My wife is an immortal black snake.

【Um? Lord Koschche... if I remember correctly, you used my body in a similar situation before...】

"..."

It seems so, right?

Kosichello recalled the time when her husband was on the phone with Little Bat, and she had submerged herself in the hot water and used her mouth to make him ecstatic...

And now it's my turn?!

Kosiché doesn't accept this! The last emperor was one thing, but now even the little bat is doing this?! This child who hasn't been weaned is already a loser, why is he suddenly acting like this?!

Koschke truly intends to keep her husband by her side from now on...

Not to mention--

【Mmm...】

The sound coming from the other end of the phone was getting louder and stranger.

It seems they've gone beyond just kissing; they seem to be doing something strange.

Ahhh.

Kosiché hung up the communicator in his hand without any expression.

She had made up her mind—she would teach her husband a lesson when he got back.

...... ......

"Mmmmm..."

Watching Margarita shyly wipe her lips with the back of her hand and make incomprehensible noises, Yang Hao truly felt that the little bat had grown up.

Liking and loving are two different feelings. She can now distinguish between liking and loving; she's really grown up...

Why did Yang Hao suddenly feel an urge to burst into tears? Waaah... my little bat has finally grown up...

But then again?

Um... Koschke? Why is your line busy? No, did you hear everything that just happened?

...Fine. Looks like I'm doomed once I get home—

Yang Hao accepted his future fate with equanimity. However, he did not show his despair in front of Margarita. He simply put down his phone, then held Margarita in his arms, breathing in the scent of dust from the desert emanating from her gray hair.

"...So Margarita, are you really going to come home with me soon?"

Yang Hao extended another invitation. Although he knew Margarita would definitely return in a few decades, isn't it nice to come back a few decades earlier?

“...But I still want to come back with you when I’m more mature…” She snuggled against Yang Hao’s chest. “And Yang Hao… I… I don’t want to disappoint the teacher… and I don’t want to disappoint you either.”

"But I would be very happy if you went home now."

"Then you'll have to take care of a child who hasn't grown up yet... I'm still immature... I'm still a child who cries easily... I can't help you with your work... I can't do my job well either... So... now that we don't have to worry about the most important issue of lifespan anymore... are you still willing to wait for me?"

"I'll wait for you. But don't keep me waiting too long, okay? Otherwise, my child will be calling you 'Auntie' by then."

"Woo..."

Margarita let out a strange, mournful cry. She rubbed against Yang Hao's clothes, just rubbing against him like that.

After a moment...

"That's okay... as long as you still want me..."

"Sigh. Margarita, your expectations are way too low. Why don't you ask for more?"

"Because this is all I want..."

Hearing this, Yang Hao didn't know what to say.

It seems this silly child really needs to grow up a bit more.

Chapter 100

On October 18, with the support of Margarita and Ms. Northumbery, Yang Hao's plan officially began to proceed steadily.

He first used the intimidation of the army and the subsequent supply to force the commander of the war knights stationed in the Grand Knight Territory to relax the city's security checks, allowing all of his troops to freely enter and leave the Grand Knight Territory. In the end, he finally achieved Theresa's goal of returning home to sweep her father's grave.

He swaggered in front of everyone—his own men, Sarkaz mercenaries, remnants of the army, even the conquering knights and Kazimirians—accompanying Theresa to the grave. He calmly observed Theresa's every move until she finished her rites to pay respects to her father. Afterward, he had Theresa reunite with the remnants of the army and officially begin her plan. Then, he left with his guards, heading to the government council hall of the Grand Knights' Territory to see what boasts the knights and merchants had in store.

This was a kind of rectification operation. He turned all the Kazimirs' speculations about the Nowitzki family into reality, and into a more terrifying reality: those previously foolish and wicked Kazimirs thought Theresa had only returned because she had received some support from Ursus, but now they realized with horror that it was not as simple as "some" support. An Ursus king was standing behind her. Could there be anything more terrifying than that?

Yes, the entire Ursus Empire stood behind her—they dared not even imagine such a thing, but the reality was so frustrating: Yang Hao, in a sense, represented the entire Ursus Empire, and when he said he would support Theresa's every move, no one in Ursus, except for Her Majesty Ekaterina, dared to say "no."

