Chapter 194: Design Philosophy

October 23, 624

The next several weeks passed relatively slowly. It felt like I wasn’t working nearly as much, which wasn’t a good thing. 

What I started doing was delegating my overarching responsibilities to Polly. Since I was now a Lieutenant Colonel, I was fulfilling my end of the deal with her. I started integrating her into the counterespionage division and after she got herself involved a bit, I put her name on most of the reports I drew up. She started getting most of the credit, but even then it wasn’t like I was doctoring things. 

Turns out, Polly was really interested in counterespionage. She hadn’t been at first, especially since I had just gotten promoted and she was letting me do my thing, not to mention that information regarding what I was doing was kept under wraps. Couldn’t have my operations getting leaked, after all. But once my presence started having a major impact on the base, she took an interest. 

Thankfully that meant I had someone who could fill my shoes. Polly had a lot to do but if she wanted to put in the effort to become a leader in the counterespionage division, then that was her prerogative. At the very least she would be able to keep it running and do some good with it. 

She knew it would give her great influence too, which was probably the main reason she was so attracted to it. The position could be said to occupy the highest moral authority. To question it would bring your allegiance to humanity into doubt. You couldn’t deny those whose job it was to weed out traitors. 

If that kind of authority didn’t get Polly promoted to a General, nothing would. However, I had to make sure she could still do the job, which meant teaching her certain things about what it meant to work in the shadows. 

Operational security, surveillance, psychology, subterfuge, interrogation, and the philosophy behind what it meant to identify traitors. 

I taught her all these things and imparted the experience I gathered while on the job. Theory could only get you so far and I had learned a lot after many months of leading this initiative. I made sure to write all these things down and pass it on to her. 

Thankfully, the one thing that I didn’t have to teach Polly about was information gathering. There was nobody better to handle information than her. She still surpassed me in that department. All she needed to do was learn how to apply those skills to a different enemy. That, and how to control information, including its dissemination and how to classify things. To this end I introduced the security clearance and classification system. 

Polly was smart, and she took to all of it quickly. Plus, I had already trained those within the division, and I had trained them to operate, on some level, independently. I didn’t want to have to micromanage my operatives because not only would I not always be able to, but it would jeopardize their missions if they couldn’t think for themselves and solve problems. How I controlled them, and the security of my operations, was through the control of information. Information was everything in this game and having a tight grasp on it was key to making sure your enemies couldn’t find gaps in your armor while you found gaps in theirs.

Of course, none of what the counterespionage division did was that complex. We weren’t operating against foreign nations and I wasn’t trying to uproot an enemy government from the inside. That wasn’t possible in this world. What I was trying to do instead was make sure that the soldiers around me couldn’t be led astray or killed by traitors. My counterespionage division was the check and balance against saboteurs and spies, making sure that even if there was a traitor, they couldn’t harm us too much. 

I just hoped that the information I could give would be enough to perpetuate the blanket of safety the division provided. I didn’t want it to disappear just because I left. I wanted to help Polly, but I also wanted to make sure she wasn’t doing this strictly to the end of becoming a Brigadier General. I wanted her to do some good, and I set her up nicely for that. 

Time would tell whether or not she could be trusted with that kind of job. 

……

My eyes tracked a knight dragging in a Major, an Authority 4 summoner who was recently suspected of passing off mission intel to people, or things, he shouldn’t be. The summoner’s legs slid across the floor and into the prison since he was bound and gagged by the knight, unable to struggle or scream. 

Polly stood next to me, smiling. 

“It was almost too easy to catch him. So? My first catch without your help. What do you think?”

“I think you caught a traitor, but of course we can’t be certain about the details until he’s interrogated. Either way, good job.”

“It’s weird getting compliments from your subordinate. Almost as weird as getting criticism.”

She chuckled as I shrugged.

“I’ve got stuff to teach, and you picked it up fast. I’m far from the best at this but I at least got you down the right path.”

“Where did you learn this stuff anyway? Nothing of this nature has ever been formulated in the Kingdom. Did someone teach you?”

“You could say I taught myself, but I had inspiration. All I can say is, the only reason you think this is new stuff is because those that engage in this practice usually do a good job of keeping it quiet. I have no doubt that the Kingdom has its own counterespionage and intelligence division. After all, I’m sure they try and spy on the Church all the time. You’ve just never heard about them. Fear not that which you know, but that which you don’t.”

“I suppose…”

She let out a breath, turning when her new prisoner disappeared into a cell. 

