268: Chapter 265 Leads Us to Victory

Zhang Mu didn't try to use words to make the Second Prince understand the concept of a drone, let alone a drone swarm.

Explaining the science would take too much time and might not even achieve the desired effect.

So, he feigned reaching into the sleeve of his robe with his right hand, but in reality, he retrieved a drone from his inventory.

With his right hand held out in front of him, a four-rotor drone sat quietly on his palm.

He had bought it on his way to Ying Country.

At that time, Zhang Mu was speeding through the sky and happened to glance down boredly at the city below, where he spotted a shop selling drones.

This thing... seems like it might be useful?

Of course, it wasn't for dealing with Professionals.

High-tier Professionals could fly to a certain height physically; shooting down a drone would be far too easy for them.

Zhang Mu had pondered back then that regardless of whether his Senior Sister won or lost, Lake would ultimately be unable to avoid a period of upheaval.

While he had indeed built up the combat power of the First Army, there were too few people.

Lake had so many legions of ordinary people scattered across its vast territory that the First Army would run themselves ragged and still not be able to clear them all out.

Facing the predicament of insufficient personnel was exactly when a drone swarm would show its power.

With only a small number of operators, one could command a drone swarm that could crush legions of ordinary infantry and cavalry.

As for the operators, not long after leaving Gur, Zhang Mu had already instructed Geoffrey to begin training them.

The Second Prince stared at the strange, never-before-seen object before him.

It had a metallic luster on the outside; was it some kind of magical creature that ate iron ore?

Was the block in the middle its body?

It had four legs, so its running speed should be very fast.

Hmm... not necessarily. Its feet were smooth without claws; perhaps it had very strict requirements for terrain.

What kind of terrain would suit such legs and feet...

Smooth... no claws... isn't that just like a sled?!

Raising his head, the Second Prince believed he had analyzed the drone thoroughly and gave a confident smile. "Only on snowy ground can it show its speed, am I right?"

"Huh?"

Zhang Mu's face was blank.

You pondered for so long, and this is what you came up with?

"It flies in the sky."

Stunned, the "everything is under control" look on the Second Prince's face crumbled, replaced by an embarrassed expression. "Flying? A Sky Magical Beast?"

"Uh, you could understand it that way."

"But..." The Second Prince scrutinized the drone in his hand. "It's thin and small, and it doesn't have sharp claws or teeth.

Hmm... what magic can it use?"

"It can't use any magic."

"Then... then what use is it?"

He felt like their thinking was completely in a cross-world communication gap... oh, wait, it actually was cross-world communication.

Zhang Mu didn't want to spend the effort explaining modern industry to him, so he simply said, "An army without High-tier Professionals is just a patch of weeds waiting to be harvested before it."

Even if there were High-tier Professionals, it wouldn't matter.

What troubled Zhang Mu was that the number of ordinary troops was far lower than the enemy's, not the High-tier Professionals.

When the drone swarm attacked the ground, they just needed their own High-tier Professionals nearby to Guard them.

As a native of the Saul Continent who had only been as far as the neighboring country, the Second Prince clearly couldn't understand a product from another world.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Eji, I really don't see... what does it use to kill the enemy?"

"You'll see later. It won't be too long, at most half a month from now."

"Then why did you bring it out now?"

"Just to get you familiar with it. If you see it one day, you need to protect it instead of shooting it down."

He nodded to show he understood, but the curiosity in his eyes couldn't be hidden.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Mu took out a square, flat shadow recording crystal and played a video.

The video wasn't long, ending in about five minutes.

"I'm leaving now. Don't forget the intelligence."

His figure passed through the door and left. Only then did the Second Prince snap out of the shock of the violent explosions and rising flames.

He wanted to ask something, but found he was the only one left in the study.

Recalling the shattered stones spraying everywhere just now, he felt that an ordinary human body would certainly not be harder than rock.

The excitement in his heart was hard to suppress. He called for the butler to prepare the carriage and went all the way to the palace gates.

A Guard stepped forward to ask his business. Upon learning he was going to Avril's palace, the Guard waved him through.

The royal palace was roughly divided into two areas: the inner palace and the outer palace, separated by a giant gate made of refined iron.

The King lived in the inner palace, while Avril and Andre's palaces were located in the outer palace.

This was why the Guards at the palace gates would let the Second Prince through late at night.

If he were to go to the inner palace at this hour, even if the King was currently unconscious and power had shifted, the Guards at that iron gate would never open it.

