seconds as if she was contemplating something and then a woman came to the table to slam her hand. The couple did not even flinch but he saw the other woman get badly hurt for slamming her hand on the wooden table. He was confused on how the things escalated but that was when he noticed that the texture and color of the table where his target was sitting has drastically changed. The wood which used to be just made of the affordable-type of wood became darker and turned to the Graphis Tree which is known for its ash color and extremely hard quality. What is more shocking are the splinters that suddenly appeared on the table which was smooth a few seconds ago. His next thoughts were, "Can she use mana? Was that castless magic?" He couldn't be sure but that's the only possibility he can think of as of now. He clearly heard her threats and how she handled the people who offended her and her attendant. The spy then pretended to leave quickly as part of the crowd so he can compile the new information he got.

He thought that she would stay inside today just like how his attendant spent his days before but he got it wrong again. He was shocked to see her leaving the academe right after breakfast with her attendant in tow. He had no choice but to follow her but just a bit further from behind so she won't notice. He saw her enter one government office after another and she even visited the magic tower for a few minutes then had lunch at a mid-priced inn. He would have loved to go in those offices to check what transactions she did but privacy laws are quite strict in this territory. One leak of information may cost a life of another person, you see? Besides, doing that will also make him suspicious since he's a foreigner and he may even land in jail if he was unlucky. The target walks quite quickly too and he is worried he will lose her in the crowd. He simply took note of the offices she visited but there were no details as to what was done inside. It was his employer's problem to understand the relationship of these places to the target. He hurriedly arranged his report since he has to submit it later tonight.

As the spy arrived at the villa, he immediately submitted a stack of papers to his employers. He noticed that his stack of papers were not as thick as those submitted by the other spies. He can only sigh about this since his target only appeared just last night. He was confident though that he was able to get quality information since his target is quite interesting to watch. Just like what he expected, when the reports are checked, he was questioned as to why his report was the shortest so he provided the details for his target. As he mentioned that she was away for about a week and only appeared about a night ago, some employers showed a hint of interest to his target as if her absence was a good thing. The employers checked on the other details of his report and they kept nodding and murmuring about something that he can't hear that well.

The meeting lasted for about 3 hours since there were a total of 27 targets. The last part of the meeting is about ranking the targets from high priority to the least priority. From this list, the employers will advise their sons or family members that will be sent to the academe to take note and try to approach the said targets first before the others in hopes of building a connection or relationship with them in the long term. As the spy looked at the list, he was surprised to see that the target assigned to him landed within the top 5 which was considered high priority in the list. There were also remarks about her possible background or affiliations. Her name has the most remarks too which means her rank is temporary and can be placed at a higher priority any time if more information is discovered or confirmed. His thoughts couldn't help but wander to, "Did the information I manage to find that important? Was there a detail that I did not notice that made her a high priority?"

As for him, he made sure to take note of the other 26 reports. It is really hard to earn money. He was indeed a spy here but he is also a spy for somewhere else since his permanent employer was "Noir". He has to go back to Sklavryet, a free and open territory where Noir (the infamous assassination and espionage organization) has set up its base in secret. All he knows is he will be paid well if he is able to compile as much information as he can. For some reason though, he always felt that the higher ups of Noir have been looking for one particular person out of the 27 summoned women this year. This is the first time this has happened since he joined the organization 10 years ago and also considering all the spy jobs he got for the people interested in the academe summoning ceremony for the last 4 years. He knows that the organization has a backer from the mystique race which should be the same race who created Sklavryet several centuries ago so this brings a question to his mind which is, "What makes this year's summoned batch different?" For someone like him that is in the mid-ranks, he has access to more information compared to others but he is still not allowed to ask questions about his targets or his main employer's thoughts or goals. He just hopes that this year's job will end soon and will not cause him danger given how the employers seem to be frantically looking for somebody. For now, he has to hurry back so he can enjoy his money and spend some time off from the job.