Miss Wang Weina, even your cousin won't do!

"My name is Nikola Kenny!"

Your name doesn't matter. What matters is that I need a substitute to take the blame for what I did.

Ahmoni thought to herself, and continued, "Promote Sergeant Nikolai to the position of Provisional Marshal of the Deeppool Army. From now on, he will take command of the Deeppool Army and lead the troops in a counterattack against Lentinium!"

Ahmoni leaned close to the officer, took his arm with one hand, stood on tiptoe, and whispered in Nikolai's ear in a soft, seductive voice:

"I will assist you."

The allure of power bestowed from heaven and the high-ranking military advisor was irresistible to the young officer. His body stiffened, his breathing quickened, and he declared loudly:

"Yes, Lady Ahmoni!"

"Don't call me 'Sir,' call me Ahmoni. From now on, you are 'Sir Nikolai,' and I will obey your orders!"

Ahmoni corrected him with a sinister smile. The officer subconsciously turned his head away, completely unaware of the hidden meaning in Ahmoni's words.

..........

Victoria, Londinium, Iron Palace.

Kal'tsit pushed open the door to Vayne's office. Vayne was currently drinking a medicinal soup to nourish his body. His actions a few days prior had placed immense stress on his body. The doctors from Rhine Lab and the court physicians, responsible for his examination and treatment, described Vayne's condition at the time as "no less than someone who had walked around the front lines of the Uka War without armor." His entire body was covered in wounds that looked like they had burst open. Fortunately, Vayne couldn't use Originium Arts while unconscious; otherwise, the doctors might have been able to see a faint golden light shining through those cracks.

After several days in a coma, his body was maintained entirely by intravenous nutrition. Now he has finally woken up. The rehabilitation plan prescribed by the medical expert team, in addition to medication, mainly involves eating small, frequent meals and using medicinal cuisine to regulate the body. So Wayne is eating all day long now.

Seeing Kal'tsit enter with documents and reports, Wayne instinctively put down his bowl, sat up straight, and wanted to listen to the report. But Kal'tsit walked straight to his side, picked up the bowl on the table, bent down, scooped a spoonful of soup, and brought it to Wayne's lips:

"what--"

"Uh... Kal'tsit, um..."

“Your health is more important than anything else. I've memorized the report. Just drink your medicine obediently, and I'll read it to you,” Kal'tsit said. Then, she opened her mouth again and repeated, “Ah—”

Wayne blushed, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and opened his mouth, still red, uttering, "Ah—"

"Your Highness Wayne, have you finished your soup?" Theresa burst through the door at just the right moment, her bright smile freezing on her face. She looked at Kal'tsit, who was bending down in front of Wayne, and Wayne, who had his eyes closed and mouth open, and tilted her head. "Kal'tsit, what are you doing?"

Kal'tsit's slightly drooping ears suddenly perked up, her pupils visibly contracted, and she quickly straightened up, raising the spoon and bowl above her head:

"Nothing was done."

She pointed to Wayne:

"His Highness Wayne refuses to drink the medicine, and I'm trying to persuade him!"

Wayne, who opened his eyes, was speechless.

After a long pause, and with considerable effort, Wayne finally managed to explain the whole story. He glared at Kal'tsit, expressing his utter contempt for her blatant attempt to shift the blame! Kal'tsit, ashamed, lowered her head and bowed to Theresa, saying:

"Your Highness Theresa, I'm sorry."

Theresa squinted, responding to Kal'tsit's apology with a subtle upward curve to her eyes. From that expression, Wayne saw five parts understanding, three parts anger, and two parts helplessness. But Wayne quickly realized that Theresa's face wasn't a palette of emotions; she was deliberately using Originium Arts to transmit her current feelings to both him and Kal'tsit. Wayne quickly turned his head away.

“If Wayne sneaks away from his medicine again, report it to me, as his wife! I will be responsible for making sure he drinks it.”

Theresa deliberately emphasized two words, and Kal'tsit nodded her head like a chicken pecking at rice.

Wayne stepped in to smooth things over: "Alright, alright, let's skip this topic. Kal'tsit, what were you trying to report?"

Kal'tsit gave Wayne a grateful look and immediately seized the opportunity to reply:

"Your Highness Wayne, Platinum has agreed."

"Agreed? As expected." Wayne nodded slightly, then continued, "Anything else?"

"Platinum has agreed, but he brought someone with him. We need to get your opinion."

Wayne raised an eyebrow: "Who's there? Is there danger?"

“She poses no threat to us. She’s Platinum’s apprentice, named Hinterlea, a woman from Kuranta. She’s of Pegasus blood, skilled with a bow, has decent work ability, and good talent. But she’s far from meeting the requirements to join the Tower of Babel. Platinum wants to bring her along. What do you think?”

