Dear Broom Knight

Ceska felt a hint of doubt as she looked at the baron across the desk, his small face partially obscured by the shadows cast by the map.

If she wasn't mistaken, Lowry's expression was a little strange, a mix of amusement and disgust.

Ceska, who usually had a good understanding of her baron, couldn't quite figure out Lowry's attitude towards these two factions of the Earth Church.

Generally speaking, Lowry's preferences were extreme. Even if he needed to tolerate the existence of certain individuals due to circumstances, he couldn't control his disgust.

Therefore, no matter how ridiculous or laughable the things those he despised did, Lowry would only be more annoyed and would never genuinely find them amusing.

If he could be amused, then Lowry basically wouldn't truly dislike the person.

This was the first time Ceska felt that Lowry could have such a complex and helpless state of mind!

Could it be that there were some internal situations within the mages that only they themselves understood?

Although mages and priests/clergymen generally didn't consider themselves to be the same, Ceska, as a knight, thought there wasn't much difference.

Didn't they knights also have many different types?

Some had high health, some had high agility, but when using skills, didn't they all rely on the power of blood and flesh, and the knight core formed by those blood and qi energies?

And whether it was mages or clergymen, although the sources of their skills were vastly different, didn't they all consume mana when using them?

Methods that could prevent mages from using skills could often also restrict clergymen… This was the key point.

As a knight, there was no need to distinguish those subtle differences; one only needed to know how to face the battle.

Therefore, Ceska quickly gave up exploring those deeper things… She only needed to know the result and remember the judgment criteria Lowry had stated this time.

She pointed to the small towns that Handel hadn't mentioned: "What I want to know most now is whether that information broker related to Scroll Mountain has simply stayed away from these towns, or… just didn't take Handel there."

Lowry nodded: "Indeed, that's very important."

There were quite a few well-known intelligence agencies in this world, but in reality, everyone was well aware of the vaguely discernible shadows of the temples behind these agencies.

Only these information brokers with church backgrounds could develop to this extent.

Various countries certainly had them, but they would never dare to take the lead.

That would definitely be a group beating, and even their allies wouldn't let them off.

However, as long as one was related to an intelligence agency, one couldn't be sure that someone belonged to only one church.

It was common for information brokers to work for more than one country under the guise of a church.

This, in fact, wouldn't be severely cracked down on by various countries.

Even a king like Travis, who had many loyal subordinates, found it difficult to find such subordinates… But his demeanor made him pleasing to people, so many information brokers with complex identities were willing to give him some face.

Therefore, the White Dragon King's news was always quite well-informed, but basically, he could only touch the secrets that 'smart people knew'.

But the news of the major churches was terrifyingly well-informed.

Moreover, these information brokers backed by the major churches, although they would accept a lot of 'monetary temptations' from the kingdoms, there was a bottom line that no one would easily violate… that was to serve two churches at the same time.

Even Scroll Mountain and the Earth Church, whose strengths differed greatly.

The O'Kinsey's Chamber of Commerce could openly create its own small towns within the Vargas territory, which was in opposition to its position, as if it were a 'country within a country'… It was impossible for the Vargas royal family not to know.

After all, even outsiders like them could see it at a glance.

Although Vargas's power was not as good as O'Kinsey's, it was definitely not to the point of bowing down to O'Kinsey.

It was even more impossible for them to be hostile factions.

Therefore, this so-called Barbarian Chamber of Commerce, rather than belonging to O'Kinsey, belonged to the Earth Church within O'Kinsey.

Although the internal struggles were fierce, the Earth Church could still achieve unity against the outside world… There must be divine intervention for a church that was so fragmented to have a bottom line.

The Earth God didn't care about the academic disputes of his followers, but he would definitely arrange a suitable 'Child of the Earth' to sit in the position of arbitrator.

Rather than arbitrating, it was more like directly suppressing these schools of thought from turning academic disagreements into physical fights.

O'Kinsey's first king was also such a person.

Even if he established his own country and had his own favorite school of thought, he would never make any unfair judgments… After all, everyone knew that the one making the judgment was not him himself.

Therefore, the high priests and priests who initially existed in the Earth Church temple in O'Kinsey were not all serving this king.

That temple was naturally divided into two parts from the beginning.

One part always only followed the will of the Earth God himself, and although they would use the same symbols as the school of thought to which the royal family belonged, they were not the same faction.

Therefore, even if they openly erected the gray wolf badge of the Naturalist faction in the reformist country of the White Wolf banner, it would not cause any hostility.

As for how to distinguish whether it was a believer of the God or the naturalist school, the Earth Church had its own set of secret rules.

Outsiders found it difficult to see, at most inferring from the results.

However, if one thought that they could rely on so-called careful observation and become aware of something, and then reach out to test it, they would definitely die without a burial place, and even if they could escape, they would be hunted down by the entire Earth Church.

The Earth Church hated this kind of thing very much.

Lowry naturally hadn't thought about researching other people's privacy. The reason why he and Ceska were pursuing this matter so closely was, of course, to find out whether Scroll Mountain and the Earth Church were colluding!

The fact that the information broker could treat Handel like that, and even had to safely send him to Scroll Mountain, was definitely because he had made a vow before God… in the name of the God of Knowledge.

Therefore, as long as Handel completed the transaction with him, he would definitely have to fulfill his promise.

An information broker who could do this must be a loyal believer of the God of Knowledge.

Otherwise, how could he not take advantage of loopholes?

Such a person, in the situation where an information broker couldn't serve two gods, if he entered the territory of a direct believer of the Earth God and could easily escape, there was definitely a problem.

This wasn't a matter of whether he was hidden enough.

A devout believer certified by a god was like a fanatical fan holding an exclusive support stick in the eyes of a devout believer of another god.

Even if this person wasn't wearing that special support outfit, holding this support stick and sitting in the home base of another fan would still be terrifyingly conspicuous.

That was the only bit of green in a sea of red… Even if they didn't hate it, they would reject it.

Of course, if it was the opposing side, then entering would be asking for a beating.

Even if it wasn't, generally speaking, they would ask this person to leave… unless you turned off the light on the support stick.

But for a person who was so devout that they could almost be described as a fanatic, turning off the light was equivalent to denying their identity as a fanatical fan. Even if they were grabbed by the limbs and thrown out, they would definitely firmly hold up their own light.

Of course, proper fans basically understood these rules and basically wouldn't do such provocative things.

There was only one exception.

That was when the two main figures had some intersection and planned to carry out an alliance activity that lasted long enough and appeared sincere enough, such as a sudden short-term group activity… Although everyone's support sticks still had their own colors, when they needed to cheer for this group, the support sticks would also flash their intermediate color… such as yellow between red and green.

Even if the two sides eventually parted ways, the fans' support sticks would return to their initial colors, and the believers who were attracted when the two sides formed an alliance would have to choose to stand on either the red or green side that was split from the yellow, but at least during the cooperation period, this yellow light was the most popular.

It was also allowed to exist by both parties.

Only in this way could an information broker from Scroll Mountain get enough subsidies from the Earth Church… Don't forget, these two were penniless before they went up the mountain.

But Handel was clearly living comfortably in Vargas… Not only was he staying in a proper hotel, but even when he moved, he bought a merchant's affiliated quota and traveled in a spacious carriage.

In the current situation of ice and snow, even if the grasslands of Vargas would not be damaged by the snow cover, the journey would definitely be very difficult to travel.

The caravans that could travel freely were basically driving Vargas horses that had been eliminated from the front line.

But these horses were only not suitable for combat, which didn't mean they didn't have the ability.

It was conceivable what level a chamber of commerce that could use carriages pulled by Vargas horses as transportation would be.

It must have cost a lot to get a seat in a luxurious carriage in such a chamber of commerce team.

Taking Handel with him, even if the information broker had the ability, it was impossible to hunt down many valuable prey on the snowy mountains.

The money in their hands far exceeded the normal value… If it was just another intelligence agency of Scroll Mountain, it wouldn't be able to escape so much funding.

This wasn't a matter of wanting or not, but of being able to.