novelraw #149 - Section 149
#149 - Section 149
It was precisely this realization that made Margaret even more hesitant, fearing that if she broached the topic of forming an alliance with Dio, she would be met with a ruthless rejection.
As long as I keep delaying and just have casual meals and chats, I'll never lose face!
But constantly putting it off isn't a solution.
Margaret was unwilling to give up just like that.
The pressure from the Charles siblings was increasing, and recently there were rumors that the Eternal Night Empress was preparing to promote Roger to Duke.
Although the current Duke no longer possesses vast lands, it is still a form of honor and recognition, representing the Empress's commendation...
I haven't even become a Duke yet, and the Charles family is about to have two Dukes in one family?
Margaret was angry and worried.
She feared that Angelina would take off directly and then relentlessly suppress her, so she felt an increasing need for an ally who could advance and retreat together, and help each other, if not to overthrow Angelina, at least to protect herself.
So, every day she prepared to speak, but every day when she came to Dio for meals, they chatted about everything under the sun, and ultimately she never mentioned the core topic.
This situation became somewhat awkward.
And because of this "awkwardness," Margaret's initial confidence that she could easily win Dio over with her charm was gradually dissipating.
Hesitation leads to defeat.
And the more you fear defeat, the more you hesitate.
At this moment, the only thing Margaret could confirm was that having breakfast and chatting with Dio made her feel good.
Lord Dio was knowledgeable, spoke interestingly, and was pleasing to the eye.
As long as they found topics of mutual interest, the atmosphere was still warm, as if they were familiar friends...
Wait.
Whenever this happened, Margaret would feel helpless, as she had no friends.
In her memory, she always ate alone, read alone, got sick alone, and faced every difficult decision alone...
Only with Dio, a simple breakfast and casual, expansive topics made her feel exceptionally comfortable.
Most of the time, she sought advice from Dio, and always received excellent answers.
Occasionally, she would share exclusive intelligence she possessed, or share some of her little emotions, and Dio showed no disgust or impatience.
Of course, there was no deliberate comfort or explanation, but some words, just saying them, made her feel much lighter.
Margaret had never experienced such feelings from childhood to adulthood.
Only five days and five breakfasts, but for Margaret, they were already fragments worth imprinting in her mind and savoring repeatedly.
The angle of the sunlight on the dining table, the fresh scent in the room, the simple yet comfortable furnishings, and Lord Dio's casual yet elegant movements across from her, their topics ranging from everything under the sun...
She seemed to, somewhat, like this feeling of dining together.
She seemed to, hope that this state could continue forever and ever and ever.
The mixed-blood little devil raised her head, and from the window she could vaguely see Dio's figure, flipping through some documents.
If time could stop at this moment, how wonderful it would be.
She finally understood that the reason she had always hesitated to propose an alliance was that she feared that after being rejected, she wouldn't even have the chance to eat a simple meal together anymore.
That way, she would lose the first opportunity she had had in her life to possibly have a "friend."
"Perhaps, this is fate..."
Margaret retracted her gaze, her expression complex.
Anyway, she had been alone for so long, she was used to it, and she wouldn't feel sad even without friends.
Yes, that's right, brave Mary can solve all the problems alone!
So, when she came to eat tomorrow, she had to talk to Dio about the alliance, at worst she would be rejected, and then go back to being ordinary colleagues...
Yes, definitely tomorrow, next time for sure!
......
......
Outside the City of Mysteries, the Star Temple.
This is not only an altar for conducting oaths of honor, but also the base of the Dark Night Guard.
Furthermore, the Dark Night Guard undertakes the task of protecting the Star Temple, preventing it from being destroyed and preventing malicious individuals from using it to influence the empire's nobles.
After more than a month, the Dark Night Guard has continuously absorbed strong individuals from the common people and elite soldiers from the military, and now it has expanded to a scale of five thousand people, totaling four brigades.
The proportion of strong individuals has decreased, but the newly joined soldiers are all professionals, and the proportion of mages exceeds the standard of the empire's front-line troops by more than five percentage points.
The Dark Night Guard even organized a two-hundred-man heavy cavalry unit, all of whom were intermediate-level or higher knights.
Two hundred may not sound like much, but it is an extremely expensive and luxurious unit with a considerable frontal impact.
