Metamorphosis

"Haha!" the workshop owner laughed, "I don't think Rhodes Island knows everything!"

He said with great interest, "Although Originium Slug don't have much of a memory, they still feel fear when facing people they haven't had long-term contact with!"

"Actually, there are people on Rhodes Island who get along very well with the Originium Slug!" Amiya said, "Like Operator Vanilla!"

Oute quietly observed the little rabbit's rare smile and asked, "Did you label the ingredients of your homemade beer?"

The workshop owner's face stiffened. "Doctor... please spare me..."

There are many techniques for brewing beer using Originium Slug, and anyone could potentially discover the secret recipe on their own.

Some people choose to throw newly hatched Originium Slug into piles of chaff, waiting for the Originium Slug to grow Originium Slug rich in chaff components before brewing beer with the shells and hops. Others choose to feed the Originium Slug hops and use the hop-rich mucus from the Originium Slug to brew beer.

In Stonepile Village, there are craft beers made using the latter method.

It needs to be emphasized beforehand that only one private workshop in Stonepile Village uses this technique, and it has kept it very secret all along—this technique is indeed somewhat disgusting to ordinary people.

Beep beep.

PRTS reminded them, "Doc Otter, Amiya, the encirclement is complete."

The workshop owner said worriedly, "Doctor... I know you are all good people, but is this really necessary?"

Oute said, "Amiya, now you know what the consequences are of revealing the battle plan."

This scoundrel sets rules while simultaneously breaking them.

As if joking, he used information about the hunt for bounty hunters to gain the brewery owner's honesty about his unique beer recipe.

To be honest... the workshop owner didn't even understand how to sell this kind of information.

Oute bid farewell to the workshop owner. "Don't worry, in the worst-case scenario, the bounty hunters will only flee north and won't be able to harm you."

The workshop owner hesitated, but was too embarrassed to say that he was actually worried about potential casualties on Rhodes Island.

He simply waved goodbye.

A boot slipped through the grass, but a dewdrop lingered on its surface. Specter started the vehicle first.

This time, Oute and Amiya sat together in the back seat.

"In fact, being dissuaded by someone who lacks a sense of the big picture, based on their own experience, is simply the least harmful form of intelligence leak in war."

He has once again misrepresented the facts.

Faced with Oute's instruction, Amiya stood up and asked, "But what if the difference in combat strength isn't so obvious, and a bounty hunter escapes the encirclement and attacks the villagers?"

The two were not discussing the current campaign to eliminate the bounty hunters.

Amiya is a bright and intelligent girl who deeply loves her small family, consisting of herself, Kal'tsit Theresa, and Oute. However, she holds a simple and kind view of war.

Or, to put it another way: Amiya held a simple view of war, and she was also a clever girl.

Oute's words when he assembled his soldiers and intervened in the Lai Village incident have already outlined a fact for Amiya, who knows him extremely well:

Oute intends to forge Rhodes Island into a war machine and actively engage in a war.

This is not even a secret in Rhodes Island:

Regardless of whether Oute learned the details of the Sarkaz civil war from other angles, his cold and hostile attitude towards the "Regent" was particularly evident to the "old man" with his Babel background.

Some cheered, others frowned, but ultimately they all remained silent, expressing their stance—they did not object.

"We didn't start the war; we just accepted it," Oute said. "And since we accepted it, the only possible outcome to consider is how to win."

"Doc Otter ..." Amiya grabbed Oute's hand, hesitatingly asking, "How much have you pieced together about Rhodes Island's predecessor, about the Babel, and the Sarkaz civil war?"

"What we can gather from public sources, and what we can piece together from Rhodes Island documents," Oute said. "Including Rhodes Island's role during the Civil War, and our hostile relationship with Theresis."

This also includes the fact that I shut down Rhodes Island's defense system, which remains closed to this day.

Oute glanced at the terminal.

Who was it that reminded me of this back then? PRTS? Priestess? Or some aspect of Seaborn within Laurentina?

The desire to pursue the truth overshadowed all other emotions.

Amiya breathed a sigh of relief upon sensing Oute's inner emotions.

She changed the subject on the spot. "His Highness's followers are better than ordinary soldiers, but... in terms of discipline, they are not as good as the current soldiers."

This isn't because these Ursus people and Yan people are so kind.

"They had almost no opportunity to plunder, the ranks lacked tradition, and they didn't even have the mindset for it," Oute added. "Moreover, materially, their pay was very good. This was a condition that didn't exist during the Sarkaz Civil War."

The wheels kept spinning on the main road, gradually accelerating, and when they passed a certain extreme point, it seemed as if they began to reverse.

The packcart was struck by the flying bounty hunter, causing it to spin backwards and the wheels to swivel several times.

"Ouch!"

The bounty hunter tumbled sideways, falling off the cart with a bruised and swollen face.

"Damn Rhodes Island! Are those country bumpkins your father or your mother!?"

He was muttering curses under his breath, unaware that these meddlesome Rhodes Island operators were not only making their moves in one village.

