Information Exchange

After receiving the task of collecting Roselle's Diary, the Gray Fog Space immediately fell into an eerie silence.

It was the talkative Hanged Man who broke the atmosphere.

"It seems there's nothing else to discuss. Why don't we exchange information and casually talk about what's been happening around us? Something unimportant to one person might be an important clue to someone else."

Good suggestion!

Angel silently gave the Hanged Man a thumbs-up. She had been thinking the same thing.

Ever since she had "traveled" into this world, she had constantly been searching for a way to return. Previously, with Mrs. Sharon threatening her and her unfamiliarity with everything around her, she could only passively deal with one event after another.

But after joining the Nighthawks, Angel had gained channels through which she could come into contact with all sorts of Beyonder incidents and occult knowledge.

If they could share what they had and exchange intelligence at the Tarot Club, perhaps she could gain another source of information beyond the Nighthawks' official channels. They might even conduct untraceable "online transactions," like the Hanged Man and Justice had done with Potion formulas!

"I think this should become a regular part of every gathering." Miss Justice, filled with curiosity about the mystical world, agreed.

"Agreed." Even Mr. Fool nodded slightly in approval.

"Then I'll start." The Hanged Man, who had made the suggestion, thought for a moment before slowly saying, "The Great Pirate who calls himself Admiral Ludwell has recently begun another voyage to explore the eastern end of the Sonia Sea."

Who was that?

Angel was completely lost. She knew that the islands beyond the Loen Kingdom's coast were infested with pirates, their black sails stretching from Pritz Harbor all the way to the northern shore of the Balam Empire.

They raided ports everywhere, cut off shipping routes, and murdered for profit, making passing merchant vessels suffer terribly. They had even suppressed the naval fleets of various countries so thoroughly that they could barely raise their heads.

But when it came to a specific pirate, she knew absolutely nothing.

"Ludwell, one of the Seven pirate Admirals? The owner of the Black Tulip?"

Miss Justice seemed to have heard of him and asked in return.

"That's right."

The Hanged Man nodded.

No third person picked up the conversation, and the discussion seemed to end there. Just as the atmosphere became awkward again, "the Fool" rubbed the edge of the bronze long table and seemingly murmured casually:

"As far as I know, the Secret Order has lost a notebook belonging to the Antigonus Family."

What was that supposed to be?

This was far removed from the information exchange she had imagined. Angel felt as though sweat was about to form on her forehead. Cole Granger had merely been a self-taught Beyonder, and Angel, who had inherited his memories, knew little more about the Beyonder world than an ordinary person did.

If Potion-related knowledge was excluded, she might not even know as much as Miss Justice, who could at least exchange a few words with the Hanged Man.

The Hanged Man sitting across from her seemed to chuckle before saying, "I'm truly curious about how the Church of the Evernight Goddess will react upon learning this news."

The Church of the Evernight Goddess!

Angel had finally heard a term she was familiar with. She immediately asked, "Why do you say that? Should the Church of the Evernight Goddess have some special reaction?"

"Because that family was destroyed by the Church of the Evernight Goddess. As for whether it happened near the end of the Fourth Epoch or at the beginning of the current era, I'm not too sure."

The Hanged Man's answer left the others with endless room for speculation.

It was currently the year 1349 of the Fifth Epoch. The end of the Fourth Epoch had been more than a thousand years ago. An ancient family exterminated a millennium ago, and one connected to the Church of the Evernight Goddess at that... It seemed she should pay attention to matters related to that family.

No, wait. There was the Secret Order, and there was an ancient family that had been exterminated. If she did not know what was going on, she should stay far away from such matters...

Angel analyzed the information she had obtained. Seeing that no one else spoke, she said:

"Then it's my turn." She carefully chose her words, trying to share intelligence without exposing herself. "Recently, the Demoness Sect in the Loen Kingdom has been very active. A Sequence 6 Beyonder attacked the Nighthawks' base in Tingen City under the Church of the Evernight Goddess."

"Oh my, Sequence 6! Did anyone stop him?" Miss Justice asked anxiously.

Although the Hanged Man did not speak, it was obvious that his attention had also focused on Angel.

Seeing that she had successfully stirred everyone's emotions, Angel grew smug. So there are things you don't know after all.

"Of course he failed. I heard that several Nighthawks surrounded and attacked that Beyonder. He did not even manage to escape."

"Praise the Goddess!"

Miss Justice murmured, but perhaps realizing that this would expose her faith, she immediately changed the subject. "The Demoness Sect? What is that?"

"It is a secret organization that worships the Primordial Demoness. By common standards, it should be considered a cult."

Angel answered briefly. It was not that she did not want to say more, but only this portion existed in her memories.

Although she knew that Mrs. Sharon belonged to the Demoness Sect, and that official records classified it as one of the cults, her deeper understanding was limited to their faith—the Primordial Demoness.

As for the sect's composition, its objectives, and even the regions where it was active, she knew nothing at all.

"I've heard that the higher ranks of this sect are all women. As for the reason, many suspect it has something to do with the Primordial Demoness they worship," the Hanged Man slowly added.

