Way of the Knights

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"Ugh...I\'m so tired..." Theo complained to his friends while lazily resting his head on the table. 

"Theo, that\'s bad table manners. Sit up properly." Charles reprimanded as he saw how Theo was acting. 

"Oh, come on. Give me a break will you?" Theo groaned without fixing his act. "I need to pretend to be a dignified person all day long. Now\'s the only time I can unwind and you\'re being a buzz kill." 

Charles could only sigh to that. Had this been some other day, he would have something to retort but now, even he himself couldn\'t help but agree with him. 

"Keeping up appearances are hard, why did you even think of doing that?" Logan snorted on the side, nevertheless this doesn\'t mean that he\'s any less stressed than the others. 

"It\'s not like I wanted to." Theo continued to complain. "But you see, my appearance screams \'Dignity\' and \'Nobility\', acting the opposite just feels wrong."

"Wow, I didn\'t know that you can be narcissistic as well." Henry commented on the side, looking just as tired as the other. 

"Am not! Many people told me that before. Right, Raven?" Theo looked at Raven who was looking the most relaxed out of all them. 

"Well, I can see why they would say that..." Raven stated casually, making Theo feel like he agreed in a roundabout manner. "Look, even if you do look \'Dignified\' and \'Noble\' you don\'t really need to act like one. It\'s not like you have to prove something to the disciples since you\'re obviously their superior."

"That being said, you started this yourself so, we can\'t really do anything about it." Raven stated, sipping on his tea afterwards. 

"Exactly." Logan commented on the side. "You\'re way too conscious about how others look at you when there\'s absolutely no need to. Simply put, you did this to yourself. Suffer bitch." 

"Hmph! A nose-picking brute like you wouldn\'t understand." Theo snorted in disdain, causing Logan\'s eyebrow to twitch at the nickname. It also didn\'t help that Henry almost burst out laughing. 

"Pfft. He called him a nose-picking brute. How fitting." 

"You two!"

"You three!" Charles glared at the rest minus Raven, "Stop acting like kids! You\'re way older than that! Seriously, how embarrassing."

The group settled down after being told by Charles. They sank back on their seats and enjoyed the silence and peaceful environment of Raven\'s abode. 

It would seem like this place had become their sanctuary. A place where they could drop pretenses and relax. Raven never turned them down, thanks to Raven\'s management of his time, he could always find a way to make sometime for a little bit of rest and bonding with the people he worked with. 

It\'s been two months since the sect undergo some serious changes. Everyone was busy and working hard. It was difficult for some people, specially the really involved ones, to find some time to rest and unwind. 

This is one of the very few times that they could do so, and every time they could, they\'d always come here to hang-out with Raven. There\'s just something about this place that keeps them at ease whenever they\'re here. 

Its either the ambiance, the air, the noises of the birds chirping, the soft glow of sunlight or maybe Raven\'s presence itself, it might even be all of the above. What they know is that, if they want to unwind, then Raven\'s place is the best way to do it. 

"Alright, let\'s talk business for a bit." Raven said, placing his tea cup down. 

"Eh...can we do that later?" Theo groaned. "Let me have some more peace first." 

"You\'ll have some later. But for now, business. Come, tell me how many moles your group has." Raven said, urging Theo to participate. 

Theo begrudgingly sat up and stretched his neck. He then said: "Well, it\'s rather annoying but out of 50 people I\'m nurturing, there\'s five moles. Here\'s their profiles." He passed down a stack of papers to Raven which listed everything he needed to know about the moles. 

Raven inspected the profiles and remarked: "All of them are new recruits and also shown incredible talents too." 

"Yeah, that\'s why I\'m annoyed." Theo snorted. "They\'re actually the top five performers so far and thus, received the largest amount of resources from us. I didn\'t want to give them that much but due to the orders, I have to." 

"I see..." Raven murmured. He then looked at the others and asked: "What about you guys?"

