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

"Miss Theresa's knowledge is impressive, and she is a qualified teacher. I'm glad you weren't lying to me. However, I advise you not to have any improper thoughts about her. Miss Theresa has a very bad impression of you. I've talked to her for so long, and every time I mentioned you, she just gave me a polite smile and listened to me without saying a word!"

"And next time, don't let me find out you're flirting with other women again, Prince of Wales!"

Wayne could only give an awkward laugh, pat his chest, and nod.

In the room, only Theresa and Wayne remained for a moment.

"Please sit down, Your Highness Theresa."

Wayne extended his hand in a gesture of invitation and sat down on the sofa opposite Theresa.

Chapter Eight: The Truth About the Demon King is...

"Your Highness Theresa..."

"Call me Theresa."

"Your Highness said with a touch of firmness," said Wayne, who paused slightly, scratched his head, and nodded.

“Theresia… I’m sorry, I didn’t have time to tell you about this,”

Wayne said apologetically,

"Actually, besides the fact that Lateran facilitated the invitation to you to come to Victoria, I also did intend to find a qualified mentor for Vina."

Theresa gave a knowing smile and continued:

"So, Her Majesty the Queen actually had no idea why I came to Victoria, right?"

Theresa felt something was amiss. According to Lateran, Wayne had agreed to meet with her to exchange opinions and facilitate this political marriage. Logically speaking, even if Wayne was a prince with little power, he was still a member of the royal family. For such a significant event as a marriage alliance with a foreign monarch, it was impossible and inappropriate for Queen Victoria, who was also the current head of the Aslan royal family (a title that was no longer truly valid, as there were only two members of the royal family, and Vina had no authority over anyone except Wayne), to be completely unaware of it.

At first, Theresa thought this was some kind of test from Vina, a test of her abilities. But as time went on, and Vina began to listen attentively and ask questions, Theresa realized something was amiss. Her Majesty seemed genuinely unaware that she might soon become her cousin's fiancée. She treated her purely as a teacher, showing respect for her, and even subtly mentioned Wayne's "glorious deeds."

It was as if they were deliberately trying to lower Theresa's opinion of Wayne, giving her a heads-up. This left Theresa unsure whether to answer or not, so she could only offer a kind smile while her mind wandered and she silently complained to herself:

Sister-in-law, aren't you worried that doing this will cause a rift in your marital life?

Now it seems the answer is obvious.

Mr. Bruce probably used some kind of excuse to fool Her Majesty the Queen, which allowed her to arrive in Victoria smoothly, right? And the reason was probably—to find you a qualified teacher, Vina.

Having his little scheme exposed, Wayne nodded somewhat awkwardly. He was about to apologize when Theresa pressed her slender white index finger to his lips, stopping him from speaking.

"It's a good thing that His Highness Bruce was able to invite me for this reason!"

Theresa maintained that warm, sun-like smile that could melt ice and snow, and slowly said,

"If this meeting was merely for a marriage alliance, I'd be forced to return to Kazdel within a few days because I'd lose my reason for staying. But if it's as a teacher..."

Theresa pressed her hand to her chest and said confidently:

"As long as I have something to teach Her Majesty Vina, I can stay here indefinitely, can't I?"

I didn't know there was such a way to do it?

Wayne opened his mouth in surprise, but quickly shook his head:

“That’s what they say, but Miss Theresa…”

"Hmm?" Theresa let out a slightly displeased snort, and Wayne immediately corrected himself.

"But Theresa, you don't look much older than Vina, so there's not much you can teach her..."

"Huh?" Theresa covered her mouth, letting out a small gasp. "Is Her Majesty the Queen an immortal being?"

Wayne paused, then shook his head: "No, what's wrong?"

"I saw Mr. Bruce say that Her Majesty Vina is about my age, and I thought... I'm already...."

Theresa paused mid-sentence, turned her head, and for the first time looked at Wayne with an unfriendly expression, glaring at him and saying:

"Trying to find out my age this way? Prince Bruce almost succeeded!"

Wayne turned his face away to avoid Theresa's gaze.