“Agreed,” Wayne answered without hesitation. The next second, seemingly realizing that such a swift agreement was somewhat illogical, he blinked, his mind racing as he explained:

"The Tower of Babel needs to cultivate some of its own members, right? I mean, the kind that starts with newcomers and eventually trains them to become capable, independent core members of the organization. I think that's a great idea, so I agreed. Hmm... why are you all looking at me like that?"

Theresa rolled her eyes and nodded, "Oh yes, yes, His Highness Bruce is right."

Kal'tsit seemed to want to roll her eyes at Wayne's actions, but remembering that Wayne had helped her out of her predicament earlier, she suppressed the urge and, feigning official business, lowered her head to take notes: "So, if the [Speaker] and [Paradox] both agree, I agree too. Unanimous approval. The second matter..."

Kal'tsit said:

“We received a communication from Deep Pool. To be precise, we intercepted a communication from Deep Pool.”

Wayne frowned; he was now exceptionally sensitive to intelligence and immediately asked:

"How can we verify that it was sent by Deeppool? Who in Deeppool sent it? How authentic is the content? Is it of any use?"

Kal'tsit pondered for a moment, then shook her head:

"The reason we believe it was sent by Shen Chi is because the sender is named [Ahmoni], but the content... how should I put it, is a bit strange."

"She didn't send it to the Lentinium government, or even to any official political organization. She sent it in her personal capacity to the Royal Guard Academy of Victoria. It was a... plea for help."

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Attack While the enemy is crossing the river

Ahmoni's plea for help, read by Kal'tsit.

"To the first Victorian institution, my beloved alma mater, the Royal Victorian Guard College. I am Ahmoni Dublin Letanis, a graduate of 1092."

Does his last name be Dublin?

Wayne asked curiously. Kal'tsit gave him a strange look and couldn't help but retort:

“Your Highness Wayne, if Her Majesty Vina hears you say that, I guarantee the etiquette teacher will be at your bedroom door tomorrow.”

Kal'tsit's face was practically screaming, "How dare you mock Her Majesty Vina for never having taken etiquette classes, the one who drove the etiquette teacher crazy?" She was practically saying, "You two siblings are the perfect cure for low blood pressure in Victorian court tutors."

Theresa patiently explained, "In official emails, we can include the name of our fiefdom, birthplace, or family estate between our surname and given name. For example, Mr. Bruce, since you and Vina are members of the Victorian royal family and owners of Lentinium, you can add 'Lentinium' or 'Victoria' between your names, becoming Wayne Victoria Bruce or Vina Lentinium Bruce. And Mr. Bruce, because Vina specially bestowed upon you the title of Prince of Wales, your name can also be extended to Wayne Wales Lentinium Victoria Bruce. If you have more titles, you can add even more."

After explaining, Theresa turned and said:

"Akhmoni used the surname Dublin, but she shouldn't have been a noblewoman, so Dublin should be her birthplace. Why is she emphasizing this point? What is she trying to say?"

Kal'tsit shrugged and continued reading:

“Since graduating from my alma mater, I have always been concerned about the future and development of Victoria University and have been looking for a suitable position to serve Victoria. Finally, after many twists and turns, I returned to my hometown, Dublin. This great city has produced countless heroes, and I firmly believe that here I can play the role that a graduate of Victoria University should play.”

"Goodness, returning to your hometown to find employment." As Wayne listened to the familiar writing style and tone, he was momentarily transported back to the days of writing applications and self-reports in his past life, although the two were hardly comparable.

"But how did this job turn into a job as a rebel commander?"

Theresa shrugged and said, "In my experience, the next step she'll say she was forced, and the next step after that she'll say that although she was forced to join Deeppool, her heart has always been with Victoria. Then she'll get to the point and start asking Mr. Bruce for help. Am I right, Kal'tsit?"

Theresa looked at Kal'tsit, who had already read the letter once and was not surprised. Kal'tsit nodded and explained Theresa's words in detail:

"To be precise, she spent about two paragraphs of a hundred words describing in detail her contributions to Dublin, listing a great many examples of her friendships with the nobility, her assistance in the construction of the city's defenses, and her training of the local garrison."

Wayne frowned and exposed, "Being on good terms with the nobles is colluding with the Dublin nobles; assisting in the city's defenses is scouting for future attacks; and training the local garrison is just a pretext. What they're really training is the Deeppool Force, which is lurking in Dublin. Ahmoni is quite interesting. Is she trying to whitewash her actions in this way? Isn't she afraid I'll find witnesses?"

“I’m afraid you really aren’t afraid… Your Highness, the nobles listed on her list are already dead,” Kal’tsit reminded him.

Wayne blinked, then came to his senses: "The batch I killed?"

