Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

The Secret Security Department is, at the moment, only a promise made by the acting Prime Minister during his inaugural speech; if we really want to establish this department, it has to go through tedious procedures and complicated formalities.

Other departments could drag it out for three to five years without any issue.

Even with the Prime Minister and the Queen both smoothing the way, with Stilan’s administrative efficiency, it would still take at least three to five months.

To get their own department’s signboard hung up and open for business as soon as possible, Wu Chang and Raventon brought seven or eight Secret Magic Knights and went door to door, knocking on the homes of officials in the relevant approval departments, hauling them out of bed to stamp and sign.

That very night, Grimland’s government offices turned into a 24-hour operation.

The officials they dragged out of bed—whether or not they knew about the acting Prime Minister’s speech—only had to see the name in that line of the application form before swallowing their complaints and daring not to voice their anger.

"Royal Secret Intelligence and Homeland Security Department"—in this bundle of words, aside from the "Royal" prefix being mostly for show, neither "Secret Intelligence" nor "Homeland Security" were things they could afford to offend.

Not to mention, a few of the officials had been pulled straight from their mistresses’ beds.

The mere fact they’d been found there already proved the Secret Security Department’s professional capabilities, and with Wu Chang, the Secretary of the Secret Security Department himself, sitting there on the spot, how could they possibly dare not cooperate?

Thanks to their efforts, they forcibly accelerated the efficiency of Stilan’s various departments by several hundred times, finishing all procedures in a single night, and even choosing an address for their office.

By the time all the formalities were completed, daylight had already broken.

The few Secret Magic Knights who’d come along went back to rest, while Raventon clung to Wu Chang, trailing after him all the way home and very naturally taking a seat at the dining table.

Wu Chang’s mouth twitched; so this guy really had been coming just to scrounge breakfast before.

At the table, Wu Chang saw Erin, whom he hadn’t seen for a whole day.

Compared to the last few days, Erin was clearly much more cheerful; there was more laughter on her face as well.

Speaking of the changes in the Gray Church Slums, Erin was full of praise for Raventon’s arrangements.

Under the leadership of Priests and Father, with the slum residents working together, in just one day they’d cleaned up a full third of the slum’s area.

At this rate, in at most two more days, the environment in the slums would be greatly improved; by then, even if Erin didn’t intervene, the residents wouldn’t be tormented by malaria.

After finishing with the changes in the slums, Erin brought up something else: starting from yesterday afternoon, Transcendents had been snooping around near the slums.

Some were local Transcendents from Grimland, others were outsiders—or rather, Players.

Some of them tried to make contact with Erin, but she didn’t respond; she only released her Ability to tell them the slums did not welcome them.

The Transcendents spying on them couldn’t gauge her depth and, for now, made no further moves.

But she believed it wouldn’t be long before they entered the slums to probe her situation.

Erin asked, "If they disturb the residents, should I drive them out, or should I catch them and hand them over to you?"

Erin said it offhandedly, as if she weren’t talking about driving off Transcendents, but shooing away a few annoying rats.

Raventon hadn’t expected gentle Erin to speak so toughly; he said, a bit worried:

"There’ve been quite a lot of Transcendents in Grimland recently, and not all of them have good intentions. Should we assign some people to the Gray Church area to protect Miss Erin’s safety?"

Wu Chang shook his head and said, "No need. Erin, just handle it as you see fit—if they don’t make you angry, just drive them away; if they do make you angry, bind them and wait for me to send someone to take them away."

The "someone" he was sending, of course, was his True Self.

Erin was kind-hearted and couldn’t bear to see blood; in that case, she could just restrict the enemy’s movements, and he would deal with them somewhere out of her sight.

While helping Erin solve her problems, he could also stack his Strength Attribute; naturally, this was something he had to do himself.

Hearing this, Raventon looked at Erin in surprise. Erin’s features weren’t in the Valkyrie style; they leaned more toward the merciful, compassionate Saintess type.

Mercy and compassion are often associated with indecision and weakness.

Coupled with the scene of Erin helping the people at the bottom without asking for anything in return, Raventon had taken her for a fragile healer rather than a Warrior.

"Commander Sean, don’t forget, there are still those Steam Council bastards lurking in the dark. Relying only on the Secret Magic Knight Order and the Secret Police won’t be enough to keep the truly vicious in check."

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "That’s perfect. As long as the Steam Council dares to enter the slums, we’ll treat it as them turning themselves in when we deal with them."

A question mark slowly appeared on Raventon’s face.

What did that mean—could it be that the seemingly delicate Miss Erin was actually a powerhouse too?

After breakfast, Erin, just like yesterday, headed back to the Gray Church Slums to help the residents treat their illnesses and defend against the spread of malaria.

Wu Chang then told Raventon about the True Self’s probing yesterday, as well as the missions Sword Star and Cold Mountain had received, and asked what he thought.

Of course, as for the source of this information, his explanation was that it came from foreign Transcendents.

Raventon was curious about when Wu Chang had gotten acquainted with these foreign Transcendents, but compared to "Inspiration," this explanation was much easier to accept, so he didn’t press further.

After a brief consideration, Raventon suggested using the Bright Lamp Report’s editor-in-chief, Henry, as bait to test the Steam Council’s moves.

Henry was a core figure of the Charter Movement, but unlike Connor’s strategy of Peaceful petitioning, Henry advocated radical confrontation to force the Council to accept the Charter Movement.