Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 403 - 18 The Water is Deep

Chapter 403: Chapter 18 The Water is Deep

Aske pondered for a moment and asked, "So what are their plans? Are they going to call in more people from the Empire?"

"His Majesty plans to negotiate with the Venice City State in the east first, to have them send people," Eleanor said. "I heard that there’s a councillor in Venice named Saint Suovino, a low-rank demigod who controls the ’Black Hole’ Law."

"I see, the Black Hole Excavator," Aske immediately grasped the concept.

The Black Hole Law, inherent in the Shadow Sequence, could generate an entrance that twisted space-time, transporting objects from the Main Plane to another space.

For instance, last year in Constantinople, when Aske used a sniper rifle to assassinate Enrique from a great distance, the Shadow Demigod by his side had activated the Black Hole Law to erase the bullet from the sniper rifle.

This Law was particularly useful for civil engineering tasks; whenever there was something underground to excavate, one just had to open a Black Hole and press down, and the soil below would vanish rapidly. It was humorously referred to as the "New Oriental Professional Black Hole Excavator" on player forums.

As long as they could enlist this demigod to deploy the Black Hole Law to plow through the minefields, there naturally wouldn’t be any danger left.

Aske fell into a thoughtful silence, "So, are we currently negotiating with Venice, asking them to provide support?"

"Yes, someone has already been sent there." Eleanor paused, her expression turning somewhat wry, "However, I’ve heard that Venice has also been in quite a mess recently; whether it’s negotiation pressure or military dealings, things are unlikely to go very smoothly."

"A mess?"

"Yes," Eleanor sighed, "I heard that just the day before yesterday, the Governor of Venice was hanged at the city gates."

"The culprit was the Pure Blood Monastery."

Aske: ..........

"Why would they hang the Venice Governor?" Aske wondered aloud.

"I don’t know," Eleanor shrugged.

One shouldn’t guess the motives of the Pure Blood Monastery; the last time a demigod had assassinated another demigod out of personal grudge, who’s to say whether the Governor of Venice and the Pure Blood Monastery had a personal vendetta?

"Alright," Aske concluded that this wasn’t our concern, leaving the upper echelons of the Empire to worry about it, "I’m going up for a bit."

"Aske..." Eleanor called out to him.

"What is it?"

"No, it’s nothing," Eleanor shook her head.

What’s with this girl lately, always hesitating to speak? Aske, somewhat speechless, pointed upstairs and said:

"I’m going to hand the Magic Potion over to Medea."

"Okay," Eleanor nodded, "I’m going back to practice."

She teleported back to Fire Island and arrived at the open space where she usually practiced her swordsmanship, picking up her Longsword.

In truth, what she wanted to say was that her Unyielding Holy Sword had made some progress recently.

Eleanor raised the Longsword, and Will concentrated into a white light on the blade’s edge, followed by a hefty downward slash.

The blade struck the target, and the white light dispersed instantly, but instead of exploding into nothingness like before, it slowly began to reaccumulate on the blade.

However, such a minor improvement probably wouldn’t catch the Squad Leader’s attention, would it?

Better wait until there was a real breakthrough to seek him out again.

————————

Around Valdanio Town, the number of injured soldiers from the Empire was increasing.

Despite the Dukes’ desire to preserve their forces and their reluctance to send soldiers into dangerous situations, the Emperor had come up with a new method.

A reward.

Using high bounties to entice soldiers to test and find effective methods for minesweeping, or to locate safe paths through minefields.

Under the lure of a hefty reward, there would always be brave souls willing to take the risk, but bravery alone was no match for landmines. Consequently, soldiers were soon blown to bits or lost limbs and lay in the minefields, wailing in agony.

Such gruesome scenes inevitably had a more severe negative impact on morale. Therefore, the dukes again collectively approached Emperor Otto, telling him that his policy wouldn’t be effective, as the soldiers lacked professional training and couldn’t possibly cope with landmines.

Emperor Otto stated, "If the Church Court dares to plant mines on its own terrain, it must have a way to dig them out again," "All we need to do is find that method."

Right there and then, the Duke of Franconia sarcastically remarked that the Church Court used Synthetic Humans for minesweeping, for whom death in an explosion would be of no concern. Although the Empire doesn’t have Synthetic Humans, "Your Majesty has Giant Dragons, right? Let two Giant Dragons roll over the ground to set off all the mines with crackling explosions, and they’ll surely pave a safe path, won’t they?"