I can answer that. Once you drink the Sequence 7 Potion, you won't be able to avoid becoming a woman even if you want to...

Angel held herself back from saying those words, but she still lowered her head to look at her body—she, or rather Cole Granger, who had personally drunk the Potion, was also one of its victims.

"Finally, it's my turn."

Seeing that everyone else had shared their intelligence, Miss Justice spoke as well.

"Ever since the Kingdom's defeat in the war on the Balam East Coast, the King, the Prime Minister, and all the officials have felt tremendous pressure and urgently wish to change things. They believe that the current structure of the government is too chaotic and inefficient."

"Whenever an election ends, as long as there is a change in parties, an entire new group of people is replaced from top to bottom. It turns everything into a mess and makes efficiency extremely low. This not only caused the defeat in the war, but also brought great inconvenience to the people."

She paused before continuing.

"Unfortunately, they have yet to find a good way to replace this system."

After hearing Justice's account, Angel quickly grasped the heart of the issue. She was unfamiliar with the Loen Kingdom's political structure, but comparing it with Earth's history, it was obvious that the chaos in governance stemmed from the lack of a stable body of civil servants.

"Then why not retain the ordinary staff when parties change?"

Angel tried to steer the discussion in a more concrete direction.

"But those positions are the benefits promised to the victorious party. Every change in parties is also a process of redistributing the cake," Miss Justice retorted. "Any proposal to change that would never pass."

"Then just retain the civil servants. Leave political appointments for the party to distribute, while keeping civil servants, who require work experience and stability, neutral."

"Political appointments... civil servants..."

Justice's eyes lit up, as though she had found the key to the problem.

Angel gradually began drawing upon her memories of modern administrative systems. After organizing her thoughts, she spoke more and more fluently.

"Political appointments, such as ministers and mayors, are positions responsible for political affairs and are the cake of the victorious party. Their posts do not involve specific administrative work, so frequent replacements will not affect the government's daily operations."

"Meanwhile, more specific and complicated positions, ranging from senior Cabinet secretaries to clerks in county governments, can select the most suitable talents from among the public through examinations, much like university entrance examinations. Once they pass, they can hold their positions long-term without being affected by changes in party rule."

"These examinations can be held regularly to gradually fill administrative positions throughout the Kingdom, then increase according to the Kingdom's expansion and vacancies in a planned manner. Once a stable team of officials is formed, these outstanding people from the public will allow the Kingdom to maintain basic, relatively efficient operations, regardless of which party is elected or who their political superiors are."

Of course, there would definitely be all sorts of difficulties in implementation: the fairness of the examinations, bureaucratic habits caused by job stability, increasingly redundant government employees that became too bloated to manage, and so on. But what did that have to do with a few people merely discussing theory on paper?

Could someone at this Tarot Club actually influence the Kingdom's upper echelons and establish this world's civil service system?

Looking at Miss Justice, who had fallen into thought, Angel secretly wondered.

Perhaps only the mysterious Mr. Fool possessed such influence. But he did not seem like someone who would be bothered by mundane matters.

Emperor Roselle's Diary, the grievances between the Evernight Goddess and an ancient family—those were the things important figures should concern themselves with. He probably could not even be bothered to answer such a simple question!

Damn it, she had been a step slower while organizing her thoughts. She had not expected someone else to answer first.

"The Fool," Klein, sat upright in his high-backed chair, staring in stunned silence at "the Empress," Angel, who had answered Miss Justice's question before he could.

He believed that his long experience surfing the internet and talking grandly about all sorts of subjects would have allowed him to answer the question more thoroughly. He could even sharply point out many flaws in Miss Empress's earlier answer. But would interrupting now damage the Fool's image?

He pursed his lips and remained silent.

"That sounds like a simple but extremely effective method!"

Miss Justice carefully considered Angel's words, and her eyes gradually brightened. With the elite education she had received, along with the political knowledge she had absorbed from her father and brothers, she could recognize the superiority of this method after only a little analysis.

"Thank you, Miss Empress. Your suggestion has been of great help to me."

Of course. This was the essence of administrative experience accumulated by the British Empire over hundreds of years, which itself had been learned from that Eastern nation's civil service tradition spanning millennia...

Angel felt that the sense of inadequacy brought about by her meager occult knowledge had finally eased somewhat.

But why was Miss Justice so happy, even happier than when she had obtained the Spectator Potion? Judging from her speech, mannerisms, and lively personality, she was probably around eighteen years old, just at the age to attend university. Could this be an assignment left by one of her university teachers?

As Angel pondered, the Fool's deep voice sounded beside her ear.

"Let today's gathering end here."

Angel hurriedly stood up, and Justice and the Hanged Man rushed to do the same.

The three answered in unison, "We obey your will."

The next instant, Angel's vision brightened, and she returned from the enormous palace shrouded in gray fog to the sunlit study.

She loosely clenched her right hand. The fountain pen she had secretly been holding had vanished without a trace.

"Still as miraculous as ever... I can't bring things out either. Could that space actually be..."

Angel frowned, recalling the various details of the Tarot Club gathering.