He assured her that he had absolutely no such thought. However, Theresa's words piqued Wayne's curiosity. Based on his memories of Theresa, she seemed to have accompanied Kal'tsit to see Borocaster off to Ursus, where he would later become Patriot and Big Daddy. According to Borocaster, he had fought for Ursus for at least several hundred years, clashing with the Pope's Wheel-Mounted Cavalry, Victoria's Steam-Armored Army, and Kazimir's Silver Spear Pegasus Legion. At that time, Theresa, who was already an adult and a Sarkaz prince, would have been at least (censored) 30 years old, wouldn't she?

Good heavens, a woman three years older than her husband is like holding a gold brick, a woman three thousand years older than her husband is like ascending to the ranks of immortals.

I used to joke about the lynx being a menopausal, grumpy old woman, and I forgot about Theresa...

However, Wayne turned his head and secretly glanced at Theresa's face.

She had long, pinkish-white hair, an almost unreal face, lively eyes, and a pouting cheek with a faint blush.

Would you choose an eighty-year-old human or an eight-hundred-year-old elf?

Wayne felt there was no choice; he would definitely choose Theresa!

Seeing Wayne turn away and remain silent, Theresa sighed somewhat helplessly and conceded:

“If Your Highness Bruce really cares so much about my age, it’s not impossible for me to tell you.”

“No, no need,” Wayne waved his hand. “I’m just sad for Vina. She’ll probably be haunted for a long time by the intellectual superiority of the beautiful princess who looks about her age. I hope she’s alright.”

Theresa blinked, took a few seconds to process what she was seeing, and then chuckled.

"Don't say that. Her Majesty the Empress is progressing very quickly and understands many things very easily!"

Wayne raised an eyebrow and joked, "So that means it won't be long before she learns all your knowledge?"

Theresa patted her chest proudly, looking half-jokingly and half-seriously into Wayne's eyes, and said:

"Impossible! I already told you, Prince Bruce, don't underestimate the wisdom of the immortals!"

She leaned forward slightly and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"If you're willing, I can teach her for the rest of my life!"

Wayne's smile froze on his face. Before he could react, Theresa stood up, her face flushed, and hurriedly slipped out of the living room.

"That one just now was..."

Wayne scratched his frizzy blond hair, clutched his heart which was pounding like a 180 mph engine, and took a long, deep breath.

It's over.

He felt he had been infected with a variant of the Lexington virus—the Theresa virus.

She believed that Theresa was the ruler of the world and that everyone should be her servant!

Oh no, so that's how it is! Is this the truth behind the Demon King's prophecy? Is this how you enslave all the races of Terra, Demon King Theresia!

"Brother, what are you doing?"

Vina belatedly walked into the living room and pursed her lips when she saw Wayne still sitting blankly on the sofa.

Hmph, she just saw it! Teacher Theresa ran out of the drawing room looking panicked and blushing! Needless to say, it must have been her clueless cousin who completely ignored her warning and provoked Theresa.

Sigh, what can I do? He's her brother, after all. Besides our Aslan, who else could stand your personality? You've scared Teacher Theresa away now, haven't you? I'll have to go explain to Teacher Theresa later that Wayne isn't really that bad.

"Alright, alright, let's get ready to go. You'll regret not listening to your sister. We'll go to the Elizabeth Grand Hotel, the usual place. I'll go out and smooth things over for you. Don't just sit there. Your tricks only work on naive young girls. Teacher Theresa is the future queen of Sarkaz, so don't even think about it. Give up. Making a friend wouldn't be bad either."

Vina comforted her, then turned and walked towards the palace gate.

She didn't notice the somewhat complicated look in Wayne's eyes behind her.

Sis, thank you so much! I thought you'd object to this, but you actually went out of your way to speak well of me to Theresa and help me out. I misunderstood you. Thank you so much for helping me make a good impression on Theresa. Theresa's good attitude towards me is largely thanks to you!

As expected of siblings bound by blood, even though I kept it from you, we're completely on the same page when it comes to this kind of thing. We don't need to talk at all; we're just thinking the same thing!

Chapter Nine: I need to see all his information within three days.

"Dong dong!"

Late at night, in Marshal Ernest's office at the General Staff Headquarters in Victoria.

The heavy metal door, strong enough to withstand the close-range explosion of several high-energy stone bombs, was knocked on. The person in charge was reviewing the operation plan in hand, preparing for the safe conduct of the upcoming extermination of infected creatures in the north and the graduation exam of the Royal Military Academy.

