Chapter 158 Northern Alliance

"Where should I start?" She asked herself while looking around the room. Her eyes fall on the large wooden L-shaped table. "Wouldn't everyone keep something important closer to them?"

Dorothy carefully walks to the table. Luckily, the Prince of Barlia keeps his table clean and tidy. So, there's no problem if she makes a mess as long as she remembers the original arrangement.

She starts with the file neatly arranged on the table. Her mouth repeatedly mumbles the same sentence inaudibly, 'Intel on the deal comes first.'

The file was open. It is not what she was looking for but the content caught her attention. It's about the princess's expenditure last month. "Damn!" She exclaimed. "Did Lady Reina wrung this man dry? Poor Prince, that's what you get for kidnapping a woman and forcing her to be your bride. Good job, milady." Dorothy gives her mental thumbups.

Distracted once again, she immediately closed the file. She opens the file, briefly scans the content and repeats the process. If she deems it important, she'll put it on one side. Dorothy didn't stop until she found the file she was searching for.

Roughly after ten minutes or so, she found it. The title written on the file intrigued her.

[Barlia-Blande Agreement of Northern Alliance]

Dorothy promptly opens the file. She begins to read the content carefully without missing a single letter. The agreement addresses the economic issue faced by the two countries and their consensus to strengthen the trading relationship between the two by easing the border restriction and synchronizing the tariff taxes.

The second part of the document causes her to sweat terribly. It is about the principle of occupation and integration of Middle Jozia.

Both of them agreed to terms where each of them would have an immediate and effective right over the land they occupied.

All the local power in the conquered region would be instantly deemed as invalid.

In case both nations face uncooperative powers, they'll be treated as rebels. Both countries are obligated to work together in purging them.

Also, they had a right to exploit the occupied territories however they seemed fit.

"So, it wasn't a normal visitation. No wonder the maids said that the prince and the representative were eating together for a week. These people were actually planning to carve out the south! They even made a map to label their interested territory. This is big news."

According to her superior, old man Dunn, the representative later was escorted by Prince Baldwin himself to the barracks, ports and other military facilities. Everything makes sense now. He made a right call by ordering her to investigate the deal made by the two of them.

Dorothy frantically copied the main point of the agreement. Then, she took a look at the stacks of files that attracted her attention.

[Research Result on Exploding Powdered Weapon]

[Naval Cooperation In Levianic Sea]

[Operation Locust]

Despite her sore hand, Dorothy keeps writing. After all, this is related to the safety of her kingdom.

After an hour, she had put everything back in their original place. The papers were put inside the pockets of her inner pants.

Dorothy did think of escaping now but she only went through ten per cent of the files. The neatly arranged files on the bookshelf tempted her to prolong her stay.

"I'll just take a peek real quick..."

Her hand reached for a random file and flipped it through. No information attracted her attention. She put it back and picked the second one.

"Blackout? I think I've heard of them before." Curious, she read the file. Her eyes gradually widened and her jaw dropped. This time, she hit a jackpot. "Aren't they the enemies of SIN?"

Dorothy happily wrote down the location of their hideout in Ryntum. Imagine the bonus she'll get for obtaining this intel.

Unbeknownst to her, Harford steadily walks towards the administrative building. As an excellent butler, he arranges the documents based on their urgency beforehand to ease the prince's workload.

The sleepy guards suddenly wide awake and fix their posture when they see the old butler walking towards them.

""Good morning, Sir Harford!!"" The guard salutes.

"Good morning," Harford replied dryly. "Is there anything usual that occurred during the night?"

The guard shook his head, "Last night was peaceful as usual, Sir. Nothing out of the ordinary happened."

....

Back at the office,

Dorothy just finished locking the office back. It took her more time to relock the door.

As much as she wants to check all the documents, the sun is already pretty high up in the sky. Though the nobles may just wake up now, it's a different story for the staff. It'll be harder to escape once people stare pouring into this place. Her maid uniform stands are out of place.

She tidies herself up. All that searching wrinkled her clothes. Her feet started walking towards the exit. Staying in this narrow and empty hallway any longer would increase her chance of getting caught.

Clomp!

Clomp!

Clomp!

"Sh*t! I would be dead if it was Harford.", She could hear someone coming towards her direction as soon as she exited the hall.

The stair she was using previously is out of the question. She needs to use another escape route.

Dorothy ran to the west wing, there was a staircase that led directly to the kitchen downstairs. To be honest, she didn't want to escape from this path. This route is used by the kitchen staff to deliver food directly to the prince whenever he has no time to eat his food in the dining room. So, the kitchen staff would find it weird as to why Dorothy appears from there which consequently, raises their suspicion.

Nevertheless, she plans to deal with it when the time comes. Her priority is to escape the third floor.

The footsteps are getting louder. Despite Dorothy's half-panicking, she manages to keep it under control and is careful enough to not produce any sound.

Harford arrived at the third floor. Although his eyes were on the narrow hallway, he noticed something moving from the corner of his eye. He turns, only to see an empty corridor.

"Did my eyes play tricks on me? I swear my eyes caught something moving."

The butler stares at the corridor for a while, thinking that there may be some animals slipped in. After seeing nothing moving, he simply dismissed it and headed to the prince's office.

At the stair, Dorothy stays frozen for a few minutes with her hand covering her mouth. Lucky for her, she narrowly avoided being spotted by Harford. Even so, she doesn't dare to move her body just yet.

The silence causes sweat to trickle down her forehead.

Clank-

Dorothy sighed in relief. Her wait was over when she heard the sound of the door was opened. Hastily, she made her way downstairs.

....

Harford entered the office as per usual. The room remains untouched or so he thought.

The first thing he noticed is the presence of fragrance differs from the scent of the room.

His eyes scan the room like a hawk, to see any minor changes he can find. Nothing out of order except for the brown carpet under his feet. It has a remnant sign of being stepped on.

"Someone is here..."