The horse's hooves clattered on the stone slabs, pulling the carriage to a stop in front of Avril's palace.

A servant saw the Second Prince step out of the carriage and immediately turned to report to Avril.

"Her Highness the Princess invites the Second Prince to enter."

He waved his hand to signal the butler to wait outside, stepped through the gate, and was led by a servant to the drawing room.

In the spacious hall, several animal-skin sofas were arranged in a triangular formation.

Avril sat in the middle, with Mora in her maid outfit standing behind her.

"Coming so late, has some emergency occurred?"

"It's very urgent, but it's not bad news."

The Second Prince was very excited. He walked quickly to the sofa on the left and sat down, immediately recounting the meeting with "Eji."

Then, just as he was about to mention the drone, Avril frowned and interrupted him: "Eji?

The person you met at your residence a few days ago?"

"Exactly!"

"Piaou, if I remember correctly, the City Lords of the kingdom are all Soldier-rank or Master-level Professionals, right?"

Not quite understanding why she suddenly brought this up, the Second Prince nodded blankly. "There are also Great Knights and Sky Knights."

Avril ignored his addition and continued, "The kingdom also has a regulation that if a City Lord is promoted to Saint-rank, they must immediately come to the capital to be granted a title, right?"

"Yes."

"Eji is the current City Lord of Gur, and he hasn't reported a promotion to the capital, which means he is still a Magister."

"Yes..." The Second Prince roughly understood what she was trying to express, and his voice became faint.

Sighing softly, Avril's tone was somewhat helpless. "Brother, it's time to be a bit more mature.

A Magister says he can handle a Saint-rank Bishop; why would you believe him?"

"I thought, he has no reason to deceive..."

"But he also didn't tell you what he's relying on to kill Jarvis."

"Are you saying he..."

"I don't know." Avril sat upright, her gaze passing through the open door to look at the distant starry sky.

After a moment of silence, she spoke slowly: "As a prince, you have many followers.

When facing difficulties, they will offer you various suggestions or methods.

And what you need to do is distinguish which are effective and which are useless or even harmful."

Avril's teaching made a lot of sense; at least Piaou couldn't refute it and didn't want to. He agreed in his heart.

"So, sister, should I go verify if Eji has the ability to fulfill his promise?"

Feeling that her words hadn't been wasted, she felt somewhat relieved. "Trust yourself."

"I understand." The Second Prince stood up and strode out the door.

Avril remembered that he was about to say something before she stopped him, so she asked, "What were you going to say when you came in?"

His steps paused, and he turned his head with a smile. "Eji brought some novelties. As for their specific function, I'll tell you after I've investigated."

With that, he walked out the door and disappeared into the night.

Avril blinked, a look of reminiscence appearing in her eyes.

Seeing her mistress sitting still and not returning to her bedroom to rest, Mora realized something and leaned in slightly to whisper in her ear:

"Princess, are you thinking about Mr. Zhang Mu again?"

"A little." Avril's upright body leaned to the right, her elbow propped on the sofa's armrest and her palm supporting her chin. "He would also always bring out some novel things."

"Yes, like the delicious instant noodles." Mora's eyes lit up.

Recalling a small two-story house in a certain town, the frost on Avril's face softened with warmth, but then it suddenly became even colder:

"Are there results for the matter I asked you to investigate?"

Mora snapped out of it, tugging at her twin-tails that fell over her shoulders. "I've been searching around the forest for several days, but there are no clues at all."

Twirling the ends of her hair with her index finger, she said distressedly, "I can sense a bit of mana fluctuation, but too many City Lords have come to the capital recently. After investigating them, I actually found over ten similar mana fluctuations."

As she spoke, she remembered an unexpected situation she encountered on the way: "While I was looking for footprints in the forest, I ran into people from the Church."

"The Church?"

Avril sat up and turned her head to look at her in confusion. "Was it a Believer acting on their own, or was it Jarvis's order?"

"There were many people, including Fanatics. Jarvis must have sent them."

"What were they doing in the forest?"

"It seemed... they were also looking for something." Mora scratched her face. "I vaguely heard them say that Haige's deputy has gone missing?"

"Haige? Missing in that forest?"

Avril remembered him.

Since returning to the capital, they basically hadn't met, but she vividly remembered the conflict that broke out outside Kas Town.

After thinking for a while, Avril muttered strangely to herself, "I haven't seen him building relationships with officials or nobles, so naturally he wouldn't have offended anyone. Why would someone want to kill him?"