In the age of cold weapons, heavy cavalry played the role of later generations' tanks, and if used well, it could cause devastating blows to infantry in field battles.
Roger handed over the command of this heavy cavalry to Little Joey, believing in her talent to train it well and utilize it effectively.
Another very helpful point is that the Dark Night Guard has reached a long-term cooperative relationship with the Chapter of Discord.
Roger provides ideas to help Frankenstein replicate Earth's industrial, agricultural, and even daily necessities, and guides the direction of technological innovation. The two often brainstorm to conceive various wonderful props.
Especially in the military field, the fusion of magic has given birth to a series of new equipment with excellent effects.
A rather tragic fact is that after the birth of civilization, mastering any new technology must first verify whether it can kill its own kind more efficiently.
In order to distinguish it from traditional alchemy equipment, these weapons and equipment that integrate the characteristics of Earth technology are collectively referred to as arcane equipment within the empire, representing the product of the "New Arcane" thought trend, and trying to eliminate traces of another world as much as possible.
In return, the Dark Night Guard can prioritize the installation of arcane equipment at the first time, experience the effect, provide feedback, and help the Chapter of Discord make subsequent corrections.
The Dark Night Guard's demonstration effect can directly determine whether a series is worth continuing to develop.
This is a win-win cooperation. The alchemist madmen of the Chapter of Discord got the tests they wanted and made money from the experimental products; the Dark Night Guard improved their equipment level and was able to have the most advanced magic props that are unique on the market.
When magic and technology are fused, many times 1+1 will be much greater than 2.
At the same time, within the Dark Night Guard, Roger's prestige has been raised to a terrifyingly high level.
The Dark Night Guard is invincible, and the process is unbelievably smooth. Roger's command is indispensable.
Arcane equipment, especially those intelligence probes and detection methods without magic fluctuations, have a decisive impact on the current combat system.
The source of all this can be traced back to their commander, Lord Roger Charles.
It is because of Roger's existence, making one decision after another that ordinary officials would never dare to make or would not make, that the Dark Night Guard can become famous all over the world, become a sharp blade hanging over the heads of all nobles, and have today's strategic deterrent.
Therefore, Roger has never shown his own combat power, but merely as an officer, he has become the only leader recognized by the Dark Night Guards.
Capable, conscientious, determined, and dare to directly judge the nobles who have occupied the world for ten thousand years, such a leader is hard to find even with a torch.
Under Roger's patient explanation, the Dark Night Guard understood that their series of actions accelerated the empire's transition to centralization and were the key to successfully enacting the "Imperial Charter," which is equivalent to making a huge contribution to the empire.
All the guards are honored.
Sufficient sense of honor also helps this armed force to condense its military soul.
Of course, with the promulgation of the "Imperial Charter," the noble class gradually withdrew from the empire's political arena, and the Dark Night Guard's responsibilities were also adjusted accordingly.
After all, the nobles' power has been locked in a cage, and even if they intend to do evil, their ability has been greatly reduced.
After consultation with the military and a request to the Eternal Night Empress, Nightingale and Sparrow shifted their focus to the surrounding ethnic groups and countries to prepare for future wars.
Domestic intelligence work is then handed over to the Dark Night Guard.
This is the source of Margaret's sense of crisis, because Roger directly took the job from her hands, and she couldn't come up with a reason to object.
At the same time, the Dark Night Guard's regulatory scope expanded from imperial nobles to imperial administrative officials and high-level professionals, recording, investigating, arresting, and transferring their illegal activities to the judiciary for trial and conviction.
More interestingly, because the imperial system is not yet sound, compared with the same centralized countries, the Dark Night Guard is actually a combination of the Jinyiwei and the Ministry of Personnel, two powerful departments.
The intelligence collected and the reviews conducted by the Dark Night Guard will become the benchmark for evaluating officials' merits, demerits, and promotions during their tenure, which is outrageous to think about.
In other words, Roger is now the father of the fathers of imperial officials. As long as he reveals a word, I don't know how many officials are willing to rush up to please him.
As for supervising and controlling high-end professionals, it is to leverage the Dark Night Guard's combat power and intelligence advantages as a supplement to the local city defense forces.
After all, power makes people swell, and professionals possess power far beyond that of civilians. It is inevitable in any era that they commit crimes and harass civilians.
