The Empror's Trap-Chapter 84: Ch - Let Me See! Vol2

Truthfully, Kenji wasn’t at all prepared. This wasn’t his fault - mainly because he wasn’t the one who had recommended these people for foreign exchange in the first place. That was done by the old owner of this body.

Though he had his predecessor’s memories, they weren’t particularly clear. Moreover, three years had passed - even this body’s own memories couldn’t be guaranteed perfect.

So when he just learned these people would come see him, Kenji had quite the headache. After all, he wasn’t the real duke - he truly worried he might have issues in front of these people he had recommended.

Therefore, Kenji didn’t follow Pluvia’s suggestion to welcome them together, but chose to wait at home. This at least avoided the awkwardness of being exposed on the spot, and gave him enough time to prepare.

First was recalling the original Kenji’s manner. The original Kenji should have been an ambitious fellow, so he needed to display more ambition, while also showing that care for his followers.

That feeling of if I have meat to eat, you’ll have soup to drink.

This feeling wasn’t easy to find - he wasn’t an actor in his original world, acting really wasn’t his specialty. But at this point, he had no choice but to act.

So he could only steel himself to receive these people.

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However, unexpectedly, these young officers didn’t stand on ceremony at all. In Kenji’s imagination, these talents he had recommended were said to have great ability and should be skilled at official speech.

But upon actually meeting them, these officers had no formalities at all - upon seeing him as Grand Marshal, they gave him an enthusiastic embrace, frightening Lina beside him who thought they were attacking and nearly drew her sword.

"Tani, look at yourself, show some respect," Rinas frowned.

"Haha, no matter," Kenji laughed, then pointed to the feast already laid out, "Come, you haven’t eaten yet? The chef was just trying new dishes and made too much - let’s eat together."

Rinas looked at the table full of dishes in the room.

"Made too much?"

This was made too much? This was clearly a specially prepared feast, right? Did he not know how many people were in Duke Anos’s mansion?

In total only Kenji and Siyue needed the chef to serve such meals, at most add Lina - this full table wasn’t Duke Anos’s usual style. If hosting them just say hosting, why be so polite?

"Mm, made too much. Everyone don’t stand on ceremony, sit down, help me clean up these dishes well - ah right, you still need to critique how they taste, otherwise my chef’s efforts would be wasted."

These dishes weren’t actually made by the chef for Kenji, but specially arranged by him.

But from the previous Kenji’s information, these young officers were all capable people he had personally promoted, who greatly respected him. If he directly said the feast was specially prepared to host them, these fellows might be too nervous to speak.

So he simply used the excuse that the chef made too much, letting them sit down to handle it. At least they wouldn’t be so formal.

"Ah, Grand Marshal, no rush to eat," Rinas hurriedly said, "Returning from the Western Empire this time, we’ve all brought some potentially useful things. Among them, I have a small item to show the Grand Marshal."

"Oh?" Kenji was full of curiosity. Only now did he notice Rinas had been holding an exquisite box since entering. Just now when the servants took their luggage, this box alone Rinas had kept holding from the start without letting go. "Since you won’t even eat, it must be something important - let me appreciate it then."

Rinas nodded, then placed the box on a large table and unlocked it. Inside was a strange machine.

The machine’s craftsmanship was very crude, engraved with various incomprehensible text symbols, made of metal, with some parts seemingly connected to levers.

Kenji looked at this thing, completely bewildered.

Though this era’s productivity was much higher than his world’s ancient productivity, Kenji didn’t think anyone could make steam engines or internal combustion engines now - moreover, this machine didn’t look like those.

"My lord, please look - this is a machine I specially brought back from the Western Empire. Though their combat quality is inferior to our military, and their tactical and strategic decisions are often rigid, their equipment is remarkable."

"This was originally used on the Holy Knights’ holy armor. But as the Western Empire has been weakening the church’s influence in recent years, such armor has gradually come into military use."

"And this thing is a very important component of that armor."

Hearing this, Kenji’s interest was immediately piqued.

Finally encountering technology beyond Camelot.

Camelot followed a cultivation path, cultivating oneself. That is, after cultivating to a certain degree, one could completely have natural body armor.

Like him - if he circulated spiritual energy internally, he was very difficult to penetrate defensively.

But Kenji also knew deeply that this method wasn’t normal.

Not everyone in Camelot was a cultivator. Though ordinary people could learn basic spiritual energy usage through systematic study, and the military had formation designs to greatly enhance organized troops’ combat power (equivalent to adding group buffs), this still hadn’t left the traditional realm of melee combat, throwing, and archery.

Indeed, there were those like Lina and various Celestial Masters and mystics who could use ranged spells, but spell learning was much more complex than conventional techniques, mostly requiring extremely strong memory and logical ability. This was why most mages appeared refined on the surface - because learning spells itself required a fast-computing brain.

Someone of noble birth like him naturally easily received the best resources to learn some spells, but even someone like Kenji only knew some spells - it was simply a fantasy for ordinary soldiers to learn.

Many knowledgeable people in Camelot were constantly trying to enable ordinary soldiers to use powerful spells, but this idea was still being explored. What Rinas brought now might have no small effect.

"Did you bring their holy armor?" he asked eagerly.

However, faced with his inquiry, Rinas regretfully shook his head: "Sorry my lord, I had hoped to exchange some price for a complete set of holy armor. But the Western Empire’s people said they were powerless to help. Because the holy armor’s use is still watched by the church."

"I see..."

His words conveyed two meanings:

First, though the Western Empire now strived to break free from the church, they hadn’t reached the degree of truly opposing the church.

Second, their holy armor’s core technology probably wasn’t entirely in this machine before him, but in the holy armor itself.

Tch, cursed church, obstructer of world productivity progress!

Kenji cursed inwardly.

"However, though we couldn’t bring actual holy armor, I did get someone to acquire a model of the holy armor for me."

Hearing Rinas say this, Kenji’s eyes lit up.

"Quick, let me see!"