House Sevensworth, however, granted our operatives status as knights—the lowest rank but still a title—as well as a salary that amounted to about a hundred times more than the average commoner wage. We also didn’t treat our covert operatives as disposable, unlike many other families, which was why many of them wanted to work with us. In fact, Hans wasn’t the only one who wanted to serve us.
“What kind of job did House Hechsagon request of you?” Matthew asked.
“Sorry. I can’t say,” Hans said, beginning to sweat.
Ana seemed a little confused, not understanding what was going on. Ana hadn’t completed her chi circuits yet, but she could tell that Matthew was releasing a very powerful demon’s aura. Usually, it used both mana and chi, but right now, he was only using chi and bathing Hans in it, making him know that he was ready to kill him if need be.
“It’s our family’s creed to not talk about jobs we take. I’ve had to take out people in our clan who broke that rule. I can’t be the one to break it, even under threat of death,” Hans said, clenching his teeth.
Hearing this, Matthew stopped the demon’s aura. Though Hans looked to be bracing himself for punishment over his defiance, I actually felt better and had a higher opinion of him. Though his clan had lived like mercenaries, they still had their own pride and creed. Even though he was forced to be on the run, he still wouldn’t betray the trust of the one that hired him, even though they were the ones he was running from.
“What was your clan’s specialty?” I asked.
“Well, it’s probably easier to show you,” he said, still kneeling on the floor and making signs with his hands like a ninja.
“Oh my!” Ana exclaimed with surprise.
Though I didn’t make a sound, I was surprised too because he’d disappeared.
“This is quite impressive. Even I can only just barely tell where you are,” Matthew remarked.
Even with my inspection magic cast, I couldn’t see him at all. Testing things had been part of my job as an engineer in my past life, so I tried various inspection and detection spells until I was finally able to see him with a higher-level magic called precision inspection eye.
I discovered that the spell he used was a combination of concealment techniques using both mana and chi. One sent a hallucination to the brain to prevent the target from being able to perceive the caster, and the other diffracted light to create an optical camouflage. It was a fairly powerful magic that even graduates from college with humanities degrees wouldn’t be able to detect. The only people who possibly could were those who had a master’s or higher in a science field.
The optical camouflage range could diffract a lot of wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet and infrared rays. Even cameras from my past life wouldn’t have been able to catch this if they were the cheap kind. After fully inspecting it to my satisfaction, I told him he could dispel it whenever he wanted.
“Sheesh, you could seriously still see me, boss?” Hans asked from a little bit far away, scratching the back of his head while wearing a look of disappointment.
He must have thought that I wouldn’t perceive his skills highly because I’d been able to find him. Also, for the record, “boss” referred to me.
“Can you cast that magic on multiple people?” I asked.
“It’s not magic. It’s ninjutsu. The one I used is called ‘Shadow Jutsu’ and is the one that makes you the most difficult to find. I can only cast it on myself. There are others I can cast on multiple people, but the more there are, the easier it’ll be to find them. If I use my jutsu with the largest area of effect, ‘Tree Leaf Shadow Jutsu,’ then I could maybe...cast it on about three thousand people?”
“How long can the people in your clan keep the jutsu going for?”
“It really depends on their stamina and if they’re well rested, but I can do it for about three days. Everyone else, even the greenest of us, could probably go for about three hours.”
“Got it. I’m giving you status before the war, but in exchange, I want you to gather as many jutsu users as you can and have them help in the war.”
“R-Really?!” Hans’s face burst into a smile.
“U-Um, are you possibly a ninja?” Ana exclaimed.
“Yeah, that’s what we’re called in your country, but in ours we’re called shinobi.”
“Oh my, that’s amazing! Are you possibly able to summon large frogs if you hold scrolls in your mouth?”
Ana, very excited seeing a real-life ninja that she’d only read about, immediately began pestering Hans with questions. However, I was more surprised by the huge boon we’d just gotten. This was so major, I’d have to redo our strategy from the ground up. It’d make more work for me, but I was quite happy. With this, we’d have an easy victory.
I’d taken Hans in and healed his leg as a way of thanking him for everything he’d done for me while I’d been living in the slums. I hadn’t thought of having him do anything for me at all, but now, he was proving to be a huge asset. It really was true that good deeds were rewarded. As long as you were kind to others, your life would become better without you even realizing it.
“Can you use superfocused breathing?”
From this country’s perspective, this was also something that ninjas could do. Ana was being herself, beaming brightly while asking question after question. However, her knowledge of ninjas mostly came from novels. Most likely, without even realizing it, she’d gotten some fantasy mixed in with reality.
Hans went right to work and began gathering up members from his clan. There were a few of them that I’d already been acquainted with, like the owner of the Moonflower restaurant where I’d eaten gobies with Ana. This country had its own version of soy sauce except that it was made from fish, but the Moonflower made an actual soybean-based sauce. I was so surprised by how nostalgic the taste made me feel that I periodically went back there to eat.
Though I’d been prepared for Hans not to have been able to round up too many people, he’d gotten more than enough. With this, I had no doubt that the plan would go off without a hitch.