"Pretty much the same for me. Out of 75, I have 7 but they\'re not the top performers in my group." Henry replied, "They\'re talented yeah, but Unit-17\'s crushing them so they could only settle at the mid-ranks. Still, they\'re receiving ample resources though and due to their talents, it\'s possible for them to take over soon."

"I have a total of 50 as well with four being moles." Logan reported, "However, the moles on mine are preforming so bad despite with their reports praising how talented they were. I\'m not sure what they\'re trying to do but if they continue on like this, they\'ll be eliminated from the group pretty quickly."

"As for me, I have ten moles out of 60 people. None of them are performing spectacularly and I can\'t see nor feel any desires for them to do. I actually don\'t even know if they want to be there. Simply put, I can\'t feel their passion. Here\'s their profiles." 

Raven received the profiles that the others passed onto them and studied it briefly. His thoughts ran at incredible speeds and he managed to have some speculations. 

"There is a trend here..." Raven said softly, earning the attention of the other War Gods. "If you look at it closely, the identified moles on each group came from the same recruitment area." 

Raven then laid out the reports in front of them according to which group they came from. In Theo\'s group, his moles came from the Blazing Star Great World. For Henry\'s group of moles, they came from Dark Ice Continent. Logan\'s came from Triple Moon Star and for Charles, his comes from Crimson Everdawn Great World. 

"The hell? How did we miss this?" Logan was bewildered. 

"That\'s not all that you\'ve missed." Raven shook his head. He then pointed at another details and continued: "If you look at their individual profiles, they weren\'t recruited at the same time, some who was in the same group were recruited years apart. The point is, even if they were recruited at different times, they still came from the same recruitment area." 

"Even with this trend, there\'s still a possibility for this to be just one massive coincidence. But if we look here..." Raven pointed to yet another section of the complied reports, this time pertaining about the notable activities. "Those at the same group were really close friends. Heck, some of them even said that they\'ve known each other for quite sometime. Yeah, this could be a coincidence too but I don\'t really think so."

Raven pointed at the area which entails the background check and said: "We interview each recruits and recorded their responses without their knowledge. We also perform background checks for them." 

"If you read this closely. You\'ll find out that the results of the background check weren\'t in sync with their official statements." Raven revealed. "They said that they\'ve known each other long before they entered but these papers stated the otherwise."

Raven paused for a brief moment in order to let the rest follow what he was trying to tell them. The War Gods won\'t be War Gods if they\'re idiots. Of course they understood what Raven was trying to tell them. 

"These people lied on their statements. And if we are to trust out intelligence gathering personnel then it\'s safe to say that the recruitment areas they come from could very well be infested by the Exiles too." 

The expressions of the War Gods weren\'t looking too good. They felt a bit embarrassed since they missed such obvious clues but they\'re also apprehensive. If it weren\'t for Raven\'s aid and deduction, the entire sect could very well be infested from the inside without them knowing about it. 

"Ugh...how irritating!" Theo groaned for the nth time, leaning back to his chair while scratching his head ungracefully. 

"I don\'t know if I should feel embarrassed about missing something so obvious or be terrified of how keen your observation is." Charles commented. 

"Yeah, same." Henry nodded in agreement, "It\'s like he\'s an entire Intelligence Division all on his own. Honestly what you can\'t do?" 

"Oh stop it..." Raven chuckled in a light-hearted manner. 

"Well, what do we do?" Logan asked, "This is another huge lead, you know! If your speculations are correct, then we now have a total of 7 potential bases we could raid. Even if we don\'t know how many branches they have or if any of these places include a main base, raiding all of them should at least make them feel the pinch." 

"True, but with how you guys operate, that would mean 7 less worlds in the Divine Realm." Raven rolled his eyes, "Don\'t worry, I already have some plans for them. I just need some time."

"For now, that concludes out business." Raven smiled and kept the profiles in his spatial ring. "Gentlemen...it\'s time to relax."

And as if on cue, the War Gods collective sank down on their chairs.