However, since the Kazimirs dared not think in that direction, he had no intention of proving anything.

When Yang Hao arrived at the government conference hall of the Great Knight Territory around noon with his guards, he saw the message left to him by Lady Northon and Margarita, who were secretly operating in the distance. They had arrived early, and with the help of Margarita's prophetic abilities, they had easily passed through all the checkpoints, leaving behind some of their findings in the message.

"Have you gotten any information about the merchants of the Business Entities Federation? Hmm... it's up to them now," Yang Hao muttered to himself, looking at the note in his hand. He then casually tossed the note onto the flame of a Templar Knight guard's lighter, watching it burn to ashes. "I'm already looking forward to seeing the Kazimierz people start tearing each other apart in the war. Sigh, Sonia? If Margarita and the others need anything later, could you do it for me?"

"Yes. But Mr. Yang Hao, please focus on your work here."

"Ah."

He nodded, then led his guards into the conference hall.

Because the Colombians haven't launched any large-scale military operations recently, all the high-ranking members of the Grand Knights were present in the conference hall. Yang Hao, on the left side, was surrounded by members of the Business Entities Federation. They were dressed in suits, ruthless and profit-driven, their strong perfume unable to mask their stench of money. Perhaps their only redeeming quality was their financial resources, allowing them to maintain a presentable appearance even amidst war.

As for the high-ranking members of the Conqueror Knights on the right side—not to say anything, but they were clearly divided into two major factions within themselves.

One group was likely composed of combat-oriented knights. Although their clothing was neat, their armor bore the marks of practical use. They had undoubtedly been to the battlefield, as many bore fresh wounds on their faces, and some even showed signs of inhaling poison gas around their mouths and noses—truly a group of people who had risked their lives to serve their country.

And what about the other group? Their armor was ornate but its practicality was questionable. Some of the older commanders looked quite capable, while the younger ones appeared delicate and frail, clearly recent appointees. Was the officer corps in Kazimir governed by a family succession system like in some feudal states? Yang Hao frowned. If that were the case, it would be best to eliminate these commanding knights as soon as possible.

But not now. He needs some necessary intelligence, and more importantly, he can't be the one to kill these people.

...

He took his seat. Behind him, Lady Sonia and the Templar Knights stood at attention, but it was clear to everyone that the guard was scrutinizing the surrounding knights.

“I think your previous actions are not what an ally should do.” Looking at the Kazimierz people who were scrutinizing him, Yang Hao simply tapped his cane and placed it horizontally on his lap. “An official from the Kazimierz Grand Knight Commandery here has a hard time even going home to sweep his grave, yet you are inspecting your allies more rigorously than you are inspecting Colombians—are you really at war with the Colombians? Or have you already agreed to sell off half of your territory and cities to negotiate peace?”

...

Yang Hao's words left the conference room speechless. The practical warriors remained silent, only glaring angrily at their commanding superiors. The Business Entities Federation was at a loss, their thoughts exposed. And what about the commanding warriors? They had a thousand words they wanted to shout out—but they simply couldn't bring themselves to risk starting another war just to satisfy their verbal urges.

So they could only remain silent. After a while, seeing that they really didn't want to say a word, Yang Hao decided to get straight to the point.

"Alright. Let's leave it at that for now—let's get down to business. How many men have you lost? What are the Colombians doing right now? And most importantly, how many men can you spare? I mean, men who can go to the gas field."

Yang Hao had all this information—but he couldn't be sure that the information he gathered from his snake scales and creed was completely accurate. His [Puppet Stage] was also open, but it only displayed approximate, guessed figures.

He needs some precise figures to deal with the Colombians effectively. Furthermore, having intelligence on the true strength of the Kasimirians will make it easier to install Teresa in power later.

So he was scrutinizing these silent Qazimirs—as if he, not the Qazimirs, were now in power.

Chapter 101

Under Yang Hao's scrutiny, the Kazimir people finally managed to get the latest intelligence and statistics from the two major factions.

The members of the Business Entities Federation remained silent about the number of casualties, focusing instead on their economic losses. They claimed the war had set back the Great Knight Territory's economy by ten years, but they never explained why, and they remained completely silent about giving away several factories from one district.

