Brunhild's interest was immediately piqued.
The Black Tree Bureau was an intelligence agency under the House of Soluka. It had been founded by the previous king—Brunhild's grandfather—and had been around for more than thirty years. It was currently under the direct command of Ostana Barr.
Though it served the Great Elector, the Black Tree Bureau had been deeply rooted in the grassroots from the very beginning, with most of its information coming from the underworld.
This was probably because the agency's first director had been an underworld figure recruited by the previous king. From that perspective, recruiting desperadoes to serve as henchmen could be considered a traditional specialty of the Soluka royal family.
It was easy enough to understand. If convincing a good-for-nothing woman to go straight was the romantic ideal of a lecherous old man, then bringing anti-establishment figures into the fold was surely the game of the powerful.
As everyone knew, information from unofficial channels was often little better than rumor, but it was usually more timely than information from official sources. Of course, that required considerable skill in intelligence analysis: the ability to extract useful information from a sea of gossip.
Fortunately, that was no particularly difficult task for the intelligence team managed by the chief of staff.
"President Case Nishita of the Blue Star Commonwealth? I remember him. He's on his way to beg the Alliance for money, isn't he?" Brunhild said.
Ostana nodded and reported, "He just passed through the Grand Ocean Route. Yesterday, he met with four representatives again in Clear Sky City, but reportedly failed to reach any definitive agreement."
"Every country is waiting to see what the Alliance will do. A merchant's subordinates are bound to be merchants, just as a bandit's henchmen are bound to be bandits." The young queen sneered.