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

Furthermore, if Winster wanted to, he could leave the earldom unscathed, even with Earl Vincent, a nobleman whose combat ability was practically zero.

But he couldn't, because the enemy had accurately identified their weakness!

At the start of the standoff, the Unicorns had the upper hand, but after the rebels produced photos of Royal Military Academy students surrounded, they had to assess the cost of a forced breakout.

No matter how fast a unicorn is, it doesn't have the ability to teleport from the Earl's mansion to a forest more than ten miles away. The rebels have already surrounded the students of the Royal Military Academy, including a large number of Londinium nobles, the offspring of merchants, and possibly even His Highness Wayne!

Winster dared not gamble that they would arrive in time before the enemy's blade fell on the necks of the nobles and even Prince Wayne. Left with no other choice, he ordered the unicorns to retreat back into the Earl's mansion, hold their ground, and await reinforcements.

As for the enemy's demand that they hand over Count Vincent?

Winster could not agree to this. Their Unicorn had already arrived, and if they were to humiliatingly allow the enemy to achieve their goal under these circumstances, it would be tantamount to throwing the Unicorn's reputation to the ground and trampling it!

Even Winston has his pride!

Moreover, if Winster doesn't hand over the people, the enemy won't dare to actually attack those nobles. Because even attacking the lowest of those nobles would be tantamount to actively breaking the fragile balance maintained with the unicorns. At that point, Winster wouldn't care about nobility anymore; if you kill one, don't blame me for killing you all!

The Duke of Normandy, as the nominal commander of the enemy forces, was clearly aware of this as well. At this moment, he sat in front of the makeshift command tent erected by the rebels, holding his pipe and gazing at the starry sky, lost in thought.

He took a deep drag on his pipe, let out a long sigh, and his expression revealed his exhaustion.

He had planned everything perfectly, but he never expected it to come to this. The North had actually rebelled?

What on earth is that idiot son of mine thinking? His father went to such lengths, assassinating people and blowing up roads, what was he trying to achieve?

Isn't the goal simply to destroy all evidence of rebellion in order to maintain the status quo?

Now, things have taken a turn for the worse. The Earl of Princeton, his son Normandy Jr., without consulting his father at all, suddenly published a document of rebellion without any warning, and even led troops to besiege the Royal Military Academy's headquarters, forcing him into the position of leader of the Northern rebels.

When have I, Duke of Normandy, a loyal subject of Victoria, ever thought of rebelling?! Wouldn't it be better for me to eliminate the evidence against the Noble Republicans and quietly be my local tyrant in the North?

Princeton, you damn well!

Frustrated and exhausted by his disappointing son, the Duke of Normandy stomped his foot and put down his pipe.

At this point, the truth is impossible to clear. He blew up the mountain road, his son sent troops to surround the people, and his son announced him as the leader of the Northern Army in the televised address. He even shelled the people at the Clock Tower Unicorn!

These blind Sarkaz mercenaries deserve to die too!

Seeing the person who came out with horns on their head, didn't they even stop? Without saying a word, they blasted them away, leaving the Duke of Normandy, who received the news, completely bewildered and almost fainting.

Thank goodness, Heidi and that damned notebook have finally vanished from the face of the earth, otherwise the Duke of Normandy might have really been so angry that he would have vomited blood today!

The Duke of Normandy sighed again; this must have been the most he had ever sighed in his life.

For some reason, although the series of events, from their inception to their loss of control, seemed like perfectly logical coincidences, the Duke of Normandy always sensed an unusual undercurrent of conspiracy. It was as if a hidden, deeply powerful hand was manipulating them, these puppets, to put on this grand, unpredictable drama.

"I'm getting old, getting old. I can't see things clearly anymore. I'll just have to take it one step at a time."

The Duke of Normandy shook his pipe and sighed sadly. He turned to the negotiating expert who had been waiting for a long time and asked:

"What did Unicorn say?"

"Your Grace, they refused."

“As expected.” The Duke of Normandy nodded without surprise and ordered, “Keep surrounding them, keep shouting.”

“But I don’t think they will agree…” the adjutant said, but was interrupted before he could finish.

"Even if you disagree, you have to surround them and shout! Otherwise, do you expect us to let them out? Then none of us here will survive!"

The Duke of Normandy clicked his tongue, as if recalling something terrifying, and pursed his lips:

"You haven't seen... what those people do."