"Yes."

"She's planning to die so there's no way to prove it?" Wayne chuckled, not angry at all. "That's interesting. Continue?"

"She then devoted half a page to writing about her experience of being 'ambushed in the deep pool,' 'resisting fiercely,' 'being threatened,' and 'being forced to join.' Well, even from my perspective, this letter has extremely high literary value, and she probably had excellent grades in school."

It took Wayne a while to realize that Kal'tsit was mocking Ahmoni's well-crafted story; the old lynx was just so subtle in her speech, leaving people only half-understanding.

Kal'tsit turned to the next page of the letter and said:

"In this document, she details how Deeppool swiftly conquered numerous mobile cities in northern Victoria. As you predicted, the large-scale fall of the northern counties in the early stages of the war, besides the discovery of breaches in city defenses and internal infiltration, was primarily due to the indulgence and even acquiescence of the powerful nobles who controlled the northern counties. The garrisons in the northern counties totaled nearly 500,000 men, and faced with Deeppool's full-scale offensive, most chose a policy of non-resistance under the orders of the local nobles, firing not a shot and watching the cities fall. Even the sporadic resistance, such as that of Colonel Hamilton of Hillshire, was..."

"It's just a drop in the ocean, isn't it?"

Wayne chimed in. He suddenly realized he hadn't been too lenient when he killed those nobles.

The policy of non-resistance allowed them to sit idly by and watch the city fall and the people suffer. They led their soldiers and fled all the way to Lentinium, where they even cried and cursed Deeppool for being a heartless man. They really... had no shame at all.

Now he finally understood why, at the beginning of the Little Hills incident, Lontinim received almost no reports of suspicious troop movements or the existence of separatist organizations in the North. It was simple: the local powerful nobles had completely suppressed the activity!

Colonel Hamilton couldn't reach Lentinium, and the General Staff was completely unaware of the riots in Little Hills. Wayne initially learned of the situation from Mayor Arthur. Mayor Arthur's report stemmed from Hamilton's father's influence; he hoped Arthur would speak favorably of Hamilton to Wayne, facilitating his promotion and escape from the small town of Little Hills.

It's utterly ridiculous that information about a country nearly causing a major upheaval was only passed down to Wayne through nepotism among the nobles!

“The unicorn should be punished for this. Tell Winster to handle it himself. I will come and check.”

Kal'tsit said with some concern, "But Your Highness, Aslan is theoretically on par with unicorns..."

“Just do as I say,” Wayne emphasized firmly. Kal'tsit nodded.

Wayne continued, "Keep this letter safe. The testimony on it is very valuable. Store it in the classified archives; it can be used in the future trial of the Deep Pool war criminals. And then, what else did Ahmoni say?"

"She delegated all command of operations to a Deeppool officer named Nicholas Kenny, claiming he was the second-in-command of Deeppool and had assumed the role of acting leader. She was innocent and had been trying to escape, only managing to send a distress signal during the internal divisions and chaos within Deeppool. She left us with coordinates at the end, indicating where Deeppool would be passing through the next few days."

"Trying to escape like a cicada shedding its shell?" Wayne said. "It's fine, let her try. I'll make her halfway through, when she can't get it off or put it back on, and then I'll beat her to a pulp!"

"Send the coordinates to Theresis and tell him to give our 'Infernal Affairs' lady a good welcome."

I've become a prophet about the bagpipe mod's story.

A few days ago, YJ released a bagpipe mod in their update, right? As we all know, each mod comes with its own story when it's unlocked. Out of a sense of duty as a Victorian fanfic writer, I specifically played the bagpipe mod to see if there were any gaps in the story's lore.

I don't usually play mods; aside from the great Kemen, I haven't unlocked any mods. Bagpipes is the second one.

You wouldn't believe it until you see it; it's quite a pleasant surprise.

First, according to the rules of the Royal Guard Academy of Victoria, all students must take a major exam before graduation. This exam is not a regular test, but a practical training exercise. Bagpipe's exam involves rescuing a hostage held hostage by local bandits in Cairo County.

The bagpipes were a success. But some of the details they included were quite interesting.

First, the Royal Guard Academy will conduct a graduation practical exam. Just as I planned.

Secondly, while undercover, Bagpipe overheard a conversation. The gist of it was that the group that kidnapped the hostage was organized by a local baron in Victoria, and that the hostage would be sold to Colombia—specifically, to a Colombian laboratory as a test subject. The nobles were indeed involved in human trafficking, and the targets of the trafficking were precisely Colombian laboratories, with the intention of using them as test subjects.

I went there expecting to be betrayed, but I ended up getting betrayed by him, which was really unexpected.

Now there's no need to doubt the bottom line of the Victorian aristocracy anymore. Well done, Wayne!