Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 402 - 17 Manual Minesweeping

After a whole day’s march, the Emperor’s Army finally emerged from the Alps and arrived at a small town named "Valdanio."

This place was at the northernmost tip of Italy, only about 35 kilometers away from Verona City, and it was indeed the "enemy-occupied zone."

The Imperial Army took down the small town without breaking a sweat. Faced with the overwhelming military might, the defending troops put up a symbolic fight with a few shots before surrendering completely.

What followed was plundering.

Just separated by the Alps, however, this region was far more prosperous than Bavaria. What shook the soldiers most was the Borgia Giant Chain Supermarket in the center of the town and the dazzling array of goods it offered.

Within the Holy Solomon Empire, food and clothing of such quality were not absent, but the supply was extremely limited and was mainly catered to nobles at exorbitant prices.

Here, just by seeing the neat rows of shelves stacked with all sorts of food, alcoholic beverages, and clothing, along with the terrifyingly low prices on the tags, the soldiers encountered a terrible cultural shock for the first time.

These Latin people were just too rich. Even the poorest townsfolk could afford to buy cheap beef patties for dinner with just nine copper coins in the supermarket.

In contrast, people from the Empire were desperately poor—the same amount of money could only buy black bread, the kind mixed with bran and gravel that could chip your teeth.

Why should they live well while we suffer so much?

Thus, with a sense of robbing the rich to aid the poor, the soldiers began to plunder spontaneously, and even the knights couldn’t restrain their men—because there were just too many involved in the tumult.

In the end, it was the Imaginary Dragon Bruno who had to intervene, casting a "Contagious Suggestion" in the center of the town that forced these low-ranking soldiers to back down.

However, this act drastically soured the relationship between the Imperial Army and the local residents.

Soon after, His Majesty the Emperor ordered strict occupation, martial law, and curfew systems to be implemented in Valdanio Town, and the soldiers began to set up camps both inside and outside the town.

As for the goods in the Borgia Supermarket, they were confiscated and stored by the army quartermasters, not to be touched by anyone without permission.

The house that the Azure Longsword was assigned to this time was a two-story Latin-style building whose owners, a couple, were accidentally killed by soldiers during the plundering... or maybe it wasn’t an accident, but it didn’t matter anymore, as they were already dead.

After moving into the house, Aske found an empty basement, locked the door, and carefully lit the candle given to him by Marquina.

The flame of the candle was milky white and emitted a faint glow.

Aske stared at the candlelight for a moment before noticing that Marquina had appeared opposite him at some point, also fixated on the light.

"Alright," she stood up and said, "So you have already infiltrated Otto’s army?"

Aske then recounted to her everything that had happened on the journey, including the encounter with the Devil in the town, the subsequent encounter with the strange Purgatory’s Jailer squad, and the contact with and analysis of the Imaginary Dragon Bruno.

"Interesting," Marquina touched her chin, "First off, I can tell you that the Devil in the town was not summoned by us."

"Of course," Aske nodded, "I’ve been over there too, and the Devils on your side... have a rather distinct appearance, very recognizable."

Marquina knew he was referring to the ivory-puppet-like "Enthusiasts" and "Believers," and she giggled coyly, "According to what you said, the fact that the Purgatory’s Jailer squad knew His Majesty’s true name means they are most likely not ignorant of our Devils."

"So he is selectively concealing this fact, aiming to direct the conflict toward us," Marquina concluded, "If you get the chance, capture that Priest and summon me... there will be a reward~"

"What reward?" Aske asked.

"How about, for example, me?" Marquina pressed her lips together, batting her eyelids.

"Our team already has Medea," Aske declined, "and I don’t think your performance would surpass hers, so sorry, we’re not looking to recruit anyone at this time."

Marquina:...........

Did this guy fail to understand what ’offering oneself’ meant? Or was he implying that I’m not as good as Camellia in that regard?

Either way, it suddenly filled Marquina with a sense of defeat. If it were just this man’s heart of stone that would be one thing, but if she had lost to Camellia in terms of charm... Marquina felt somewhat suicidal.

No, no, no, he probably just assumed I wanted to join his team. Marquina stabilized her emotions with her Mind Power and then spoke firmly,

"I can offer you Shadow IV trait. If I remember correctly, that little girl in your team could really use it, right?"

Shadow IV? Aske paused, wondering if the reward was too high. Wait, if that’s the case...

"Don’t overthink it," Marquina smiled, thinking to herself that if it weren’t for Your Majesty wanting to win you over, would we really pay such a high price, "It’s simply a little perk I want to offer you, unrelated to the difficulty of the task. Since you don’t want the original reward, I’ll substitute it with something else."

Is that even a thing? Aske was astonished. Normally, rewards should be directly proportional to the difficulty of the task, right?

Could it be... could it really be because I’m handsome?

Marquina:...........

Not to mention, with that thick skin of yours, you’re definitely R4 level.

"Here, this is the Desire III Potion we agreed on earlier, please pass it to Camellia." With a flick of her wrist, she produced a slender flask from beneath her skirt, "I’m off, see you later."

Her figure gradually became dim and transparent, vanishing without a trace, and the milky white candle flames were extinguished along with her.

Aske remained silent for a while, then carefully stored the Magic Potion and left.

Back in the ground-floor hall, he saw Eleanor just returning from outside.

"Did you get it?" Eleanor asked, obviously referring to the Magic Potion for Medea.

"I got it," Aske nodded, "Did you just come back from your father?"

"Yeah," Eleanor nodded and added, "I just got news: The roads to Verona have been sealed."

"Sealed?"

"Scores of trenches, bunkers, and machine gun emplacements, along with the most troublesome of all, vast minefields, completely blocking the path to Verona," Eleanor explained, "It seems they were hurriedly deployed in the past few days."

Landmines... Aske thought that was rather harsh. Landmines are easy to bury but a hassle to dig up after the war. The kind that survive the Magic Tide certainly don’t have circuit control switches, so there’s no way to remotely deactivate them, and the minefield is even placed on Church Court’s own territory.

"What does the Emperor plan to do?"

"The Emperor intends to have the soldiers remove the mines manually," Eleanor said, "but the Nobles objected, so there was a deadlock in the meeting this afternoon."

"In the end, it seems they plan to seek a Demigod to resolve this with Law, like causing a large-scale earthquake... There seems to be no such Demigod in the army."

Actually, there used to be one, like the Hidden Strings from the Wolf Family, but that person has already been killed. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss