Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

Originally known as the "buffer square", this wide but empty area where human voices were rarely heard is now drowned out by all kinds of voices. The owners of those voices - the soldiers of the communications squad, although they do not have much actual combat experience, have demonstrated qualities that are no less than those of veterans and are able to accurately and decisively undertake the task of exchanging intelligence.

Perhaps to most people, these confusing and disorderly words are hard to tell what they are talking about at first glance, but to Galezo de Barbacro, it sounds like an "ordered chaos", a special order unique to the battlefield. Learning to listen to and make use of this chaos is a compulsory course for commanders.

This made Galezo look a little better. You know, before this temporary front-line command post was actually set up, his face was always livid, and it seemed that nothing could make him feel better. At least now, he felt that his belief that "modern warfare is a war of intelligence and logistics" had been affirmed, and it would not be in vain that he had specially selected talents from the soldiers who retired from the front line and military academy graduates.

"Sir Galeazzo, the situation is stable now."

"Of course it's stable. What time is it now?" Galeazzo couldn't help smacking his lips as he listened to Gian Battista's report. "It's past six, but not even seven! Can this time be considered night? If it were summer, it would still be daylight. It can only be called dusk at best. Dusk! When will there be an attack like this before midnight? What will happen at midnight?"

He himself might not be able to tell whether this was a complaint or an analysis of the situation. The feeling of uneasiness had been bothering him since morning, and this uneasiness reached its peak after hearing that "Julio de Howard had sent a report to Mulande", and it broke out completely not long ago: When did unrest occur in the Northeast District in broad daylight?

Fortunately, there was a buffer zone between the Northeast District and other urban areas, which was enough for him to command his troops to repel the enemy while reorganizing and improving the defense line. The war situation that could change at any time forced him to abandon his original stable headquarters and set up a temporary command center on the front line, and mobilized almost all the available troops: the entire battalion of the city guard team was now assembled here, and with the existing fortifications, they formed the current impregnable iron wall.

In fact, the current city police force still has not exerted its full combat power. What they are doing now is more about being on guard than fighting, and being alert to other changes that may occur at any time after nightfall.

"Okay, Lieutenant, there's no point in getting angry at your adjutant." Leopold de Liario took over the conversation at the right time, "But we really can't let our guard down. Have all the patrols in the Northeast District been withdrawn?"

"We have withdrawn. We can't let them stay in that place any longer."

At this point, Galezo's expression turned even uglier. Of course, considering that his expression would remain ugly, it could be said that there was actually no change. "The residents in the Northeast District are hopeless. Regardless of whether they are refugees, illegal immigrants, potential criminals, tax evaders, or bastards on wanted lists, we cannot and should not give up on them. This happened too suddenly. I can only withdraw the patrol troops. Many of them are not regular soldiers. We cannot let them die in vain."

"No one will blame your choice, Lieutenant. The people in the Grand Council don't care about the living conditions of the residents in the Northeast District more than you do. On the contrary, if your untimely response causes the sacrifice of the patrol team, I think as early as tomorrow, the newspapers will publish critical articles on the command system of the City Guard. I always can't help but wonder if the Northeast District reconstruction proposal is a means for some of them to show their existence, and they don't care about the actual situation of the Northeast District." Leopold snorted coldly, "You should take out your camera, take a few more photos of the Northeast District, and then throw them in their faces when the Grand Council is meeting. Only in this way can they approve the new funding plan-what is this now? The average equipment level of the City Guard is three to five years behind that of the front-line legion?"

"I don't dare to do that kind of thing."

As if to shake off the distracting thoughts in his head, Galezo shook his head vigorously: "Who knows if there will be anything in that area that can crawl out of the photo?"

"Are you joking?"

"This kind of thing is not something to joke about. Generally speaking, photography is prohibited in the Northeast District. If you need to take photos to explain a situation, the photos and image materials must be burned after use. Nothing can be left out. It is said that similar things have happened before, so the city police are still strictly enforcing this rule. These are things we don't understand at all, so we must not be careless."

Gian stayed at the frontline headquarters, continuing to organize the soldiers of the city guard to improve the defense line, while Galeazzo and Leopold climbed the nearby "Third Defense Wall" and met with Regia Sforco, the temporary commander of the reconnaissance squadron, on the high platform of the city wall. At this time, the young half-blood Damascan woman had just put down the telescope in her hand and cast her eyes over.

"What's up?"

This statement sounded quite unfamiliar, and even Galeazzo and Leopold could not help but blush a little, but none of them cared. They were colleagues who had worked together for such a long time, and they knew each other's personalities very well.

"Come and take a look at the situation." Galezo waved his hand. "What happened?"