Not only that, they also tried to shift the blame onto the conquering knights: If you bunch of brutes hadn't been so reckless, how could we have ended up like this! You have to take responsibility, don't you know that?

Meanwhile, the combat-oriented knights reported their casualties truthfully. Furthermore, they explicitly stated that over three-quarters of the Grand Knight Territory's losses were the fault of the Commercial Entities Federation: if they hadn't been so eager to profiteer from the national crisis, the valiant knights wouldn't have needed to launch a one-way, desperate operation into the gas field with only wet towels, lacking even protective gear. And if they hadn't insisted on separating from the Grand Knight Territory, the Grand Knight Territory wouldn't have lost its crucial military factory and an entire mobile city.

The angry rebukes from those practical, battle-hardened knights made the capitalists blush with embarrassment: "You're all slandering us! Making ten times the money, is that profiting from a national crisis? Of course not! Isn't this all because your commanders are getting stuck on trivial details?"

Then the problem lay before the commanding knights: after all, their command had indeed been flawed, and they had indeed blocked the Ursus Empire's aid and humiliated Ursus diplomats in the political arena... They lowered their heads, not uttering a single word to shirk their responsibility. This was perhaps one of the few redeeming qualities of these commanding knights.

...

So what about Yang Hao?

He felt as if he had wandered into a vegetable market, where animals and elderly people were barking wildly everywhere, and the battered and bruised knights were, in a way, stall owners who had suffered a great loss but were still trying to reason with him.

Sigh! We shouldn't have expected them to provide any useful intelligence. Yang Hao sighed inwardly, thinking that the statistics they presented were less reliable than what he could deduce himself using the [Puppet Stage]. The only valuable but meaningless intelligence the Kazimierz people were providing was the fact that the active-duty Knights' army had suffered heavy casualties among its elite forces.

Those elite soldiers and knights died in the previous battle from the poison gas due to a lack of protective equipment. This was the fault of the commanding knights and the Commercial Entities Federation. But was this intelligence useful? No! Yang Hao couldn't use the list of the dead. All this calculation—what was the point of this meeting anyway?

Can't you say something useful? Under Yang Hao's bewildered gaze, which was like watching monkeys throwing feces at each other in a zoo, finally—a knight with one eye bandaged stood up.

He identified himself as a longrider from the Lightbringer family. In the previous battle, he had noticed information about the new equipment used by the Colombians that was worth utilizing.

"—The Colombians' new weapons must be used as close to our positions as possible. For those explosive weapons, they even need to approach our positions manually before they can be used. While the blast radius is large, it cannot cover the entire battlefield. Even the Colombians dare not approach the central area immediately after the explosion. And, barring unforeseen circumstances, they need to protect it until it detonates. As for those new chemical weapons, I personally believe that they are not threats that our current chemical protective suits can withstand. That concludes my remarks."

A rare, normal person—Yang Hao nodded to the knight who had finished speaking. He had indeed provided important information, because Miss Elegy had also popped up a new event for him...

[Event: Normal People in the Chicken Coop Market]

You discover that the meeting room in Kazimierz transforms into a bustling marketplace whenever the Business Entities Federation and the Knights of Conquest are involved. Bored, you observe the representatives who have degenerated into animals or elderly people buying groceries, only to be pleasantly surprised to find that a small group of normal people still exist there.

Through the account of the Lightbringer's long riders, you've obtained some useful information—the Colombians' homemade dirty bombs made with enriched uranium aren't very practical, and the machines used to operate them are cumbersome. Perhaps you could dismantle the explosive device before they detonate it and take samples back for further study?

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Look at this! A rare and precious normal person, a rare and precious piece of useful information, and who doesn't like uranium-235? Perhaps the person who was bombed didn't like it at all, but Yang Hao liked it—he needed to have a nuclear deterrent before the Colombians built one, so it would be perfect if he could get a uranium enrichment rod for Ms. Kal'tsit to study.

On the other hand, perhaps this rare and valuable normal person could be recommended to Theresa for a promotion? Yang Hao gave the Light family long rider, who had been sitting down and remained silent, an approving look, then picked up his cane and slammed it hard on the ground.

——Boom.

The heavy cane struck the ground, bringing silence back to the otherwise noisy conference room, which was like a bustling market.

