Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

They contained information about the other camps and bases located beside the borders and their usages. They also had some of the attack plans of Bordkly described in them. They were planned for not a far future, still, it was highly likely that they would change the plans after what happened to two of their bases and one of the camps.

Besides the information about the attack plans and their military patterns, there was some other stuff as well. They didn’t seem to be important at the first glance. They were only some reports about some minor changes in the number of soldiers stationed on the other borders that were far from Hainston. It was so that they could gather enough forces for defense.

Even though Bordkly was the nation that started the war and was behind the first attack, they were relatively weak compared to their enemy. They didn’t have much power and their military system wasn’t as organized as Hainston’s. They also didn’t have that many unique skill holders in comparison to Hainston.

Hainston was a country that took good care of its unique skill holders from the beginning. Either it was because they were the heart and only part remaining from the huge Hainston Empire which held the unique skill holders so dear, or because they were a stable country from the beginning and had organized systems for everything since the very start, Hainston was the country that cared the most about its unique skills holders.

That said, it wasn’t only the unique skill holders inside Hainston, but the country also offered good opportunities for the foreign unique skill holers.

As a result, the number of the unique skill holders who left their hometowns to come to Hainston, either to study or to find a job, wasn’t low. There were of course a lot of Bordkly citizens here in Hainston at the moment.

Hainston also wasn’t a fool. Of course, it wouldn’t let the powerful people come here to study and then leave to work in their hometowns. There were a lot of conditions that those people had to agree on in order to enter the country. And one of the most important clauses was about situations like these. About the wartime.

If war broke out between Hainston and the certain unique skill holder’s home country, that person would be banned from leaving Hainston and if needed, they had to help Hainston in fighting against the enemy.

.....

The clause caused a lot of problems. A lot of people protested and wanted the clause to get removed, but no one listened to them.

After all, Hainston didn’t want to raise the beasts that would later bite their teacher in the leg. No matter how cruel and unjust the clause seemed, Hainston never removed it.

As a result, not that a sudden war had broken out between the two countries, Bordkly was low on firepower. A lot of its educated unique skill users were being held in their enemy country and might even be used against them.

So, the only thing they could do was to gather their forces from all around the country and focus them on the borders. That was actually a way to kill their own soldiers faster as Hainston’s power was still overwhelming, but there was nothing else they could do.

But the thing that caught Kairen’s attention was none of these things, but a specific report he had seen among the other information.

It was the report of a few soldiers who were ordered to transfer to the front lines. In the last shift of them working at their original post when they went out to check areas, they decided to go a little bit farther than usual and check more areas than they always did as it was the last shift and the area would probably be left without any guards for a while.

That was when they had noticed strange changes in the site they were guarding. The changes, as they had been reported, were really small. If those people were not in charge of that place and had not been there for years, they would’ve probably never noticed it.

Apparently, there were traces of some people being there not long ago. According to them, some of the stones were moved and some places also looked as if someone had been searching for something there.

But there was nothing missing or nothing that looked dangerous was found. The guards, after searching everywhere thoroughly, went back to their positions, sent a report, and then left the place to go fight on the front lines.

That, in general, didn’t seem something special. So what if some stones were moved and someone had searched through some old, forgotten, and distant place? There wasn’t even a treasure there to be worried about. The location was a little bit away from the southernmost borders, which was beside the ocean and no one could even walk there.

But Kairen didn’t think so.

Why?

“That place is another fucking temple!”

He slammed the map on the table.

“Look, Glenn. This is the exact location of the temple that was in Bordkly.”

Tap Tap

He tapped one spot on the map as he said that with a fairly loud voice.

“It must be those Phliomns bastards again! They are still doing some shady things in those freaking temples!”

Glenn glanced at the map then looked at Kairen’s agitated face.

“First, calm down.”

“But-”

“Lower your voice and stop cursing.”

“Buttttt-”

How could he stop cursing? He was so angry he could even burn the whole hall and even the headquarters down at any moment. He didn’t think much of it yesterday, but now that he checked the map and made sure that the location was indeed one of the temples, he was suddenly filled with a rage that he had never experienced before.

“First they do anything they like in our land, then they even bomb the capital, and now they’ve sneaked into another country and are doing other shitty things there!”

Those guys were the worst. They were trash. They didn’t deserve to be left alive. Kairen wanted to burn them all by his own hands.

“I understand your anger, but let’s talk again once you’ve calmed down a little bit.”

SLAM

Kairen slammed the table.

“What do you mean by talking again once I’ve calmed down? Is there even a need to talk? It’s obvious! It’s obvious Glenn!”

“We can’t say anything for sure with such little evidence.”

“What little evidence?”

“I haven’t even seen the report you are talking about!”

Right. The reports were now on the commander’s hands and Glenn had absolutely no idea what Kairen was talking about.

SLAM

Kairen threw some other papers on the table.

“Look! These are the locations of the temples, and also the places with irregular monster generation rates. And this place-”

Tap Tap

He tapped the map so hard that his own finger hurt.

“This place is one of them! They have something to do in these places, and they won’t be satisfied with only the three temples in our country and the one in Bordkly! They will go after the rest! No, they must’ve visited some of them already! We can’t let them visit all of them! We must do something to stop them!”

Glenn looked between Kairen and the map.

“I know. They must’ve visited some temples already... But isn’t it better to let them do the thing they want and observe them in order to find out what they are after, rather than stopping them?”

“No!”

Kairen said sternly.

They couldn’t do that. Philomns already had several ancient artifacts. Those artifacts were probably found in those temples, just like that damned bracelet. They couldn’t let them get their hands on other artifacts as well.

“You know Kairen, we are currently too busy with the issues relating to the war that we don’t have the time to focus on other things.”

“I know that!”

“So, why not wait a little bit longer until things are settled a little bit?”

“No!”

Kairen once again, shook his head as he raised his voice.

“Why?”

Glenn tilted his head a little bit.

“Is there probably something I don’t know?”

“...T-that... No! Of course not!”

Kairen strongly shook his head. He couldn’t tell Glenn about those artifacts. No wait, maybe he could? Nah, forget it. Let’s just change the subject.

SLAM

Kairen slammed the table angrily once again.

“Don’t you understand what they’ve done? Can’t you see what they are after?”

Kairen pointed at the closed door of the office with his finger.

“Those people are too busy dealing with the war to do their own job, that was searching for Phliomns. Don’t you get it, Glenn? The mascry mines theft that started from Hainston and then happened it Bordkly, who was behind that? Phliomns! The prince came here to solve the matters caused by that incident but got attacked here in our land, by whom?? Phliomns! And their politicians that came here were also killed in our capital, by whom? Phliomns!”

Kairen then angrily moved his hands in the air, unable to contain his rage.

“Those bastards did it! It’s because of them that we are now fighting against Bordkly! We can’t let them cause any more problems than this! I wouldn’t even be surprised if they did all of these on purpose to start a war, draw out attention to somewhere else, and then do anything they want without anyone noticing-”

Kairen paused in his own words.

“...”

With his hands frozen in the air, he looked down at Glenn who too, had a frozen expression.

“They did all of these on purpose to start a war, draw out attention to somewhere else, and then do anything they want without anyone noticing...”

Kairen mumbled those words under his lips again.

He was still staring at Glenn whose eyes were gradually widening in realization.

“Those bastards!”

That was what Glenn said as he jumped up from his seat and rushed out of the office.

.....