Chapter 666 — Clues and Progress

"Hidden knight?" It was the first time Amber had ever heard the term—after all, she had only just managed to piece together the public aristocratic structure of the old kingdom. As for those obviously more secretive and peculiar titles and ranks of nobility, she was utterly at a loss. "What does he do? A skulker as clumsy as you?"

"...Not quite," Dark Crow replied. He had only been working with this new superior for a few days, and adapting to her cadence of speech was proving rather difficult; he paused for a moment before answering. "Hidden knights are a collective name for secret nobles who hold no public standing—royal shadows who have rendered special service, transcendents with a stain on their record but under the king's protection, our lord's own hidden hands. There are always those who serve the king in secret, trusted deeply by him yet who, for various reasons, cannot have their identities made public. These people are called hidden knights."

"The king grants them surnames as a recognition of their service and loyalty, but those surnames are never entered in the ordinary rolls of heraldry or the noble genealogies. Only direct members of the royal house and a small number of those who keep the registers know these people exist at all. And as a rule, more than half of the hidden knights are royal shadows—the reason goes without saying."

As he finished, a trace of pride was plainly visible on Dark Crow's face. Without question, he too was a "secret noble" bearing a "secret surname."

Amber, however, was wholly unimpressed by that pride. "The royal house of Anzu... instead of putting effort into production and national institutions, you pour all your energy into these back-alley affairs. Just as Old Sticky Rice said—seven hundred years on, you lot must have cooked up new tricks on top of the royal shadows."

"Old Sticky Rice?" It was the first time Dark Crow had heard this peculiar phrase, and he repeated it instinctively. "What does that mean?"

"A code word. Don't use it casually—use it wrong and you might get beaten to death," Amber said with a careless wave of her hand, then looked Dark Crow up and down. "Never mind that. So you're a hidden knight too, by the looks of it? That's rather surprising... someone like you can actually be a hidden knight?"

The doubt in her words was plain. A flicker of embarrassment crossed Dark Crow's face, yet he truly could not explain to a "master" who had kicked him out of the shadow realm three times in a row that he was in fact an expert on the path of shadow as well—this half-elf lady's talent for shadow was simply unreasonable. Beside her, he, a skulker ranked near the top of the royal shadows, felt like a raw apprentice.

It seemed that so long as this half-elf lady remained his superior, he could forget about ever making a name for himself on the path of shadow... If worst came to worst, perhaps he should consider the suggestion Duke Gaoyang Cecil had once made, and go back to practicing two-handed swordsmanship?

Amber had no idea what had flashed through Dark Crow's mind in that instant, but she was clearly displeased by his daze. "What are you spacing out for? I'm talking to you!"

"Ah, yes. I... am a hidden knight as well, since during the years I served the royal house I did at least earn some merit," Dark Crow said hastily, quickly steering away from the subject. "If the person you're looking for has a noble surname yet does not appear in the ordinary noble genealogies, then perhaps he was a hidden knight too."

"I rather think his surname was something he made up himself... but just in case..." Amber smacked her lips and looked up at Dark Crow. "You have a register over there, don't you? Then go dig it out already!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Dark Crow acknowledged the order at once and left swiftly.

After the former royal shadow had gone, Amber glanced at the shelves crammed with books and files around her, and at the subordinates and scholars busy among the shelves. She smacked her lips, her ears drooping slightly, seemingly weighed down with cares, yet she said not a word.

"Director..." one of the Military Intelligence Bureau agents nearby edged closer cautiously. "So... shall we keep searching?"

"Of course we keep searching!" Amber shot the subordinate an exasperated look. "Who knows whether there are any clues in that register of 'secret knights'? And if there aren't, don't we still have to keep digging through this place?"

The agent hurried back to work, and Dark Crow, who had gone to fetch the register, did not keep Amber waiting long.

Barely a dozen minutes later, the former royal shadow returned to the archive room carrying several heavy, thick volumes.

"These are the registers of hidden knights who received secret royal patents over the past few decades, along with some of their records," Dark Crow said as he set the great volumes—some new, some old—on the table beside Amber. "The earlier archives are kept in another repository, and if it's material from before the Fogmoon Rebellion... it will be even harder to find, riddled with confusion and omissions. If you need it, it may take some time and manpower to sort through slowly."

"Not for now. He was only an ordinary human. A few decades... a few decades is enough," Amber said. As she looked at those thick volumes, her tone—always so full of confidence—suddenly seemed to falter, as though some premonition had come over her. Gazing at the black covers, she seemed to see a stubble-faced, dispirited visage already somewhat blurred in her memory. "Search here first. Here first... you lot, never mind those shelves for now! Come help me look!"

Several subordinates responded at once: "Yes, Director."

"Be careful, all of you. Don't tear anything—some of these volumes are very old," Amber cautioned as she distributed the books among the subordinates. "Remember: Sarylendorff."

Soon, nothing remained in the archive room but the soft, cautious rustle of turning pages.

Amber climbed onto a tall reading chair and slowly leafed through the volume before her, checking name by name and the portraits inserted between the pages. She had all but held her breath, yet an hour later she had still found nothing.

But then one of the Military Intelligence agents suddenly called out: "Director! I found it!"

"Bring it here!"

Amber took the register her subordinate handed her. Before the characters "Sarylendorff" swam into view, the first thing she saw was a lifelike portrait rendered by a recording spell and inserted between the pages—a young man of under thirty, black hair combed neatly back, dressed in formal attire, his features unremarkable, yet with a hint of flippancy in his eyes.

Amber gazed at the portrait in silence for a moment, then murmured softly to herself: "Ah... so you were young once too..."

"Is that him?" A subordinate leaned in and asked cautiously.

Anyone could see that this man, appearing in the royal secret records, must have some connection to their director.

"It's him. My adoptive father." Amber muttered under her breath, and her eyes flew swiftly over the material related to "Sarylendorff"—it mentioned the young man's origins, his family members, and some of his record. The material was exceedingly brief, and had long since become worthless with the passage of time, yet Amber read it with extreme care, until she noticed a black heraldic stamp at the end of the entry, and the few words following it: Defected or missing—struck from the rolls.

"What does this mean?" Amber pointed at the stamp and the text, raising her head to look at Dark Crow.