“Now, let’s head to the yard and talk security plans with everyone. This isn’t about magic or miracles, just pure physical security, so I’m counting on your expertise, Falsetto,” I said.
“Leave it to me!” she said.
For strategic discussions about small-scale ambushes or assaults, it was best to consult someone with specialized knowledge and training. Reiko had studied combat in worlds at this civilization level, but that knowledge was based on Earth. The weapons, fighting styles, and ways of thinking here were different. Earth’s medieval combat didn’t involve pitting captured monsters against enemies, and concealed weapons here could be nothing like what we might expect.
The dogs and birds would provide home security around the clock, but they didn’t need to stand guard like human soldiers armed with spears. They were dogs, so even if they were snoozing, they would snap awake when a suspicious person approached. We’d build a small doghouse in the yard, letting them sleep inside on rainy, windy, or cold days. On nice days, they could roam freely and play or nap on the grass...
Oh.
I’d thought about it before, but maybe we should have hurried up and started moving forward with the plan to deploy guard dogs, surveillance birds, and spy cats to Little Silver too. Hang and Scary were sort of handling it, but horses weren’t exactly suited for antipersonnel combat, and their huge size meant they couldn’t go indoors. If we offered bonuses for out-of-town work, paired them with their partners—their lover dog, lover cat, or lover bird, that is—or told them they could play with human kids, the ones that liked humans might sign up. Unless they loved this place or their local friends, some might even settle permanently at Little Silver... Wait, what am I, stupid?
Why not just recruit from the strays...er, the self-sufficient dogs in Tavolas, where Little Silver was? That was so dense of me...
Local hires would spread the word to unrecruited dogs, and if the kids were in danger, the free dogs, cats, or birds nearby might help out, hoping for rewards or because their kin were our allies.
Anyway, it was time for a strategy meeting regarding our defense plan here!
“And that’s it. Done! Now, I just need to encrypt it.”
Falsetto pulled out a sacred book and began converting the text she’d just written into code. It was a basic substitution cipher using the same book for the sender and receiver. The whole thing was simple, but in this low-tech world, locals couldn’t easily decode it without the key book or a computer. Plus, the book Falsetto used was one of the Order of the Goddess Kaoru scriptures, which was a handwritten manuscript. Even though the content was the same, the font size, characters per line, and lines per page varied across different copies, meaning only the one specifically instructed to match could be used for encryption. As a result, the low civilization level in this world made the cipher even stronger.
Falsetto was writing a report to Francette the True Ancestor back home, and the message was being encrypted in case it got intercepted or read by prying eyes. It was a natural precaution for her to take as an Einherjar. Using ciphers too often could provide more data to decode them, so it was best not to overdo it. But for an Einherjar, and for Francette, nothing was more important than reports about the Goddess Kaoru, so one could argue, “If not now, when?”
For Falsetto, sending the report in plain text was out of the question, since she would have been thoroughly chewed out by the True Ancestor if she had.
“I’ll have the regular couriers from the Eyes of the Goddess deliver this,” she said. “They’ll definitely check the report, but it’s encrypted, and even if they manage to crack it, that won’t be an issue. It’s a far better option than entrusting it to local guilds, merchants, random hunters, the old witch, or the Aligot Empire folks.”
Out of the groups Falsetto listed, only the Eyes of the Goddess were from her home country. The latter two were comrades as Order of the Goddess Kaoru believers, but everyone else wanted Kaoru to settle in their country after her trip around the continent. In that sense, they were all rivals to be wary of.
“Considering our conflicting interests, the Eyes of the Goddess are the only ones we can almost count as complete allies,” Falsetto explained. “If they tried anything funny, the True Ancestor would storm their headquarters, so they wouldn’t dare try to betray us. Even Nagase’s Children couldn’t stand up to Mad Dog Fran’s wrath...”
Francette had cool titles like “guardian of the continent” and “great hero,” but she also had many negative ones like “musclehead,” “mad dog,” and “the woman who doesn’t know restraint.” Though, the Einherjar thought “musclehead” was a compliment...
It seemed the Order of the Goddess Kaoru wasn’t exactly a monolith.
“I’m starting my activities as the Angel,” I announced. “I’ll secretly heal the sick and injured and leak to a select few powerful folks that it’s the work of the upgraded Saint Edith to secure reliable, influential allies. Those left out will be distracted by the mysterious saint and ignore the stray priestess with only weak blessings like me, killing two birds with one stone!”
“If that info doesn’t get leaked elsewhere...” Reiko muttered. “Anyway, how are you supposed to figure out your healing targets? You used to rely on that Eyes of the Goddess group for intel and protection, right? We’ve got enough protection now, but we don’t have much in terms of gathering information. Animals can scout for us, but they can’t understand human speech, so they won’t be much help...though they can’t be beat for cuddling therapy. You’re not gonna tell me to turn invisible with magic and scour the city for sick or injured people, are you?”
Reiko smiled sweetly, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. I shook my head frantically.
There was no way that’d work. Even if she went invisible and staked out an area, people wouldn’t conveniently start talking about their ailments, and there’d be no way to tell if they were good people or not. Even the worst villains could be kind to their own family and friends. Plus, I planned to focus my Eyes of the Goddess relief efforts mainly on ordinary commoners. I wanted backing from influential nobles and rich folks, but that didn’t mean I had to save them. I just needed them to hear somewhere that there was a saint out there with miracle-level blessings, unlike the weak ones of the stray priestess Edith...and that she was Edith’s secret identity.