"Nothing is going on. So you can go back now. The front line won't be so idle after all."

“What can you really see here?”

Leopold curled his lips. "It's true that there is a part of the third defensive wall that serves as an observation tower, but this is not an observation tower. Are you pretending to be so pretentious by holding up a telescope in a place like this?"

"What do you know?" Regia almost rolled her eyes. As a non-noble retired soldier, her choice of words and way of speaking were different from the two in front of her. "Even here, as long as you raise the telescope, you can judge the movements in the area by the black smoke. The angle at the observation tower is too bad. Who was in charge of building it? What's wrong with their brains?"

“It might have been frozen.”

"That's great, it breaks when you hit it."

"Well, since we can see something here, Ms. Regia, can you tell me whether we should raise the alert level next?"

"Can you change 'Ms.' to 'Miss'? For things like this, you might as well ask the frontline investigators directly. Aren't they sending reports all the time?"

While answering, Regia Sforco picked up the compound bow at hand, and without even using the scope hanging on the bow, she shot an arrow from a distance - Leopold and Galeazzo standing next to her had no idea what was going on.

"What did you just shoot?"

"I guess it's a mountain eagle."

"It's a 'crawler' that just climbed to the top of the wall." Regia replied casually, "The soldiers over there reacted pretty quickly, but not as fast as me."

"It was indeed the right choice to invite you here." Compared to before, Galezo's expression improved a lot. "Although this incident is very unpleasant, at least the members of the 'Mulland Young Officers Club' now have a reason to get together openly."

"No one else is here?"

Galeazzo shook his head at Leopold: "I didn't inform everyone. The situation hasn't deteriorated yet, it hasn't reached that level, but if something really happened..."

"report!"

Just when they were about to continue talking, a messenger came running over at just the right time and gave a standard military salute - he should be one of the messengers who had just been transferred to reinforce today. Due to funding issues, he could not use the short-distance communicator used within the city police for the time being.

"Tell me." Galeazzo waved his hand. "What important thing happened?"

"The garrison headquarters sent someone to ask if reinforcements are needed."

"Send them back—put it mildly."

"Yes!"

The messenger still did not retreat.

"What else?"

At this point, the messenger seemed to be a little hesitant, but he still said, "It's like this, there are... three female tourists outside the blockade who want to come in."

Women? Tourists?

The three people on the isolation wall looked at each other, not knowing what was going on.

……

"Where do you think we can find help, Luna?"

Ashlee's question was very straightforward.

Let's put aside the question of Sandria for now. Although we have to find a way to overcome this obstacle in the end, we may also consider methods other than head-on combat, such as using other plans to temporarily make him lose his combat effectiveness, or delay his progress. This is much simpler than defeating him directly.

The obstacle in the underground area is not just the Garrison Marshal alone. In addition, there are the numerous defenses set up by the four major families and the Dragonborn Rose. Even without considering the possibility of the Garrison Marshal taking action, it would be extremely difficult for Lunicia and his party to break through this outer defense line. What's more, "last time" they actually took a shortcut and placed a large number of explosives at the ceremony site in advance. Otherwise, there should have been many professionals who were stronger than those outside as guards at the ceremony site.

Lunicia did not intend to use this method again this time. In her opinion, if Colette, who was used as a sacrifice, was also involved, she would never forgive herself.

So we need help, help that can hold up the outer line of defense.

"Um...church?"

“Church is optional.”

Ashetherin didn't know as much about the church as Lunicia, but she nodded in agreement.

Although it was unknown how the four major families obtained the right to use the underground ritual site of the Alexandria Cathedral, in Lunisia's opinion, they should not be able to obtain the consent of all church members. The reason was simple. There were members in the church who were obsessed with worldly interests and power, and there were also members who were devoted to faith. The act of sacrificing living people was almost equivalent to blasphemy in the eyes of some sects, and the degree of evil was comparable to that of the followers of evil gods.

Even if they were unable to obtain reinforcements, at least they could prevent themselves from being attacked from both sides by the church.

However, this also has risks - unlike the nobility, even if the descendants of the nobility are not very powerful, they can still rely on political skills and economic acumen to gain a certain status for themselves, but this status is not so stable. The standard of the church is that the higher the status, the stronger the power. Even in the administrative department, the high priest is often stronger than the priest, and the priest is stronger than the deacon. If the top leaders of the Alexandria Church completely turn to the four major families, then the effect of doing so will be very low, or even counterproductive.

"Although there are various risks, it is not impossible to try." Lunicia explained: "The nobles have the right to act rashly. They represent their own wealth, strength and power. The clergy are different. The clergy represent the authority of God on earth, so they can only act after careful consideration."

