Chapter 101: Germa
The topic veered in an unexpected direction.
The ministers, suddenly enlightened, secretly reflected inwardly, reviewing their own filthy thoughts in their hearts while eagerly speaking up one after another, praising Chief Justice Harold’s excellent proposal. Although not everyone supported the choice of the mermaid princess, no matter what, it was indeed time to properly discuss the kingdom’s future.
Elus, as the designated next king, his future was equivalent to the kingdom’s future. The ministers’ glory and wealth depended on Berville, but their descendants’ prospects would fall into Elus’s hands, so for the kingdom’s future, it was time to worry about Elus’s marriage.
“But the mermaid princess, her status isn’t quite suitable, right?”
“Harold already said that this mermaid princess is just one of the candidates under consideration. Other suitable candidates also need to be evaluated, right? Moreover, such words absolutely cannot be said in front of the mermaids; it’s discriminatory language, which is not conducive to relations between the two countries and could cause unnecessary disputes.”
“What a hassle! These subhuman races······”
“I said you can’t say that; the mermaid tribe is also human.”
“Right, Your Majesty, what do you think?”
The ministers discussed for a couple of sentences, then remembered that this matter still needed His Majesty the King’s approval—no, the queen’s opinion could not be ignored either, and plus Prince Elus’s own views······this job was probably not going to be easy.
Berville’s view?
It was helpless!
He turned his head to look at Elus sitting beside him. As a father, he had been concerned about Elus’s major life event for a long time, and had privately brought it up with Elus several times, but each time he was brushed off, showing no intention of preparing to get married at all.
Of course, at his age in his prime, the kingdom was not anxious about lacking an heir, and the matter had not yet reached the point of urgency where it had to be done.
But as parents!
They always hoped to see their son settle down and start a family. Well, starting a career didn’t need much worry; this kingdom would eventually be Elus’s, so only the matter of starting a family needed attention. He and his wife had discussed it many times; after all, when he was Elus’s age, Elus had already been born.
“El, you······ do you have any plans?”
Berville still sought his son’s opinion.
“Mm, I don’t want to cause too much commotion.” Elus did not refuse or evade as before, because he had already rejected and avoided this topic multiple times. Only when parents or grandfather mentioned it could he perfunctorily brush it off, but now even the ministers were concerned. Refusing now would just mean it would be brought up again after some time.
In this world, at his current age, he was already long old enough to start a family.
So,
Rather than blindly refusing and declining, it was better to agree first and then drag it out slowly. Anyway, his marriage partner definitely wouldn’t be decided in a short time, because as long as he himself wasn’t satisfied, the matter would never progress.
This way, he could continue enjoying his current carefree life.
He had not yet grown tired of these happy days.
In single status, he could play however he wanted freely, no matter how wildly, it was allowed. If he got married, not to mention his wife, just his mother alone would absolutely not allow him to be as unrestrained as he was now.
“I don’t want to be endlessly reported in the newspaper with a bunch of boring gossip news. My opinion is to collect some information first; for my marriage, it has to be someone I like!” Elus said this.
“Good, good, good!!! El, rest assured, your wife definitely has to be someone you like······Actually, I’ve already collected quite a bit of information here: several princesses, noble children from other countries, daughters of big merchants······El, take a look; is there anyone you like?”
His Majesty the King excitedly rubbed his hands and called over the secretary guarding outside the door, having him bring over the information he had collected from the archives.
The secretary, along with attendants, brought in several boxes of information. Seeing the boxes placed on the conference table, the ministers clicked their tongues in praise of His Majesty the King’s thorough preparations.
Elus’s eyes widened,
A vein throbbing at his temple.
If not for his own old man showing genuine surprise earlier due to the Minister of Justice’s statement, he would have suspected his father was setting a trap for him!
“Father, we’re still in the middle of the meeting, and there are many matters to handle. These things might as well be sent to my place first; I’ll look through them slowly when I have time.” Without waiting for Berville to nod, Elus loudly called Fran’s name, and a group of maids quickly carried out all the just-opened boxes.
