Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 148 - 52: Contrast Moe

Chapter 148: Chapter 52: Contrast Moe

The next morning.

The girls who focused on spiritual classes had gone to the Transcendents University, while those who were physically oriented stayed on Fire Island to continue honing their skills.

Only Aske, who had just been promoted to Lv.5 (and wouldn’t need a Magic Potion for a while), and Hood stayed in the army barracks’ workshop, working on something.

"I suddenly realized there’s a fatal flaw in your team," Hood said as he operated the machine tool.

"What’s the problem?" Aske asked, arms crossed.

"Your girls lack distinctiveness," Hood assessed.

Lack distinctiveness? Right, Aske immediately understood what he meant.

These girls had been scouted by him since their rookie days and he had personally nurtured them to this point. The advantage was that they progressed faster and didn’t detour, but the downside was that their fighting styles were also leaning towards his own, lacking a bit of personal flair.

Even if Aske was confident, he couldn’t claim his style was completely flawless. If the whole team had one style and then someone targeted it deliberately... that would indeed be a tricky issue.

"Seems like I need to give them more opportunities to explore on their own," Aske mused, "Let them freely develop a fighting style that suits each of them."

Hood: ??

"I’m not talking about fighting styles, I mean personality!" Hood corrected him, "Don’t you think your girls are all lackluster in terms of personality?"

"What do you mean by distinctiveness?" Aske was utterly confused.

"Let’s say, for instance," Hood continued, "Eleanor, the Justice Knight, could be tagged with a conservative and old-fashioned personality, right?"

"Like being a mechanical idiot who can’t use a smartphone; gets lost easily; stands up when seeing the weak bullied—though stern, there’s also a soft side to her nature, especially loving small animals..."

"Or take Peggy, for instance, could be marked with a yandere trait. Like secretly following you every day, grinding her teeth in jealousy when she sees you talking with other girls, hiding eighty cleavers in her clothes..."

"Are you writing a novel?" Aske couldn’t help but laugh as he interrupted, "Where do all these bizarre traits come from?"

"Without these traits, your harem isn’t fun at all!" Hood strongly objected.

"We are a Mercenary Group, not a harem party," Aske emphasized, "A Mercenary Group doesn’t need to deliberately collect people with vivid personalities; we just need promising recruits, then train them into reliable forces for the battlefield."

"That’s so boring," Hood complained.

"It doesn’t need to be fun," Aske insisted, "Just winning is enough."

"Just keep winning."

Hood was stunned for a moment, suddenly feeling this guy was kind of scary in his stubbornness.

"Anyway, on to the second point," Aske sighed helplessly, "Are those tags also from novels and anime? Artistic works often use distinct personality tags to show techniques."

"But look around in reality, who is like that? Getting lost easily—does it mean their brain isn’t fully developed? Secretly hiding dozens of cleavers—isn’t there really something wrong with their mind? Shouldn’t they be sent to mental health treatment?"

"Because reality is so bland and boring, that’s why we need to find some fun!" Hood cried out mournfully, "You devastatingly complacent sod! You’ve opened a harem and still want to crush the dreams of us harem fans! Can’t you allow some room for imagination?!"

"What does this have to do with me?" Aske was also getting annoyed, "It’s not like I get to decide their personalities! And you, always accusing me of having a harem, do you want me to drill a hole in your head first?"

"What’s wrong with a man having some crazy ideas!" Hood quickly clutched his head, "I’m just trying to make them cuter!"

"Sorry, then I guess I’m not cute enough." Eleanor’s voice came from outside.

Both men stiffly turned their heads to see Eleanor leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, with a face that said, "Look at what you two are arguing about."

"When did you get here?" Aske asked with a forced laugh.

"When you said ’I have no distinctive features’," Eleanor replied flatly.

"Uh... ah, that’s right! Hood is developing a new weapon for you!" Aske quickly changed the subject, giving Hood a signal, "Hood, bring it out."

"Ah? But that’s..." Hood hadn’t caught on yet.

"It’s the new weapon developed for Eleanor," Aske emphasized.

Hood, speechless, picked up a streamlined longsword from the workbench.

Upon hearing about a new weapon, Eleanor’s attention was immediately drawn.

Although it looked roughly like a sword, its blade was extremely narrow and tapered, carrying a cold and unsettling sheen. The line of the blade curved slightly, resembling more of a knife, with dense patterns etched upon the blade.

"Hot Melt Blade!" Hood lifted it, boasting, "Made from a super high-temperature resistant tantalum hafnium carbide alloy, it incorporates a three-dimensional web of hollow channels internally, powered by a single-phase nuclear fusion battery that heats it up. A thermal pump circulates flame-retardant thermal oil through these channels, allowing the blade’s edge to heat up to several thousand degrees Celsius, capable of slicing through the steel structure of Power Armor."

Eleanor took the Hot Melt Blade, pressed the switch as Hood had instructed, and indeed, the edge quickly turned a visible red, and the air around began to sizzle with heat.

She swung it casually at some steel piled next to her, cutting through it as easily as a hot knife through butter, the split edges of the steel dripping slightly as if melted.

"It looks pretty impressive," Eleanor commented, "But this isn’t the weapon meant for me, is it?"

Aske fell silent, aware that he couldn’t fool her.

As an MT (Main Tank), Eleanor’s role was to attract enemy Hate, so the ideal weapon for her was not a high-damage output weapon but one with high durability and a broader range of attack, like a long spear or a broadsword.

"Then, I’ll just take it to Peggy," Eleanor said as she stowed away the Hot Melt Blade and turned to leave, "Since you guys have been badmouthing her, hopefully, she’ll forgive you for the sake of this weapon."

"Wait a minute, Eleanor!" Aske called out hurriedly, "Don’t tell her, please!"

"Just kidding," Eleanor turned back and winked.

"After all, I’m not all tough and unbending," she said mischievously, as if she had succeeded in her prank.

As the door closed again, Aske finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Good, no misunderstanding occurred.

He turned to Hood, only to find the young man staring blankly at the door, with two trails of blood slowly trickling from his nose.

"Hood, what’s the matter?" Aske was somewhat astonished.

"It’s the charm of contrast..." Hood muttered.