The adjutant nodded and led the negotiation expert downstairs.

The Duke of Normandy turned around and walked back to his command tent. He now only hoped that nothing unexpected would happen to the siege and the escort of the hostages. Otherwise, having lost their last bargaining chip to control the unicorn, they would surely die with only the few men here.

"Why has the weather suddenly gotten so hot?"

Before entering the command tent, he suddenly heard a Safra soldier patrolling near the tent, who was very sensitive to temperature, mutter something.

However, before he could think about it, the next second he heard the horn of an troop carrier.

"The escort team is back?" The Duke of Normandy turned around and saw the troop transport vehicle heading towards the Count of Vincent's mansion not far away. The front of the vehicle was still covered with mud from the mountain road, so it looked like it had just returned from the suburbs.

"Dudu!"

The troop carrier sounded its horn twice more, and a patrol team not far away was already standing at the entrance of the temporary encirclement camp. They had opened the gate in advance and were relaxed, ready to receive the prisoners.

But why did he feel something was off?

Three hundred meters, two hundred meters, one hundred meters... ten meters!

No deceleration?

The Duke of Normandy frowned in confusion.

No slowdown!

The Duke of Normandy's eyes widened suddenly. He realized where the unease came from: where were the troops supposed to be escorting this troop carrier?

There was no one escorting the troop carrier, and it didn't slow down, heading straight for the camp!

"Dudu!"

The horn blared again, but the troop carrier, charging straight at them, showed no sign of slowing down. At that moment, the patrol team preparing to provide support finally noticed the situation inside the troop carrier's cab.

—There are no drivers anywhere, only a slow-moving mudstone statue with the word "surprise!" painted on its face in red!

"Dudu!"

The death knell sounded again. A kilometer away, Wayne suppressed a smile and nodded to Mudrock. Mudrock, with a subtle expression, raised his hand, manipulated the stone golem, and slapped it against its chest, activating the large megaphone embedded in its chest.

A loud, booming voice blared from the loudspeaker, mingling with the honking of car horns.

"Beep beep! The dump truck is here!"

The next second, Wayne pressed the remote control in his hand.

The captured ammunition from the defeated and captured besieging army was simply disassembled and modified by the steam-armored soldiers; the original spellcasting units were turned into low-powered Originium bombs. With a beeping sound, the bombs exploded in the rear compartment of the troop carrier!

A plume of black smoke suddenly rose in front of the rebel camp.

Wayne observed the results for a while with satisfaction, nodded, and turned to look at Surtr:

"The task of drawing attention is complete, Surtr. Are you ready?"

Surtr brandished her greatsword, grinned, and puffed out her ample chest. Her proud figure, coupled with her charming and confident smile, exuded a unique and captivating heroic spirit. She answered loudly, "Call my name with confidence, Your Highness Wayne!"

The Duke of Normandy arrived at the scene immediately. While directing the uninjured patrol troops to rescue the wounded from the contaminated area after the bomb explosion, he looked around the explosion site with puzzlement.

They weren't very powerful; these improvised bombs modified from spellcasting units were practically useless. Aside from causing some chaos in the camp, they posed no other threat.

But this brought bad news: those aristocratic students may have already escaped the encirclement!

But now that they've escaped, instead of taking advantage of the chaos to leave the North, they've returned here. They even sent a mountain troop transport vehicle to play with a self-destruction as a reminder to themselves. What are they after?

The Duke of Normandy was completely baffled and even felt a slight sweat breaking out on his brow.

Why is it so hot in the evening?

He wondered aloud, when suddenly two powerful voices echoed from the distant clouds:

"Leivatin!"

Chapter 59 Figure Master Mudrock

Victoria, County of Toronto, on the outskirts of the Earldom of Vincent, at dusk.

Before everyone's eyes, Princess Surtr, carrying Vayne, leaped from the fire giant's body and landed steadily on the ground. She glanced worriedly at Vayne, who was inexplicably covering his face, then looked at his feet, scratched her head apologetically, and blew two breaths towards Vayne:

"Whew, is it still hot?"

Wayne spread his fingers apart, revealing a small gap, and looked at Surtr, who seemed very worried. He then glanced at the puzzled crowd, let out a long sigh, and said, "...It's alright, it's alright, you can put me down."

Surtr hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, then asked to confirm, "Are you really alright?"