In fact, centered on Tsvonnek, the bounty hunters who were harassing the villagers like clockwork were all driven back to their hideout by Rhodes Island operators.

Several hours later.

Under the scorching sun, a huge tent stood in the center of the camp, and the sound of a heated argument came from inside.

"... Rhodes Island needs to be taught a lesson!"

"They've partnered with Gail Industries. What if they use underhanded tactics to withhold our wages?!"

"What to do?! Just let it be!" Fire Lung roared, "I'll forgo the final payment and make those Khan doctors pay me two pounds off!"

He cursed, "It's bad enough that they're always getting in the way, but today they even prescribed the wrong medicine for themselves! They sent our entire group back in one go!"

So, you taught me that phrase?

Yellow Smoke Yan said, "Fine, fine, before we go digging up the graves, we need to let people know we're not to be trifled with!"

Chapter 310 Metamorphosis

The steel behemoth silently sailed toward the horizon across the land of Kazimierz, with soldiers already ahead in its path, aboard makeshift transport vehicles.

And on the distant horizon, the figures of the Knights seemed to be visible.

Shifting our gaze back to the center of the two, in the middle of the vast grassland, about a kilometer from a stream, lies the camp of a group of bounty hunters.

The earth trembled slightly, revealing the future course of events, yet the hunters continued their debate.

"... What's the point of killing villagers? Those soft-hearted people might feel sorry for them, but we're not doing this because they feel sorry for us!"

"You're not! I am!"

"Break into their pharmacy, drag the Khan's doctor out and kill him, and you'll establish a pillar of the profession!"

The near-ground aircraft slowly approached, their increasingly ferocious machine guns silently bowing their heads, while tiny explosives drifted down from below.

"It's so cold!"

"It's getting foggy?"

"Could it be Catastrophe!?"

Regardless of their guesses, the perfectly aligned soldiers had already emerged from the thick fog.

On a near-Earth aircraft.

Oute leaned against the hatch, staring blankly at the mist below, and said, "Nearl, still don't want to go back to Kawalerielki?"

The Radiant Knight denied it, saying, "It's not that I don't want to go back, I'm just still thinking about it."

She was also leaning against the hatch, but unlike Oute, she had a thermal imaging camera mounted on her eye socket.

Specter and Amiya were both in the center of the cabin.

Leaving aside the Specter who was in charge of the guard duties, Oute pulled Amiya up there to continue instilling his ideas.

"What exactly is a knight?" Nearl asked herself, then answered, "When I left Kazimierz, I firmly believed that knights represented many admirable virtues. Before you, Doc Otter, awoke, I began to think that 'a knight is a sublime being who illuminates the entire earth.'"

"And now?"

The soldiers marched in silence, bullets and axe blades making strange noises in the thick fog. Similar to how W's Sarkaz mercenaries were infiltrated into the battle, those operators who already possessed Originium Arts were once again incorporated into the army by Oute, serving as the backbone of the legion.

Because this carefully selected soldier became part of Oute's direct forces, he didn't need an additional commander. He could even simply "hot-plug" him in, deploying operators whenever a battle broke out.

The bounty hunters who had repeatedly wreaked havoc on this land were now at a loss in the thick fog.

However, for the same reason, these carefully selected soldiers were actually outnumbered. Even with the dense fog blocking their way, a significant number of bounty hunters still managed to escape.

Beyond the dense fog, even the threat of a few soldiers was too much for these already demoralized hunters to resist. Consequently, the retreating bounty hunters blindly rushed toward their only "path to survival."

This armed force, this armed force belonging to Rhodes Island, belonging to Oute... is doing something that the Knights of Kazimierz cannot do on their own initiative for various reasons.

Nearl looked down, using his senses to closely monitor the battlefield.

At the same time, she continued, "But, after you, Doc Otter, awoke... more precisely, after that lesson..."

Blood price.

"I began to realize that binding lofty morals to the label of knight, and then flaunting the rule of knightly lords, is no different from what the Pegasi people of the gods once did."

"If the Pegasi is not inherently noble and entitled to rule all of Kazimierz, then why should the knights be allowed to rule?"

"I've been rethinking things for a long time, in fertilizer manufacturing plants, in these rural clinics... things I hadn't taken to heart have become increasingly heavy."

Nearl closed his eyes, then opened them again. "They used the term 'knight' to refer to both an identity and a spirit, and this spirit was indeed incredibly sublime, which veiled the originally bloody and violent 'knightly class' with a layer of mystery."

In the thick fog, the smell of rust grew stronger.

Oute interrupted, "To view naturally occurring social evolution as a carefully designed trap by the superstructure is still a form of cynicism."

This person downplayed it by using a more cynical approach. "After all, those in power are short-sighted and lack long-term vision. They lack the intelligence, perseverance, and teamwork to accomplish such a long-term goal."

In the battlefield below, Fire Lung and Yellow Smoke have broken through the encirclement.

Looking back at everything within the thick fog, they suddenly realized that the seemingly endless enemies were actually quite few.

"Damn it! I've been tricked! I'll get my revenge!"

"Shut up! They're terrified; going back would be suicide!"