By afternoon I finished all the tasks and went back to my tent.
Even though I appeared to be free, I was actually a prisoner of some kind at that time. It was just the King's pettiness. I complained about them hiding the truth, so he made me the liar and forced me to say the lies he wanted to say. I complained about being imprisoned, now he gave me relative freedom but restricted me.
This was all a game for him.
I was just an amusement.
I sat on the cot in a lotus position. Meditating. Bubble immediately went out and stood guard not daring to disturb me. That guy was a fourth circle mage at best. In his eyes I might as well be an unfathomable entity.
So, he never dared to disrespect me even after seeing all of my plights.
After getting some relative peace, I started thinking. Reflected on my situation. Even though I was at the frontlines, I wasn't getting much information regarding the war. All I knew is that the army was not having as much success as they were portraying.
From the whispers and murmurs of the other soldiers I picked up some news here and there.
Most of Anta Duchy's shore settlements, whether they are villages, towns or cities were taken down by the Sea Demons.
They didn't attack further and they didn't try to expand their influence. They just occupied these settlements and started building their defenses while holding the humans hostage.
The only place that actually withstood the attack was the Anta City.
Even then, half the city was destroyed. In fact, the tent I was in was exactly in that place. The attack from the Demons was a huge surprise. Only after the residual forces activated the city defenses did they push back the Sea Demons and restrained their advance.
Then when General Garud, Duke Ugra and Duke Varah arrived here, they cleaned up the Sea Demons in the city.
Now the whole city's worth of citizens were holing up just half of the city at the back, while the destroyed part was covered with the tents of the military.
When I was sent there, I thought General Garud would be there leading the situation. However, I learned later that the General Garud went back to the Western Border and sent his deputy to handle the situation while he stabilizes the west and tries to come back.
Duke Ugra and Duke Varah went back to their territories, I didn't know why they did that either.
However, there was one thing that I came to know.
Some of the forces from the western border were stationed at the Mountain region near the Kurma Duchy and that raised some alarm bells in my head.
Particularly when I made the comparison between the Demonic energy that I could feel at the frontline with the energy that I felt back in the valley when I tracked Ash.
That circular portal gave the same kind of energy.
This made many questions open up in my head, but I didn't dare act on that curiosity. However, when Deputy General Arun spoke about my job.
I felt guilty.
I did feel like I was betraying my profession. I wasn't brought up that way. My family was poor and they didn't have any background. My father was a hunter who died when I was young, my mother died because of ill health and the grandfather who brought me up for most of my childhood died of old age.
I couldn't possibly think of anything great about my background, except that I was raised right.
So, as I meditated and thought about my own behavior over those previous few days, I felt like spitting at my own face.
It was disgraceful and disgusting. So, I made a decision.
"Bubble."
I called out. The fat guy ran in and bowed.
"Yes, Sir."
"Do you want to learn how to take pictures?"
I asked with a smile. Bubble's eyes brightened up and he nodded his head like a chicken pecking grains.
"Alright."
I stood up with a smile and took out my spare camera.
"Let's go train."
For the rest of the day, I showed Bubble how to handle the camera. How to take pictures and how to operate its zoom functions.
"That's how you take pictures. As for developing the image… the technique is unique to me and I didn't create a proper generalized spell for that. But I am working on a tool and it will be ready soon. Once it is, you can just use that to develop your own images.
How about that?"
"Thank you. Thank you so much, Sir Tej." Bubble repeatedly bowed down as he looked at the camera in his hands with bright sparkles in his eyes.
"However, all of this is not free." And there it went. The sparkles dimmed.
"Sir…"
"Don't worry, I am not going to ask for some exorbitant fee. All you need to do is help with my work. You know, I am pretty sick and tired of doing these fake articles and taking photos for them. If you don't mind, can you handle some of the blue missions yourselves?
Since they are giving us what to write, I can do it myself, but the pictures I don't think I need to be there for them.
You will also gain some experience in taking those pictures."
As soon as my mouth was shut, the sparkles returned. I chuckled at this. I knew that Bubble would have jumped up at the chance to show off his newly learned skill. However, I just sweetened and amplified that chance by dressing it up as a favor for me.
Bubble nodded hurriedly and ran out to practice his new photography skills.
I was never really too possessive of the camera. In fact, I had thoughts of mass producing it and selling it. However, during that time, I was still using prototypes that I created which were not exactly suitable for mass production.
However, I didn't hesitate to give one of those prototypes to bubble.
Because of that, I had some extra time. The blue missions can be handled by him and that time can be used for my investigation purposes.
First and foremost, I used a small animal summoning spell. Several rodents like rats and small birds like crows and pigeons soon gathered around my tent. To make sure that no one paid extra attention because of this sudden movement, I limited my spell.
After making a connection with them, I let them spread throughout the camp and at the frontlines. Mostly the shore and the beach.
Arun's words just reminded me of something. Just because the king deemed that I shouldn't report the truth, doesn't mean that I had to stop learning the truth. If not that day, maybe the day after that, if not the day after, maybe a week after that…
I believed that there would come a day when the truth could be revealed. I believed I would have that opportunity to speak of that truth and when that opportunity comes, I needed to be prepared. So, I focused on gathering the truth.
First and foremost I focused on the immediate surroundings. The shoreline where the sea demons were battling the humans.
At the same time, I sent a bird to the mountain region again.
Since the Western forces were sent to that place, there was a great chance that demons came from that place too.
Once those tasks were done, I had to do something else.
I need to find more information on Ash. The man who was behind all of this in my opinion.
However, I don't have anything that belonged to that man to cast another essence-tracking spell. For that, I might have to do something else. The best I could do at that point was send some small spirits in different directions, hoping that I would get a hit on his presence.
By evening, I was done with sending all these small spirits and animals. I went out to take a walk around the camp along with Bubble. I secretly took some pictures of the injured soldiers and their state at that time, before I walked to the spot where the citizens were.
I wanted to document their situation while the war was here. I wanted to collect the interviews. I will record everything and when the time came I was going to release all of it for the world to see.
And as a part of it, I went to meet a soldier's family. They lost the home in the surprise attack and the soldier was also dead. Now they were living in the makeshift barracks created by the residual forces.
"Hello, nice to meet you. I am Tej." I went and greeted her directly.
The woman was young. A few years older than me at most. She was pale and thin. She had an oval face and long dark hair. Her clothes were a bit ragged. I could barely feel any mana from here. She was definitely not talented in magic or in the way of a knight.
Her eyes which matched her hair color looked droopy. Her dark circles made it look like her eyes were placed on two dark patches of black. It's clear that she barely slept.
When I greeted her she was trying to console her three to four-year-old son who was refusing to eat.
As soon as she saw me, she stood up straight and greeted me with a bow.