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Chapter 177: Mad Dog of the Wasteland
The members of Horizon stepped into the tunnel under Godwin’s order.
The entire space tunnel wall was composed of turbulent and disordered airflow, which made it look like a dead jellyfish or a swamp after the rain. It may be difficult for ordinary people to stand firm, but Horizon had no ordinary people. The mercenaries quickly gained a foothold and moved forward steadily.
Godwin purposefully walked at the back of the group to ensure the four students had safely stepped into the space tunnel.
Leonard couldn’t restrain his rapid breathing. Considering the series of embarrassing misunderstandings before, the little nobleman wanted to be more reserved, but the blood on his forehead betrayed his true feelings. Marilyn no longer pretended to be weak, but turned her head and looked at Ann secretly, with a trace of envy in her eyes.
“I… I’m a little sorry,” Hayden whispered as he passed by Nemo. “You can definitely be an excellent nurse, Nemo. With you gone, I’m afraid I’ll live alone in the dorm.”
He nodded at Nemo as if he had no intuitive concept of Oliver’s and Nemo’s powers.
“I apologize,” Marilyn murmured after Hayden caught up with the group. “I shouldn’t have targeted you like that before, Hayden. I just…”
“I accept, and I understand. Don’t mind.”
“I still want to be a healer— Even now that I look at you, I still can’t help but get a little angry. Alas, I’ll try to control it,” Marilyn sighed in a low voice.
“…I know it’s not possible, but no one can say what will happen in the future, right?”
The pretty girl bit her lower lip and stretched out her hand to Hayden. Hayden’s face flushed, and he stretch out his hand tremblingly, almost scratching the girl’s wrist, but he finally managed to grab her hand and shook it solemnly. “I have a lot of nursing questions that I want to ask you, Lawler… Ma—Marilyn.”
“Good.”
“I also want to apologize.” Leonard stared at Hayden’s outstretched hand and dragged his thoughts out of the fiery excitement in his head. “Miss Lawler, please forgive me for my previous rudeness. I think I can understand what you mean, but if I can still—”
“No, you don’t have a chance, Quentin Leonard,” Marilyn said quickly. “I don’t like types who are too much taller than me. Do you want to cut off some length below the knee?”
“…” Leonard’s whole face looked a little darker.
“But we can be comrades-in-arms.” Marilyn smiled and shook her head, patting the little nobleman on the arm. “If you are willing to lower your chin and use your head more, you’ll find a good girl.”
“I thought hard, and I have nothing to apologize for,” Elmer said honestly, looking at Oliver who was talking to Godwin not far away. “I have to go and say thank you to Oliver later.”
By the time Elmer had dizzily found himself rich overnight, it was already a few hours later.
And many years later, as a veteran warrior, Oliver Elmer would still think of this day. The day when he and his teammates successfully cooperated for the first time. After all, these four sentimental young people have never been separated after this.
Iron Commander Quentin Leonard, First Nurse Hayden Wilhelm, and the Chief Healer of Alban, Marilyn Lawler.
However, the biggest difficulty in front of several students at this moment wasn’t the battlefield, but the space tunnel that made it extremely difficult to maintain balance. The thin Hayden almost fell each step, eventually causing the impatient Leonard to immediately pick him up as he struggled to move forward one foot at a time.
Seeing that his former classmates were able to move forward successfully, Nemo leaned over to Oliver who had just ended his conversation with Godwin. In order to reduce his sense of existence, Nemo patiently acted like a wooden stake for more than ten minutes.
“How’s it going?” Nemo spoke nervously. The gray parrot was still softly grabbed by him like a rag bag.
“Godwin asked me not to get the wrong idea. He doesn’t intend to cover for us.” Oliver smiled and shook his head. “He just doesn’t plan to pursue your identity for the time being, and he won’t disclose the source of my power for now. As for the, uh, things we did here, he still has to report it truthfully.”
“’I’ll keep my eye on you, Mr. Ramon. Remember your promise. If you do anything out of the ordinary, Horizon will be the first to stand up to you, no matter what.’…. Was what he said.” Oliver cleared his throat, locked his brow, and vividly imitated Godwin.
“How did you answer?” Nemo stretched his neck and turned his face, straining to look at Godwin’s back that was at the entrance of the space tunnel.
“’Yes, dear brother.’,” Oliver said softly, stretching out his hand and twisting Nemo’s face back. “Then he looked like he was choking on beans and walked away in great strides.”