These professional criminals have strong mobility and high combat power, and if the city defense forces do not deal with them in time, they are likely to leave unsolved cases.
The Dark Night Guard took the initiative to take on this time-consuming and laborious task, which is also a kind of exercise for their own combat power.
Because of the changes in the empire's situation and the changes in the tasks faced by the Dark Night Guard, the organizational structure was also completely reorganized.
Now the Dark Night Guard uses the tassels decorated on the sleeves of the uniform as a symbol, divided into four levels: sleeveless, copper sleeve, silver sleeve, and gold sleeve.
Sleeveless is the most basic member of the Dark Night Guard, receiving training in intelligence, combat, analysis, logistics, etc., and each has its own division of labor according to profession and talent.
Copper sleeves lead combat squads of five to ten people, and silver sleeves manage ten copper sleeve squads.
Gold sleeves, according to the field of responsibility, lead five to fifteen silver sleeves, and generally only truly major cases and tricky situations will be dispatched.
After this internal reorganization, dividing levels, stipulating responsibilities, and improving various treatments, the Dark Night Guard has passed the initial rush, initially formed combat power, and has a complete reserve talent selection and training system.
In Roger's view, the Dark Night Guard is now a bit like no, striving to grow into a professional intelligence agency.
The growth process may be very long, but this does not mean that the Dark Night Guard's combat power is low.
For example, today, his subordinates unexpectedly confirmed a piece of information that almost broke Roger's defense and made him feel 100,000 points of grievance:
"Aren't those believers done yet? Why are they targeting me again this time?"
Chapter 131 The Information Warfare with the Full Map Open is Exceptionally Smooth
Hicks Quake, Legendary Swordsman.
That is, the one-eyed man who questioned Roger's overconfidence before the Dark Night Guard's first action, the attack on Fergus Castle.
After that battle, Hicks was completely conquered by Roger's inhumanity... ah, no, his leadership charm, and was preparing to work in the Dark Night Guard until retirement.
He came from a commoner background and was not a strong man trained by the military system. He had been a mercenary, been to the Underdark, and explored ancient ruins.
Thousands of combat experiences plus continuous practice, plus the indispensable bit of luck, were the only way to successfully advance to legend.
Perhaps related to his growing experience, he has a bit of hatred for evil in his bones and despises nobles and officials.
This person was originally the core character of a side quest in the game. After completing the quest, the protagonist would have a choice of three sword stances, all of which were powerful.
From this, it can be judged that Hicks's combat power will only be stronger, so Roger wrote his name on the recruitment list and handed it over to Little Joey.
As a result, he was really recruited in the end.
It's interesting to say, Hicks had not yet retired at this time and was adventuring everywhere and looking for opponents worth challenging.
This is a difficult, dangerous and expensive job.
As the active challenger, he paid for the priest to treat himself when he lost, and paid the other party when he won, which led to him being really short of money recently.
The salary offered by the Dark Night Guard was not low, and the "Long Live the Queen" newspaper said that this agency would supervise the nobles, so even though Hicks rejected official organizations, he finally decided to mix some wages here.
There was no way, the commander gave too much.
First, he sent equipment, then he broke through the noble castle, and then he publicly tried the noble lords. A series of operations made Hicks look stupid.
Especially sweeping the scum in the nobles from south to north, Hicks suddenly realized that relying solely on personal bravery and pleasure could not change anything at all.
Only by relying on the huge national machine of the Green Vine Empire, under the correct ideological command, can we truly create a new era and give the people a better future.
The stronger the empire, the better life will be.
The Dark Night Guard may be the best way for him, a martial artist who only knows destruction, to build the empire.
It was because of this realization that Hicks gradually became serious in subsequent actions, no longer with the mentality of mixing wages.
In addition to individual combat power, he gradually showed good command ability, insight, and personal charm also made many people believe.
When the Dark Night Guard was reorganized, Roger personally asked this swordsman with a feeling of Eastern Ranger if he would like to be a gold sleeve.
Hicks was flattered. He didn't like those tedious vulgar affairs, but he didn't want the hard-won clear imperial situation to deteriorate again.
The work of the Dark Night Guard gave him a sense of mission that made him feel that he was living a very meaningful life.
In the end, Hicks agreed and became a gold sleeve.