" Hela, how is the situation at the front?" As he flipped through the materials in his hands, several mechanical arms now extended from behind him. Even as he spoke, they tirelessly reviewed the mountain of documents piled across the desk.
Standing before his long table was Hela. Many had believed that after the Mechanical Cathedral fell from power, this High Minister of the Machine Nexus would be killed, and the Candlelight Society would take control of the entire cathedral.
On the contrary, Hela had now practically become Jules's spokesperson within the Holy See. She often even presided over affairs in his place and had clearly become the Candlelight Society's second-in-command.
Hela wore a black veil, beneath which the intricate mechanical structures of her face could vaguely be seen. Lowering her gaze to the report in her hands, she said, "@#%*--*!&@#"
Jules sighed. "These old devices are always like this..." >...@# ￥@"
The words from his mouth suddenly turned into a long string of sharp ticking sounds at varying pitches. When Hela heard them, her eyes went unfocused for an instant.
6 ...Language system switched to: Imperial language.
"Your Holiness, the situation on our front is very unfavorable. The Steam Tanks only gave us some initial advantage. Once Castel's self-propelled artillery reached the battlefield, that advantage steadily diminished."
"Moreover, the number of self-propelled artillery pieces far exceeded our expectations. Castel's production capacity... is terrifying."
There was even a faint tremor in Hela's emotionless mechanical voice, as though she feared Castel.
"Machines can feel fear too?" Jules murmured.
"...In any case, we need to deploy the War Fortress to the battlefield. Otherwise, in the face of the enemy's rapidly increasing self-propelled artillery, defeat is only a matter of time."
"No need to rush. Castel's potential has yet to be