“The book in the confinement room— The one with Emanuel Lopez’s memories— Are you sure you shouldn’t tell him?”
“I’ll definitely tell him… at a more appropriate time.” Oliver scratched his head. “Now he needs a good rest and to calm down. This matter isn’t very urgent. Compared to this, I want to say—”
Nemo’s eyes flashed. The next moment he reached out and pressed his index fingers on Oliver’s lips, covering his eyes with his other hand. Since it wasn’t accustomed to it, the released gray parrot fell to the ground. “Shh. Wait a moment. It’s probably Telaranea making another move.”
The little spider was working dutifully, and the sounds and pictures came through.
“This is what you want, Vance.” The female professor stuffed a weird crystal ball into the hands of Vance, who was dressed as a footman. “You know, I lost quite a bit of knowledge so I’m just now getting it done. Tsk, it’s really not that I deliberately delayed.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Vance, or Aurorae, returned to that cold look. The gray-haired man looked at the crystal ball in his hand for a while. “You changed the magic circuit of the bone jade?”
“Yes,” Telaranea nodded. “Unlike what the group of waste of the Laddism Church made, it no longer detects abyssal magic activation, but can probe the branches and strength of surrounding demons. However, the detection range is still within a radius of ten kilometers. This can’t be helped.”
“It’s enough.”
“I just tested it again so the magic circuit is still cooling down. It’ll be able to be used normally in an hour. Contact me if you have any question— How miserable. I have to deal with that old principal. To be honest, I’m not very interested in the various tossing and turning of human countries. Forget the hostages, he’d better not want to erase this body. This identity is quite convenient.”
“Nn.”
“You also have to pay attention and not waste the power I gave.”
“Go.”
The female professor curled her lips very unceremoniously, turned her head, and walked to the principal’s office at the end of the corridor. Nemo held his breath and almost poked his finger into Oliver’s mouth.
“Mrs. Mandy.” The elderly Mr. Salter, principal of the Royal Military Academy of Clementine, spoke with a sincere voice.
Telaranea had put away the evil look on her face and made an appearance of nervousness and uneasiness as if she was forcing herself to be calm.
“Don’t be nervous. I don’t know what the Viscount said to you, but none of it is true.”
“Since there are only the two of us, I’ll be straightforward, dear Salter.” The female professor’s face was expressionless. “Your men took samples of the source of the Trent Plague from my research room, right?”
Nemo suddenly recalled reading a missing report in the file. At first, he thought it was a common problem in the experiment, so he didn’t pay special attention to it. He didn’t expect it…
“If Tumbleweed hadn’t entered the academy, you would have planned to use the ‘plague’ as an excuse for a lockdown. Ah, let me think about it, you were probably going to find a poor civilian student, let him— No, most likely her— get sick and give visual proof.” The female professor made an angry expression unique to researchers. “We have known each other for so many years, but I never thought you would use my project for your own selfish desires!”
“I won’t really it spread, and the purpose is not for personal gains,” Salter said slowly, in a gentle voice, but with unquestionable taste. “Sacrificing an irrelevant woman will change the war situation of the entire country. You’re a smart researcher, Mrs. Mandy. You should know the importance. I didn’t come to you this time for anything else but just to reassure you.”
The old man paused for a moment.
“I can see just now that you seem to be very dissatisfied with my decision. I don’t want any strange misunderstandings between us. You will find out about this sooner or later, so I might as well tell you straight— His Majesty passed away just a few hours ago.”
The female teacher repeated her old trick. The demon covered her mouth with both hands to expressed exclamation, but really she just snorted with disdain.
“Clementine Royal Military Academy will always be His Majesty’s most loyal supporter.” The old principal made an oath gesture. “Lord Mandy’s position has never been clear, and you are a reasonable person, Mrs. Mandy. I hope you can consider the overall situation well, if you are willing to cooperate with us—”
“You… Uh, if I’m not mistaken, are you trying to control some of the descendants of the nobles, hoping to add obstacles to the new king’s path?” Nemo could perceive the smile on Telaranea’s “shocked” tone. “Glory to Zenni, it couldn’t be that… His Royal Highness Eldric had done something to His Majesty?”
“This is a message from His Majesty himself. There can be no mistake. According to the order left by His Majesty, we must eradicate that ambitious fanatic. If my news is correct, he didn’t even let Her Royal Highness Annabelle go.”
“You have your son to help. What are you still worried about? My husband and I are just small nobles without ambition, and I don’t want to be involved in such a big event—” The demon made a weak look.