When Lunicia said this, she did not think of one thing: if this is the case, then why did Sandria have the ability and desire to participate in this matter.

Ella and Ashlee didn't think about it either.

"What about the others?" Ashlee asked. "This still doesn't have the ability to delay the outer forces. The church may not be able to guarantee the dispatch of troops."

There are two conditions for being able to help: one is to have a reason to intervene, and the other is to have the ability to intervene.

The citizens might have some reasons to get involved in this matter, as did the small and medium nobles, but they did not have the ability to do so. In Lunicia's opinion, the most they could do was to sacrifice themselves and serve as the vanguard to clear the way - in her opinion, this was almost like sending the common people to their deaths.

"It's troublesome..."

"Maybe we can consider this." Ella took out a record from the one given by Ashleelin and pointed at the words on it. "Both conditions seem to be met."

"What is this... 'Murande Young Officers Club'? Hey, 'Galezo de Barbacro', this is..."

It was an unsuccessful application for association, which seemed to be marked with several bright red "Not Approved" and even a sentence "No Review Allowed" was added.

Ella smiled and said, "Just like believers look up to the gods... the young people of Muirand also look up to Colette Xi Caroline."

This is why they came to visit.

Chapter 55 Day 1: Club Youth

The completely unreliable-sounding name "Muland Young Officers Club" comes from a gathering long ago that had an equally unreliable name.

At the beginning, the idea of ​​Galezo de Barbacro and several other colleagues was very simple: first submit an application for association, then choose a small office building, convert it into a cafe, gather twice a month, and use it freely at other times. The main activities are eating, drinking, singing military songs, socializing, cursing the Grand Council and playing war games. This process only went to the first step and could not go on. After the joint application form was reviewed one by one, it was stamped with about seven or eight "not approved", and finally a big seal of "no reconsideration" was added at the end.

This rejected application form was posted on the bulletin board of the Muirand City Government for almost a week. Later, the Citizens published an anonymous comment titled "Beware of the Circle Thought in the Army". Galeazzo knew with his knees that it was written by Francesco Stuart. Although they were in the same period, one group was in the front-line troops and the other group was in the logistics department. Let alone comradeship, they seemed to have never seen eye to eye - anyway, their relationship would not get worse.

Since then, the Muirand Young Officers Club has changed from an organization with a completely unreliable name to an organization with unreliable names and other parts. They have to go underground. The monthly gatherings are gone, and the cafe is out of the question, not to mention that Leopold has to pay for board games and war games from the activity funds. The venue has changed from the ideal single-family building to the basement of the Babacro family's villa. The location of this house is not very good. Singing military songs and stomping feet are absolutely not allowed, otherwise the neighbors will complain that night, and they will be taken to the police for questioning without waiting for the next day.

A group of young military officers were taken away by the police for questioning!

That would have been fine, but after the anonymous comment was published, a meeting seemed to have been held within the army to discuss this issue - of course, Galeazzo and his gang were completely unaware of such things - and personnel changes were made afterwards: Regia Sfirco retired under the arrangement of her family and returned home to prepare to inherit the family business; Leopoldo de Liario became a trainee prosecutor under the arrangement of his father, and would later take the judicial examination to become a non-ecclesiastical legal worker; Giorgione was transferred to the infantry battalion on Hill 305; Margaret de Dandro was demoted in name only and transferred away from the front line to work in the logistics department; as for Galeazzo de Barbacro himself, as you all know, he is now serving as the commander of the city guard.

Anyway, at this point, the Muirand Young Officers Club seems to be dead in name only. This is exactly what some people expect. In their opinion, this kind of joke organization is not as casual as it seems. It can only be a joke that will be forgotten the next day. Just as Francesco Stuart believes, this group of young officers is not as incompetent as they seem. They are all warriors who have walked out of the bloody sea of ​​​​the battlefield. They are energetic, impulsive, and may act without thinking. They are strong and powerful, and most importantly, they all have their own power to a certain extent and are also famous in the army. Maybe now, this group of people still lack the ability and capital to actually do something, but as time goes by, they may become a force that cannot be ignored in the Grand Council.

Perhaps when Francesco published that anonymous comment, or even earlier, when he and Galeazzo were fighting in the military academy, he would never have thought that one day he would stand on the same front as the other and think about a problem from the same perspective.

Of course, these are not things that our Holy Knight Miss Lunicia needs to consider. The reason why she chose to come to the door now is actually for a very simple reason: according to the conclusion drawn by Ella Hepper and Ashlee after analyzing the intelligence, at least 80% of the members of this "Muland Young Officers Club" are fanatical fans of Colette.

