Chapter 094

"What was all that about?" asked Alvin after they had left.

"Well, it's complicated. Due to several factors, our unit is at odds with their unit" said Hannah.

Alvin stayed silent, waiting for her to explain.

"As you might know, there are 3 units of the Red Gloves in Backlund, with 8 overall. The unit led by Captain Gordon is one of them, and another is the one led by Captain Zachary. I used to be a part of the unit, but there were some irreconcilable conflicts between some members of the team and me. Captain Gordon recommended that I be transferred to his unit, and his grace agreed" said Hannah.

"That can't be the main reason for the conflict" said Alvin.

"Well, the second and most important factor is a bit complicated" said Hannah, and then stayed silent.

After a while, Rico, Donald, Hannah and Alvin boarded a carriage to go to the venue of the gathering.

"Well, you are involved, so you might as well know" said Hannah suddenly.

"You should know that the higher the Sequence, the rarer the potion? While the church has the entire pathway of Sleepless, the ingredients for the potion are always in short supply. It usually isn't a problem for Sequence below 5 because there are a few spare ingredients or extraordinary characteristics with the church. But it starts to be a problem at Sequence 4. You see, the ingredients for this Sequence are very rare, and often come from demigod level creatures that are good at hiding, fighting and escaping. So the church does not have an abundance of ingredients. So when there is a Sequence 5 qualified to advance, he usually has to wait for a long period of time to have a chance at attaining the potion for higher Sequence, and even then it's not always guaranteed" said Hannah.

"I see. And Captain Gordon and Captain Zachary are the ones qualified to get the potion now? And there is only one potion available?" same Alvin.

"Exactly. There is another person, who is in charge of the Red Gloves unit in Awwa County also in the running, but in terms of influence and contributions, he is a bit a. So now the competition is mainly between Captain Zachary and Captain Gordon" said Hannah.

"Captain Zachary was leading the race. He had more connections, influence, had been a Red Gloves Captain for longer, and has more contributions. Captain Gordon was the most inexperienced, with the least time spent as captain and the lowest contributions. He was on the verge of being eliminated from consideration" said Hannah.

"What happened?" asked Alvin.

"You happened" said Hannah with a smirk.

Noticing Alvin's confusion, she explained, "With the huge visibility of the incident that happened with the Iron and Blood Cross Order, coupled with a Nighthawk losing control, the Red Gloves were called in to investigate. This was originally supposed to be a thankless and dead-end job that wouldn't lead to anything. These secret organisations quickly flee like rats after they orchestrate an incident. Everyone expected the Red Gloves unit dispatched to circle around the investigations, find nothing, and return. But eager to find something, Captain made a big deal out of it. He borrowed some mystical items for detection and used up some treasures to deeply investigate the incident. Sure enough, we ended up finding nothing, but at least we confirmed that you don't have a problem and made you an informant"

Hannah paused after this, and then continued, "You can probably guess the rest. Because of you, two clues were discovered by accident. With it, we made strides in the investigation, and uncovered lots of details, which are still now confidential. Then, we perfectly executed the mission against the Zmanger Gang, all without casualties. These huge contributions were attributed to the Captain. This, he was launched back into contention among the other two. Due to your role as read in the mission report, you were nicknamed the X factor by some of the Nighthawks" said Hannah.

"But despite this, Captain Zachary still had the upper hand. Then, barely a day later, you showed up, telling us about clues to the Aurora Order. That operation again was a huge success. Not only did we capture a live Oracle and uncover a traitor who has access to some of the Nighthawks information channels, but we also destroyed what seemed to be an important source of revenue, transport, and supplies in the form of the Red Cherry Trasport Services company, who had plenty of channels and warehouses all across Loen. We are still pursuing and uncovering a lot of hidden channels using the Red Cherry Trasport Services's connections and transactions. Plus, we permanently reduced the number of a Sheperd, Shadow Ascetics, Listeners, and Secret Supplicants due to the seized Beyonder characteristics, and found a clue towards a Sequence 4 characteristic. Now, Captain Gordon is rapidly catching up to Captain Zachary in contributions and influence, not to mention Captain Zachary received some criticism for the fact that an informant attached to his unit was in close contact with the Aurora Order. It's not totally his fault, since we rarely are expected to have full control of our informants, thus not fully responsible for them, and the Aurora Order's secret-keeping powers can force them to remain silent unless they manage to alert others from an unrelated incident as it happened in your case, and a purification ceremony was arranged, and even that might not be effective if the Sequence of the secret-keeper is high enough" said Hannah.

"So I am a thorn in the eyes of a Red Gloves Captain? A possible future demigod?" asked Alvin, feeling a headache.

"Not really. I don't think Captain Zachary will give you any trouble. Candidates for promotion are held to unusually high standards. If he displays displeasure at someone who is a great contributor like you, he will receive a lot of flack. Plus, because of the involvement of a demigod level creature, Saint Anthony has noticed you, and read mission reports on you. So you are pretty safe. It's people like Vinnie, who has a chance of being promoted who mostly dislike you. If Captain Zachary was promoted, as his deputy, he might be made a Captain and allowed to become a Sequence 5 skipping the long process of accumulating contribution" said Hannah.

"We are here" interrupted Donald. Alvin looked out, and saw that they were in what seemed to be a large hall, the kind used for private events. Rico, Donald, and Hannah it out of the carriage and walked in, and Alvin followed them.