Chapter 2 : Chapter 2
Chapter 2. The Intelligence System Was Late, but It Still Arrived
Eli stood in the middle of the luxurious yet suffocating Dawn Hall, feeling as though even the carpet beneath his feet had turned into quicksand.
The western frontier? A Frontier Knight?
Those few words were like chunks of ice smashing into the “easy retirement dream” he had only just pieced together, shattering it completely.
On Lady Livia’s cold face, the faintest trace of a smile that seemed to command the entire situation flickered in and out of sight.
The gazes of the vassals—sympathetic, scrutinizing, or gleefully malicious—pricked at him like needles.
And just as that swamp of pressure was about to swallow him whole—
【Ding! The host’s strong will to survive has been detected. Binding conditions are met...】
【The World Intelligence Support System is starting...】
【Binding successful! Host: Eli Black. Novice Gift Pack (Tenfold Intelligence Draw) has been issued!】
A cold, emotionless voice, like synthesized electronic sound, exploded inside his head without warning.
“Holy shit?!” Eli jolted all over and nearly jumped on the spot.
A cheat ability?! Standard transmigrator package?! Late, but still here!
A surge of wild joy instantly blew away the gloom of despair, so overwhelming that he almost laughed out loud.
But he clenched his back teeth and forcibly suppressed that euphoric delight of surviving disaster.
Only two bright flames called hope lit up in the depths of his eyes.
He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
He straightened the back that had bent slightly from shock only moments ago.
The dazed expression of “who am I, where am I” receded from his face like a retreating tide.
In its place appeared an expression mixed with three parts resignation, three parts helplessness, and three parts anger.
He looked back toward the seat of honor and spoke in a voice that was not loud, yet still cut cleanly through the murmurs lingering in the hall.
“Mother. Brother. Regarding my departure to the western wasteland to begin frontier development...”
He paused, his gaze sweeping across Lady Livia’s face, where surprise and displeasure had both become faintly visible. “I... have no objection.”
“Oh?” Lady Livia set down the teacup in her hand and let out a nearly inaudible nasal sound, her eyes full of scrutiny.
“It is good that you understand the family’s painstaking intentions.” Her tone revealed neither approval nor displeasure.
“To serve the family is my duty.”
Eli spoke those conventional courtesies without changing expression, but then his tone shifted sharply.
“However, opening up the wasteland and establishing a foothold are not things one man can accomplish alone.
I will need the family to provide the necessary resources.”
Lady Livia gave a slight nod.
“That is only natural. We can discuss the details in private later.”
“Mother’s affairs are countless, and I would not dare trouble you with extra concerns.”
Eli picked up the thread at once. There was even a faintly obedient smile on his face, though his respectful tone carried something that could not be refused.
“Rather than that, since all these lords are present now, why not settle it here in front of them as witnesses? It would save Mother from wasting her precious time going back and forth over the matter.”
A wave of heavily restrained chuckles and exchanged glances spread around the long table.
The vassals traded knowing looks. Good lad, clever enough. He was borrowing their weight.
If this was discussed in front of all the vassals, then no matter how much Lady Livia wanted to skimp, she would still have to consider the dignity of House Black.
If a young master of a marquis house went out to open new lands with a miserly allocation, the one who would lose face would be the entire family.
On Lady Livia’s carefully maintained face, that layer of eternal frost finally cracked in a clearly visible way.
She stared at Eli, her gaze sharp as a blade.
Eli returned it openly, his eyes clear and innocent.
The air remained frozen for a full five seconds, so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.
In the end, Lady Livia forced a few words out through clenched teeth.
“...Very well. Development funds: five hundred gold coins.”
“In addition, ten family knights will be assigned to accompany you as guards.
Food supplies will be issued for one month, calculated to the standard for ten men.”
Five hundred gold coins! Ten knights! One month of rations!
The vassals silently nodded to themselves. For sending off an illegitimate son to “his death,”
it was not generous, but it was certainly respectable—properly moderate, enough to preserve noble dignity.
Five hundred gold coins was an enormous sum for an individual—enough to cover a commoner family’s expenses for a year with a single coin—but for establishing a frontier outpost? It was little more than a drop in the bucket.
Eli had expected this result long before it came.
He bowed again, his posture flawless. “Thank you for your generosity, Mother.” Eli paused.
“In addition, as for the selection of those ten accompanying knights... I would like to choose them myself.”
“You?!” Rage flared in Lady Livia’s eyes. She was just about to rebuke Eli harshly for this outrageous attempt to push his luck—
“Granted!”