"That sounds totally unrealistic."

"I think so too."

"But Luna's still going to give it a try, isn't she?"

Well, that's true, that's why they are standing in front of this cordon of blockades now.

"What's going on? This smell..."

Originally, she thought that she wouldn't encounter too much trouble, but as soon as she approached the cordon, Lunicia couldn't help but frown.

"smell?"

Ella turned her head, her expression calm, as if she could not sense any difference around her. There seemed to be no difference between being in the hotel and being in front of the cordon to her.

"I can't describe the feeling, it's very strange." Lunicia's statement was very vague, "There is no color, no smell, no special sound, and nothing looks unusual, but it seems like there is something that makes me uneasy."

"The concentration of prayer beads in the city tends to be high, and the concentration in this area is particularly high. According to individual Asheselin's previous investigation report, this should be the so-called 'Northeast District'."

"It is indeed the Northeast District. Isn't there a sign saying 'City Police Headquarters' hanging on the upper floor over there?"

The prayer mist? This concept seemed to have been mentioned by Asheselin before, but Lunisia didn't have a deep impression of it. She had never been to the Northeast District before, but Asheselin mentioned this area during her investigation. Lunisia herself couldn't say what it should be like or what it was originally like.

However, compared with the last time, there are indeed some differences - the last time, they met Galezo who was on a mission on the way back to the hotel. The time was about the same as now. He was leading his men to chase the escaped evil spirits. Although it seemed that there was a lot of momentum at that time, in fact, there did not seem to be many people dispatched. The number of soldiers maintaining the cordon that Lunicia saw now was already comparable to the number at that time, and Galezo seemed to be in the northeast area now, which was inconsistent with Lunicia's last experience.

——Has anything changed?

She couldn't help but think that perhaps this change that she didn't know about also concealed some information, which seemed very important and hard for her to ignore. She had never been to the Northeast District, and what she did the first and second time did not involve the Northeast District, but the Northeast District presented a different situation each time...

--Um……

I always feel like I have grasped something, but I also feel like I haven't figured it out completely. Lunicia is not very good at solving puzzles, and she still lacks an opportunity to connect her thoughts.

"Lady Luna, they are coming."

"They? You mean Galeazzo and—"

When she came out of her thoughts, Lunicia raised her head and looked in the direction Ella pointed, and she stopped talking: among the three people coming towards her, except Galezo de Barbacro, she didn't know any of the other two. She originally thought that it would be Galezo and his priest adjutant who came, but now it seems that she guessed wrong.

As the leader, Galezo nodded to the sentries at the entrance of the cordon. They undoubtedly knew their commander, so they did not ask any questions and made way between Galezo and his group and Lunicia and his group.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting... ladies."

Galezo's self-control was not enough to hide the confusion in his expression. In his opinion, he didn't know these three female tourists who came from nowhere, and he didn't know what they wanted to see him about.

As for Leopold and Regia, they were just watching the show. Although they didn't think there was any friendship between Galeazzo and the three female tourists - Galeazzo was notoriously unpopular with women, and the women in the Young Officers Club rolled their eyes at him especially often. They generally believed that his single life could break Muirand's record and become the new lower limit among the younger generation - they were curious about what kind of person could come straight to the Northeast District and ask to see the commander of the city garrison right away.

"So, is there anything urgent? If you just want to see with your own eyes what kind of person I am as the leader of the city police, then I have to use my precious time on work again--"

"Can we find a place where we can talk?"

Galezo was stunned when he heard what Lunicia said.

"Do you really have to do this?"

"Please do this."

He, Leopold and Regia looked at each other, then turned their gazes back: "Well, it's still early, I hope it's nothing insignificant."

"Don't worry, it's a very urgent matter."

Galeazzo didn't say much, but just reached out and patted the shoulder of a sentry beside him: "Go tell Jian to let him command the defense for a while... As for me," he looked at Lunicia without saying much, "it may take a while for me to arrive."

……

"This is my office."

Galezo patted the leather back of his office chair. His expression was normal now, not as ugly as it was at the headquarters. This was the result of his careful adjustment.

Leopold was leaning against the wall, while Regia was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, holding her precious compound bow. If you didn't pay attention, you wouldn't notice anything unusual. But in fact, the two of them, plus Galezo himself, formed a triangular encirclement, guarding against any inappropriate behavior by Lunicia and her group at any time.

"It's occasionally used as a reception room, but this damn place rarely has guests, and you're the first to come this week... The soundproofing is guaranteed, and so is the safety. I can confidently guarantee that even a cannonball can't blow through the walls of my office. No one else will hear what you say here, so can you rest assured?"

"These two..."