Hearing the knock, he looked up and saw his adjutant, Anhalt Norfolk, who was also his confidant and cousin, push open the door, solemnly raise his hand, and give a standard military salute.

"Report! Marshal, I'm here to submit my graduation thesis for the Royal Guard Academy."

Ernest nodded, pointed to the table beside him, and said:

"Put it over there. By the way, as usual, you'll be in charge of grading it."

Unlike the Royal Military Academy, the Royal Guard Academy of Victoria is one of the few universities in Victoria that widely expands its enrollment. Although from the outside, the students who can study at the Royal Guard Academy are undoubtedly outstanding talents in various fields, to Ernest, who comes from a noble family, these students are still too mixed compared to the Victorian nobles who have received elite education since childhood, been exposed to top knowledge, and been taught by learned teachers.

Therefore, although he was known as "the discerning Norfolk" and would often learn about and even correct the military-related graduation projects of various colleges, he actually only paid attention to the students of the Royal Military Academy who were the sons of nobles or those who were exceptionally outstanding and specially recruited—they were the future pillars of the country.

Although Wien had repeatedly emphasized to him that the people possessed awe-inspiring wisdom and power, and Ernest agreed with this theory, he still stubbornly insisted that while wisdom originated from the people, not all people possessed wisdom. And guiding the wise people and taming the mediocre masses was the responsibility of these noble bloodlines.

This is probably what Wayne knew about in his previous life, but had never fully witnessed: the limitations of social class and history.

The students of the Royal Guard Academy sought only to graduate and return home in glory, but given Ernest's rigorous standards, most of their papers certainly wouldn't meet the "passable" standard. So, after attempting to grade the Royal Guard Academy students' graduation projects for a few years, Ernest, exasperated by a series of common-sense and experiential errors, handed the task over to his adjutant.

It's just a formality, to show that "Victoria's top leadership values ​​education." The adjutant is quite adept at this. If it's passable, he approves it; if it's really unacceptable, he just closes his eyes and ticks it off. Unless it's so bad that he can get angry even with his eyes closed, it usually gets a "B" grade that represents passing.

"Establish a standing elite combat organization to replace the mounted police force and form a military force second only to the army, directly under the jurisdiction of the municipal officials? ...Lungmen Guard Bureau?"

Rolling his eyes, Lieutenant Anhalt gave the somewhat déjà vu-esque paper an A-, inwardly criticizing it.

"Some people actually think the Guard Bureau's system is very practical. If it weren't for that team of Shadow Guards, Wei Yanwu would have been taught a lesson by Ursus' Black Serpent long ago if he were just in the Guard Bureau."

Despite the inside story, it's not something students can access. On the surface, Lungmen's prosperity is indeed inseparable from the protection of the Guard Bureau. This slightly modified organization, though full of idealism (and impracticality), is still worthy of an A-.

He flipped through a few more papers, and after giving a reluctant "b" to a paper that was utter nonsense, nothing but money, money, and more money—a paper that even with his eyes closed could tell was written by some rich heiress—he finally found a paper signed "Bruce."

"The three-three military system... a superior unit has three subordinate units... It's interesting, no, you could say it's very creative."

He looked up at Ernest, who was sitting with his legs crossed, lighting a Colombian cigar, and reporting to him on the mental calculations of troop deployment and assessment difficulty:

"Marshal, I think you can take a look at this paper."

Distracted from his train of thought, Ernest frowned slightly, put his cigar in the ashtray, and reached out to take the report from Anhalt.

At first, he seemed nonchalant, but when he saw the detailed advantages of the "three-three military system" in reorganizing troops, improving organization, mutual cooperation, and expanding the army, he couldn't help but frown.

He was genuinely surprised when he saw that the "three-thirds system" had been extended to political applications.

But when he finally finished reading the third aspect of the "three-three system" in the paper, namely the infantry "squad assault" tactic (Note ①), he actually felt a strong urge to try out this tactic.

Victoria's territory is vast, encompassing the original Gaul region and parts of the subcontinent. These mobile city-states in the region are very different from Victoria's mainland in terms of both ethnicity and culture. In the past, it would take more than a month just to mobilize them for a war, and even longer to coordinate them and form a complete fighting force.