Chapter 714 07.713: “Knight’s Invitation”

“God Emperor, you were able to control the captured servant mecha, challenge the knight mecha to a duel, and save my wife? I don’t know where to start being surprised.”

When Baron Bayard heard what the baroness said, his thin chin moved, and a pair of long horse ears stood up and dangled on top of his head.

His four attendants exchanged glances with each other, looking at each other, not daring to breathe, with a look of awe on their faces.

These servants were still young, but obviously much older than Horatio’s physical age, around twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

Challenging a duel against the Knight Mecha is something so crazy that they dare not even think about it at this stage.

If this person was from the Imperial Navy and was ignorant and fearless, so he dared to launch such a challenge, then they could only mourn in silence and sigh for the God-Emperor warrior who had such courage but was destined to fall.

But at this moment, he was still standing here safely.

what does this mean?
The servants and Baron Bayar looked at the wreckage of the fallen knight Creedence lying in the crater, and instantly had the answer in their minds:
This means that the captain from the Imperial Navy won the duel.

This achievement, in the entire world of knights, can be regarded as a legendary feat like “St. George slaying the dragon”.

“You have accomplished an astonishing feat here, Lord Cochrane.

Now that the battle line has been breached, the 1313th and 1314th Infantry Regiments will probably rotate and rest.

I wonder if you are free tonight. I sincerely invite you to have a banquet in my temporary knight’s castle.

I failed to fulfill my promise to fight and rush to your position in time, and you took the trouble to save my wife.

God-Emperor, in the name of the Knight, I owe you a great favor.”

[Yeah, keep going, keep praising it, it sounds good! I love it!]
Being praised by the noble imperial knight, Horatio felt so proud that he felt like being tickled by a swan feather, and it was simply beyond words.

Of course, he remained calm and didn’t show any emotion.

Be decent! We are all imperial knights, noble people, so we must behave elegantly! We must behave elegantly!

“We are all warriors of the God-Emperor. I am just fulfilling my duty.”

Horatio responded in a very humble tone, “But since it is the noble Knight Bayard who invited me, I will be honored.

However, please allow me to bring along my team members, who have been through thick and thin with me, and we have always shared the glory and disgrace together. I must not be the only one to enjoy this honor.”

“You radiate humility, my Lord.

As you wish, I will write a special invitation letter to invite you and your companions to a banquet at my Knight’s Castle.

I sincerely hope that this opportunity will further deepen our understanding and cooperation with the Imperial Navy.

After all, you know that the deployment of Freeblade is inseparable from starships. Without starships, our knight mechas simply cannot cross the vast sea of ​​stars, so our cooperation with the Imperial Navy has a long history.

It’s just that in the past, it was your navy that selflessly contributed to our Knights, and we rarely had the opportunity to help the Imperial Navy.”

To this day, Horatio, who has been working in the imperial officialdom for many years, always says that “soldiers are pure and will never interfere in politics”, but when he says this now, it is just a pretext to avoid suspicion.

Since he had already decided to do something big, he formed a secret association called the “National Salvation Alliance” and secretly prepared to form an exclusive Space Marine regiment for the Imperial Navy to create an integrated air-to-ground combat force for the Imperial Navy. He also secretly interacted with the seemingly less “loyal” regiments such as the Man-eater and the Ash Claws, and flirted with them.

How can we miss the cooperation with the Knights of Free Blade?
Anyway, the Guilliman Code only stipulates that the Imperial Navy cannot possess the Astra Militarum’s current battle tanks, but it does not mention that it cannot deploy giant war mechas as high as 8 to 12 meters.

It just so happened that the naval ship was large enough, and the aviation deck carrying the Avirus landing craft was 20 meters high, so it was no problem to squeeze in a row of knight mechas.

The Freeblades pursue glory and fight against the enemies of the Emperor, and they need warships to transport them to distant battlefields.

In this way, the Free Blade Knights and the Imperial Navy’s Gothic Fleet could completely emulate the Navy and the Holy Rose Sisters and reach a delicate cooperative relationship.

“Of course, we will also write back to you in the name of the Imperial Navy. You have a very long-term vision. This is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to deepen the cooperation between the Imperial Knights and the Imperial Navy.

After all, in the past, the Imperial Navy lacked land combat power, so our warships can send the Freeblades into the battlefield, but the Freeblades cannot help us fight space battles.

But now, the situation is different.”

The corners of Horatio’s mouth rose slightly, and a different light flashed in his eyes. “I came here to accept the test under the order of the army, in order to form the first rapid response landing combat force of the Imperial Navy in the near future.”
–
Horatio went to the warm bathtub in the captain’s room and washed off the mud and dirt on his body.

But the embarrassing thing was that he didn’t have a uniform that fit his strong and perfect body.

Farida’s clothes were completely ruined and could not be washed clean by normal means. She had to return to the ship, where she had to be carefully washed by the maid and then put on a new military prisoner uniform.

So Horatio decided to ask Anya Fasha to take them back to the Swift Aquila in the Skyhawk shuttle, change them into navy uniforms, and then come down. He also had to think about how to solve the uniform problem for his further developing body.