Then, Yang Hao slowly stood up from his seat and addressed the chickens, dogs, and a few normal people present:

"A bunch of idiots who only care about shirking responsibility or don't say a word! If it weren't for the fact that there are some normal people here, I don't know what the point of holding a meeting here would be."

When Yang Hao said the words "normal people," he glanced at the combat-oriented knights. The combat-oriented knights also looked at Yang Hao, feeling both utterly helpless that this former mortal enemy, a Ursus person, understood the hardships and injustices they had endured recently, yet also experiencing a slight sense of comfort.

But the capitalists and the commanding knights were a different story—they felt the Ursus had offended them, but before they could say anything on their first united front, Yang Hao continued in a cold tone:

"You will command the knights of the Casimir campaign yourselves. We Ursus will join forces with the Sarkaz mercenaries and remnants to fight the Columbians and bear the heaviest burden—I hope you Casimirians at least have the ability to defend your own city. That's it, I can't stay any longer."

...

He left the silent meeting hall with his guards, and after he left, the argument between the commanding knights and the commercial entity alliance erupted once again. This time, they were arguing about how much it should cost to upgrade the city's defenses.

Chapter 102

After leaving the conference hall, Yang Hao immediately led his team back to his land-based ship to discuss the next deployment plan with the officers.

He finally understood. The Kazimirans were lucky if they could just stand there as a paper wall—Yang Hao no longer expected them to fight the Colombians. Their mission was accomplished simply by staying in the Grand Knight Territory. They were a typical bunch of useless teammates, better off watching from afar than coming to help...

But they shouldn't be considered terrible teammates, right? After all, Margarita is trying her best to find out about them. These guys are just bastards that can't be killed right now for some reason... Sigh, just bear with it, just bear with it for a while. Anyway, they're about to die, so what's wrong with letting them jump around for a few more days?

Just like a cockroach that's been sprayed with insecticide—don't be fooled by how lively it is now, it'll be dead in a minute!

"—In conclusion, we need to ensure that the bombs don't detonate, and at the same time, we need to prevent the Colombians from releasing enhanced poison gas as much as possible?"

“That’s fair to say. So we need to set aside a portion of our elite forces specifically to deal with these two types of attacks by the Colombians—Mr. Bozocasti, the detailed work is left to you and your officers. I have only one request for you: that is, prevent the Colombians from effectively using their new weapons.”

"Yes."

After stating his requirements, Yang Hao leaned back in his chair and waited for the officers to reach a conclusion.

Meanwhile, within the Grand Knights' territory of Kazimierz, Margarita and her teacher are exploring the secrets of Kazimierz—more precisely, the secrets of the high command of the War Knights and the Federation of Commercial Entities.

"Teacher... um... I think I saw..."

"Ok?"

"It's like seeing the Business Entities Federation... kneeling down on all three knees in a future?"

"what?"

While using her prophetic abilities to define the goals of her work, Margarita discovers many futures that ordinary people simply cannot understand or see—but sometimes, Margarita can see many strange things.

Take the prophecy she's received now, for example... What Margarita sees is a farcical scene where the Business Entities Federation is split into three parts: one wagging its tail to Columbia, one begging Yang Hao to secede from Casimir, and the other simply surrendering to the War Knights...

Oh, what's going on here? Not very familiar with political matters, Margarita naturally turned her gaze for help to her teacher, Norson, who was hanging upside down from the ceiling like a bat, smoking a cigar.

After learning of Margarita's prophecy, Ms. Northumen drew a straightforward conclusion: the Business Entities Federation was inherently chaotic and would eventually split into three factions. One faction would kneel and beg for mercy from Columbia, another would surrender to the Knights of Conquest, and the third would surrender to Margarita's future husband—but then again, aren't there really a few of you with any backbone? Capitalists, you've made so much money; it's only natural that you cultivate a few people with backbone, isn't it?

Why are they all kneeling and begging for mercy? And they're surrendering even though they know that, apart from Colombia, the other two sides are eager to wipe you out immediately!

"Are all capitalists brainless, short-sighted idiots?" Ms. Northumber smacked her lips, then jumped down from the ceiling, dusted herself off, and said to Margarita:

"Then let's go find the capitalist who knelt down to the Colombians first—the other two are doomed anyway, so we can lower their priority."