The remark sent Emperor Otto into a rage on the spot, pointing at the grizzled griffon’s nose and denouncing him as a "traitor," ordering the Blade Warrior to arrest him.

The dukes could only rush forward to break up the furious quarrel, separating the two raging individuals.

Thus, the negotiation ended on a sour note. When the Duke of Bavaria returned, he told Henry and Eleanor what had happened, leaving the two children to ponder what should be done next.

Naturally, Eleanor went to find Aske, asking the Squad Leader to consider what to do.

"Don’t do anything," Aske said, "With something like landmines, you either use technology or extraordinary power; manual resolution is not realistic. After a few more explosions, the Emperor will understand. Didn’t we talk about seeking help from the Venetians?"

"Venice is now in chaos," Eleanor sighed, "Many citizens suspect that the Empire colluded with the Pure Blood Monastery to assassinate and hang the governor of Venice, so the city council is still debating whether to cooperate with the Imperial Army or not. But clearly, Emperor Otto can’t wait."

Aske was left speechless at Emperor Otto’s plight. Anyone knew that the pressing matter for the Empire was to quickly launch a southern expedition against the Church Court before it could recover its productivity. There was no time for squabbling with the small republic of the Venice City State.

However, could Emperor Otto be in collusion with the Pure Blood Monastery?

In an instant, Aske had a new thought flash into his mind: when Agrippina attempted to assassinate the demigod of the Wolf Family, she had claimed that her disciple was persuaded to act rashly by the opposition, leading to his death.

Was this reason true? If the Emperor had been colluding with the Pure Blood Monastery from the start, wanting to quickly end the civil war and then advance south to confront the Church Court...

Suddenly, Aske felt the waters were deeper than he had thought. Saxony Royal Family, Solomon Church Court, Pure Blood Monastery, Devil, Purgatory’s Jailer, Venice... The powers were complex and intertwined. While the main conflict appeared to be between the Imperial Family and the Church Court, in reality, there was no telling which powers were secretly colluding and plotting their conspiracies.

Far from the straightforward main storyline of the original game world: the Emperor embarks on a southern campaign against the Church Court, ends up outmatched in battle, and ultimately surrenders to the Pope... It was not that simple at all.

For his small Mercenary Group to rashly step into the center of this vortex was probably not a wise move.

Well, maybe it was best to lie low for a while.

"Don’t worry about it," Aske finally said, "Since there’s no strategy agreed upon, the dukes will probably just respond passively. Let the Emperor offer his bounty and let it blow up a few more times—soon the soldiers will realize there’s a problem, and then the Emperor will still have to come back to the dukes to discuss a new strategy."

"By the way, has your ’Will IV’ Magic Potion arrived yet? With this stalemate and the threat of war looming closer every minute of every night, the dangers for the Imperial Army grow greater. Advancing in rank as soon as possible is our top priority."

Shortly before The Azure Longsword was summoned, Aske had approached the Duke of Bavaria, informing him that his daughter, Eleanor, just needed one more "Will IV" to reach Level 10 and achieve Bloodline Completion.

His proposition was that if the Weisbach side had any missions, The Azure Longsword could undertake them in exchange for the final Magic Potion.

To his surprise, the Duke of Bavaria replied that there weren’t any pressing tasks at the moment.

The Magic Potion could be her reward for now, and the tasks would come later... they’ll be owed for the time being.

The father’s profound affection for his daughter was thus fully expressed.

"Father says that our demigod ancestor, Sealing Furnace Fire, has already entrusted an old friend with the task. They’re currently collecting the Spiritual Material," Eleanor reported truthfully, "It might take a few more weeks before it arrives."

"Can’t they hurry up a bit?" Aske pondered.

"Of course not!" Eleanor couldn’t help laughing and crying at the same time. A demigod had agreed to help collect the Magic Potion, which was a huge favor already—pushing a demigod to move faster would simply be too impolite.

However, Eleanor also felt something was amiss. Their demigod ancestor, Sealing Furnace Fire, typically stayed secluded and refrained from getting involved in worldly matters. Even when her father sought his help, it was often difficult to persuade him to act.

Why would he suddenly take such an interest in her Magic Potion? Had her father paid some extra price for me?

As she lost herself in wild thoughts, Henry, her older brother, suddenly rushed into the room.

"Eleanor!" He looked relieved to find his sister safe and sound here before he said in a serious tone:

"Your Majesty the Emperor has been the target of an assassination attempt!"