The clever Lina suddenly had an idea – cut two sets of uniforms, piece them together, and make one wearable set.

She used to be Farida’s personal maid, so naturally she acquired superb sewing skills. The seams she sewed with needle and thread looked like beautiful gold thread patterns.

His accountant Yin Shuyao also had a lot of experience in this. The girl from Zhongchao had frugality engraved into her soul through her past life. She had taken apart clothes that no longer fit her but were not worn out, lengthened them, and continued to wear them for several years.

With the concerted efforts of the two, a set of oversized uniforms is being rushed to be made. Although it is rushed, it still retains its exquisiteness and elegance.

“Captain, you…what exactly happened to you on the ground? How could it be…” Yin Shuyao, who got off the Skyhawk shuttle, looked at Horatio’s perfect body that was as perfect as a Greek sculpture, and couldn’t help but raise her hand to cover her mouth and let out a small cry of surprise.

She was still in her prime youth, and had never seen a body so full of masculine charm.

She brought a small stool and stood on tiptoe to measure Horatio’s size. Her eyes were attracted by a magnet and could not be taken away from his proud chest muscles. Her cheeks unconsciously flushed like a rosy cloud.

“Well, you do seem a lot ‘hotter’ than before.”

Lina spoke much more bluntly. In front of Horatio, she was always so carefree, which was completely different from how she was in front of Farida.

She pushed up her gold-rimmed monocle, looked at Horatio’s body carefully, and said, “Although you are still in the growth stage in theory, from a physiological point of view, it is impossible for your muscles and bone tissue to grow so strong all at once.

Are you suffering from some kind of radiation from the surface?”

“No, it may be related to my Zhongsi surgery.”

Horatio was vague and could not tell the whole truth, but he still revealed a little to his two confidants.

“Well, the uniform is ready. The stitching is done with three lines of gold embroidery. Others won’t be able to tell that your uniform is stitched. They will just think you are really generous to spend so much gold on this dress.”

“Nice craft, Lina.”

“Hmph~” The girl wearing a monocle tilted her head slightly with an indifferent expression on her face, but Horatio still noticed that her eyes occasionally glanced at her chest and abdominal muscles, and then quickly moved away.

[Is the temptation of the masculine charm of this body still too great for an adolescent girl…] ​​Horatio smiled to himself.

Lina is here to be an intelligence officer, he can’t take all the daughters of his three old superiors… That’s too greedy!
“Hehe, Farida and Louise will come down later, and we’ll go to the Freeblade for a banquet together.” Horatio made an invitation.

Lina didn’t say anything. She always liked to observe people’s expressions and was not used to expressing her opinions actively.

She glanced at the young Yin Shuyao. This girl who was born in Zhongchao was not as good at hiding her emotions as she was. Whatever she was thinking was clearly written on her face. She did not have any scheming or scheming in her.

“Hmm…” Seeing that the opinion was thrown to her, the girl was a little flustered and said hesitantly: “Since it is the captain’s arrangement, I have no problem. What about Miss Lina?”

“Obedience is worse than respect, Captain.” Lina closed her eyes and respectfully pinched her skirt.

“Then please wait for me inside the regiment headquarters, ladies.” Horatio said hello and walked out of the heavy steel door of the regiment headquarters.

At this time, the diligent staff officer was coordinating the migration of the regiment in an orderly manner.

As the battle line advanced rapidly, the 1313th Infantry Regiment also had to relocate and redeploy.

He was looking forward to arranging everything here early tomorrow morning.

“So, Staff Officer Clausewitz, will you join me for dinner at Freeblade’s?”

“Go ahead, sir. The 1313th Infantry Regiment has just fought a major battle, and the casualties need to be counted urgently, and military supplies also need to be supplied and dispatched. I plan to process this data with the regiment’s staff tonight and present it to you tomorrow morning.

The relocation of the regiment also needs supervision, and all this requires the help of a staff officer.”

“You’re so conscientious.

However, soldiers also need adequate rest.

Let the soldiers relax tonight, and tomorrow we will bury the dead, retrieve their nameplates, and hold a solemn funeral ceremony for them.”

“No exceptions can be made on the staff, sir.”

Staff Officer Clausewitz raised his hand and saluted. “If I want to integrate into the Krieg, I have to maintain the same lifestyle as them. But sir…”

“Hmm?” Horatio looked at the staff officer who was still wearing a gas mask.

“I think the funeral you mentioned is a great idea.” The staff officer looked at Horatio through the dark lenses. “Few people would think of commemorating the victims. They were actually still young and ignorant. It seemed that war was all they had in their lives. Although their faces were covered by stern gas masks, they also had soft hearts like us.”

Staff Officer Clausewitz reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of broken chain nameplates. They were all collected from the necks of fallen soldiers during the battle today.

“We may not have time to dig a grave and have a proper funeral.

But we can collect the nameplates of the fallen soldiers and cremate them collectively to commemorate them.”

Horatio took a deep breath and exhaled slowly: “Then I’ll leave it to you, Staff Officer Clausewitz.”

The man saluted Horatio solemnly. The shells that cut through the night sky contrasted with the light emitted by the plasma engines of the orbital parked warships, embellishing the sky.

(End of this chapter)