“······Alright! El, I know you might still want to play for a couple more years. Your generation of young people seems to love playing, but you really should start considering this matter. Remember to look through those materials when you have time!”
His Majesty the King’s excited mood faded away.
He wasn’t stupid; he could somewhat see the lack of urgency hidden beneath his son’s cooperative attitude.
“Mm, mm, I got it. Let’s quickly discuss the next matter!”
Elus urged.
The meeting continued.
————
North Blue, a certain Navy base.
Dark clouds stretched endlessly across the sky, thick black heavy cloud layers blocking the sunlight. Bone-chilling cold winds rushed from the sea onto the island, bit by bit sweeping away the thick gunpowder smoke lingering in the air above the island.
A small-scale war had just occurred here.
The invading Revolutionary Army broke through the Navy base with limited strength, defeated the stationed Navy and the agents from the CP department, opened the prison, and rescued their captured companions. This battle was unremarkable; the Navy base had no powerful experts, and the Revolutionary Army attacking to break out prisoners was just a small unit. Even the captured Revolutionary Army cadre wasn’t a big shot.
If they had really caught a high-ranking Revolutionary Army cadre, they would absolutely send them away immediately, rather than throwing them in the Navy base’s prison as bait to lure bigger targets.
This seemingly simple plan had undoubtedly succeeded; the Revolutionary Army had indeed been hooked.
Only,
The CP agents hadn’t expected a giant dragon to suddenly burst up from below the opened deck. It was a red dragon, a giant dragon that could breathe fire. Small-caliber cannonballs couldn’t even break its scales. With the help of this ferocious creature, the Revolutionary Army, which was disadvantaged in both strength and numbers, easily achieved victory and smoothly rescued their companion.
“Giant dragon······The Revolutionary Army actually has something like this!!!”
On the ruins of the breached Navy base, a tall middle-aged man walked along streets still burning with residual fires. He wore a metal helmet, had a head of golden long hair, two upward-angled pointed black whiskers at the corners of his mouth, was dressed in a light gray combat uniform marked with “66,” and wore an orange cape over it.
“Father, shouldn’t we make a move to capture that beast? If we chase now, we can still catch up.” Following beside the man, a young man with fiery red hair said with murderous intent. His red combat uniform also bore the “66” numeral mark.
Next to him was another youth of about the same age, with green hair and a green combat uniform; on the chest of his combat uniform was also the “66” mark.
Mm, rather than calling them youths, “teenagers” was more appropriate. Ignoring those cruel, cold eyes, just looking at their appearances, they were about sixteen or seventeen years old teenagers.
“The Revolutionary Army is not to be trifled with.”
The middle-aged man shook his head.
The desire for more and stronger power hadn’t yet overwhelmed his reason. A giant dragon was tempting, but not tempting enough for him to dare touch the Revolutionary Army’s whiskers.
At this moment—
A hoarse shout came from ahead.
“Halt, who are you people? This is a Navy base; without permission······”
The first lieutenant officer, somewhat injured but not seriously and still able to walk, dutifully spotted this group of sudden unwelcome guests and immediately raised his army-standard long sword, whose blade had several chips, pointing it at the three in front of him.
Then—
“6······6, you, you are······Jermma 66?”
Seeing clearly the clothing on the three, especially that eye-catching “66” numeral mark, as a native North Blue first lieutenant officer, he had grown up hearing stories of the Navy hero “Sola” who could walk on the sea battling the legendary evil organization Jermma 66.
After growing up, he learned that the Navy hero “Sola” was a fictional character, but the evil organization Jermma 66 truly existed. Jermma 66 was actually the name of the Jermma Kingdom’s army. The Jermma Kingdom’s royal family, the Vinsmoke clan, had once ruled the entire North Blue. Back then, even the North Blue Navy had to yield before Jermma 66.
