Steel steam and flame

Delia was sighing. After listening to Hessler's words, she who was sitting next to her suddenly lost the mood to continue processing the information.

"Why can't we always be of any help? Our only role is to collect intelligence, purchase and provide weapons, and determine temporary footholds, buy tickets for trains and ships, etc." At the end of the sentence, he ran out of energy.

In recent times, the factory business in the Tusinni area has continued to grow, and armors in abandoned mines in the suburbs are also being manufactured in an orderly manner according to the drawings. The manufacturing technology and processes for artillery and shells are updated rapidly. As a weapons dealer, Ben As for huge profits, you can still make more now. The factories and weapons sales in the Chil Kingdom are managed and operated by Waters. Since the internal war has been declared over, with the support of internal officials in the kingdom, the expansion of middlemen and transaction chains has also been extremely smooth.

The small domestic stronghold network led by Hessler later selected people to join and train, and cooperated with Waters' black market weapons sales network. After Cassia made a qualified and excellent start, it also entered into rapid and smooth development. stage.

During this period of time, Delya truly felt that she did have an effect, and was sincerely happy about it. After coming out of the Brino region and becoming the first member of the Knights, this was the first time that she felt that she had value for the leader and the force with the Knights as the core, and found a reasonable position. .

only,,,

"It's not your fault, it has nothing to do with you at all." Hessler, who noticed the change in Delya's mood, put down his drink and consoled him, "It would have been the same for anyone else. It's not your fault. You are already very good. The fault is with the leader, not you. Both the strength and the things he has been exposed to are far above the normal level, and it is completely normal to not be able to keep up."

It had no effect, and Delya's mood became even lower. Hessler smacked his lips, a little helpless: "Everyone who becomes a member of the Knights feels the same way, don't blame yourself too much. As I said, this is entirely the responsibility of the leader, and there is nothing we can do..."

"Just like me, when I returned to Manoma from the extreme area, I still regarded the then group leader as prey, thinking that I would finally have someone who could practice for a long time. The reason why I joined was all because of Well. But later... you know, at first I was still keen on looking for him, but then I got beaten too much and lost interest. I no longer had any interest at all. I couldn't beat him long ago. If it weren't for the group leader's frequent If you don’t take it seriously, you won’t know how miserable it is during practice.”

"Alas..." Delya sighed heavily, very unwillingly, "It's all the leader's fault..."

"Yes." Hessler echoed, "But we still have to do what we can do, even if we know it won't have a big effect."

"Can't we bring those people from the small country's stronghold network? After all, they are also one of the top people in the region." Delya asked after thinking about it.

Hessler picked up the drink again, "Regardless of whether they are familiar with the empire's environment, with their strength, they can survive well in the empire, but if they want to play some role..., they may only be able to help block and strengthen steel-cased bomb shrapnel. Of course, against the regiment leader's enemies, asking them to use a few more bullets and swing a few more swords might be a way to consume the enemy's physical strength. However, it may also be to help the enemy warm up, not necessarily. .”

Delia said no more.

"It is also very important to collect intelligence or make good contact with the corresponding personnel. Especially after what happened at the Knights of the Round Table station a few days ago, the enemy has already grasped Ye Jielin. As a key point, the leader After returning to Manoma, the first thing must be to understand the detailed process. I am already in contact with Atuohuan, and the results will be available tonight or tomorrow. As for what to do next...” That’s it. With no further follow-up, Hessler drank the wine in one gulp, exhaled several times, and then started working on the materials placed beside him.

,,,,,,

Cassia has not spoken much since she got on the train from junior high school. Such a silent Kasia seems to be in her normal state.

Four people on the train were sitting opposite each other in the compartment. The scenery was flowing outside the window, passing by an open field, but it did not arouse the interest of any of them.

It took a day to go to the transportation gathering place in the border area. After confirming the itinerary there, the journey of constantly changing trains began. There is no choice of airship. Not everyone can afford the means of transportation. Identity screening and control are much simpler than trains.

The heavy rainstorm came on the second day after taking the train. It was not as big as the "land waterfall", but it was not far different in terms of momentum. It took the train a whole day to get out of the area affected by the heavy rain. The sunshine was not very warm after that, and there was a big gap in environment and climate between the regions divided by the empire.

It was now exactly ten days before I boarded the train and started my journey, but the distance to Manoma was only a little more than half. The journey was always accompanied by boredom, and it was only on the fifth day that Cassia picked up the book again. After my mood changed, it was rare that I couldn't focus on the paper full of type. A book that could be read in one or two hours before now takes Cassia dozens of times longer to read.

The page of the book came to the end. Cassia slowly read the last few sentences in her head, closed the book, and placed it on the long and narrow table in front of her.

Isha and the others, like Cassia, put their spirits into the book. It's just that the books they read are different. They all introduce the empire and Manoma related information. There are many things they have to adapt to, whether it is the environment or various machines that are more convenient and advanced than small countries.

The continuous running thoughts made Cassia very tired. There are too many lines in my head, and they are twisted into a ball. They are either stuck in a loop, or they will encounter a dead end soon and there will be no path. He has not yet contacted Delya, Hessler, or Hai, because Cassia's mood is not stable, and he is a little afraid that after contacting him, he will hear about a worse situation.

Everything stopped ten days ago, at least for Cassia. No progress, no solution.

"My original decisions and actions were all wrong. There is really nothing left to place hope on in the empire. I don't know how many more mistakes I will have to make in the future..."

"Weakness is the greatest sin." Cassia closed her eyes, and this sentence came to her mind, like the only one. In Cassia's mind at this moment, during the knight squire assessment period, the Imperial Council, which he thought could play a role, was nothing more than a heavy steel wheel that crushed the last thing, walking past him like that. Without any nostalgia, his own shadow blurred and disappeared.