Wayne completely released his hands from his face, and, suppressing his shame, replied, "It's really okay, put me down."

Surtr reluctantly straightened Wayne and put him down. When his feet touched the ground, Wayne felt a burning pain, but thankfully, the pain didn't last long. Heidi, who was standing nearby, seemed to notice Wayne's abnormality. After hesitating for a moment, she took out a parasol-shaped staff from her handbag and cast a healing spell on Wayne.

The burning sensation lessened considerably, and Wayne finally stopped grimacing. Filled with lingering fear, he quietly took a step away from the collapsing lava giant.

What do you think he's after?

Because he heard Surtr say something incredibly human-like like "Say my name!", he impulsively shouted it out too. He thought that such a childish act was embarrassing enough for a prince like himself, but he didn't expect that when 42 Sister rode on the extra-large mudstone giant, ready to perform another divine intervention, he suddenly had the idea to ask Surtr to take him on board as well.

At first, it wasn't a big deal. Mudrock herself would sometimes sit on the palms or shoulders of her colossus when traveling through the wilderness to conserve energy—her heavy armor was really unsuitable for long-distance marches. Wayne, standing atop the Mudrock MAX colossus, actually felt surprisingly good. The towering height made enemies in his line of sight appear no bigger than ants. The cold wind blowing in his face and the desolate chill gave him a sense of grandeur, like someone standing on a mountaintop, surveying all below. Combined with Surtr's dashing smile and graceful figure beside him, it even gave him a feeling of being in control of the world and enjoying the company of a beautiful woman...

If Surtr hadn't lit the fire...

Leivadin's flames couldn't harm her master, but the flames that burned the World Tree didn't discriminate against anyone except her master. Wayne even felt that the fire might possess a spirit, knowing that Surtur was not only holding it but also Wayne's hand, and thus, it was jealous, relentlessly burning Wayne!

Furthermore, as planned, the mudstone colossus was to be ignited into a lava colossus, and a large Levadin made of fire elements would swirl around alongside Surtr, leaving Wayne with nowhere to hide and nowhere to land. He was almost burned to a crisp in no time. Fortunately, Surtr reacted quickly and picked him up as soon as he noticed the flames starting to burn Wayne.

She wielded her sword with her left hand and held someone in her right, exuding an aura of power. Only Wayne paid the price for his impulsive and reckless chuunibyou, forced to nestle in Surtr's arms like a "little bird" for a long time, and after landing, he faced his most unexpected social death in the North.

That is to say, the artistic conception is still there, only the people in the artistic conception have changed; the Lion King has become the Flame Giant King.

So what was I after back then?

Wayne pursed his lips, on the verge of tears.

Why can't I control my mouth?!

Wayne wanted to slap himself, but then he remembered that his hand had just been around Sister 42's neck, so he switched to his other hand. He was about to teach himself a lesson for his mouth, but then he remembered that there were so many people watching, so he had no choice but to give up.

In other words, Wayne really doesn't want to slap himself in the face and suffer another social death, and it has nothing to do with his face touching Surtr earlier. Everyone should believe in a gentleman like Wayne.

Wayne nodded, completely ignoring Kal'tsit's increasingly dark gaze—she felt that someone as intelligent as Wayne couldn't possibly have just spouted a "head held high, feet splashing flames" routine out of sheer chuunibyou; he must have some ulterior motive, his wolfish ambitions blatantly obvious. Meanwhile, behind Kal'tsit, Heidi's gaze towards the lynx-headed creature grew increasingly tender, even a little restless—Kal'tsit disliked dogs, preferring cats, and Heidi remarked on the coincidence that she was a cat.

As if sensing something was amiss, Wayne took a few steps back from the lava colossus that had crumbled into dust and returned to the earth before looking at the diverse group of people gathered before him. He coughed awkwardly and said:

“I didn’t hold back this time. Let’s go back to the Earl’s mansion.”

Seeing that Wayne had returned to normal, Mudrock pouted regretfully.

To be honest, although she was a little embarrassed to say it, she did think that the moment Wayne stood on the fire giant and roared "Levadin" was really cool.

Although he was later badly burned by Surtr's fire, he looked really cool when he shouted out the name of his move like a great hero.

"If there's a chance next time, would you like to stand on it together?"

Mudstone muttered to himself, without even triggering the amplification effect of the voice changer.