Even now, though the Jermma Kingdom no longer had the power to dominate the entire North Blue, Jermma 66 remained the symbol of an evil organization that could scare children into silence. Even though the Jermma Kingdom was a World Government member nation, this didn’t stop the North Blue people from fearing the legendary evil organization Jermma 66.
Thus,
That unfinished shout got stuck in his throat, unable to make a sound anymore, but the Navy’s honor and dignity prevented him from immediately kneeling and submitting.
To the point that he stood rigidly in place like a statue.
“First Lieutenant, I am Vinsmoke Judge, King of the Jermma Kingdom. We happened to pass by this time and wanted to resupply some supplies at this base, but we didn’t expect to encounter this situation.” Vinsmoke Judge, the patriarch of the Vinsmoke family known as the “Monster Garuda,” King of the Jermma Kingdom, commander of Jermma 66.
He spoke very politely to this first lieutenant officer who was stiff like a stone man.
His voice was very imposing.
However, his tone was not stern; rather, it was quite amiable, somewhat mismatched with that legendary monster image.
Compared to His Majesty the King’s good attitude, the young people by his side had no good tempers.
“Tch, what’s there to say to this small fry.”
The green-haired kid muttered disdainfully in a low voice, a voice “low” enough for the first lieutenant eight or nine meters away to hear clearly.
“Um, Your Majesty······Please forgive us; we can’t help you resupply immediately right now. Most marines are injured, and we really can’t spare manpower to help transport supplies to your ship. If you’re not in a hurry, you can wait a bit; reinforcements should arrive soon······”
The first lieutenant finally controlled the fear in his heart.
No matter how deeply ingrained the impression of Jermma 66 as an evil organization was, it couldn’t change the fact that the Jermma Kingdom was a veteran World Government member nation. As a force under the World Government, the Navy had, to a certain extent, the duty to assist and protect these World Government member nations.
He mustered his courage to respond to Judge.
“I understand. Seeing your sorry state, I get it. But we have our own manpower; just help point out the location of the warehouses.”
Rows of magnificently built soldiers wearing identical combat uniforms—even their faces were exactly the same—marched in unison into the Navy base, heading under the pale-faced first lieutenant’s guidance to the warehouses to carry supplies.
The talk of resupplying supplies was actually a lie.
King Judge’s purpose here wasn’t for some worthless grain and ammunition; he came for the Revolutionary Army’s giant dragon. Not long ago, the Navy discovered a Revolutionary Army branch base, but the Navy, which had gathered overwhelming superior forces, not only failed to breach that small Revolutionary Army base.
But instead was routed and forced to retreat by a giant dragon.
After that, Judge, upon receiving the intelligence, immediately took great interest in this so-called giant dragon. The Jermma Kingdom was originally a famous technology great power, relying on advanced technology as a strong backing to dominate North Blue.
And Judge himself had once been an excellent scientist, even belonging to the same overseas illegal research group as Doctor Vegapunk, the world’s top scientist affiliated with the Navy Science Unit in his youth. At that time, Vegapunk discovered the major research achievement of the bloodline factor, and Judge had the fortune to obtain some information on the bloodline factor.
Later, Vegapunk was arrested by the World Government and then joined the Navy Science Unit, but Judge cleverly evaded the World Government’s arrest. He returned to his North Blue homeland, back to the Jermma Kingdom, continuing research and development applications of the bloodline factor. Using the bloodline factors of several excellent Jermma soldiers, he “cloned” soldiers that could be produced in batches every five years, forming the new Jermma 66 army that made countries around the world tremble in fear.
It could be said that he himself was an expert-level figure in biological weapons. Upon receiving news of the Revolutionary Army using a giant dragon to rout the Navy, based on his intuition and scientific knowledge, he immediately judged that this giant dragon was likely the same as the clone soldiers he cultivated—both man-made biological weapons.
The reason he came to this unremarkable Navy base today was because intelligence indicated the Revolutionary Army might appear, which was why he happened to be here.
“Sure enough······it’s a man-made biological weapon.”
Judge picked up a fallen scale from the ruins underfoot and made his judgment.
