"——You make a valid point. Therefore, we must stop the Thule Society's actions now," President Charles nodded slightly after hearing Liang En's analysis.
"But as you know, apart from you and another Viscount, we lack sufficient armed forces. Defending ourselves is difficult enough; launching an attack would be nearly impossible."
"We don't actually need to engage them head-on. After all, we have our principles. If we choose to fight fire with fire, we'll be no different from the Thule Society."
Liang En responded seriously, as he believed that if they used violence to counter violence, the Golden Dawn would degrade to the same level as the Thule Society.
More importantly, the Thule Society clearly had more experience in this area. As a newcomer to this type of conflict, it would be foolish for the Golden Dawn to battle the enemy on their own turf.
"Then what method do you think is better?" President Charles appeared somewhat helpless. "Right now, we can only adopt a defensive strategy, which makes it very difficult to stop their actions."
"No, we can still stop them." Liang En quickly understood what President Charles was worried about—mainly the loose structure within the Golden Dawn. He couldn't force others to take on dangerous tasks.
However, for Liang En, the upcoming task wasn't too difficult. After all, for someone with extraordinary powers and a significant amount of security at his disposal, the difficulty was minimal. Naturally, he would seize this opportunity to earn some favor.
"Do you need any assistance? I'm sure everyone would be willing to help," President Charles asked proactively after Liang En volunteered for the task.
"Although we can't mobilize immediately, we can definitely handle all sorts of support tasks, so feel free to ask for whatever you need."
"I want to know about the recent personnel and material movements of the Thule Society," Liang En smiled and said, "I believe after all these years, we should have this information."
"Of course, we certainly have that information," President Charles nodded. "We might not be able to monitor individual operatives constantly, but if they are planning an expedition, the material flow of that scale is sure to be monitored."
Searching ancient relics requires a lot of resources, unless you have someone like Liang En with a cheat-like advantage. Otherwise, searching any ancient ruins requires a large investment of resources.
Some of these materials are ordinary supplies, but others are highly specialized equipment, which can be easily tracked once they start moving.
Although the Golden Dawn might not excel at covert operations, their intelligence gathering is much stronger than that of the Thule Society. Therefore, tracking material movements in real-time is almost guaranteed.
While the Thule Society might use methods like separating people from goods to avoid detection, they will eventually regroup, making it possible to approximate their location.
However, the next steps would take some time, so after discussing their plans, Liang En and President Charles rejoined the ongoing social activities.
These interactions mainly centered around potential collaborations in their respective industries. For someone like Liang En, who mainly focused on manufacturing and production, it was an opportunity to find important partners and expand sales channels.
Of course, not all the discussions during these social activities were about serious matters. In fact, discussions on serious topics accounted for less than a third of the time.
Most of the conversations were on lighter topics, including some gossip among the nobles and the upper class.
While many people believe that the exchanges among the upper class are very refined, in reality, apart from a few topics influenced by background, the subjects of their conversations when bored are quite similar to those of ordinary people.
For example, many non-Westerners might think Westerners are very private, but that is just a result of long-term propaganda. Gossip is a part of human nature and doesn't change with ethnicity.
If there is a difference, it is that ordinary people gossip about ordinary folks, while the subjects in high society gossip are often newsworthy individuals.
In short, during this gathering, Liang En and the others indulged in a lot of gossip, just like scavenging through a melon field. While much of it wasn't suitable for public dissemination, even just knowing it satisfied their curiosity.
During this event, Liang En noticed that Joan of Arc was a true social butterfly. When she chatted with the women, she quickly became the center of attention.
This was partly due to Joan's unique leadership qualities and affability, and partly because her experiences were fascinating even to professional scholars.
This was especially true regarding some archaeological details, as many of the scholars there focused purely on research and did not participate in field archaeology, making them particularly interested in these details.
Moreover, for these full-time researchers, field experiences are indeed worth paying attention to, so acquiring this knowledge through conversation was quite natural.
This exchange was very meaningful for both Liang En and Joan, and after it ended, the two didn't stay in London but headed to Paris, France.
After all, Mr. Duris' condition had worsened during the winter, so it seemed like a good idea for Joan to visit her only blood relative in this world during the holiday season.
Additionally, since Joan was French, many British high-society gatherings subtly excluded them. Although nobles traditionally didn't care about nationality, hosting such gatherings was a different matter.
To be honest, Joan wasn't too fond of British nobility either. So, under these circumstances, she naturally wouldn't bother attending social events where she wasn't particularly welcome.
Fortunately, this didn't cause much of an issue, as the previous dukes were all spendthrifts who had been kicked out of the social circle years ago, so it was understandable that the new duke wouldn't attend such events.
More importantly, they had already begun trying to integrate into the British system, though their approach was to extend their influence outward through the Golden Dawn circle.
In Joan's view, the circle created by the duke's title had long disappeared due to the recklessness of previous dukes, leaving behind a reputation tarnished with disgrace. At this point, re-entering the social circle with the duke's title might not be a good thing.
For most people, even if they were looked down upon, being able to participate in this circle was still worthwhile. But neither Liang En nor Joan was like most people.
After all, they now had the means to be willful in this regard, so they felt that instead of taking on a mess for the sake of a higher starting point, it would be better to start anew.
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