“You leave tomorrow, right?”

“Yes. Back to the Capital.”

“Lucky you. No more dealing with endless reports and meetings.”

“It’ll be a new kind of work, but yes, I’ll be much more comfortable. I’ll actually be able to sleep on my bed instead of a pile of blankets.”

I stretched as we walked off. 

“Well, I’ve got nothing more to teach, nothing more to delegate, and hopefully nothing more to worry about. I’m sure Operation Breakwater will be just fine with you here to take care of everything.”

“I’ve a lot more on my plate, but yes. Like you, I’m good at my job.”

Polly smiled and turned to me when we arrived at the office door. 

“You’ve done good work, John. I didn’t think I’d manage to snag the leading position of a whole new division out of our deal, let alone one so influential. You’ve now provided me with everything I need to get that promotion. And as morbid as it is, with the new positions opening up lately, I’ll have an easier time preventing others from keeping me down. Everything is perfect, and now it’ll be on me to see this through. You’ve done enough, so enjoy yourself. I know you’ll do good work with enchanting.”

“I will. And thank you, Polly. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You capitalized on opportunities.”

We gave each other a quick hug, the short lady patting my back. 

“That’s all I could ask for. Now go pack and take the rest of the day off. I’ll see you off tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

With that we separated. I went to my room and packed what little I had into my personal storage. The last thing I did was send a message to Umara about what was happening. 

Then I went to sleep, ready for the next phase in my military career. 

……

…

A couple days later I arrived in the Capital. The air wasn’t as crisp but it also wasn’t frigid, so I took in a long breath of content. 

My first day back was spent doing nothing. I was in contact with Sawn and he told me to relax my first day in, so that’s what I did. I only ran a few errands, such as to go buy food, since I’d be here for the next month. 

The next day though, I finally reported to my job site. 

The Spire was just as I remembered it. It was towering and radiated pure mana, each and every brick of the structure enchanted for who knows what. It was an impressive construction, and yet I couldn’t help but feel like it came from an era of glory long passed. The Kingdom and its forces could no longer hold a candle to the great people who had initially erected such a monument. 

It felt like I was here, in part, to try and compensate for that. 

I walked in and tabbed the highest floor that the elevator could go to, the 76th floor. 

I saw the same lady sitting behind the desk on that floor as last time. When she looked up at me, I could tell she recognized me too.

“You’re John Cooper, correct?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“It’s good to see you again. The 88th floor awaits you.”

“Thank you.”

I gave her a smile before heading to the teleporter nearby. I was whisked away as soon as I indicated the 88th floor. 

Once I appeared I went down the hallway, pushing the double doors at the end open to find the same office as last time. 

There were 9 people within, including Sawn. He was reading a clipboard when I came in, and he looked up when I entered, the familiar smell of paper, ink, and metal hitting my nose. 

“Lieutenant Colonel Cooper. Congratulations on your promotion.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Come. Let us talk.”

He waved me over to a side room where the two of us sat down. 

He smiled a bit as we settled into our seats. 

“So I finally have you. How much of the enchanting lexicon have you learned from that workstation?”

“I was working on it not long before I left. I had gotten more free time so I’ve memorized all of it.”

“Well, that certainly accelerates the schedule I had planned for you.”

He nodded in approval. With my Authority 6 advancement and my new Memory Palace, memorizing the enchanting language was fairly simple. I hadn’t been working so much given the fact that I was leaving, which left me plenty of time to work on this stuff since I knew I’d be using it when I arrived here. 

Sawn tapped the table with a dull quill pen he pulled from his coat. 

“That means you can begin applied work now. I’ve arranged a dedicated teacher for you. With him you’ll learn how to put together and develop working enchantments. Once you’ve learned enough that teacher will bring you to our facility where we enchant working products to be sold. You’ll work with him there for a time before moving on to more complex work in our research and development laboratory. How fast you can move through these phases depends on yourself. I’m not giving you any deadlines but obviously, the faster, the better. I want your mind working on our latest innovations as soon as possible.”

“You’ll have my best, sir.”

“Good.”

He nodded and tapped his aerial, sending a message. Several seconds later I turned, feeling someone about to knock on the door. 

The knock came. 

“Come in.”

“Sir.”

An older gentleman walked in, closing the door behind him. He had a full head of white hair, slightly disheveled, but he generally looked kept together. He looked tired more than anything and was an Authority 7 summoner.