One must know that killing a Believer is a very dangerous act.

Although the Church doesn't care too much about low-level Believers who lose their lives in the wild, they can't completely ignore it either.

And this time, the one who died was Haige. In the Lake branch of the Church, he was not some obscure peripheral figure.

He himself had the strength of a Soldier-rank Divine Official and was also a student of Bishop Jarvis.

Even if Jarvis didn't care about this student, he would still care about his own reputation, right?

Setting an ambush to kill Haige in the forest just a few kilometers outside the capital was equivalent to slapping Jarvis in the face and showing contempt for the entire Church.

Look, I'm killing your lackey right at your doorstep, what can you do?

The Church would never let such an insult and defiance go without finding the person responsible.

With the Church's power, it was only a matter of time before the killer was caught.

Who could it be? Killing Haige despite the certain death that would follow—did they have a deep hatred between them?

Hmm? Speaking of hatred...

Avril asked Mora, "Is the area they're searching far from my Junior's tombstone?"

"Very close. You could say it's right in front of the grave."

"Heh, then my Junior could be considered to have witnessed it with his own eyes."

Shaking her head, she got up and walked toward the bedroom, instructing Mora as she went, "Step up the search for clues.

By the way... go and get in touch with City Lord Eji. I want to see what kind of trickery he used to bewitch my brother into trusting him so much."

"As you command."

...

After Zhang Mu activated his Shadow Technique and left the residence, he didn't leave to go back to the hotel.

He stayed outside the door and watched the Second Prince get into the carriage and head toward the palace.

He estimated in his heart that the prince was going to find Avril, and then he turned and returned to the hotel.

Zhang Mu stood in front of his own door for a long time without knocking.

After another half hour, he ran into the next room, woke Mihe up, and they flew to the roof together.

Sitting on the edge of the eaves, his legs dangling outside and swinging back and forth.

Zhang Mu gazed at the city in the night, remaining silent.

Beside him, Mihe also looked into the distance. "What are you hesitating about?"

"How do you know I'm hesitating?"

"Everything you've done since coming to the capital, even before coming here, was for a certain person."

"Mm."

"Is he in the capital?"

"Mm."

Turning his head to stare at him, Mihe asked, "Why not go see him?

With your disguise magic, you won't attract anyone's attention."

"What would seeing her accomplish?" Zhang Mu supported himself with his hands on the eaves beneath him. "Indeed, she misses me very much.

If I appeared before her now, she would probably cry like a child.

And then what?

The current predicament wouldn't improve at all; instead, it might affect my plans."

Mihe lowered his head in thought for a while. "You seem to have made preparations for failure."

Preparations for failure?

Zhang Mu narrowed his eyes. I certainly have more than one contingency plan for if the situation takes a turn for the worse.

He had considered it all since the day he set out.

If Andre won, the First Army, Mihe, Domit, and Soren would all lose their lives in the capital.

The only thing Zhang Mu could do then would be to safely get Avril out of Lake.

In a situation where he was surrounded by enemies and all roads were tightly blocked, he would have to use himself as bait, causing enough of a commotion to draw all the enemies' attention so that Avril could escape safely.

To that end, he couldn't be associated with Avril.

Although he was confident in the combination of Shadow Technique and Transformation Technique, believing no one would find out even if he went to see Avril.

But what if?

He didn't understand Saint-rank; what if a Saint-rank could see through Shadow Technique and Transformation Technique?

When the time came, the more trouble he caused, the more suspicious the enemy would be that he had another purpose, which would lead them to pay attention to Avril's whereabouts.

Zhang Mu looked up at the starry sky.

Senior Sister, what are you doing? Are you also looking at the stars?

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Mu turned to meet Mihe's gaze. "You might die, and so might Domit, Soren, and the First Army.

You all might die in the capital, in this city far from home, for my personal intentions."

Mihe smiled. "I've known that from the very beginning.

They know it too."

Looking back at the star-filled sky, Zhang Mu asked calmly, "When was 'the very beginning'?"

"Probably the moment you agreed to join the Resistance Army and proposed forming the First Army in the future."

After saying that, Mihe chuckled and cursed, "Did you really think we were completely ignorant?

Come on, who forms a private army for no reason?"

"True." Zhang Mu was silent for a short while, then said, "I'm sorry for leading you all... onto this path."

"No need to apologize."

Mihe stood up and looked out at the buildings of varying heights under the night sky. "What you need to do is lead us to victory."