“At a critical juncture, we are likely to need as much support as possible. This part has nothing to do with force. You know what I mean.”
“But— But, supporting the underage Delia to the throne. A puppet queen? Are you going to kill her? God— God, Salter. The conservatives will eat you and your son alive. To them, that underage girl is nothing, and now His Highness Eldric is the only royal bloodline. You must think clearly. My god, where is my snuff bottle—”
“I know it’s hard.” The old principal stood up and put his hand behind his back. “But Your Majesty’s will must be executed— Eldric Alastair doesn’t have the qualification as a king. He will lead Alban to destruction.”
“…Then forgive me for waiting and watching for a while. This is not a trivial matter! Anyway, I can’t get any news right now. I need a while to think.”
Old Salter nodded.
Telaranea saluted, and after walking out of the principal’s office, she rolled her eyes.
“Two nests of ants are fighting.” She hummed an unknow tune as she walked along the corridor. “Who will occupy this rotten corner?”
Nemo swallowed laboriously and interrupted the connection. He hesitated for a few seconds, then carefully tore a small rift in space and neatly grabbed the little spider from the corner of the castle into his hand. Thank God he gave this thing the ability to devour magic fluctuations in advance so it could hide itself, and this action didn’t leave too conspicuous traces of fluctuations.
The little spider laid obediently in Nemo’s palm, his abdomen eyeballs turning curiously.
“What is this?” Oliver curiously pushed Nemo’s fingers away from his mouth and looked at the little spider in Nemo’s palm.
“There’s no time to explain. Would you like to go with me?” Nemo asked dryly.
“What are you talking about, of course I—”
“I’m asking it.” Nemo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. In case Aurorae really had the prop that could detect a demon’s aura, he had to do something to disguise his aura. The other party assuredly knew about the existence of Bagelmaurus, and so an idea popped in his head that this little thing could be the first alternative.
The little spider crawled around in the palm of his hand a few times, stretched out two legs, and tried to make a hook shape*.
*In case you’re missing it’s a heart.
Oliver: “……”
“That’s good, thank you,” Nemo said seriously, putting the little spider on his shoulder. “…Ollie, we have to appeal quickly, get rid of your death row status, and get out of here. The Emperor of Alban had just passed away, and Prince Eldric already made his move. The lockdown of the academy is because of this— War is coming.”
Oliver shook his head and didn’t react for a while. “What does this have to do with the academy?”
“The Salter family has always been the emperor’s confidants. The principal here is a Salter and he’s the father of Marshal Gallagher,” Nemo said quickly, searching for the biographies of people he had read in his mind. “I don’t know the specific situation, but the emperor did give an order to kill Prince Eldric in advance. Looking at the principal’s action, if nothing else, the leader is definitely Marshal Gallagher.”
Gallagher Salter, one of the Marshals of Alban, was known as the “Mad Dog of the Wasteland”.
Even if Oliver and Nemo had lived a town by the border, they had more or less heard of him. Marshal Gallagher acted extremely tough and decisive. Wherever he went, it was bloody. He had never retreated once on the battlefield, and there is only one way to win— Chase the enemy until the entire army collapses.
The emperor of Alban had been seriously ill for a long time, and if his cause of death couldn’t be successfully revealed, Prince Eldric would be the rightful heir. Assuming that the leader of the rebels is Gallagher Salter, if Tumbleweed doesn’t escape fast enough, it was likely to get involve in the struggle between the “rebels” and the royal family.
“…Let’s go. Let’s go right away.” Oliver made an instant decision.
In a distant frontier.
Gallagher Salter stared at the darkened communication crystal with no special expression on his face. The appearance of this marshal was completely inconsistent with the rumored “Mad Dog”. Although he was tall and strong looking, he has a genteel temperament like a civil servant.
There was no exaggerated strong body and no messy and rough appearance. The platinum blond hair was braided at the back of his head and tied into an elegant braid held by an exquisite silk band. The marshal didn’t even have a beard.
After a long silence, Marshal Gallagher sighed and pulled a thread from the intricate embroidery of his collar.
“Assemble,” he gave a simple order, took a bottle of perfume from his pocket, carefully sprayed it twice on his chest and neck, and then showed an ambiguous smile. “The prey this time is very, very big.”
The author has something to say：
Marshal Gallagher is a real fastidious man— very, very fastidious.
————
In fact, the CPs of Tumbleweed are all kings and knights in a sense XD
Just different models (.