“Ovidius, this is John Cooper, your newest student.”

“Hm. Good to meet you.”

“Likewise, sir.”

I stood and shook the man’s hand. He had calluses around his writing fingers nearly identical to mine, indicative of constant paper penning. I had the same from writing reports to non-summoners. Considering the summoners here had to give information to warlocks, who seemed to loathe using Orbs, I could imagine why he had to write so much. 

He glanced down at my hand for a split second before nodding. It seems we had established a mutual respect for one another, as well as a mutual annoyance regarding warlock obsessions with tangible texts. 

“John has memorized the lexicon, so you need only teach him enchanting design.”

“Very well.”

“You can begin now, and spare no expense. We want him in R&D as soon as possible.”

“Understood. Follow me.”

He waved me along, the two of us entering the main office before finding a teleporter and going to the 85th floor. 

We arrived in a wide open space. I could see the entire floor from where we landed, no dividing walls or structures hindering my view. It was rather massive even if we were so high up in the Spire, especially when one saw all of it at once. 

“This is our general enchanting facility. After various products like Aerials, heating and cooling devices, and many of our other products are built, they come here to get enchanted. You’ll find more warlocks here than summoners since summoners can’t do anything to help with this job beyond logging numbers and such. It’s here that we’ll get you familiar with the design process. There are many working and unfinished products here that we can tamper with, and you’ll be able to see the process occur in real time. I’ve prepared a workstation for us.”

I followed him as he walked through the floor, finding one of the empty workstations seemingly reserved for his use. 

Once there he tapped the station a few times and booted it up. I saw hundreds of designs flutter across the screen as he used it. A few were pulled up before he turned to me. 

“Have you really memorized the lexicon?”

“Yes sir.”

“You’re saying that I can ask you about any given symbol, junction, and array, and you’d be able to identify and describe each one?”

“Yes.”

“You’re not foggy or doubtful about any of them?”

“No sir.”

“…Very well.”

After seeing my confidence, he just nodded and turned back to the screen, tabbing through a few designs. 

“I understand that you are a Lieutenant Colonel?”

“Yes sir.”

“Sawn said you were promoted to such in a little over a year. You must’ve done some good work.”

“I did what I could. Did you serve, sir?”

I turned my eyes away from the screen, gazing at the wisened old man as he nodded. 

“I served for 52 years. I retired as a Brigadier General, and in all that time I’ve never even heard of someone promoted as fast as you. Usually the top brass doesn’t like it when a summoner gets promoted too quickly.”

“Unfortunately, the front lines have been facing increasingly dangerous pressure from the Scourge. Fortunately for me that provided opportunities to stand out with my performance.”

“What’s your station?”

“Stronghold Charlie, currently reinforcing Forward Base Treehouse, Charlie Company, Pathfinders Platoon, although currently I have processing transfer orders to the Snow Doves Platoon.”

I recalled Nonnen’s words not long ago. He had been serious when he said he wanted me in his Platoon. And since some had died during the first phase of Operation Breakwater, there were openings that needed filling. 

They were quickly reinforced with the necessary troops to fill their combat power, but Nonnen still wanted me there. My involvement with the Counterespionage division put the transfer on hold but around a week ago he had pushed the transfer request again since there was nothing stopping him now. 

I smiled when I recalled the fact that he was the first platoon, along with Pollux’s, that adopted some of the policy changes that came with the founding of the counterespionage division. One of those changes was operational security on the squadron level. That meant that everyone involved had to communicate, at least over aerial communications, using callsigns. No names, no identifiers, nothing that the Scourge could utilize to glean information on operations. It was just one of several changes that I had pushed for because I didn’t want to take the chance that the Scourge could in fact intercept and decipher aerial communications, or worse, use its information to threaten either our missions or our people, even beyond the military. 

I zoned back in when Ovidius nodded. 

“I remember Stronghold Charlie. The Snow Doves are a hard group of fighters. I’m surprised you’re going to be transferring to them given you’re a summoner.”

“I’m a summoner who can fight, but yes, I understand the surprise.”

“I see. Well, good luck. I can imagine how dangerous it would be for you to fight in the field.”

“Thank you, sir.”

I smiled a bit as Ovidius finally pulled up a group of basic designs. 

“Alright. Allow me to guide you through basic design philosophy. Depending on how fast you can absorb information, I can teach you this within the month that you’re here. After that we should be able to get you to the complex designs that’ll pave the way to your work in R&D.”

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