A decisive voice suddenly rang out, overriding the scolding his stepmother had been about to deliver.
It was Kaelus. He had lifted his head and was looking at Eli with a complicated expression, as though there were a trace of... relief?
At the very least, this younger brother was fighting for himself. He had not completely resigned himself to his fate.
“As for the family knights, you may... choose as you wish.” Kaelus’s voice carried a judgment that brooked no argument.
His gaze swept across the hall before finally settling on Eli.
“You have three days to prepare. At dawn three days from now, you will depart on schedule!”
Lady Livia’s chest rose and fell sharply once, but in the end she only let out a cold snort through her nose.
With a furious sweep of her sleeve, she rose and left the Dawn Hall without so much as another glance at Eli.
Thus the meeting that had decided Eli’s fate finally came to an end in a manner no one had expected.
Only after returning to his familiar luxurious bedroom and locking the door behind him did Eli let out a long breath. His back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
In the hall just now, he had bargained under the murderous gaze of his stepmother and the many different looks of the vassals. To say he had not been nervous would have been a lie.
But it had been worth it! Five hundred gold coins, ten knights of his own choosing, one month of rations, and... three precious days!
Most importantly, there was his cheat ability—the intelligence system!
Unable to wait any longer, he focused again and silently said, “System interface!”
That familiar pale-blue translucent screen unfolded before his eyes once more, and the simple functional module on it was clearly visible: 【Intelligence Acquisition】.
In the lower right corner, the 【Novice Gift Pack】 icon, radiating an enticing glow, drew his gaze like a hidden treasure.
“Intelligence acquisition... a gacha draw? It even has pity?” Looking at the explanation, Eli could not help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
“So even in another world, I still can’t escape the fate of gacha games... luck won’t save the unlucky, and spending won’t change your fate?”
He grumbled helplessly, but his eyes were shining with astonishing brightness.
Taking a deep breath, and with the same excitement and nervousness as opening a blind box, he focused his will.
“Use the Novice Gift Pack. Ten pulls!”
【Novice Gift Pack activated! Tenfold Intelligence Draw begins!】
The screen was instantly drowned in flowing light!
There was no flashy transition animation, only ten beams of different colors streaking past like meteors, accompanied by brief text prompts:
【White: Lord Hans, the tax officer of Black City, is carrying on an affair with his wife’s maid. Their usual meeting place is the east-side room on the third floor of the Goldflower Inn in the south of the city.】
【White: In Old John’s “secret recipe honey bread” from the bakery in the western district, the honey contains 15% cheap syrup.】
【White: Butler Sebastian has absolutely no resistance to almond pastries, especially those made by the Sweetheart Pastry Shop in the eastern district.】
【White: Tomorrow afternoon, there will be a brief light rain in Black City’s eastern district, lasting approximately one hour.】
【Blue: At the stall of “Limping Tom,” a black-market vendor in Mole Alley, there is a detailed map of the Kingdom of Orlando left behind by a mercenary.】
【Blue: The family knight Orlando is currently worried about the cost of his mother’s medicine.】
【Blue: In a corner of House Black’s storeroom, there is a nearly complete set of basic alchemical tools sealed away and covered in dust, neglected by all.】
【Blue: Brandon. Former elite scout of the kingdom. Extremely experienced. Because of old injuries and an overly blunt temperament, he offended his superior and was demoted to House Black’s logistics department to manage horses.】
【Blue: Leon. Status: apprentice at the family smithy. Highly talented. Because of his blunt personality and lack of skill at currying favor, he offended his supervisor and is facing the risk of being transferred to a remote mining district to dig ore.】
【Purple: Wolfgang Frostclaw. Status: leader of the wolf-kin Frostclaw Tribe. Mid-Silver-tier combat strength (currently heavily injured and in urgent need of effective treatment). Proud and unruly.
Location: high-risk zone of the slave market in Blackstone Town. Key to recruitment: give him a real hope of slaying his enemies with his own hands and restoring his tribe. Risk level: extremely high!】
As he stared at that final piece of explosive intelligence, flashing with noble purple light and packed with staggering information, Eli felt his breathing stall for a moment.
This... this was practically a god-tier opening card!
The risk was terrifyingly high, but if he succeeded, his starting lineup would be upgraded beyond recognition.
“Hah...” Eli let out a long breath.
“System, this Novice Gift Pack of yours... sure, it came with a little too much gossip, but the important goods are solid.”
Unable to help himself, Eli raised a thumbs-up toward the screen, and a smile full of drive curled at the corner of his mouth.