"You're stupid. We only need to keep the matter of investigating Raven intelligence secret from most people."
Leonard thought for a moment, then said, "Find young werewolves whose backgrounds we know well, and train them into our own intelligence channel."
"That's way too slow," Midgard said.
"Then slow it is. There's no need to rush, is there? The important thing is reliability." Leonard said, "Besides, even without Raven, we should have been building our own intelligence network anyway... Oh, right, have you made contact with the newspaper or magazine I told you to approach?"
"We're in contact," Midgard said.
"Speed that up too. And place a few werewolves there as reporters. Being a reporter is a very convenient identity," Leonard said.
"Alright. I'll have Marcus arrange it later," Midgard nodded.
"What if Marcus is one of Raven's people?"
"Impossible. He was forcibly turned into a werewolf, and during that period he accidentally killed his own family. After that, he lived in miserable circumstances for a long time. Even if he had once belonged to some organization, he'd probably have been abandoned by them by now," Midgard said.
"No matter what, being careful can't hurt." Leonard shook his head. "Keep him out of the intelligence side of things. You choose the people yourself."
Midgard hesitated for a moment, but still nodded.
"For now, this is all we can do about Raven, and also all we should do. The more you do, the more mistakes you make. Better to wait for them to slip up first."
Leonard said it with complete confidence, like it was the most natural thing in the world to lie flat and wait.
"Fine, then I'll trouble myself and handle it personally. Sigh, I really haven't done much in a long time. I'm so idle I'm practically growing mushrooms. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have gone out shopping so casually. Werewolf wizards are still discriminated against, after all, and I'm no exception." Midgard stretched lazily. Judging by that movement, her wounds had mostly healed, which reassured Leonard quite a bit.
"Oh right, has there been any new progress on Damocles's side lately?" Leonard asked.
It had already been nearly three months since Leonard gave Damocles the twice-enhanced aconite fruit. One way or another, there should have been some results by now.
"I don't know. I haven't really been paying attention to him lately." Midgard frowned slightly, then relaxed again. "Since you're here for once, let's go check on him together."
"Alright." Leonard nodded. "Let's tell Claudia to stay put and not run around."
Midgard stood up, glanced into the room at Claudia, then smiled and shook her head before whispering to Leonard, "She's asleep. She's lying on that Unicorn doll you gave her."
Leonard leaned over for a look. Seeing Claudia sleeping so peacefully, he smiled too, just like Midgard had.
"Then let's not disturb her. We'll go straight to Damocles. It's not far anyway," Leonard said.
Damocles's potion lab had been specially arranged right next to Midgard's residence for the sake of secrecy and easier guarding.
Not long after, the two of them arrived outside the potion lab. By then Leonard had already put on his disguise to hide his appearance.
"Hm?" As soon as she reached the entrance, Midgard let out a small sound of surprise. "Where's the guard here?"
Leonard's expression changed as he looked at Midgard. "How many guards do you have here?"
"Just one. There are also a few werewolf wizard apprentices inside Damocles's lab, after all." Midgard frowned, then suddenly looked toward a stack of cargo crates nearby.
That was the place where potion ingredients were stored, and Midgard's sense of smell told her a heavy scent of alcohol was coming from there.
She walked over and looked beside the shelving. Sure enough, there was a werewolf wizard there, dead drunk.
"The guard doesn't seem very reliable." Leonard gave a light laugh, though there was very little amusement in his eyes. Instead, there was a trace of cold sharpness there. "How are you planning to deal with this?"
Midgard hesitated, then said uncertainly, "Beat him up and dock some pay?"
Leonard shook his head. He was starting to realize that there were some fairly serious problems within the werewolf wizard group itself.
"Wake him up first. Let's see how he reacts," Leonard said.
Midgard nodded and kicked the werewolf's foot.
"Who the hell is it? Got nothing better to do than disturb my sleep?" The drunken werewolf cursed as he opened his eyes. When he saw that it was Midgard, he froze for a second, then gave a sheepish grin. "Oh, Boss, it's you."
He quickly scrambled to his feet and apologized. "Sorry, Boss. I figured nothing was going on, so I took a nap..."
Seeing that the werewolf showed no sign of panic at all and even dared to grin so casually, Leonard frowned.
"Nothing going on? You were supposed to be protecting Mr. Belby's safety. How can you say there was nothing going on?" Midgard snapped, her brows shooting up.
"Sorry, sorry, it won't happen again." The werewolf bowed and scraped, looking like he was admitting fault, but there was not the slightest trace of real remorse in him.
"But Boss, look around, this place is really safe. Our brothers are guarding the outside. There's no way anyone could break in here. I don't think Mr. Belby needs protecting at all."
"You little..." Midgard said angrily. "Half a month's pay deducted."
What kind of idiot was this? Was he stationed here to protect someone? The real point was obviously to keep an eye on Damocles, and yet he was saying the place was safe so there was no need for protection?
"Come on, Boss!" the werewolf cried out. "You're trying to kill me!"
As he spoke, he started complaining bitterly. "You have no idea. Marcus took the Wolfsbane Potion that used to be handed out for free and turned it into something we have to buy. After paying for the potion, I barely have any wages left!"
"There's such a thing?" Midgard turned to look at Leonard.
How had Marcus gone and done something like that without saying a word? Could there really be something wrong with him?
Sensing Midgard's gaze, Leonard smiled helplessly. He lowered his voice, making it sound deeper and more mature.
"Midgard's punishment really is unreasonable."
"Right? Right? You're the one who gets it." The werewolf immediately lit up with joy.
He had never seen Leonard's face, but all the werewolves knew that their boss had a "strategist" by her side who was always giving her advice.
He had originally been worried that this "strategist" would join the boss in punishing him, but not only was he not doing that, he was actually helping. That made him thrilled.
What he did not expect was that Leonard's next words would send him straight into despair.
"Docking wages really isn't a good punishment. How about transferring this brother to the estates instead?"
Leonard gave a cold smile and said, "We just added several new estates, and we're short on manpower. Since this brother thinks protection work is unnecessary, then let's transfer him somewhere that really needs him."